From 2011 to 2016 I was pleased to be able to have done 365days where I did a kind deed every day(& 366days in the leap year)!
In 2017 I am doing it again...my aim is to inspire others into action by showing them how simple it is to do kind acts for others. I do this by doing a kind act a day. I do this by sharing my story and some ideas for living a kinder life. Kinder for others, kinder for ourselves, kinder for the planet. Welcome to 365days of kindness!
Another day at work in the office. However the sun was shining yesterday so I got to spend some time in the garden of my new house!
I haven’t been able to get to the library so I’ve been using my housemates Cookbooks as the best light reading material!
I love it because with the restrictions I have for my diet I also look at recipe books like a challenge. ‘How can I adapt a recipe for myself to eat?’
Considering yesterday was another Meatfree Monday I was looking for ideas of what to cook! It’s so nice to look at Vegetarian options that you can also adapt to have meat if you want.
Sustainable September idea for ...
Day 18.Buy Bamboo products
Can this save you money? Yes and no.
Yes if, like me, you are eco conscious and driving around looking for places to donate your old plastic toothbrush to dental recycling. The Wasteless Pantry , in Mundaring, WA has a great collection of recycling collection points (not just for dental recycling either). I am still looking for a place to recycle my old plastic & electric toothbrush here in the UK but I know Redcycle do it in Australia. The petrol costs alone would be enough to save you money on buying a recycleable/compostable alternative.
No, if you are buying the cheapest plastic toothbrushes around. Admittedly, bamboo toothbrushes may cost a little extra but as more people use them the cheaper and more widely available they will become.
A bamboo toothbrush is able to be composted.
(I still haven’t been able to take a good toothbrush selfie! Hahahahaha).
They can be used in the garden as label stakes for your veggies (which would save you money buying purpose built ones).
You can also get many other things made of Bamboo… and they aren’t much more expensive than your everyday plastic variation, with the added bonus that they are a renewable resource and are able to be composted most of the time. At my new house we have a compost heap that I have used already to add stuff too!
How did you go with the Bamboo Toothbrushes? Or the toothpaste?
I gave the Bamboo toothbrushes a go last night. It was a bamboo toothbrush infused with charcoal. So if you give this a go be warned you might have a grey tinge to your teeth until you rinse. But the lady at the Wasteless Pantry told me that this stops happening after the first couple of brushes.
I gave the toothpaste a go too. I have to double check I got the recipe right because I think I might have put too much coconut oil in. Be aware it takes a little while to get used to the taste… so if its too horrible maybe you could add a touch of stevia to taste.
Another day, another idea for tomorrow.
Sustainable September Day Ten – Take and use a reusable Coffee/Tea cup.
Why is it an Eco-Kindness to take a reusable coffee cup? Because single use coffee cups are not recyclable and in Australia we use a Billion coffee cups a year. Check out his news clip from ABCs 7.30 Report 'Takeaway Coffee Cups driving hidden plastic catastrophy.
Why coffee cups cant be recycled. This clip comes from 'War on Waste UK'
Recently in Australia, we also had the 'War on Waste TV' show that brought up this issue. Check out the War on Waste (Aus) #BYOCoffeeCup.
What can you use instead?
I have two different types of Keep Cups (two plastic and one glass) that are both Coffee Cups that are barista standard sizes.
(Glass on the left and one of my plastic ones on the right)
There are a huge range of other types of reusable mugs and cups. So i would love your recommendations for other people to check out too.
SOMETHING ELSE: Did you know that there are whole communities who are working toward Zero Waste. Like this one, Zero Waste Town, who will zero waste by 2020. …Zero Waste Town by 2020.
You are not alone on this journey to Sustainability, no matter what level of Eco-Kindness you and your community are at.
ACTIVITY: If you want to use up your old coffee cups... then this is the nicest upcycling idea i could find.
I hope you are all well and enjoying Sustainable September.
Yesterday I made a trek to my favourite local zero waste bulk foods store The Wasteless Pantry. I bought a few things we needed for the house including Gluten Free Flour, Arrowroot Flour, Almonds, Gluten Free Tamari sauce and then some yummies for me for the next few days. Including Banana Chips, Dried Apples, Dried figs and of course i also bought a new toothbrush.
