I went to the tip yesterday. We had some stuff in the garden that was there before we moved in that needed moving before a party next week (for example, a broken mirror!). A sign proudly proclaimed that 75% of the waste was recycled, which is good. But what upset me was that I saw a lot of people throwing out things that could have been reused instead. I had to stop myself from reaching into the skips and having a closer look at things.
Recycling is a good thing, but it should be a last resort. To many people, it seems that recycling has become a concious alleviation strategy for throwing things out - it's ok to waste something because it's going to be recycled.
However, most things that are recycled are turned into lower quality materials - glass often ends up as an element of road surfacing for example. and so we're downgrading our raw materials. Therefore, we should make a concious effort to reuse things where possible.
The item that symbolises this most for me is jam jars. We all use jam jars. From sauces to jam to olives, all manner of things we buy come in jars. They're massively useful, allowing food to be kept fresh for days, weeks, months or even years. And yet, once they're empty, we throw them in the bin (or the recycling), destined for landfill or to be ground down into a road surface. However, a jam jar's real destiny should be to be refilled and used again.
At a guess, the reason that recycled jars aren't cleaned and reused is that it's cheaper to make new ones. I stopped putting the ones from my house in the recycling though, certain there must be another solution. I brainstormed a list of uses with one of my friends - from candle holders to vases, plant pots to multi-purpose storage, there's a lot of uses. However, we still produce more as a house than we can use.
And then it struck me after leaving the council event on waste - there's a lot of people around who need jars - maybe for making jam or chutney, or for art projects. And there's a lot of people who produce a lot of jars but don't have a use for it.
Twenty minutes later, the Bristol Jam Jar Network was born (in the form of a facebook group). A few days (and a couple of posts on local mailing lists) later, the group has 80 odd members. It's not the ideal time of year for people to be needing jars, but already someone doing a local art project has been supplied with a large amount that she needed.
It's made me view waste differently - that plastic bag that my broccoli came in can be washed out and reused. My camera film cartridges can be saved and used to keep things in. A scrap of paper can be used to write a list on rather than using a fresh sheet. Before I throw something away, I'm trying to challenge myself to find another use for it - I'm still throwing things out, but the amount has definitely decreased significantly. And hopefully will continue to do so.
Sunday, 22 April 2012
The Three R's - Reduce
Oh, the oft cited (yet rarely used) hierarchy of waste, which encourages us to reduce and reuse before recycling. See this lovely diagram (borrowed from http://www.brookes.ac.uk/eie/recycl.htm)
I recently went to an event hosted by Bristol City Council entitled "Slimming Bristol's Waste". The hierarchy was referred to multiple times by speakers, but yet the talk itself focused mainly on the recycling side, presenting the new shiny service being offered by the council.
However, I've been trying to approach the idea of waste in the "right" way. And so I'll start with reduce.
Since I started this project, and especially since I started reading around the issues of waste, I've been constantly astounded by the amount we throw away. From packaging to leftover food, we just pile it all in the bin and forget about it.
But there's a lot of simple things and changes that I've made. I don't use food bags when buying stuff from the fruit and veg shop, unless necessary - your carrots don't need a plastic bag just in case they come into contact with your bananas. I've also been trying to avoid buying things that are overly packaged - there's less to throw away if you don't buy it in the first place.
I recently got upset by the packaging on a beautiful lamp by a friend for my birthday. The base of it is made of a series of teacups and saucers, converted into a really beautiful and quirky item. This itself was given to me in a paper bag with a bit of tissue paper wrapping. All re-usable. The lampshade that came with it, however, was wrapped in cellophane. Upon opening it, this turned out to be the longest piece of cellophane that I think that I have ever seen. It was probably about 3 meters long, and try as I might, I have no idea what I can do with it.
I recently went to an event hosted by Bristol City Council entitled "Slimming Bristol's Waste". The hierarchy was referred to multiple times by speakers, but yet the talk itself focused mainly on the recycling side, presenting the new shiny service being offered by the council.
However, I've been trying to approach the idea of waste in the "right" way. And so I'll start with reduce.
Since I started this project, and especially since I started reading around the issues of waste, I've been constantly astounded by the amount we throw away. From packaging to leftover food, we just pile it all in the bin and forget about it.
But there's a lot of simple things and changes that I've made. I don't use food bags when buying stuff from the fruit and veg shop, unless necessary - your carrots don't need a plastic bag just in case they come into contact with your bananas. I've also been trying to avoid buying things that are overly packaged - there's less to throw away if you don't buy it in the first place.
