Water – essential to all life on Earth, yet a resource we take for granted everyday. We watch heart-wrenching footage on TV depicting young children walking for miles to collect a container full of muddy water but rarely stop to consider how lucky we are to have clean water at the turn of a tap. We drink it, wash in it, cook with it… we use it all day everyday and can’t imagine living without having clean water so readily available, but that luxury is set to come to an end within just 25 years unless we take action.
Over 65% of fresh water on Earth is found in icebergs and glaciers (which, I’m sure I don’t need to remind you is currently melting at an alarming rate into the sea), and just over 30% is found in ground water. Only about 0.3% of our fresh water is found in easily accessible lakes, rivers and swamps.
Of the freshwater currently available we already use more than half. We also store 5 times the total of all the Earth’s rivers behind dams and release the equivalent volume of freshwater each year.
Global water use has increased almost 8 times in the last 100 years. 70% of global water use is for agriculture and, rather worryingly, we lose around 3 billion litres of water a day through leakage in England alone!
Over 50% of the UK’s total river length, some 389,000Km, has been physically modified and therefore affecting the habitat of organisms. It has been estimated that we have seen a decline of 81% in the population of 881 freshwater species between 1970 and 2012.
Today, water related diseases (such as malaria) cause around 3.4 million deaths around the world each year. Although it has now been eradicated in Britain, malaria was once commonplace here until there were concerted efforts in swamp drainage, changes in land use and the development of pesticides.
Ah pesticides… The development of pesticides, pharmaceuticals, as well as increases in their use, has led to an exponential increase in the concentrations observed in freshwater systems. Pharmaceuticals are manufactured with the intention of having an effect on biological systems – approximately 90% of human drug targets were shared with 23 assessed mammalian species. The manufacture of industrial machinery and products continues to produce toxic compounds; for example: flame retardants are widely used in both commercial and domestic products and are associated with significant disruption of the endocrine system of organisms. We are literally killing eco-systems with man-made synthetic chemicals.
Water Footprint – items often (although not always) require water in their growth/manufacture but so too does the packaging it comes in. We also need to be mindful of where the item has come from as it may be available locally, depending on season, but it will likely have been imported from somewhere there is a water shortage, further damaging the area.
The amount of water used for domestic purposes is closely related to its availability, the amount of effort it takes to access it and, surprisingly, our income levels… that’s right, people who earn more tend to also have a higher water consumption!
The UK daily water use average is 149 litres per person. As a rough guide:
Toilet flush = 12 litres
Bath = 100 litres
Shower (more than 10 minutes) = 200 litres
Dishwasher = 50 litres
Brushing teeth (with tap running) = 5 litres
Drinking, cooking and cleaning = 10 litres
Car washing (with hose) = 200 litres
Hopefully, you’ve already spotted one or two areas where you can improve your water consumption from that list. You can also reduce your water use by investing in domestic water recycling schemes that reuse water within the house, and of course by collecting rainwater in a water butt to use in the garden during the drier months.
Cape Town, in South Africa, almost ran out of water but through drastic action they managed to avert disaster. From showering for less than 2 minutes and not flushing after each toilet use to seeing who could go longest between washing clothes, the residents certainly had to make their fair of sacrifices. Each person was restricted to using a maximum of 50 litres per day – do you think you could manage that amount? Please join me in keeping track of how much you currently use and then seeing how close you can get it to 50 litres per day!
It’s fast becoming something of a cliche these days but the Covid-19 lockdown is already feeling normal for a lot of people and, dare I say it, I’m actually starting to enjoy it! I miss our families but I love not spending 90 minutes driving to go and see them. I know it is a truly awful time for a lot of people too – some are in mourning for a loved one they can’t say a proper “goodbye” to; some are experiencing domestic abuse; some are desperately missing family and some are just going stir-crazy being stuck inside. Everyday since lockdown began, however, I’ve been trying to look for and focus on the positives which now has me hoping things never go back to “normal”.
Whilst the world has been staying at home the environment has had some much needed breathing space – in just a few weeks (so far) the world is already showing signs of healing! Animals are venturing further into towns and cities. I live right next to a main road and normally have a constant sound of traffic going by as background noise; but now that background noise is birdsong and insects interspersed with the odd car/lorry going by. In 4 weeks my asthma has significantly improved – I no longer need to triple-check I have an inhaler with me when venturing out.
We need to keep this going! This crisis has shown us that we absolutely can make the changes necessary, we just need to keep up the momentum. Lets pick litter so its not a threat to the wildlife returning to our towns and cities. Lets continue to leave the car at home as much as possible to limit pollution.
Lets set ourselves a challenge to repair everything we can before thinking about replacing. With so many shops closed at the moment have you come across an item you normally would have thrown out and replaced? If so, now is the perfect time to have a little tinker and see if you can repair it. Chances are there are several YouTube videos explaining how to do it; and if it all goes horribly wrong then you can go ahead and replace it after all.
Supermarket shopping has been a bit of an issue recently with so many people clearing all the shelves prior to us going in to lockdown. Thankfully I did manage to get everything on my list this week (and several things that weren’t!) but in the first weeks of lockdown I had to literally take whatever I could get and only just managed to scrape together enough food to feed us all. Sadly, this meant more packaging than I would normally like coming into our home… still not enough to fill a wheelie bin in that time but it was still more than I was comfortable with.
Being stuck at home is also a fantastic opportunity to try a new hobby or maybe perfect a craft you’ve previously only dabbled with. Making soap for example is easy to do and is one less thing you need to add to that shopping list. Maybe you’ve always liked the idea of making your own clothes but didn’t know where to start? Now is a great time to learn. In fact, do you think you could go a year without buying any new clothes for yourself?
Of course not everyone is sitting at home twiddling their thumbs. Working from home for some is super easy and they much prefer Donald Ducking a Skype call to being in the office, but for some working from home can be either difficult or impossible at the moment – juggling childcare with working full time – but a lot of employers are seeing the benefits. With lower overheads, no commuting and the same level of productivity, I truly hope most employers will take this opportunity to continue to encourage office-based staff to work from home once schools and nurseries/child-minders are up and running again.
Stay safe everyone and enjoy the lovely fresh air of a healing world.
I recently attended a conference on the environmental impact of microplastics. The event was organised by the NFWI and came a day after they published their report, In A Spin: how our laundry is contributing to plastic pollution. The report was presented at a roundtable but I’ll get to that later on.
So, microplastics… a microplastic is any piece of plastic that is 5mm or smaller. We’re all familiar with the intact bottles and lighters etc that are floating around in the sea, and harming wildlife, but not many people have heard of microplastics let alone the harm they can cause.
