I realized that if you are not following me on my Facebook page, you are not updated about the important changes on the website (unless I write a new post).
Let me try this mean to keep you updated once in a while without invading your mailbox.
The last changes that I think might interest you (and that I remember of…):
Do you need to buy a present for a new-born baby? What about buying a sustainable present?
It seems
contradictoryā¦ being ecological and having kids (having kids has the worse
carbon footprintā¦), but we
discussed this already.
But some people (like me) did the āeco-mindset” switch after having children. You want them to be as healthy as possible, to not expose them to chemicals, and you want to try to preserve the earth for them,ā¦
However, your life gets sometimes so exhausting and busy with small kidsā¦ So here again, I would encourage you to take it easy.
Honestly, the “eco babyā is my worse ecological achievement, but never mind, Iāll share with you my experience so that you can see that I’m also just a normal human being :-). Iām sure (and hope) that many of you do/did better than me.
Here is my
top 3:
1) Reusable baby wipes
& napkins!
This is for sure the number one for me!!!
I discovered reusable baby wipes (NL: billendoekjes; FR: lingettes) with the birth of my first daughter. We received āCheeky wipesā.
They have 2 sets: white wipes which are meant to clean buttocks of babies (and why not adults; I tried it and it feels amazing!); and the colored ones which can are meant as moisten napkins (dries much faster than washcloth!!!). I gave ācheeky wipesā to some friends who got babies and they told me that it was the best present they got (not being on their wish list).
How to use them:
moist them (eventually in container with water and some essential oil of lavender; I have them dry in the cupboard and I moist one with tap water before use)
clean the buttock
then throw them in an appropriate container (they recommend a container with essential oil of lemon for disinfection; but we throw them in a dedicated garbage bin (I take the bucket inside the garbage and drop the content in the washing machine without touching it).
Pros: you save thousands of baby wipes and you donāt
smear any chemicals on your child.
Cons: you need to wash them hot (at least 60Ā°C) which is less ecological than washing at 30Ā°C. For the warm laundry I do not use horse chestnuts for the laundry but my home-made laundry powder.
I usually do a short rinse program (15 min) with the reusable diapers and reusable wipes before adding all the rest for the warm laundry (towels, underwear,…) at 60Ā°C or 90Ā°C.
2) Reusable diapers (NL: luiers;
FR: couche culottes ou pampers)
First of all: of course you donāt put diapers full of shit in your washing machine! You add thin layer of paper in it, which you can wash if it only contains urine, and you throw away if itās dark and smelly š
I must admit that this one was not really a success at the beginning. I thought I was a super-mother and bought diapers which were not so easy to tie up and which were leaking at least once a dayā¦ so I only used it once in a while because it was too much workā¦
Once my daughters only needed a diaper during the night; I discovered them again!
Here the one I like best (and use(d)): āTotsBots Bamboozle stretchā and the water-proof layer from āLulu nature Boxerā. This one has fleece instead of an elastic band at the thighs opening. Those with elastic (I tried many brands) were leaving painful red stripes on their thighsā¦
I discovered the GreenKit not so long ago, but I wish I did before!
When I was
pregnant, I received a box full of product samples (cream, soap, diapers,
shampoo, buttock cream,ā¦) and full of packaging and plastic wrappingā¦
A smart mother of 2 decided to help young parents to think about ecology and started a similar box with samples from sustainable products only. How great is this!?!?!?!
Actually not many. With 6 ingredients (+ one essential oil), you can
make laundry powder, softener, all-purpose cleaning, toilet cleaning and
dishwasher powder.
In household products, soda is very often used. You will hear of “crystal soda” (sodium carbonate, washing soda) and “baking soda” (sodium bicarbonate, NL: zuiveringzout).
Keep in mind: They are
quite similar; but crystal soda is more powerful and is therefore NOT
appropriate for cooking/eating.
Baking soda,
is a (water) softener, cleaning and abrasive agent, regulates pH, limescale
remover (NL: kalksteen; FR: calcaire) and can be used in food.
In contact with water it
forms carbonic acid (unstable) which breaks up into carbon
dioxide (makes bubbles) and water.