Which brings me to my next sustainable idea.
Sustainable September Day Nine - Buy or use a Bamboo Toothbrush.
Bamboo toothbrushes are great. I have used these toothbrushes on and off. The best part of this is that they can be thrown into the compost bin as soon as they are dead.
You could also use the dying toothbrushes for those hard to reach places when you need to clean up (that way you get more life out of your toothbrushes).
My dentist has told me, personally, that I need to use an electric toothbrush, so my best waste reducing plan is to buy replaceable heads for my electric toothbrush (Which is rechargeable) and then get rid of the old heads through the dental recycling program, run through the schools or which is now at The Wasteless Pantry.
They have a whole range of recycling programs for all kinds of things... including old Toothbrushes, dental floss containers and Toothpaste containers. However i now have a new bamboo toothbrush that i will use intermittantly.
I am also searching for a great replacement to “Pixters”. They are like little scrubbing brushes that fit between your gums and your teeth. They are made out of plastic and are theoretically a single use item… however I use them several times before they look like they couldn’t clean anything. They seem to be the only thing that works for me (dental floss isn’t so great). So if anyone has a wonderful eco friendly variety that I could use, I would be so grateful for the recommendation.
You can also get plastic free dental floss!!! Which is awesome. It's made of silk instead and can be composted
ACTIVITY: You could also make your own toothpaste. Bea Johnson and many other Zero Waste lifestylers happily make their own toothpaste from products you might already have in your home.
I love the 'How to' videos from Trash is For Tossers. So here is one on how to make Zero Waste toothpaste.
I will be giving this a go tomorrow, so i will let you know how it goes. I will also be using my new Charcoal infused Toothbrush (with black bristles) that i bought from the Wasteless Pantry yesterday.
I hope this finds you all well.
with love & kindness,
Daena
Well how are you going with “Reuse”? I am reusing a whole bunch of old jars to store stuff in my pantry. I particlurly love using the 1Lt Pickle jars or putting my specialty flours in. I am reusing old clothes as rags and also upcycled into other things. And when it comes to laundry, im always glad to have my old cloth rice bags. They work very well. It is amazing what you can use and then reuse. Reduce and reuse are the first two parts of this wonderful trilogy last being....
Sustainable September Day 3: Recycle.
Today (for tomorrow) I have included a few different activities that you may want to do all of, or just choose one. It is up to you.
In Australia, recently, there was a program on the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) called “War on Waste” and after watching it, I realized how much regular Australians don’t know about their waste. Particularly what is happening to their things after they discard it. Here is the advertisement for the 3 episode show.
If you are an Australian and havent seen it yet I suggest you check out IView and watch the program there.
Normally I would link the program to the blog however sadly, the links to the website won't work for those of you over seas. You may be able to find a copy on Youtube if you really want. However, I know that they did a version of this in the UK too so if you are in either of these places check it out!
Waste and recycling go hand in hand. But only before we have reduced and reused what we can. All of this occurs before our rubbish ends up in landfill (hopefully none of it has to if we are careful).
I watched this short Vide from the SBS tv show “The Feed” all about recycling in Australia and really enjoyed it. Be warned there is a bleeped out expletive.
The thing is that in lots of places each city council or district has a different I list of recyclable materials. Some have road side collections others have drop off recycling. So even though I want to give you all a broad perspective of what can and can't be recycled, you need to check with your local council for the specifics.
ACTIVITY: Research what and where you can recycle your waste.
PLASTIC: In my area there are two type of Plastic recycling. Hard plastics and soft plastic. This section will look specifically at Hard plastics however it is clear that the two are made of the same product so they are often talked about as one topic.
If you want to look further into the role and damage that Plasic is doing in the world there are a few documentaries to check out.
1) Plastic Paradise: The great Pacific Garbage Patch, (Warning: graphic images)
2) Plasticized Documentary, about a research trip across the Pacific monitoring Plastic in the ocean.
3) The Plastic Age: A documentary featuring Pharrell Williams.
The first two documentaries talk about the problems with plastic waste ending up in our oceans. One way we can prevent plastic ending up in the ocean is to reduce the amount we use in day to day life and therefore the demand to make it, and the second is to make sure we know how to recycle it.