Being less than 5mm in size means it’s almost impossible for them to be spotted and picked out, however there are some mechanisms in place to try and catch as many as possible. Enter the oh so glamourous world of sewage treatment… EVERYTHING we flush goes through at least one (for very remote places) level of filtration and treatment. Most of us live in towns or cities and we can typically expect our flushes to go through about 3 stages of treatment. Sometimes, and increasingly often, fatbergs are being discovered. The sewage system will develop a blockage and when a team goes down to investigate they find huge solid masses of… mostly wipes actually. Tampons, nappies and cooking fat typically make up around 10-20% of the bergs and the rest are wipes!
The sewage not affected by fatbergs goes through the treatment works and at the end of the process there is a lot of very fertile sludge left over, which is then passed on to farmers to spread around their crops. At the moment there are microplastics that are too small to be picked up by the filtration systems and are making their way into the vegetables we eat.
As far as food goes, that’s just the tip of the iceberg – well done me for not making a lettuce based pun there! Plastic (of all sizes) is turning up in the stomachs of the animals we go on to eat… from fish to birds and mammals, they’re all ingesting plastic from various sources. That plastic can have a hormone disrupting effect on the animals.
It’s not just our food that is being affected, in fact our drinks often contain microplastics too. I can’t go into too much detail here as the study hasn’t been officially published yet but so far researchers have found plastic particles in bottled drinks – they even found types of plastic inside the drinks which weren’t even used in the manufacture of the bottles the drinks came in. I’ll revisit this in more detail once the study is published.
So, before you swear to become vegan and only ever drink filtered water there is one more place where microplastics are entering our bodies – in the very air we breathe! We really cannot avoid it. I should point out that it is believed to only be harmful to us in extremely high concentrations, which experts think is highly unlikely to ever be reached by most people.
The NFWI report focuses on the microplastic fibres that are shed from our clothes in the washing machine. These days it’s rare for anyone to own any item of clothing without some form of plastic in it. We might have the odd 100% cotton t-shirt but it’s likely that the rest of the wardrobe is made up of synthetic fibres.
The round table that the NFWI presented their report at was attended by representatives from a variety of industries to try and tackle the issue from every angle – textile designers are now trying to create a synthetic fabric that sheds fewer fibres during each wash (ideally they’ll be able to get the number down to zero). Washing machine manufacturers will be looking at improving their filters etc to try and catch more plastic fibres, preventing them from entering the waterways. The government are going to think up appropriate legislation and the NFWI are going to raise awareness of the issue so that individuals can play their part too. There were others present, but you get the idea… it’s a multi-pronged attack on the microplastics coming from our clothes.
So while the experts work away at the problem what can we, as individuals, do to reduce the amount if plastic we add to the oceans in the meantime? Well there are a few things we can do right away:
Wash at lower temperatures – this will help fewer fibres from being shed.
Switch to a liquid detergent rather than powder – powder agitates the fabrics a lot more than liquid detergent and so more fibres are released. There is a zero waste argument for Soap Nuts here, but I haven’t given them a proper run yet so stay tuned for an in-depth review.
Only wash clothes when dirty – climbing into some casual clothes for a couple of hours after work means they’re probably still good to be worn again without having to go in the wash.
Only run the washing machine when you have a full load and line dry instead of using a tumble drier if possible.
Look into an in-wash filter like a Cora Ball. The Cora Ball currently only removes about half the fibres that are released but that appears to be the best available at the moment. At the conference someone from the textile industry announced that the Guppy Friend bags don’t work. Personally, I haven’t tried either (yet).
Hopefully I’ve given you some food for thought there. I know it’s tempting to start buying only natural fibres after finding out about all these microplastics coming from our clothes, however there is also an environmental impact there too. It’s a problem that we’re not going to be able to solve overnight, so in the meantime it’s best to alter our laundry habits as per the bullet points above.
Finally, I’m thrilled to announce there will be some exciting changes coming up – I’ll be moving the blog over to a new domain and I’ll also be adding an online shop where you’ll be able to purchase some handmade zero waste essentials.
Woo Christmas will soon be here, along with all the traditions that come with it. For us the festive season begins on 1st December with the first opening of the advent calendar. We watch all our favourite Christmas movies while snuggled under a blanket and drinking hot chocolate. We alternate seeing our families on Christmas Day or Boxing Day – this year we’re with Paul’s family on Christmas Day and mine on Boxing Day, but regardless of where we are we always open up 1 present on Christmas Eve right before we go to bed. Christmas morning we tear into our stocking gifts and then go down for breakfast. When we’re with my family on Christmas Day I get to spend the morning cooking – which I love! After we eat we then get to open up our main presents… after that the traditions vary depending on which family we’re with.
So, tradition number 1 – the advent calendar… there are so many to choose from! There are super traditional ones that you open up to reveal an image; there are the good old chocolate ones that I always had as a child; these days you can even alcohol ones and we’ll almost anything you can imagine. This year I was immensely tempted to buy myself a Bomb Cosmetics bath bomb advent calendar, but all of these advent calendars are immensely wasteful. There’s loads of cardboard and often a plastic tray. Eventually my zero waste principles stopped me from buying the bath bomb advent calendar.
Does that mean our advent calendar tradition is to come to an end? Not at all! In fact there are a few ways of doing a zero waste advent.
Reusable Advent Calendar
As well as the cardboard and plastic advent calendars, many shops are now also starting to stock empty wooden advent calendars. You can fill them with so many different things but I’m planning on filling ours with sweets from a local old fashioned style sweet shop – the kind where you can go up to the counter and request a quarter of… in fact I normally go into the sweet shop (Sweet Alley in Biggleswade) with my own jars to be filled with candy goodness.
Earn a treat
How about heading out on a daily litter pick and reward each person with a treat for each item of rubbish they collect that day? This one has the benefit of cleaning up the streets and gives kids a chance to earn more than just 1 piece of chocolate a day.
If the little ones could do with a bit more of an academic boost the lovely people at education.com have provided a themed maths worksheet – why not give your kids a maths problem to solve each day before they get to have their advent treats? Simply grab some treats, download the worksheet and answer sheet and away you go. As this blog is all about zero waste and loving the environment, I have an ocean themed worksheet for you to download (worksheet: subtraction_subtraction_under_the_sea3 and the answer sheet: subtraction_subtraction_under_the_sea3_answers), however there are other themes and worksheets available through their website.