Baking soda can be used
almost everywhere in the houseā¦ here is my selection of actions:
Toothpaste (baking soda; but it tastes very
salty!!!)
Keep
cut flowers longer beautiful: one teaspoon in water
Unblock
pipes (1 cup (+/_ 2 cup vinegar) and afterwards very hot water)
Crystal soda
is a surfactant and is used for white laundry as it is described to fade
colored textiles. Don’t worry, not as bleach does; I’m using crystal soda for
all my laundry, and I didn’t see the effect of crystal soda (yet). It has a
cleaning effect, remove grease, neutralize acids.
It has similar action as
baking soda except that it cannot be used in food.
Unblock
pipes (1 cup and afterwards very hot water)
Sodium percarbonate
Sodium
percarbonate is made from crystal soda (surfactant) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)
which is a whitening agent (therefore some people add it for their white
laundry).
It is an excellent stain remover (even difficult ones such as coffee, red wine, grass, fruit,
perspiration, blood) or to clean your
oven, or greasy and dirty kitchen instruments: 2 soup spoon in 500ml warm water (donāt make too much, it loses
efficacy with time)
Citric acid
Is present
in many plants (lemon juice contains 5% of citric acid) and can be extracted
from plants. You probably eat it without knowing it (flavoring and preservative
in food and beverage: E330). It also remove limescale and improve the
effectiveness of soap and detergents.
There are many types that
you can use. The most important is that the soap you choose doesn’t contains
glycerin (as it has the tendency to stay sticky in the water evacuation
pipes…).
Here are
the most common you can buy in Europe:
Aleppo soap is made in Syria, in the region of the city of Aleppo, from olive oil and laurel berry oil (added at the end of the process).
Marseille soap is made in France, in the region of the city of …. (do i really have to say it?), from olive oil and palm oil or copra oil (extracted from coconut). Beware of imitation using animal fat instead…
Black soap is sometime use as unique soap or mixed with another one. It exist in liquid form or creamy (2 tablespoon liquid = 1 teaspoon creamy black soap).
How to choose?
Both need to be imported from
another continent (either the soap itself; or its ingredients). But with the
actual fuss about palm oil (deforestation to plant intensive culture of palm
trees), Aleppo seems the more sustainable (eco, fair,…). However, you have to
see what you can easily get.
I’ve been disappointed
by the “soap flakes” from
“la droguerie ecologique” which are apparently made of coco and palm
oil onlyā¦so now I use Marseille soap flakes (that I buy without packaging at
the packaging free shop).
Vinegar
Yes, you
just need the cheapest type of vinegar: white vinegar.
First check close by home: bio shop, drugstore, bio supermarket
or ask them what they can order for you. Otherwise, go online; but try to buy
in your own country. In Europe the French brand āla droguerie ecologiqueā is quite known and they offer everything you
need. It can be a good start, until you turn into an āeco-zero waste expertā.
If you live in the
surrounding of Antwerp/Mortsel, I can combine orders to reduce transport and
transport cost ( I can also make you a starter-pack) and deliver it at home by
bike. If you are interested, write me via the contact form or follow me the EcoWithKids Facebook page (Iāll let everyone know before placing a new
order).
Iām not going to try to convince you to become a vegetarian (Iām not
vegetarian neither). But yesā¦ we all heard that eating meat is not so good for
the earth; and most of us are not ready to give up meat completely. Either
because you (or your partner) like it too much, or because donāt know how to
compensate for the vitamins and components that you find mostly in meat, or
just because you donāt know how to cook without meat/fish.
Going vegetarian asks for a lot of changes and knowledge, but why not
just reduce meat? Or to train to cook
once in a while a vegetarian dish? Iām definitely not a cooking princess,
and I canāt cook very well vegetarian dishes (my man does). But it exists very good cooking books. We love the ālekker
ecologishā (in Dutch).
About fish, why not ask at the
fish-shop what is the most ecological (local, way of production, impact on sea
population,ā¦) fish in your region. You can go to a specialized fish shop and
buy for few month (freeze it) so you donāt spent too much time.