I really like a third documentary, partly because its only like 20mins long, but mostly because it has hope. it gives us hope that someone is doing something on a larger scale to change the plastic that ends up in our oceans. I also love it because it talks about plastic in terms of Archaeology (The Plastic Age).
The biggest thing we can do to stop Plastic ending up in our oceans, in our fish (that we consume) and on our beaches is to reduce the amount we use, reuse the things already in existence and then recycle the things we can to make them into new and exciting things.
ACTIVITY: Choose a documentary to watch and learn more about Plastic in our oceans.
SOFT PLASTIC RECYCLING: This was something fairly new to me. In my house we have only just started doing Soft Plastic Recycling. I was actually inspired to start this type of recycling after watching the War of Waste Australia program. I take my soft flexible plastics to Coles who use REDcycle. REDcycle then turns the old plastic bags, chip packets, and other soft plastics into something that will be durable and long lasting, like park benches and equipment.
I have a soft plastic bag beside the rubbish bin where I can put all my other soft plastics. Then the next time I go to the shops I can take my bag with me to deposit at the REDcycle deposit bins. here is the handy PDF resource that REDcycle shares on their website. I've just turned it into a picture.
BATTERY RECYCLING: Battery recycling is something that our local school does to get kids to pay attention to recycling. Basically any old batteries (single use and reusable ones at the end of their lives) get donated and recycled.
I am loving finding great videos online that are both hilarious and environemtnally friendly. Here is another one about how to recycle your batteries.
ACTIVITY: Create a “battery recycling bin” in your home. We use old 1Ltr Yogurt Buckets to make our battery recycling bins. Either that or plastic take away containers (not that we have very many of them in our house, but if we do, they get used for other purposes).
GLASS RECYCLING: For this I grabbed a video from Devon in the UK. Now i love that the type of videos that are being created internationally can educate us all. Hopefully they can inspire us all to make a bigger effort to make sure glass ends up where it needs to be so it can be recycled.
COMPOST: I will be talking about this later in the month in more depth. However, i wanted to give a little video about food waste and composting because it really fits under the "Recycle" banner of Sustainable September. This comes from the War On Waste Kids videos. Ilove that they have made several of these videos and that they are on the theme of "Im a celebrity get me out of here" but instead are "Im Recycleable get me out of here!" So cute and a funny.
FINALLY: There a lot more different things that can be recycled. Mobile phones and devices, toothbrushes and toothpaste containers, and so much more. I just wanted to give you a taste of what Recycling can be like. It doesn't have to be too complicated and it doesn't have to take a lot of time. But it really makes a difference.
To finish up... one more video from South Australia...which is the state next to mine and a pioneer in Australia when it comes to recycling. They made a great video on what goes in which bin. In my old Council area of Stirling they had a three bin system like this one, so im sure it will help any locals to watch this video.
I hope you have learned something and if not, i hope you are using all that amazing knowledge to help other people, yourself and the planet.
So today was all about OP-SHOPPING!!! Or thrift shopping! And today I got to see the super fancy and super expensive kind and then the not as expensive type.
Now, to explain, I was wandering the hip and with it streets of Canberra today, as its my last full day here. I found some very expensive op shops, think expensive & designer second hand goods!
Tomorrows idea is another simple switch:
Buy/use a wooden or bamboo toothbrush.
I bought some last year, some for me and some for the rest of the family. Whilst they are not to everyone's liking they are much better for the environment.
I have only just recently thrown my first bamboo toothbrush in the compost and I just love it.
If you are also looking for a way to get rid of your old plastic toothbrushes consider recycling them.
Kindness idea: donate toiletries to a local homelessness shelter or emergency relief centre.
Toiletries are needed by so many places not just the ones mentioned. Because toiletries are used by everyone they are often the first things to go and so lots of charities and community services are always needing more.
Front Lines: micro-beads in toiletries.
One thing you might like to know about when you are purchasing your toiletries is plastic micro-beads.
These are in everything from shampoo to toothpaste. These are really bad for the environment. And get into our waterways and into all types of water creatures. Here is the video from the UK about the micro beads and how and why we need to prevent the use of them in all of our things.
I hope this finds you all well.
I leave Canberra tomorrow and I have really enjoyed my stay.