I recently got upset by the packaging on a beautiful lamp by a friend for my birthday. The base of it is made of a series of teacups and saucers, converted into a really beautiful and quirky item. This itself was given to me in a paper bag with a bit of tissue paper wrapping. All re-usable. The lampshade that came with it, however, was wrapped in cellophane. Upon opening it, this turned out to be the longest piece of cellophane that I think that I have ever seen. It was probably about 3 meters long, and try as I might, I have no idea what I can do with it.
It upset me, as it was completely unnecessary. I couldn’t
fathom the purpose, as it didn’t completely cover the shade and therefore
couldn’t be justified as protection. And as hard as I try, I can’t come up with
a re-use for it, so it’s currently rolled up and sat on the side in my house,
hoping that inspiration might strike.
It’s fairly typical of the kind of packaging and waste that’s
such a normal part of our lives these days. Items are packed in multiple layers
of packaging, and very little of it of it is reusable. Things like tissue paper have a
similar effect, but are recycle and easily reusable, so would be much more
preferable.
It can feel frustrating as a consumer trying to reduce waste (the reuse and recycle are easier) - often you have very little choice over the packaging of items. I can try to make positive decisions and support shops or brands that deliberately limit their packaging, but it's difficult.
It can feel frustrating as a consumer trying to reduce waste (the reuse and recycle are easier) - often you have very little choice over the packaging of items. I can try to make positive decisions and support shops or brands that deliberately limit their packaging, but it's difficult.
One of the places that I can have a real impact is when it comes to food waste. Whether that's food that I buy that I never use, or food that I cook and never eat - all of it is waste. As Tristram Stuart points out in his book 'Waste', "By buying more food than we are going to eat, the industrialised world devours land and resources that could otherwise be used to feed the world's poor". Exactly. He also points out that reducing food waste has minimal negative consequences, a far cry from the sometimes radical change in lifestyle that other actions can require.
There is a lot of waste in the food chain - from the farm gates, to the supermarkets themselves, to the waste that we ourselves create. Some of it is due to the way food is purchased (standards regarding the appearance of vegetables leads to massive amount of produce being rejected as it doesn't look quite regular enough). Others due to the way shops and restaurants stock food - the idea that all items must be available, and empty shelves put off consumers, leads to overstocking of produce, and the eventual waste of this produce. But some blame is ours as consumers. We buy things we never get round to eating, waste parts of the food we buy, and then cook too much and end up throwing away the leftovers.
I've been making a concious effort to think more before buying food, and I think the amount I have wasted has definitely reduced (it may also be to do with the communal fridge we have in my new house, meaning things get eaten before they go off). I'm also taken with the idea of trying to use every part of something when you buy it. I've roasted a chicken a few times recently, saved vegetable ends for the week leading up to it, and made chicken stock with the carcass. Not only is it an awesome way to use up the ends of vegetables and the chicken carcass, it was also amazingly tasty. However, I know it's something I still need to work harder on - we have our food waste in a tub on the kitchen counter, and seeing everything from stale bread to cabbage leaves go in there makes me realise there's work to do...
Inspired by the idea of food waste, I've signed up to volunteer at the Feeding the 5000 event being run in a few weeks in Bristol. It's being run by Fareshare, an awesome organisation who redistribute surplus food that would otherwise be wasted. The idea is to feed 5000 people from food that would normally have gone to waste - an amazing demonstration of the level of waste in the food chain. Hopefully through that and reading Tristram's book, I'll learn more about ways to reduce my food waste.
There is a lot of waste in the food chain - from the farm gates, to the supermarkets themselves, to the waste that we ourselves create. Some of it is due to the way food is purchased (standards regarding the appearance of vegetables leads to massive amount of produce being rejected as it doesn't look quite regular enough). Others due to the way shops and restaurants stock food - the idea that all items must be available, and empty shelves put off consumers, leads to overstocking of produce, and the eventual waste of this produce. But some blame is ours as consumers. We buy things we never get round to eating, waste parts of the food we buy, and then cook too much and end up throwing away the leftovers.