Christmas Bingo
When I was a kid my Mum and I would drive around looking for all the tacky and way over the top Christmas lights people had adorned their houses with. So, I thought it might be fun to turn if into a full on Advent event. The idea is you have a list of 25 Christmas themed items that you have to cross off as and when you spot them. However, spotting something, let’s say tinsel, for sale in a shop or in your own home doesn’t count, whereas spotting tinsel in someone else’s home would be fine. You can do this by yourself or even compete against friends and family to see who can cross off all the items first. Here are the ones we’ll be looking for this year:
Santa
Snowman
Reindeer
Mistletoe
Festive lights – ideally the OTT seizure inducing ones
Nativity scene
Star
Candy cane
Holly
Bells
Wreath
Gingerbread house/person
Elf
Stocking
Christmas tree (real or plastic)
Tinsel
Sleigh
Carol singers
Candle
Presents
Poinsettia
Mince Pies
Robin
Angel
Mittens
It’s only November but I can actually cross off the mince pies already!
What are your advent plans? Have you come up with another way of making the festivities zero waste? Let me know what you’re up to.
I recently attended a conference on the environmental impact of microplastics so be sure to come back next month to hear how it went and to get a break-down of the report.
I love Autumn! I love the colours. I love feeling the last breath of summer’s warmth being gently ushered along by gusts of wind hinting at winter’s icy chill.
I also love celebrating the harvest. Don’t get me wrong here, I am not one for pottering in the garden and I struggle to keep plants alive for a full year, but I do enjoy celebrating at harvest time.
As a child we would be asked to take a tin of soup or something into school for the harvest festival. All the tins were then collected together, nicely displayed during an assembly, and then distributed to people in the community who were most in need – the food banks of the 90’s! As a kid I didn’t know or care about the harvest festival. I didn’t even know it was anything to do with farming, to me it was just an annual event where I had to raid the cupboard for a tin of beans. Eventually I questioned what people did before tins were invented and that’s when I discovered the harvest festival was all about celebrating all that nature has given us.
Once upon a time men would gather in the crops and the women would preserve those crops in order to sustain the family through the forthcoming Winter. The Harvest Festival celebrates this ritual – all the hard work of toiling in both the fields and the kitchen comes to a close with everyone enjoying a lovely ploughmans meal, a sheaf loaf and a drink or 2 to rejoice and give thanks for successful harvest.
In that same tradition, this time last year I was gathering up the last fruits of the year and preserving them ready for Winter. I had such an overwhelming sense of being at one with nature – making the most of Summer’s abundance to sustain us through the next season.
This year was a very different story though. The unusual heat that we experienced here in Britain this spring/summer meant that all the fruit I normally gather up had fully ripened by early July which meant no August jam making for me. In fact I didn’t get to preserve anything this year for Winter. Luckily, in this day and age we don’t need to spend Autumn preparing for Winter. Eating seasonally can be reduced to nothing more than another hipster trend that allows gourmet restaurants to charge way over the odds, and the closest most people get to pulling a root vegetable from the ground is washing the dirt off a carrot they bought at the supermarket. And that’s the point – supermarkets allow us to buy the fruits of someone else’s labour. We never have to worry about not having enough food for winter because we can just go out and buy the same ingredients week in and week out any time of the year. It doesn’t matter what season it is, food is grown all over the world and shipped over so we can enjoy things like asparagus in January and strawberries in February if we want to.
I wasn’t able to gather up and preserve anything this year and I’m sorry to say but a lot of farmers took a much bigger hit than that this year as well. Many crops failed entirely and almost all farmers suffered heavy losses. This year more than ever we’re going to be thankful that the supermarkets are able to import food from overseas.
Therein is the dilemma. Supermarkets squeeze producers as much as possible to bring us cheap food year-round, shipping food all over the world thus contributing massively to climate change. However, as a result of climate change we’re having to rely on those same supermarkets (rather than local farm shops for example) to see us through winter at an affordable price.
I’m not trying to suggest supermarkets are the sole cause of climate change here. The modern lifestyle is largely to blame and our reliance on cheap produce from overseas rather than growing our own is just one contributing factor. Did you know that the old council houses (built before the 1980’s) used to be quite small but have relatively large gardens becsuse they expected the tenents to be self-sufficient?! The gardens were divided into 3 sections where crops could be grown, livestock (such as a pig) could be kept and I forget what the 3rd section was intended for now but it doesn’t really matter because of course almost no one did plant any fruit and veg in their gardens (or keep any livestock), instead they mostly became large areas for the kids to play in which is why later builds tended to have MUCH smaller gardens, if at all.
I’m not expecting anyone to suddenly rush out with a spade to start planting some potatoes here, instead I would urge everyone to try and shop local where possible. By all means get digging if that’s your thing though. Is eating seasonally really so bad if it means the food we’re about to tuck into has a lower carbon footprint? Buying direct from a local farm shop or green grocers means you’re unlikely to encounter fruit and veg encased in plastic packaging and you’ll be able to pick from the whole crop, not just the ones that conform to a certain shape or size. One of the bug supermarkets here is currently running an advert boasting about buying the whole crop by creating the “wonky” range – it’s good that they’re not just leaving the ones that don’t make the grade to go to waste, but they’ve wrapped them all in plastic and labelled it as “wonky”. How about buying the whole crop the farmer and selling the whole lot loose?! Let’s stop the vegetation-based apartheid, ditch the plastic, and just let consumers pick their own quantity!
Supermarkets have also recently been advertising their willingness to let you bring your own container into the store… like I said we should be doing in a previous post. Don’t wait for a shop to give you permission to use your own container instead of them giving you a disposable one – just take one with you and ask if they’re okay with it. I’ve been taking my own containers everywhere for a couple of years now and have never encountered anyone unwilling to fill mine instead of their own.
The one harvest ritual I did manage to fulfil this year was the sheaf loaf. I fully intended to take a photo but, in this house we love digging in to bread fresh from the oven and so, on this occasion we had already devoured half the loaf before I thought about taking a pic. I normally bake bread every few days so you think we’d be over the fresh from the oven novelty by now, but no!
One day my little one is going to have a great time getting his hands dirty kneading and shaping the dough with me, and I just can’t wait to be able to share the full harvest tradition with him – the preserving fresh fruit and vegetables ready for winter one, not the taking a tin of soup to school one.