Oh man, I am tired, and I am also pretty excited. I am currently on a course in Sydney and we are having long days. Doing blog posts at 10pm when I have to be up at 6am is probably not my brightest idea yet. I am getting there though. I have been getting up early for exercise. It is both exhausting and invigorating. Having not done much for a long time now in the exercise field, I have taken this week to start my health & healing. Since Sunday I have greatly improved my fitness. I can now do 60 crunches, 60 press ups, and 3 whole minutes of plank position! Much better than my 20 x 20 by 30 seconds. Healthy me, here I come! :)
Back to Sustainable September... How did you find yesterdays idea for a more sustainable future? Did you remember to take your reusable bags with you to the supermarket? Did you buy any nice new reusable bags? I used mine today to tote dirty washing to the laundry of the lady i'm staying with. We can do this!
So today is yet another simple switch.
September 4:
Replace your plastic toothbrush with a bamboo one. Bamboo can be
composted.
This is as simple as it sounds. You can
buy Bamboo toothbrushes from your local health store (or you can from
a lot of health stores near me). I have just bought a bulk pack (I am
yet to try them). I am excited about it though because the waste
accrued from toothbrushes is ridiculous.
I bought these in Bulk with the intention of passing them on, or using them as gifts. Plus when you bought these in bulk it was cheaper! :)
I kind of wish I had found these cute bamboo toothbrushes first... after all they have my last name etched into each one!! ;)
And when is say rediculous, let me share the sums, that someone else kindly did for me...
"Here’s why you should be thinking about the environmental impact of toothbrushes. Let’s take Australia as an example. There are about 22 million people
in the country. Let’s say, as a very rough estimate, that 1.25 million
are little babies and don’t have teeth. So that’s 20.75 million
Australians with teeth (including dentures, which still need to be
brushed, so they count.) We all know the dentist tells us to change our
toothbrush when it starts to get shaggy; about every three months. We
also know that we are lazy, so we probably only change them every four
months. So let’s say everyone changes their toothbrush three times a
year (every four months). Here’s the equation:
Australian population with teeth x number of toothbrushes used per person per year = number of toothbrushes used in Australia per year
…which equates to:
20,750,000 x 3 = 62,250,000
Yes, you read that right. By my very rough estimate, Australians are
using 62 and a quarter million toothbrushes per year. (Some estimates
say 30 million, but I’m going to presume Australians care about their
dental hygiene more than that.) To boggle your brain a little more, keep
in mind that Australia has a small population. Think of how many
toothbrushes the US, Chinese, Indians, Brazilians and Indonesians are
using. Yikes!" (Eco Lesbo Vego - 2015).
Scary huh? The website Trash Is For Tossers by Lauren Singer is a great resource too (Yep! That's the trash-free girl again). In Lauren's article it talks about the US rates of toothbrushes (and tooth paste) produced from plastic that are non-recyclable. It is pretty scary stuff. All these plastic things that we never even think of. Sneaky plastic! hehehe.
Toothbrushes made of bamboo can be recycled or even reused or up-cycled when they need to be disposed of.
Why bamboo not some other non-plastic substitute? I hear you ask. Well....
"Bamboo, a natural cellulose fibre, is biodegradable, environmentally sustainable and does not pollute the environment.Technically considered a member of the grass family, bamboo is the
fastest growing plant on earth, and is incredibly abundant. It
regenerates itself prolifically with minimal water and without the need
for harmful pesticides - in fact harvesting and using the bamboo helps
to control unwanted spread into agricultural and natural forest areas.Bamboo is a 100% natural renewable resource that grows back within a few months of harvesting and reaches full size in 3 years." (New Internationalist 2015. This following link is too the Bamboo Toothbrushes by New Internationalist Shop, of which I bought a collection. I bought the bulk pack.
I have a few awesome bamboo products at home that I love. When the toothbrushes arrive at my house (and I'm home to pick them up) I cant wait to try them out. I will wait until my plastic one dies before replacing it completely. Otherwise it is waste in another sense.
KINDNESS IDEA: Donate Toothbrushes and Toothpaste to a homeless shelter. Often the shelters need toiletries. This is an awesome idea of how to support your own community and help those who need it most.