I've been making a concious effort to think more before buying food, and I think the amount I have wasted has definitely reduced (it may also be to do with the communal fridge we have in my new house, meaning things get eaten before they go off). I'm also taken with the idea of trying to use every part of something when you buy it. I've roasted a chicken a few times recently, saved vegetable ends for the week leading up to it, and made chicken stock with the carcass. Not only is it an awesome way to use up the ends of vegetables and the chicken carcass, it was also amazingly tasty. However, I know it's something I still need to work harder on - we have our food waste in a tub on the kitchen counter, and seeing everything from stale bread to cabbage leaves go in there makes me realise there's work to do...
Inspired by the idea of food waste, I've signed up to volunteer at the Feeding the 5000 event being run in a few weeks in Bristol. It's being run by Fareshare, an awesome organisation who redistribute surplus food that would otherwise be wasted. The idea is to feed 5000 people from food that would normally have gone to waste - an amazing demonstration of the level of waste in the food chain. Hopefully through that and reading Tristram's book, I'll learn more about ways to reduce my food waste.
Monday, 9 April 2012
Holiday planning
It's been a while since I've had a proper holiday. At my old job, I was on a pretty tight budget and this didn't really stretch to exciting holidays abroad. So for the last couple of years, I've stuck to UK based adventures (and some fun adventures I have had). But now I have a better paid job and a bit more job security, the desire to adventure a bit further has been reawakened.
And so, the question of how to do this sustainably has come up.
The destination of my trip was pretty much picked for me, as a couple of friends and I were asked to run some activities at a small event in Spain, near Barcelona. So Spain was selected as the destination for my journey.
How to get there was an obvious question. I made the decision a few years ago not to fly if I can get there feasibly by another method. And this seemed like a good test for that idea. Thank God for Seat61, which is an awesome resource for anyone trying to get anywhere in Europe by train.
The current plan is to road trip it down to Barcelona with some friends, as there'll be 5 of us, and this is actually more environmentally friendly than us all getting the train. It also means we can make a couple of stop offs on the way to see some friends of one of the people on the trip, including a WWOOFing site. We're hoping to leave on the Tuesday, arrive in Barcelona on the Friday then go to the festival until Sunday. The other guys are leaving then to come straight back, but I'm going to hang around for another week or so. The current plan is to spend a couple of days in Barcelona, probably couchsurfing, then head over to Bilbao and the Basque country for a few days, before getting the sleeper train back to Paris, and then the Eurostar to London (then the train to Bristol). I'm pretty excited about the train part of the journey, as I love trains and it seems like the most sustainable way to travel.
I'm excited by the idea of Couchsurfing too, as I've never done it before, and it seems like a good way to see a place properly, especially given that I'll be travelling on my own, as well as an opportunity to meet some interesting people along the way.
Better get booking that train ticket now...
And so, the question of how to do this sustainably has come up.
The destination of my trip was pretty much picked for me, as a couple of friends and I were asked to run some activities at a small event in Spain, near Barcelona. So Spain was selected as the destination for my journey.
How to get there was an obvious question. I made the decision a few years ago not to fly if I can get there feasibly by another method. And this seemed like a good test for that idea. Thank God for Seat61, which is an awesome resource for anyone trying to get anywhere in Europe by train.
The current plan is to road trip it down to Barcelona with some friends, as there'll be 5 of us, and this is actually more environmentally friendly than us all getting the train. It also means we can make a couple of stop offs on the way to see some friends of one of the people on the trip, including a WWOOFing site. We're hoping to leave on the Tuesday, arrive in Barcelona on the Friday then go to the festival until Sunday. The other guys are leaving then to come straight back, but I'm going to hang around for another week or so. The current plan is to spend a couple of days in Barcelona, probably couchsurfing, then head over to Bilbao and the Basque country for a few days, before getting the sleeper train back to Paris, and then the Eurostar to London (then the train to Bristol). I'm pretty excited about the train part of the journey, as I love trains and it seems like the most sustainable way to travel.
I'm excited by the idea of Couchsurfing too, as I've never done it before, and it seems like a good way to see a place properly, especially given that I'll be travelling on my own, as well as an opportunity to meet some interesting people along the way.
Better get booking that train ticket now...
Sunday, 25 March 2012
The meat of the issue
This blog post has taken me ages to write. I've found the subject of eating meat a really difficult one to talk about without sounding judgemental over other people, which isn't my intention at all. The last couple of weeks especially have been a real learning experience for me regarding meat production, and it's shaped my thoughts on the matter. But it's shaped my thoughts on where I BUY meat from, not where I EAT meat from - if someone else has cooked dinner with meat that I didn't buy, I value the social importance of eating together above needing to know where the meat has come from.