Eating season fruits and
vegetables is also very important if you want to eat more ecological (and
much cheaper). I know this one is also not easy. Iām also not so good at it
(yet) . We have a āfruit and vegetable calendarā on our fridge (for Belgium; check
the one from VELT) which I look at before going shopping.
ā¦ I know, I can hear youā¦ it gets boring after a while. Here again you
need to find good inspiration, not using always the same herbs and spices, roast,
bake of steam. And if you make it an exception instead of a routine to buy/cook
non-seasonal fruits and vegetables, you can already be proud of yourself!
Of course, eating food with a eco
labelling is better (eco labelling: cares for environment: bio labelling ensures
that no pesticides have been used); or just buy local at a farmer not using pesticides but who did not ask
(yet) the eco or bio labelling. If it is local and seasonal fruits/vegetables,
you might reduce the effect on your wallet. Or start growing your own vegetables! (Iām preparing a post for it; taking
into account that some of you donāt have a garden).
PS:
If you have an excellent cooking book for āecological recipesā, feel free to share it! (comment, mail or on the FB page); so I can update this post and let everyone enjoy from it. Please send only the book that you would put in your suitcase if you have 10 min to leave your house forever (otherwise the list will be too long).
By ecological recipes, I mean recipes taking into account seasons vegetables, easy ingredients (no fancy ingredients that you use once a year and have to throw the rest away because it is expired), cooking with weed out of your garden, promoting using the ānot looking badā part of the vegetables (e.g. soup with green of the leek, or the stalk of the broccoli).
For personal hygiene, there are many changes possible; you can test them one by one š
What do I use? I use palmarosa essential oil for deodorant, washable pad cloth, baking soda for toothpaste (since few days), hard soap for hands and body and refill of liquid shampoo at the zero waste shop, and papier-cotton ear sticks. New bamboo toothbrush are ordered to be tested.
Picture (from left to right, up to bottom): menstrual cups, bamboo toothbrush and baking soda, peppermint-like hard toothpaste, cotton-paper ear stick, palmarosa essential oil, hard soap (with a condom drawn on it… receive at a AIDS conference many years ago, hihihi), and washable pad cloth.
Toothbrush: There are now many brands (and āfake copiesā) of bamboo toothbrushes. I tried the āhumble brushā and the āhydrophilā. Unfortunately, Iāve switched back to a classical (plastic) toothbrush. The āhairsā of the toothbrush are a little but too hard for my gums and they suffer of it. I want to give another try with the ātoothbrush Bam Booā. They propose āsoftā toothbrushes. (Update Oct 2019: Bam Boo is as hard as the other ones…)
For the Dutch speaking, you can read the excellent blog of āMa vie en
vertā (she has two post on toothbrushes: 1stpost and update).
Toothpaste: Here
again, there are many options and Iāve tried some of them. Many DIY toothpaste
require some preparation time (just what we want to avoid, he?) and some
āexotic productsā as coconut oil (not so ecological at the endā¦).
We bought the ālolly
toothpasteā: you just have to go over it with your wet
toothbrush. It is not foamy, so you have to get used to it. There are different
taste. The one I tried, were not tasting very goodā¦I was literally feeling sick
of it. We also tried the ācandy toothpasteā: it
looks like a small mint and you have to bite on it until it gets a paste. Then
you can brush your teeth. Iām not fan of this neither (and I came in a tick
plastic packagingā¦). But if you travel a lot it is very easy! You might find it
without packaging at a zero waste shop.
For the purpose of the blog post, I decided to start using baking soda (commercial toothpaste have been proven better than toothpaste not containing baking soda by scientifics). It feels you are emptying completely your salivary glands in 2 seconds š It cleans theeth very well (my theeth feels so smooth!); but you might want to try it for few weeks if you have sensitive gums. You can use it as it is; or add some peppermint extract or peppermint essential oil (if you limit the amount of essential oil, your toothpaste will be cheaper than a regular toothpaste). It is quite saltyā¦ but you get used to it. An if you prefer a paste, add little by little some water and mix well.
Deodorant: I only
use a drop of palmarosa oil. I wrote on it here.
Reusable pad cloth: I love
it! I use those from āEco Femmeā. Why?