Recently I’ve seen a lot of people (friends/family & random strangers on the internet) become more environmentally conscious and wanting to at the very least reduce their plastic use, which is fantastic, the more the better. It would appear a lot of people are starting to become more aware of their dependence on single-use plastic now that bars and restaurants are moving away from plastic straws in favour of paper ones, or at least hiding the straws away from sight resulting in people having to ask for one if they need one. Actually, I recently replied to a FB comment stating that some people have disabilities that mean they need the flexibility of a plastic straw and so the stainless steel straws aren’t suitable and we therefore shouldn’t judge. I replied saying that it obviously depends on the specific disability but a silicone straw may be an option instead as it is just as flexible as plastic but less harmful to the environment… and is dishwasher safe. One lady then almost accused me of being ableist saying it’s not for us to tell disabled people which straws they should use, but everyone else generally didn’t know you could get silicone straws and understood that I was merely offering up an alternative option to plastic that may work for some. Either way, I genuinely think it’s absolutely fantastic that people are starting to think about the issue and have a debate about it, let’s keep it up!
I was even jumping for joy the day the government announced a ban on wet wipes… until I read up on it and discovered their plan is to phase in the ban over the next 20 years! 20 years is just utterly ridiculous – I honestly believe this ban could easily be brought into effect within 2 years. Yes, wipes seem to be everywhere these days – baby wipes and make up remover wipes are the first that spring to mind, but then there are also ones infused with furniture polish so you can clean your house, disinfectant ones, ones to clean your behind with (which should absolutely NEVER be flushed down the toilet), there are even ones for wiping the dog’s paws with… and probably many more I’ve not yet discovered.
In most instances these wipes are utterly superfluous, and could easily be replaced with alternative options – remember changing a baby’s nappy with cotton wool and a bowl of water? Did you know you can remove make up just as easily for a fraction of the cost of a pack of wipes? What was so wrong with spraying furniture polish with one hand and wiping with a cloth in the other? Somewhere along the way we seem to have fallen victim to large marketing firms pushing a disposable ideology onto us, sacrificing the environment for the sake of profit margins.
So the UK government have given firms a 20 year deadline to come up with an eco-friendly version of their wipes, but there are already companies popping up advertising their biodegradable wipes. Of course the biodegradable version is more expensive, but it’s okay because it’s better for the environment so people will be happy to pay the extra… and that’s the scam, people will pay more but it’s likely the biodegrable claims are effectively a great big steaming pile of BS.
I’ve fallen for this myself back in the day. I bought some nappy sacks to use as doggy poo bags because they were biodegradable but didn’t think too much about it beyond that. It was only a few months later that I realised that in order for the bags to biodegrade they need to be placed within a bio-active substance, for example being buried in soil, which doesn’t generally happen with poo bags (or nappy sacks in general either). In fact the bags I got didn’t actually specify what conditions the bags would decompose under.
Typically, when it comes to poo bags, nappy sacks and baby wipes, the products will likely be encased in a plastic bin bag and sent to landfill along with millions of other bin bags and so they won’t start to degrade for 500 years anyway, just like with the non-biodegradable version.
Soil obviously isn’t the only option for biodegradation – there are packing peanuts you can now get which fully dissolve in a bit of warm water. So when it comes to all these new biodegradable wipes that are being advertised to me I thought it was only fair to ask the manufacturers what conditions need to be met for their product to biodegrade but, after over a month, I have yet to see any responses… if you’re determined to use wipes rather than any more environmentally friendly alternative then shop smart! If the packaging says biodegradable but doesn’t give you disposal directions then save your money.
Please don’t wait 20 years before ditching the wipes, be the change and discover all the wonderful alternatives that await you now. If there’s a specific type of wipe that you don’t know how to do without then please get in touch and I’ll see if I can help you.
So last time I promised I’d do a tutorial on how to make cloth sanitary pads but I figured I should at least also be able to report on how they perform, which meant waiting for little one’s arrival.
For the last 2 weeks of my pregnancy I had been getting little hints that labour was close so I was more than ready to meet our little guy by the time he arrived.
Before I go on I should point out that Paul and I had done a hypnobirthing course, specifically the Wise Hippo programme. I wanted to do hypnobirthing because I’d heard so many wonderful things – from entirely pain-free births to really short labour times, I was completely sold! We turned up for our first class and were told these things are not guaranteed, the course is about empowering us to have a positive birth experience… typical!
Anyway, I practiced everyday regardless. I found the MP3 tracks we were given relaxed me so much I was asleep within a couple of minutes of putting them on so I started listening to them while doing various jobs, like cleaning the house and making my pads etc. I think that also helped while I was in labour because I was still moving around and keeping active while trying to be as calm and relaxed as possible.
So basically on Sunday night I noticed I was bleeding… worried, I rang the hospital and arranged to go in to triage. I popped a homemade pad in and went along to the hospital. The midwife had a look at the pad and also did an internal check and reassured me it was just a show. Feeling very relieved we then made our way back home where I then got all of 2 hours sleep (my own fault for binge-watching a certain show) before starting to feel some twinges.
It was around 3.30am on Monday 6th August and I was absolutely convinced they were just Braxton Hicks so I simply went back to sleep. Eventually though I couldn’t sleep and started to get excited that things might finally be happening. Around 6.30am I woke Paul up and asked him to walk the dog and then come back and start timing a few contractions just in case it was the real thing.
I put the hypnobirth music on and got settled while I waited for Paul to get back. I was so calm and relaxed during each contraction that he had no idea when to time and so I had to really concentrate on staying awake enough to tell him when to start and stop timing. Before I knew it we were at 3 in 10 minutes, lasting a minute, and it was time to head to the hospital… although I was still convinced they were just Braxton Hicks.
I was having to concentrate on my breathing and visualisations more and more in the car but Paul was great at jumping in and helping me stay focussed. Eventually we got to the hospital and went through my birth plan with the midwife. It was around this time things started to ease up a bit. The midwives suggested keeping me in for an hour to see if things picked up. I stopped trying to focus and just let the sleep take me – I’m not sure how often women normally sleep through contractions but I highly recommend it!
Unfortunately, the midwives decided it was best if I continued to labour at home so off we went. The car ride home was awful! The contractions were super intense and I simply couldn’t focus anymore. Paul did his best to help me through each one but his priority was on driving safely, of course.
We finally made it home and I immediately stripped off and collapsed on the bed with the same MP3 track still playing on loop from earlier on. Paul went downstairs to make some toast as neither of us had eaten anything yet. At this point I completely lost control and declared I couldn’t do it anymore as I wasn’t getting a break. Paul realised that meant baby would be arriving soon and tried to get me dressed and back to the hospital but I insisted he rub my back instead. He managed to get a top on me before I announced that my waters had just gone and I could feel my whole body bearing down. Paul then phoned the hospital who stayed on the line with him while also dispatching 2 community midwives and an ambulance to the house.