Now in explanation, I've just finished reading Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer, most of which I read whilst staying with my friend Alexa who recently raised her own pigs (which she's now eating). I would say it was one of the most important/difficult/interesting/horrifying/thought provoking books I've ever read, and I would encourage others to read it too. It's not easy reading, but it is important reading. As he says in the book "...it is an argument for vegetarianism, but it's also an argument for another wiser animal agriculture and more honourable omnivory."
This means I've been thinking a lot about meat, and whether it's ok to eat it. I'm a meat eater and always have been. I was raised in a family where my dad doesn't think it's a meal if there isn't a chunk of meat on the plate somewhere. As a result, it was normal for me to eat meat once, maybe twice a day.
Over the last year, I've been making a concious effort to eat less meat, but I still eat more than I think I do. If you asked me, I'd say I eat meat 3 times a week, but I'd say by the time you count an occasional lunchtime sandwich, or bacon buttie at the weekend, it's probably closer to 7. And that's definitely too much in my opinion.
Since starting the project, I've made an effort to switch to only eating free range chicken and pork. I was feeling pretty good about things - there was a mental "tick" in the box for the area of meat eating. But right at the start of Eating Animals, he talks a lot about what the terms Free Range and Organic mean. Or don't mean. Turns out, that free range don't necessarily roam around outdoors, and neither do organic chickens. "Access to the outdoors" can mean a window, or a door at one end of a very large shed.
At this point in reading the book, my heart sunk. Everything I thought I knew went out of the window.
The rest of the book re-iterated things that I already kind of knew, added in a lot more information, and put it all in the cold light of day. I'm not the most well off person in the road, but it's within my budget to buy better sourced meat. So while I could previously have claimed to be ignorant about the issue or too poor to make changes, I now felt that if I didn't change my purchasing habits, it could only come down to indifference on my part.
And indifferent I am not.
Before this year, I don't think I'd ever used the word provenance. But now it's one that frequently leaves my lips, especially when talking about food. It refers to the place or source of origin of something (in this case, the food item in question). And that I've realised is the most important thing. If you buy an organic chicken from the supermarket, you have no real idea where the chicken comes from. But if you buy it from a butcher, they should be able to tell you where the chicken comes from and what the welfare standards it was raised under were (well, if they're a decent butcher they should)...
So what does this mean?
Well, supermarkets were already out, so that's not a problem. But it means I now want to go above and beyond just buying free range or organic meat, and actually bother to check whether it has access to the outdoors as well. I suffer from what I call "polite British syndrome", so I'm going to have to get over that sharpish if I'm going to start doing it.
Two places recently have impressed me though with their provenance information.
The first is Sheepdrove Organic Farm, who have a shop up in Redland. The information on their website is incredibly detailed, and their commitment to animal welfare should be applauded. I'm hoping to get up to the shop to chat to them more in the next few weeks.
The second is Better Food Company, an organic food shop in St Werburghs. Now, I do complain about BFC from time to time, due to a lot of the produce being pretty darn pricey. But their dedication to detailing their suppliers and the provenance of their produce is amazing for a shop of their size. So while I would prefer to go to the butchers for my meat, it's useful to know I can buy from BFC knowing that the meat there meets my standards.
This goes alongside my other commitments to eating less meat, and trying to eat the less desirable cuts (the pate making in Lincolnshire was a success, so I'm hoping to replicate it here soon), hopefully leading me to "more honourable omnivory"!
Now in explanation, I've just finished reading Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer, most of which I read whilst staying with my friend Alexa who recently raised her own pigs (which she's now eating). I would say it was one of the most important/difficult/interesting/horrifying/thought provoking books I've ever read, and I would encourage others to read it too. It's not easy reading, but it is important reading. As he says in the book "...it is an argument for vegetarianism, but it's also an argument for another wiser animal agriculture and more honourable omnivory."
This means I've been thinking a lot about meat, and whether it's ok to eat it. I'm a meat eater and always have been. I was raised in a family where my dad doesn't think it's a meal if there isn't a chunk of meat on the plate somewhere. As a result, it was normal for me to eat meat once, maybe twice a day.
Over the last year, I've been making a concious effort to eat less meat, but I still eat more than I think I do. If you asked me, I'd say I eat meat 3 times a week, but I'd say by the time you count an occasional lunchtime sandwich, or bacon buttie at the weekend, it's probably closer to 7. And that's definitely too much in my opinion.