Because it is a social project for women empowerment in India, it saves a lot
of wasteā¦ and the push button (to keep it in place in your uderware) is very
thin (ā¦ if you bike every day it might be more comfortable). The cons: it comes
from Indiaā¦ but yesā¦ one makes choicesā¦ Iāve about 12 pieces (3eur per piece).
But the quality is excellent.
Menstrual cup: there
you also have a lot of choice. Big of small (according to your flow). And with
different endā¦ up to youā¦ I like better the one with the small ābuttonā end
(blue one on the picture). The longer end felt uncomfortable to me.
I also read about menstrual
underwear: a underwear keeping the menstruation without
leaking or stinkingā¦I didnāt try it, but find it a cool idea š
Ear stick: you can
find quite easily bamboo or paper ear sticks with cotton at the end. Check at a
bio/zero waste shops. I guess it will arrive (if not yet) in supermarket sooner
or later. You can also use reusable sticks from inox or bamboo (e.g. oriculi). It
looks like a mini spoon. But if you need time to changes your habits, as I do,
you can start with the paper/cotton ear stick (it is more expensive in the long
term, though).
Washable face scrub: yes, it
does exist too. Either from cotton, Hemp or bamboo. Or if you can sew, just
make some with old towels.
Soap and shampoo: I started with refilling my old bottles at the bio shop. But when I heard that the plastic packaging was not reused (OK, 1 big container of 20L is still better than 30 small bottles), I promised myself to look for an alternative. So I switched to hard soapā¦. Great. You can probably even promote local fabrication (Belgium: check one of my old flatmate new hobby/job). For Shampoo, I tried hard shampoo (2 different brands)ā¦ but I donāt like it. With long hair, I donāt get it everywhere and I donāt like the feeling of it in my hair. So Iām still refilling my bottle once in a while. I read about people using eggs, vinegar, not washing at allā¦ But Iām not so far yet. Bu I succeeded to train my scalp to be less greasy (washing now every 3 or 4 days instead of every other day! When the become greasy, I rinse my hair with water only).
Beginning of September is busy in Belgiumā¦ everyone is back from
holidays and school startsā¦ So Belgium is living and working again š
Iāve been searching for some eco and fair smartphones and apps; and I decided to share it with you. When I find new ātreasuresā in the future, Iāll add them to this post. If you know good apps, donāt hesitate to write it in the comments here below!
Smartphone
Apparently, 80% of the carbon footprint of a smartphone is the productionā¦ so having a smartphone is not ecologicalā¦ but it is not possible to all go live in a cave hunting wild animals and eating berries, right? Would be cool for a while, tough š
I refused for a long time to have a smartphone, but since my daughter
started school 2 years ago, I ājumped into technologyāā¦. I wanted to be in the
Whatsapp group from the parents from het classroomā¦
So I bought a āFairphoneā. No,
donāt laugh, it does exist. I searched the internet and didnāt find another phone
claiming itself a fair phone.
Yes, they try to make smartphones as eco and fair as they can. On their website, they describe their phone as follows: āWe believe that care for the environment and people should be a natural part of doing business throughout our industry. With suppliers, local communities and the wider industry, we work for fairer materials and more responsible practices ā one step at a time. Together weāre disrupting a short-term way of thinking that the world can no longer afford.ā
In practice:
the minerals in your phone come either from recycling or from mines where no children are working and where workers have relative good working conditions (to the point they can check it of course).
you can repair your phone if something is broken (very good explanation on their website). And the technical service is excellent and extremely friendly!
You know where your money goes: they show the cost breakdown of their phones. They earn 9 eur for each phone; which they use for unexpected cost or programs with social impact.
The Fairphone has a dual-SIM; so it can be convenient if you always walk around with 2 phones or travel a lot (for the foreign SIM-cards).
BUT, letās be honest here, otherwise youāll not believe me. Here are some
disadvantage:
you have to pre-order it: so, by the times it arrives, it isnāt anymore the best of the market.
Sometimes orders are delayed. But they always explain you why.
The price! 450 eur (for the new fairphone 3) for a phone which is good but not excellent
My personal experience: the battery doesnāt last very long (after 1,5 year, it survives a day if you donāt use it too much). And my camera always has problems: I had to change my first phone because it was not possible to repair itā¦. But it was all free of cost! Now Iāve to screw tighter my camera once in a while otherwise it starts having problems again.