30 minutes after arriving home from the hospital I gave birth to little Jay… we wouldn’t have made it back to the hospital in time even if I had cooperated with Paul trying to dress me. Amazingly, the midwives arrived before the ambulance. They knocked on the door just as Paul could see the top of Jay’s head appear and they came bursting into the room just in time to catch his body.
He is a perfectly happy and healthy little guy but he came out with both hands up by his head which meant I suffered a 3rd degree tear… another draw of hypnobirthing is the low tearing rates but sadly that one was out of my reach. While we waited for the ambulance one of the midwives looked through my birthplan and pointed out that although it was an unplanned homebirth I had in fact managed to achieve almost everything I had specified, which I can’t really complain about!
As for the hypnobirthing: I wish I had realised how close I was at the time I lost control – I think that would have made it easier, but being a first time mum I obviously had no idea how close I was. Yes, I had a shorter labour than the average ‘normal’ labour time. No, I wasn’t technically in pain but I was pretty far from the orgasmic experience some other women report – the pressure was incredibly intense, especially before my body started pushing, and it was just impossible for me to be vaguely comfortable let alone in a position to think about my ‘happy place’. However, I’ll take intense pressure and discomfort over pain any day!
Jay and I had to spend his first night in hospital (back home the following evening) while the staff made sure I was okay after being stitched back up. For this reason we broke out the disposables. I can honestly say the reusable cloth pads are more comfortable than the disposable ones. They’re also far more absorbent so it was just as well I had been willing to use the disposables at the hospital – one of the questions I was asked was whether I had managed to soak through a pad within 2 hours. Thankfully the answer was no anyway, but it would have been a ‘hell no’ from a cloth pad.
The patterns I used to make my pads were purchased online (as were the materials) and I made about 14 maternity pads based on online recommendations. However, this was more than I needed as I found 1 maternity pad was enough to last me all day. The cloth pads also beat the disposables when it comes to leakage as well.
So here’s how to make your own. Equipment:
You’ll need a sewing machine (unless you have the time and patience to hand stitch).
Pattern, which you can find online (paid or free) or you can even create your own if you’re so inclined. I purchased mine through Etsy
Outer fabric – I chose a purple cotton fat quarters in various patterns, but it can be whatever you want.
Waterproof inner layer. I used PUL, which is polyurethane laminate – basically a super thin layer of laminate over the fabric to make it waterproof.
The next layer on top of that is the absorbency layer. I used Zorb but Terry Towelling is just as effective. You’ll want to use 2-3 layers of Towelling to every 1 layer of Zorb, and I used 2 layers of Zorb for my maternity pads.
Fleece top layer. This is the layer that will be next to the skin so it makes sense for it to be nice & soft and absorbent.
Press studs. I bought a kit through Amazon.
Trace and cut your pattern pieces. Place the absorbent layers over the wrong side of your top fleece layer and pin in place while you stitch around the outer edge of the absorbent layer.
Next, place the outer fabric on top, right sides together and then place the waterproof layer underneath and pin along the outer edge. Make sure you don’t pin the middle of waterproof layer – it’ll make it less effective! Stick to the edges… and stitch in place, leaving a gap so you can turn the pad inside out.
Where the gap is, keep the fleece and waterproof layers together and separate the fleece and patterned/outer layers from each other. Make sure it is fully turned to the edges.
Return to the gap you left for turning and gently fold the edges inwards, matching the rest of the pad. Top sew along the entire outer edge.
Fold the wings over one another, as they would sit when the pad is in use, and place the press studs accordingly.
Generally cloth pads should always be washed with detergent only, no fabric softener as that will reduce the absorbency. I know some people who like to throw their used pads straight into the washing machine and I also know some people who prefer to rinse them off with cold water first – I think there are 2 deciding factors here: flow and squeamishness… there’s no right answer, just go with what works for you. Some people say it’s okay to tumble dry PUL on a low heat, personally I wouldn’t risk it though… I always prefer to air dry anyway.
Yep, this month we’re talking nappies! Well you couldn’t expect me to let Real Nappy Week go by without comment now could you?! Obviously I’m all for real nappies, also known as cloth nappies, but I’ve found that a lot of people are very critical of my decision, telling me I should just stick with disposables – no, those people have never read this blog. What I’ve noticed is that people under the age of about 50 seem to be largely supportive (to varying degrees) and will often already know someone who uses cloth nappies and raves about them. People over that age seem to be the ones trying to persuade me to use disposables because they’re still remembering the old terry squares that you would have to fold and carefully pin in place – you can still get those but most cloth nappies today are shaped just like disposables and have velcro tabs at the top so there’s no need for the dreaded safety pin.
I can see how disposables became popular in the first place: from having to fold up a piece of cloth and gently pin it in place while contending with a very wriggly baby can’t have been much fun. Then there’s the cleaning side… before disposable nappies came onto the market it was quite rare for people to have their own washing machine in the home. Instead they were likely to have to go to a laundrette everyday with a bag full of nappies and loose change (not very practical) or, more likely, they would have to wash all the nappies by hand. Given those circumstances I think even I might have opted for disposables back then too. Thankfully, things aren’t like that any more – most people do have a washing machine at home and cloth nappies are just as easy to put on as a disposable now.
There are loads of different terms that get thrown around when it comes to cloth nappies. I have purchased 2 types – some all-in-ones (AIOs) and some fitted nappies, so I’ll mostly be talking about these types. The others you can get include pocket, prefold and all-in-two. If you want to give real nappies a go then it’s worth doing a little research as to which type would be most suitable for you – just because your best friend raves about prefolds doesn’t mean they’re going to be the best fit for your lifestyle. A good place to start is your local nappy library (you should be able to find details through your local council’s website). The nappy library will explain all the different options to you and allow you to try each type out – you can then continue using the library or you can purchase your own set. You can also try out a local laundry service where they’ll take away the dirty nappies and leave you with a fresh set. Obviously I can’t try out any kind of nappy just yet so I had to make an educated guess as to what would be best for our family. Actually, another point to note on your local council’s website is what kind of incentive they offer for using real nappies. Here in Central Bedfordshire we’re able to apply for £25 cashback upon spending £50 or more. I know residents of some London boroughs though can apply for vouchers to spend on real nappies, so it’s worth seeing what is on offer before spending any money.