Since starting the project, I've made an effort to switch to only eating free range chicken and pork. I was feeling pretty good about things - there was a mental "tick" in the box for the area of meat eating. But right at the start of Eating Animals, he talks a lot about what the terms Free Range and Organic mean. Or don't mean. Turns out, that free range don't necessarily roam around outdoors, and neither do organic chickens. "Access to the outdoors" can mean a window, or a door at one end of a very large shed.
At this point in reading the book, my heart sunk. Everything I thought I knew went out of the window.
The rest of the book re-iterated things that I already kind of knew, added in a lot more information, and put it all in the cold light of day. I'm not the most well off person in the road, but it's within my budget to buy better sourced meat. So while I could previously have claimed to be ignorant about the issue or too poor to make changes, I now felt that if I didn't change my purchasing habits, it could only come down to indifference on my part.
And indifferent I am not.
Before this year, I don't think I'd ever used the word provenance. But now it's one that frequently leaves my lips, especially when talking about food. It refers to the place or source of origin of something (in this case, the food item in question). And that I've realised is the most important thing. If you buy an organic chicken from the supermarket, you have no real idea where the chicken comes from. But if you buy it from a butcher, they should be able to tell you where the chicken comes from and what the welfare standards it was raised under were (well, if they're a decent butcher they should)...
So what does this mean?
Well, supermarkets were already out, so that's not a problem. But it means I now want to go above and beyond just buying free range or organic meat, and actually bother to check whether it has access to the outdoors as well. I suffer from what I call "polite British syndrome", so I'm going to have to get over that sharpish if I'm going to start doing it.
Two places recently have impressed me though with their provenance information.
The first is Sheepdrove Organic Farm, who have a shop up in Redland. The information on their website is incredibly detailed, and their commitment to animal welfare should be applauded. I'm hoping to get up to the shop to chat to them more in the next few weeks.
The second is Better Food Company, an organic food shop in St Werburghs. Now, I do complain about BFC from time to time, due to a lot of the produce being pretty darn pricey. But their dedication to detailing their suppliers and the provenance of their produce is amazing for a shop of their size. So while I would prefer to go to the butchers for my meat, it's useful to know I can buy from BFC knowing that the meat there meets my standards.
This goes alongside my other commitments to eating less meat, and trying to eat the less desirable cuts (the pate making in Lincolnshire was a success, so I'm hoping to replicate it here soon), hopefully leading me to "more honourable omnivory"!
Friday, 16 March 2012
Slippers and sausages
I'm up in Lincolnshire at the moment visiting my friend Alexa who I studied with at CAT. Two things about this visit have been especially inspiring.
Firstly, last year Alexa and Gavin got pigs. This was mainly because the garden of the house they bought was full of the wild version of comfrey, and pretty much the only way to get rid of it (without resorting to nasty chemicals) is with pigs. The problem with trying to dig it up, is that if you split the root, two plants grow in its place. However, pigs dig up and eat the roots, solving the problem.
So two little piglets were purchased, an area was fenced off, and the pigs started digging. Apart from a few minor mishaps and some escaping piglets, the pigs were a resounding success. The comfrey was eradicated, and the pigs had a completely free-range and happy upbringing. The pigs went to the butchers in January, with one pigs worth of meat going to Gavin's family, and the other pig being kept by Alexa and Gavin. Now, Gavin is a vegetarian, and hasn't eaten meat in 15 years, but decided that he couldn't possibly disagree with eating the pigs on environmental or animal welfare grounds. And so, he's been eating the pork.
Best of all, they got given all the offal too, so Alexa and I are going to have a bash at making pork liver pate this weekend - I shall report back on the outcome...
Secondly, and perhaps more interestingly, Alexa makes slippers for a living. She made a pair for Gavin for his birthday a few years ago, and they worked out so well that the idea for Motties slippers was born. Alexa now makes slippers full time, making them out of a little workshop in her house.
What's really inspiring about Motties is what they're made out of and how they're made. The leather for the slippers is rescued waste from the upholstery industry, where it would otherwise be thrown out. Likewise for the wool and the rest of the fabric that goes into a pair of the slippers, often made from unwanted blankets or jumpers. Material that is unusable or unsuitable for other parts of the slippers is used inside the inner sole, then layered with a suede sole and fabric inner. A top is crafted from a leather outer and wool inside, and then the slipper is stitched together. Each pair is unique as the stock of leather and material that Alexa has to work with changes week to week, and so the colours vary all the time.