So, you get itā¦ If you buy one, itās not to have āthe best phone of the worldā,
but to make a statement hoping to force bigger companies to take action
for āfairer phonesā. And be ready to sometimes ask yourself āWhy, oh why did I decided
to buy a Fairphone? Why not a better (cheaper) phone?ā
So if you donāt want a Fairphone, donāt forget to check for the
following when buying a new phone:
Do I use a lot of memory? So yes, check if you can add an extra memory card.
Apps
The
App-world is infiniteā¦ but here is a list of the few I think are worth sharing:
Icones from the apps described below. From left to right: For Good, Environment Challenge, Good on You, Geocaching
For Good: it registers your transportation (bike, car,ā¦), asks you questions about your habits (food, drinks, shopping, transportation) and gives you tips (āwhy do we ask this?ā), you can also bring in your gas and electricity consumptionā¦ It calculates everything and give you a weekly estimates of your ecological footprint.I do not register all this anymore (privacy, and battery issues), but I really like the articles and tips they share regularly.
Environment Challenge: If you really donāt know how to start, this can help you. It gives you different types of challenges that you can do in few days. But if you are already āadvancedā in water saving, waste reduction and ecology-minded, then this app might be to basic for you.
Good on You: an App to check if the clothing brand you want to buy is ethical (workers conditions,ā¦ but no indication on ecology though). It works for big companies. It only give an indication; for the brands I tried with friends, we did not always agree with them. We came to the conclusion that you can trust the app for the brands scoring excellent or very bad.
Geocaching: Do you like to find treasure? If yes, this is for you! Everywhere in the world, many people hided ātreasuresā. The app works with GPS location. You can try to find them (without that strangers see you of course) and register that you found it. Pro: they are everywhere, so even on holiday you can try to find one; it will brings you to places you would never go. And it motivates kids to walk. Cons: donāt get disappointed; the ātreasureā is often just the reward of having found it š. Usually it is a very small piece of paper where you have to write your name for the register. And always check in the comments that the āgeocacheā still exists (that some people found it not too long ago).
Internet browser
And to conclude, I would like to mention the browser āEcosiaā: instead of searching with google, you can use Ecosia. The money they win with the publicity (if many people use Ecosia, companies pay to post publicities) is used to plan trees.
A chart on how to reduce your contribution to climate change. (by Seth Wynes and Kimberly Nicholas /in the Enviromental Research Letters). Extracted from his scientific article
By now, we
all know that planes are not good for the environment, but I wanted peered-reviewed
reviews and calculations. Not only what people write in blogs š
The picture
here above comes from an interesting scientific article, talking about which individual
action are the most important to lower our footprint.
Having
less children comes firstā¦ but if there are there (or the desire of it), itās too late.
Afterwards comes transportation: having a car and flying.
Yes, travelingā¦ I know, we all need a break once in a while.
In the last
6 years, Iāve been flying once to Austria for work (motivation: my best friends
live there tooā¦). The 4 years before, Iāve been flying a (too) much for workā¦ To
be honest, I donāt have the feeling that Iām missing something by not flying
anymore. We have always nice holidays. We often book last minute so that we can
have an idea of the weather (bad weather => lots of museum in the area; good
weather =>place for outdoors activities).
You can learn a lot by traveling or living abroad about others and yourself. So, Iām not blaming or judging here. Just thoughts š and numbers. But do you have any idea to what could you compare your CO2 footprint of flying?
I didnāt
believe my husband when he told me that flying back and forth to New York would
produce as much energy as to warm our house for an entire year (we put the
heater on only in the living/kitchen and during bath time for the girls in the
bathroom). I was chocked!
ā¦ I knowā¦ you want to check it yourselfā¦ I also did it. I found an user friendly CO2 footprint calculator (āCarbon Footprintā). You can calculate the CO2 footprint from transport, heating, travelingā¦. My husband was right: we produce 0,85 metric tons of CO2 to warm up our house for a YEARā¦ it equals flying ONCE to New York and back produce 0,87 metric tons of CO2. Crazy, he?