Ahhh money… so a lot of people are put off cloth nappies because of the up-front cost. I’m not going to lie, it is expensive, especially as my local council will only offer up to £25 towards the cost. Just to give you an idea, I bought a set of 40 nappies plus 12 wraps (from the Cloth Nappy Shop) for £225. I also got a few AIO nappies while they were on introductory offer at the supermarket for £10, although the price has now gone up to £16 each. The set of 40 that I got (20 in size 1 and 20 in size 2) will last from birth to potty and in theory I shouldn’t need any more than that. I did however get the AIOs as well because the size can be adjusted and it meant I’d have a few back-ups in case of an especially upset tummy.
I’ve probably confused a few of you there. So the 40 nappies I got from Cloth Nappy Shop are fitted nappies. They are shaped just like disposables but are made from bamboo fibres (you can also get cotton and microfibre ones as well, however bamboo is SUPER absorbent) and have velcro tabs at the top, like the sticky tabs you get on disposables. The nappy itself is highly absorbent (whatever fibre type you choose) but not waterproof, therefore an additional waterproof layer (a wrap) is required on top of the nappy. Most of the time the urine doesn’t soak all the way through to the wrap so the same wrap can be reused when a nappy is changed, unless of course there was a bit of a ‘leaky’ episode – although I’m told that’s quite rare for cloth nappies. Fitted nappies (and their wraps) tend to come in 2 or 3 sizes, although most children are fully toilet trained whilst in size 2, so its unlikely most parents would ever need to purchase size 3, unless they have a large toddler or it is taking little one a bit longer to get the hang of things. The AIO nappies tend to be covered in press studs and may have press stud fixings on the tabs or they may also have velcro. The press studs going down the front are so the size of the nappy can be adjusted to fit from birth up to potty without having to purchase a different set of nappies in the next size up. These nappies are absorbent and have an outer waterproof layer attached. AIOs may not last as long as the fitted nappies as the waterproof layer can start to delaminate over time. The fitted wraps may also delaminate but they don’t require washing as often as an AIO and therefore will probably last a bit longer.
Anyway, back to the financial side of things. So yes, there is a larger up-front cost, but in the long-term real nappies work out to be substantially cheaper. If purchasing cloth nappies for a first child, you’ll have forked out say £300, but then you’ll already have your nappy stash to hand ready for any subsequent children. You may even be able to recoup some of the cost by then selling them on to other parents-to-be once you decide to not have any more children, providing they’re in a decent enough condition, otherwise you can use them as cleaning rags around the house. Disposables on the other hand will only cost you a few £s at a time but from birth to potty you will likely get through around £900 worth of nappies… per child!
And what happens to those nappies once they’re thrown away? They sit in landfill of course. Estimates of how long it takes for a disposable nappy to decompose vary from 400 to 500 years. There are some disposable nappies that claim to be eco-friendly though. Beaming Baby nappies spring to mind here. Their nappies are 50% more bio-degradable than their nearest competitor but that still only makes them 75% bio-degradable. That means that 75% of the nappy will decompose within 5 years whereas the remaining 25% will still be sitting in landfill for up to 500 years. Just to give you a little more perspective, the average baby will get through around 5000 nappies before they’re potty trained.
Another thing that puts some people off using real nappies is having to deal with the poo. Whilst a baby is breastfed the poo laden nappies can go in the wash as normal. Once they start on solids you need to dispose of the poo down the toilet – just like you’re supposed to do with disposables! However, I’m not sure I know anyone who uses disposables that actually does bother to dispose of the poo in the toilet before throwing the nappy away, and I guess that’s why they’re considered so convenient these days. But councils and other authorities will encourage you to dispose of all human waste (that includes baby poo) via the sewage system. Please NEVER flush the nappy down the toilet though!! I used to work at a company that builds new homes and we would often get complaints that the sewers were backing up into people’s homes. We’d send the sewage guys in to investigate and every time (whilst I was working there at least) the blockage was being caused by people flushing either nappies or, more commonly, wipes down the toilet. Yep, even the wipes that are advertised as being flushable (you know the ones from that advert where they’re asking kids and adults how clean they feel?!) still take several years to break down, and so they snag on a nail or something inside the pipe, then more and more wipes get caught and before you know it the poor family at the end of the drain run are getting raw sewage backing up into their house.
While we’re on the subject, let’s quickly discuss baby wipes. They may be gentle on baby’s skin but they’re certainly not gentle on the environment. The zero-waste option is to use fleece wipes that you simply wet, use and then toss in the wash with the nappy. The changing bag I have even came with a wipes dispenser which I can fill with pre-moistened cloth wipes (I can fit about 8 in at a time). The general rule of thumb is you need to use 1 cloth wipe for every 2-3 disposable wipes. If true then 8 wipes is likely to be more than sufficient while out and about, although I’ll probably still pack a bunch of dry ones in the bag as well.
Back to the poo disposal. The easiest way of getting it into the toilet is to give the nappy a gentle shake – providing its a solid one. If it’s quite runny then you can either grab some toilet paper and wipe the worst of it off into the toilet or if you’re like me and don’t want to be getting that close to the stuff then you can very easily install a handheld bidet to your toilet and simply spray the poo off with water. My father-in-law will be installing our one and he says it’ll be a quick 5 minute job – can’t remember how much the bidet cost me, about £20 I think.
You can also get liners to go within your cloth nappy. There are fleece ones that add extra absorbency and mean that you don’t have to hold the entire nappy over the toilet, just the liner. You can also get paper liners which you can shake off into the toilet and then dispose of into the bin. Personally I’m not a fan of the paper liners as it’s still creating waste. Some liners will advertise themselves as being flushable but, as with wipes, they should always be discarded in your household waste instead.
Disposables do have an advantage over cloth in that you can discard of them straight away. With cloth you will have to put a soiled nappy into a wet/dry bag (which tend to be great at containing smells in case you’re wondering) until you get home. I do think there’s a time and a place for disposables and for me that’s in my hospital bag. Some of you already know that I’d prefer to birth at home, but circumstances may crop that mean I have to birth at hospital instead, in which case I’ll have a bag packed and ready to go long before my due date. Now if I’m only birthing at the hospital then we’re fine to stick with cloth nappies. If there’s something a little more serious going on and we have to stay in for a few nights then sending a very stressed Paul to and from the hospital each day with a load of nappies just isn’t going to be practical. So I’ll be packing some disposables (probably just the free sample packs companies keep throwing at me at the moment) into my bag just in case, but all the while I’ll be praying I don’t need to use them and can instead pass them all on to the next person I know who is expecting.
I know some other real nappy advocates (not naming anyone in particular here) would also be pointing out all the different chemicals that are used in disposable nappies, but I don’t think it’s fair to be pointing out that a particular chemical was banned from it’s use in tampons – tampons are worn internally whereas nappies remain external to the body. So yes, it was right to ban the chemical from being used in tampons but to my knowledge it has not been linked with any form of illness when used in a nappy.