And there's some inspiring details behind the scene. She's currently experimenting with composting the wool, leather and cotton scraps that are too small to use, making sure any waste is recycled as much as possible. Added to that, the packaging that the slippers come in is minimal and reusable - simple brown paper envelopes that protect the slippers, but can be reused by the recipient or easily recycled. She's also currently experimenting with making removable inner soles for the slippers that can be bought to allow old Motties to be given a second lease of life, or be washed to keep your slippers smelling fresh.
I love the fact that they're upcycled from reclaimed materials, and Alexa works with what she has available at the time. Plus they're super comfy and mine have lasted brilliantly.
So, as well as catching up with a friend, I've had a lesson in ethical and happy meat, and upcycling and sustainable product design.
Thoughts about clothes....
Whilst doing some completely unrelated research today, I came across the website Slow Fashioned and fell in love with their pledge. The same way that Tom's Feast summed up my thoughts on sustainable food, they've summed up the values I want to aspire to regarding clothes.
In their words:
"To practice concious consumption by:
- learning more about where my clothing comes from
- making decisions based on quality rather than quantity
- supporting handmade, local, sustainable, or secondhand fashion
- caring for my clothes to make them last"
And to live life better by living slower."
Amen.
In their words:
"To practice concious consumption by:
- learning more about where my clothing comes from
- making decisions based on quality rather than quantity
- supporting handmade, local, sustainable, or secondhand fashion
- caring for my clothes to make them last"
And to live life better by living slower."
Amen.
Tuesday, 13 March 2012
Still here, just internetless....
So it's been a bit quiet on the blogging side over the last month. It's a combination of packing to move house, and then not yet having internet at my new house. Here's a whistle stop tour of what's been going on...
- Money moving - I'm preparing to move my bank account to a more ethical bank account as part of Move Your Money Month...
- Energy supplier - In my new house, we've decided to pay a bit extra to go with Ecotricity as our gas and electricity supplier - this makes me very happy
- Furniture reuse - I furnished the rest of my bedroom from second hand furniture or stuff that was being thrown out. We also rescued two things for our kitchen from skips/the side of the road, and managed to hand on a few bits and pieces we didn't need to other people.
- Forage o'clock - I went foraging at the weekend and picked a load of wild garlic just off the cycle path to Portishead. Talk about zero food miles :)
- Happy pigs - I've just been reading the rough guide to ethical living, and as a result, pork is joining chicken on my list of things that I'll only eat if it's free range/organic.
- Smelling green - Over the last couple of months I've slowly been switching to natural based toiletries. Gone are aerosols and chemical things - I've now switched shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, face wash, moisturiser and perfume. Generally I'm really pleased with how my skin/hair is feeling. Still a few things I need to address - I tried switching deodorant and turned out to be allergic to the one I switched to. Hmmmm. And I still can't find a hair product that prevents my hair from going frizzy without it making it greasy... The hunt continues...
Longer posts to come when the internet is back next week :)
- Money moving - I'm preparing to move my bank account to a more ethical bank account as part of Move Your Money Month...
- Energy supplier - In my new house, we've decided to pay a bit extra to go with Ecotricity as our gas and electricity supplier - this makes me very happy
- Furniture reuse - I furnished the rest of my bedroom from second hand furniture or stuff that was being thrown out. We also rescued two things for our kitchen from skips/the side of the road, and managed to hand on a few bits and pieces we didn't need to other people.
- Forage o'clock - I went foraging at the weekend and picked a load of wild garlic just off the cycle path to Portishead. Talk about zero food miles :)
- Happy pigs - I've just been reading the rough guide to ethical living, and as a result, pork is joining chicken on my list of things that I'll only eat if it's free range/organic.
- Smelling green - Over the last couple of months I've slowly been switching to natural based toiletries. Gone are aerosols and chemical things - I've now switched shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, face wash, moisturiser and perfume. Generally I'm really pleased with how my skin/hair is feeling. Still a few things I need to address - I tried switching deodorant and turned out to be allergic to the one I switched to. Hmmmm. And I still can't find a hair product that prevents my hair from going frizzy without it making it greasy... The hunt continues...
Longer posts to come when the internet is back next week :)
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