Why not go
on āstaycationā? Iāve just learned this word last weekā¦ it means staying
at home of in your own country for vacations (I know, Belgium is small; but
letās broaden it to Benelux). And you can try out making all those recipes from the website. š A German train company has compared famous touristic
destination with similar places in Germany. So cool!! When we go on a weekend trip
(without kids), we often take the bike on the train to a Belgian city, and then
bike home.
I know, in
many countries, train is more expensive than taking the car. Hopefully
governments will follow the example of other European cities/countries to make
public transportation free of charge like Luxemburg (country) is planning for
2020 and 2 other cities are doing: Tallinn since 2013 (Estonia) and Dunkirk
since 2018 (France).
And what
about plastic reduction (zero waste)?
Iāve just post about buying food unpacked. Now Iām showing
you a drawing where buying without packaging doesnāt even appear as an
efficient way to slow down climate change due to CO2 productionā¦ In the
article, plastic was not very much discussed. So, Iāve done my homework š.
In his report, the Center for International and Environmental Law (CIEL), explains that āEmissions from plastic emerge not only from the production and manufacture of plastic itself, but from every stage in the plastic life-cycle ā from the extraction and transport of the fossil fuels that are the primary feed-stocks for plastic, to refining and manufacturing, to waste management, to the plastic that enters the environment.ā Their estimation for 2019 was that the production and incineration of plastic will produce 860 million metric tons of greenhouse gases.
As we are
7,7 billion people on earth, this is 0,11 tonnes of CO2 per person per year.
But youāll help reduce the natural disaster of the ocean getting filled by
plastic and we will eat less plastic (scientist calculated (report from WWF) that we are eating the equivalent
of 1 credit card of plastic per weekā¦).
Youāll tell
me to buy food wrapped in bioplasticā¦ but this is maybe an alternative
for example for food which conserve longer when wrapped (to avoid waste), but it
is definitely not the solution. The production (and its destruction which is
not always so simple) stays an issue (if you want to read more, I found a well
written and interesting article).
Tip
from the app For Good: āDriving more slowly = driving more
eco-friendly. By reducing your speed on the motorway by 10 to 15 km/h you will
save yourself 1 litre of fuel per 100 km. The time you save by driving faster
is usually negligible whereas the energy consumption increases quadratically
with the increasing speed. In other words, doubling your speed quadruples your
energy consumptionā.
How much does it cost (or save) to become less/zero waste?
Of course, I also want to know it! Therefore, I decided to calculate it
for you š
Cost calculation of my DIY cleaning products (explanation here below)
How much does it cost (or save) to become less/zero waste?
Of course, I also want to know it! Therefore, I decided to calculate it
for you š
For cleaning products, Iāve been
calculating the cost of each of the product Iām using and compared to a similar
product. Of course, I did not compare the cheapest brand from the supermarket;
but took the price from a well-known ecological brand here in Europe.
Iāll guide you through the table.
If you buy one kg or litre of each ingredient, youāll pay about 42 euro
for all of it (GREEN).
In the uncolored part of the table, Iāve calculated the quantity of each ingredient I needed for each of my cleaning product and calculated the final price per cleaning product (ORANGE).Ā I compared it to the price of the ecological brand I used to buy.
In conclusion, I saved 3x more money for the
same amount of cleaning product. And I still have enough ingredients to make
another batch of product!!!
In their
book (I didnāt find the tables on internet), the āfamille zero dechetā also
compared the cost of cosmetics and cleaning products before and after they
became zero waste. They found a factor 2 (saving 2x more money).
I realized that the zero-waste concept, is often coupled to healthier food, fair-trade and ecology. We all have our āspecialtyā or our motivation to live more ecologically, e.g. one eats less meat, another cares about water and energy waste, do not fly, or reduce plastics and waste volume.
Ideally, we should tackle ecology from all anglesā¦ but Iām not there yet, and I’m not sure Iāll ever be able to claim that I donāt have any ecological footprint. So, letās do what we can/want without culpability feelings. š
Letās go back to the price. Packaging-free shops offers often biological
food. If possible, they propose food produced locally. This implicates also
that most of fruits and vegetables are seasonal and not flying of sailing
oceans and seas to arrive to your plate. Sorry, strawberries are not growing in
winterā¦
Iāve compared prices of few ingredients, between āmy packaging-free shopā, buying
bio in a regular supermarket, or in a bio-supermarket.