The only other thing to mention is that you should never use fabric conditioner when using cloth nappies, or cloth menstrual pads for that matter, as it inhibits the absorbency.
There are always special offers popping up online for real nappies and as I said before, most areas will have a nappy library service, so I strongly urge everyone with a little one to give them a go. You may love them or you may still prefer disposables, there’s only one way to find out.
Next month I’ll be starting to prepare for my postpartum bleed by making some cloth menstrual pads, and will be showing you how to make some too. Get those sewing machines ready everyone, you can always make some for charity if you don’t need any for yourself!
This month I was going to give you a nice and easy homemade soap recipe but then I came across a couple of things that made me really want to get on my soap box and scream – so I decided to do both!
Let’s start with the rant: I have just seen a post by a woman on Facebook proudly stating that she has just got back from Tesco and left all the packaging from her fruit and veg at the checkout and that next time she’s going to take some boxes so she can also unpack the meat and take it home with her that way, because at least then all that packaging won’t end up in her bin. Now I know some of you will be thinking I would be proud of this woman for taking a stance against packaging, but instead all I can think is what a f***ing tw*t!! She has not helped the situation at all there, all she has done is create a scene, delay the checkout process and pat herself on the back for it! It’s nothing more greenwashing on a personal rather than corporate level. The supermarket does not care at all that she has left the packaging there, she has still paid slightly more for the packaging in the first place and at the end of the day their profit margin is all they care about, not how much plastic packaging they’re sending to landfill. She included a photo of the fruit and veg she had just purchased and all of it could have been purchased loose, without any packaging in the first place. She already plans to take her own boxes to put meat in next time and again leave the packaging at the store – how about taking those boxes to a butchers instead? That way the meat was never packed in a bunch of plastic in the first place and therefore the packaging never needs to go into her’s or anyone else’s bin. The only way to get through to the big supermarkets is to vote with your feet – they will regularly review stock levels and if they notice an upsurge in the sales of loose fruit and vegetables while the more expensive pre-packaged stuff is being left on the shelves to rot, do you really think they’re going to keep restocking the pre-packaged stuff, or is it more likely they’ll respond by giving the consumers what they want which is even more loose fruit and veg?
The other thing that irritated me recently was listening to a show on Radio 4 all about lists. I have said previously about making a shopping list to in an attempt to reduce food waste, but I probably should have specified that I meant for you to make a list on your phone. I get that people of a certain age don’t like to carry their mobile phones with them and will only turn it on if they need to make a call, in which case I understand why they would prefer to use pen and paper to make a list – in fact, Jenny Eclair (who presented the radio show) admitted to still using a Filofax to organise her life. There are multiple apps available, but I prefer to just use a plain and simple notepad app that comes pre-installed on the phone. It’s nice and simple, with me at all times and when I’m done I can just delete it and nothing ends up in the bin. I know, there’s just something about hunting around in your bag for a slip of paper, poking a hole through the list as you try to cross an item off at the supermarket and then having the satisfaction of screwing it up and throwing it away once you’re done, but go on, give your phone a go for at least a month and see if you don’t find it easier.
Alright, rant over. So, now that I’ve stepped down from the soap box, I’d like to tell you how to make actual soap… I started making my own soap not just because I wanted to cut down on packaging but also because I got sick of seeing so many ingredients I couldn’t pronounce on the back of said packaging. So here is my super easy soap recipe. It’s so easy, you can even get the kids involved (should help keep them quiet for a bit). You probably have most of what you need in the house already, and if not you can either substitute for something else or you can pick it up from a local shop.
Here’s what you’ll need:
135g Shea Butter
180g Coconut Oil
360g Olive Oil
135g Almond Oil
90g Castor Oil
200ml Water
123.2g Lye (caustic soda)
97g Coconut Milk
Few drops of essential oil (optional)
Mixing Bowl
Spoon
Stick Blender
Slow Cooker or Saucepan
Soap Mould
Towel
First of all pour your water into a bowl and then in a well ventilated place (I like to wait for a sunny day and do this bit outside) add the Lye to the water (never ever the other way around, and you may want to wear some protective gear for this bit – a pair of marigolds for example) and give it a little stir until it has all dissolved. I would advise letting little ones watch but perhaps don’t allow them to do this bit (depending on their age). Adding Lye to water will generate an exothermic reaction which will remain warm to the touch for a little while – you also don’t want to inhale too deeply over the bowl, just stir at an arms length away. Once you’re done gently stirring, you can set it aside while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
Start with the coconut oil as that takes the longest time to melt in my experience. You can either melt it in a slow cooker, on the stove or in the microwave – all good options, there’s no right or wrong here. Personally I use a slow cooker (it’s the only time I do use it) and just add everything into the pot to as soon as I’ve measured it out, so next I would add the shea butter to start melting. Then add the other oils – you should have just the lye water, coconut milk and the essential oils not in your pot at this point.
By the time the coconut oil has fully melted in the slow cooker, the lye water should have stopped reacting and should now be cool enough to handle. Carefully add it to the melted oils, taking care to not splash any on yourself… I’m told it can cause a burning sensation.
Grab the stick blender and give it all a good whiz. When you get a thin trace, i.e. it starts to look a little bit like Vaseline, add the coconut milk. Mix it all in and wait for it to get a little thicker, then add a few drops of essential oil (if using) and mix well.
Transfer into your soap mould. If you have any cling film then you can put a bit over your soap – I don’t have any so I just skip this step. With the soap in the mould, cover with a nice thick towel (or a few if they’re quite thin) and leave for about 24 hours.
After about 24 hours you can turn it out the mould. If you’re using a block mould like me then now is the time to cut the soap before it gets too hard. If you have a tray of individual soap moulds then you can just turn them out. The soap then needs to be left to cure for about a month, being turned every couple of days. The curing is just giving it a chance to harden, the soap is technically ready so if you’re really desperate then you can use it right away.
I know it sounds like a lot, but the actual amount of time you’ll spend making the soap is less than an hour. Here in Biggleswade we have quite hard water so I tend to make just body soap. If you’re lucky enough to have soft water then you can try making a body and shampoo bar in one – you just need 935.5g coconut oil, 355ml water, 154.22g lye and a few drops of essential oil (if desired), the method for creating the bars is the same.
You can always experiment with the recipe, try different oils, add some flower petals or even add some mica powder to create different colours – happy experimenting!