If you buy food with packaging, someone will pay the packaging you getā¦
and it will probably not be the big multinational.
If we look at the comparison here above, buying bio is IN NOT MORE EXPENSIVE in specialized shops (packaging-free or bio-supermarket). As everywhere, supermarket offers more choice, and therefore different price range. However, if we all only go to the supermarket, small shops will disappearā¦
AND, if you go to a zero-waste shop, you will not be tempted by offers and
you might save money by not buying plenty of other things which were not on
your shopping list but taste so good š. If so, donāt
forget your (home-made)
reusable shopping bags!
If you want to save money, try the dishwasher and laundry powder. Both
will be done in 10 min!
Finding inspiration for zero waste activities is not always so easy.
Craft seems always nicer with glitters and stickers. I would like to do more zero-waste
craft with my kids and therefore decided to do some search and write this post.
Why not make āsalty doughā instead of buying play-do (plasticine)? You can make it together and paint it the week afterwards (you need to let it dry first).
Oh, by the way, if
your play-doh is turning hard and dry, it only needs you to put some water in
it. Just sit next to your children and do as if you were playing with them
while you make a ball; than a hole with your finger; few drops of water; and
knead (it can be a bit messy).
Look, I even found the āofficialā explanation on their website: āTo restore the softness to PLAY-DOH compound, try adding water one drop at a time and working it in to moisten the PLAY-DOH compound. You can also try wrapping the PLAY-DOH compound in a damp paper towel, returning it to the container and replacing the cover. Let it sit overnight.ā
Collect garbage on the street. In many
cities, they have āwaste pickerā and all the material you need that you can use
for a day for free. We have been doing it this summer with 15 children 3-5
years old (not in the street of course, but a nature reserve). They loved it!
It is also the good time of the year to check their
clothes and sort their toys. Look for a flea market/garage sale close by
your home. They might be motivated by the idea of receiving some of the profit
to buy new toys š
Go on a ānature treasure huntā outside to collect leaves, branches, pine cones, stones, shells,… you can craft so many different types of animals with it. I discovered the books from Fiona Hayes. They are great. If you google her (+ for example craft, youāll already find plenty of ideas). No, Iām not paid by her to make publicity š but Iām so happy to find some ideas with material that I always have in house! And I like it as much as the girls.
Take the time (and the patience) to cook with
the kids. They usually like it (if not motivate them by making something sweet
such as baking
cookies. Or ask them to help too cook for the family: Iāve
made soup with the girls this week, they were very proud to tell their
father that they made it themselves and ate it with appetite!
Back from shopping (glass bottle can be returned to the shop) … but there was plastic between the slices of salmon…
Yes, it is usually possible.
The
most difficult is to ask it for the first time.
I didnāt dear from the first time neither. But
now that Iām not afraid to ask, I usually get comments from the clients behind
me āoh, thatās a good idea!ā.
Do you know that shops have hundreds of euro
cost for packaging per month? So, most of them will be happy if some clients
help them save moneyā¦ and they sometimes compensate with giving something extra
š
In Belgium, the food safety organism doesnāt like itā¦ but letās make them adapt to more environment friendly laws! the Food safety agency allows using you own packaging (at your own risk) for ecological reasons, if those are clean, and adapted to contain food (update Nov 2019; link here).
I know, youāll tell me that you donāt have
time to stop at the butcher, zero waste, bio and fish shop. Going once a
week to the supermarket for few hours is mentally (and for the planning) easier.
But those small shops, they might be next to school or workā¦. If so, you could
spring in just before school, or quickly after school, or during lunch break.
It is just another way of filling in those ālost timeā; otherwise you would
probably quickly go on Facebook or internet because you have to waitā¦ But if
this doesnāt work for you, find another challenge.
Or you can also ask at the supermarket (if they
have a counter for cheese and meet), some of them accept to use containers from
clients.
Eco With Kids 