Okay the time has finally come for me to explain my position on plastic. A lot of people I talk to tend to fall into one of two categories: they either think I am totally anti-plastic or they think I’m over-reacting because plastic can be recycled… the truth actually lies somewhere in between these two extremes. I’ll err towards other materials over plastic, but sometimes it is unavoidable, and that’s okay – I’m not expecting everyone to suddenly remove all plastic from their lives, but I would like people to reduce their dependence on plastic items when more eco-friendly alternatives are available (and often cheaper).
There are so many different angles to discuss when it comes to plastic, so I’m going to start at the beginning of the manufacturing process and go all the way through to why I consider BPA-free plastics to be a load of BS!
So plastic begins life as a nurdle – tiny little pellets that look kind of like fish eggs, and unfortunately there has been an occasion where giant sacks full of nurdles have broken open in the ocean and, despite a massive clean-up effort, some of the nurdles have been consumed by marine life. These nurdles are the raw material from which manufacturers then go on to make the plastic items we come into contact with each day.
Other substances will be added to the nurdles during the manufacturing process in order to achieve a desired finish – as in how hard or flexible the plastic should be, how opaque should it be, will the plastic be on it’s own or will it be used to coat another substance etc? This leads to there being different types of plastic – and not all can be recycled! So, here’s how to know which plastics can be recycled: Somewhere on the item or the packaging the item came in there will be a triangle with a single number inside, ranging from 1-7, and some letters below the triangle. The number will tell what ‘family’ the plastic belongs to and will also indicate whether the item can be recycled; the letters underneath will tell you which specific type of plastic you are dealing with.
1 – PETE – usually clear and commonly used to form bottles. Will usually be recycled into carpeting and clothing fibres… in fact the plastic microfibres in clothes are being lost in the washing machine and ending up in the oceans, affecting marine life – if you have any fabrics containing plastic microfibres (and I pretty much guarantee you have!) then I highly recommend purchasing a super fine mesh laundry bag (such as a Guppy Friend) which will catch all the plastic particles in the was and prevent them from entering our waterways.
2 – HDPE – usually used for items such as milk bottles (come join me in having the milkman deliver glass milk bottles) and toiletries containers. Widely recycled and will typically wind up as pens or may be turned into fencing panels. This type of plastic is one of three types of plastic considered to be safe and has less chance of leaching chemicals into the product it contains (i.e. the milk).
3 – V or PVC – think food wrap, cooking oil bottles, even some shampoo bottles. It is unlikely your local recycling centre (or roadside collection) will accept this type of plastic. If you do live in an area that will accept it, your items will likely end up as flooring. Many of these types of plastic contain phthalates which have been linked to numerous health issues, and many will also contain DEHA which has also been linked to health issues as well as being considered carcinogenic with long-term exposure. NEVER burn these types of plastics! If you can’t live without wrapping your sandwiches in cling film then relax – there’s an eco-friendly alternative that I’ll be talking about in a later post.
4 – LDPE – Squeezy bottles, shopping bags (when you forget to take your cotton ones to the supermarket) and even the bag the bread comes in. Check with your local recycling centre as to whether they will accept this type or not – if they do, your old items will likely end up as a bin liner or postage bag. Number 4 plastics are also in the ‘safe’ category.
5 – PP – Usually found in yoghurt pots and medicine bottles. Is often recycled into car ice scrapers and bins. Also considered to be a safe plastic.
6 – PS – Polystyrene, or Styrofoam, which you will most likely come across in a package to protect the contents from being damaged in transit. You may also find it in CDs and disposable partyware. PS usually cannot be recycled but where possible may find its way to becoming insulation.
7 – Other, Misc – this is basically all other types of plastics that fall into any of the other 6 categories. Common items in this category include sunglasses, consumer electronics cases and nylon materials. Again, check with local recycling centres for specific items.
So yes, most plastics can be recycled but that’s definitely not the answer to our problems. The recycling process still requires a large amount of energy and water, albeit slightly less than producing plastics from raw materials making it the better option, but certainly not the best option.
I’ve said before that all the plastic ever produced is still in existence in one form or another, whether they’re recycled into something else or are sent to landfill. When you throw plastic away it simply breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces – and has been found to have entered the food chain… the small pieces (sometimes whole pieces) of plastic are ingested by animals which are then consumed by us.
For some species this consumption of plastic is filling up their stomachs and preventing them from being able to consume their regular diet, resulting in starvation. As mentioned earlier some plastics can contain carcinogenic links and some are also known to have hormone disrupting properties, such as being able to mimic the effects of oestrogen in the body. When our food eats these plastics, so do we! Sometimes our consumption of these chemicals from plastics doesn’t come from the animals we eat but directly from the packaging the food comes in from the supermarket… Some plastics are sensitive to, and leach into our food as a result of, extreme heat (when put in the oven or microwave) and cold (when placed in the freezer, plus there are those that require no extremes at all, for instance the BPA found in the lining of some cans.
Ahhh the great BPA debate! So BPA has been found to leach from the container into the food/drink item contained within. In laboratory tests on animals BPA has been found to be carcinogenic and hormone disrupting, so everyone jumped on the ‘stay away from BPA’ bandwagon. In most cases BPA was replaced with BPS but when tested under the same conditions, BPS was found to be just as bad as BPA, yet no one seems to be trying to avoid BPS – I have seen hundreds of plastic items advertising themselves as BPA-free but only a couple also advertising themselves as being BPA & BPS free. So, in theory BPA and BPS are bad and should be avoided, right? Well, not so fast… like I said, these tests took place on laboratory animals and the levels of BPA/BPS administered was extremely high. I recall reading a study in which the levels of BPA being being passed in human urine was measured but to this day no one yet knows how much exposure is considered dangerous to humans. The bottom line: lets try to reduce our plastic usage in general, then whatever essential plastic remains in our lives, whether it contains BPA or not, is unlikely to have an impact our health. It will always have an impact on the environment and wildlife though… so please consider the true cost of an item before purchasing and decide if you really need it.
Earlier I mentioned the nurdles that have made their way into our oceans and consumed by marine life. I’ve also talked about the plastic microfibres that are being released from our clothes, but there is also another area that causes plastic to enter our waterways: toiletries. From toothpaste to exfoliating body wash – you’ll likely find tiny microbeads that will be washed away through your sewers and, because they’re so small, will find their way into the ocean… and I think you can already guess what is likely to happen to them then.
So this is obviously not the most comprehensive guide on plastics out there, and I’ll no doubt revisit the subject another time, but I hope it’s a good starting point for you to begin reducing your reliance on plastic. If you have any questions about plastics, just let me know and I’ll do my best to either answer myself or point you in the right direction.
