Today’s blog post will continue our series on a Zero Waste lifestyle and will teach you how to make glue, i.e. a paper glue that is perfect for most crafts made of paper and cardboard and even wood, and for most household purposes.
You will need:
a cooking pot, a whisk, a small glass jar for storage and a paintbrush (to apply the glue)
white flour
corn starch
vinegar
The flour, the cornstarch and the vinegar ought to be in a ratio of 33:33:33. Depending on how much glue you want to make, one or two tablespoons of each ought to be enough: one tablespoon of each will result in a small amount of glue – perfect if you don’t need much – and two tablespoons of each ingredient will result in a small jar – perfect if you want to make a larger crafts project and need more glue.
Instructions:
Bring a cup of water to the boil (e.g. in a watercooker), then pour the boiling water into the cooking pot – or bring the water to the boil in the pot. Turn off the heat.
Mix the flour and the cornstarch in a bowl. Then, using a whisk, mix it into the hot water and stir until it has a creamy consistence.
Now mix in the vinegar.
Your glue is finished now! 🙂 Transfer it to a clean jar and let it cool. Apply your glue with the paintbrush.
Since spring has finally arrived in most locations and woolen winter garments are due to be put in storage, today’s blog post will be about how to protect sweaters and garments from moths naturally, without any toxic products.
A key rule is to wash all your pullovers and woolen items before you put them into storage since moths love the odour of sweat or scents like perfume, etc. When you suspect that moths have already been in your garments and laid their eggs there, a good way to prevent them being eaten by the larvae is to hang them out into the sunlight and fresh air for a few days, as the eggs of moths cannot survive in bright sunlight. Another method is to put your garment first in a bag and then to put the bag into the freezer for a few days.
To prevent any moths even nearing your woolen garments, a good way is put pieces of cedar wood among your clothes (or a bag of cedar shavings, available as pet supplies in some locations) since moths hate its natural scent. Alternatively, you can use essential cedar oil, lavender oil or peppermint oil and put a few drops on pieces of wood (or something similar like potpourri pieces) and put them among your sweaters and other woolen items.
These natural, entirely non-toxic scents ought to keep your garments safe for next winter 🙂 .
Today’s blog post is about how you can make a natural antibacterial cream or lotion for wounds from natural household ingredients, and will feature a vegan as well as a non-vegan DIY recipe. 🙂
All you need is:
a small jar or other container
some turmeric powder (Curcuma longa) and
either coconut oil (for the vegan lotion) or honey (for the non-vegan cream)
Instructions:
Clean your jar, put some coconut oil into it and melt it in a water bath. Alternatively, fill the jar will some honey. Then take some turmeric powder and mix it into the oil or honey and stir well, so that the whole is blended thoroughly.
Your antibacterial lotion or cream is now ready to be applied to skin wounds 🙂 . The medicinal antibacterial properties come from the coconut oil or the honey, both of which have antibacterial and antiviral properties and help the healing process of skin conditions. The turmeric also has great healing properties and will enhance the effect of the coconut oil or honey even further.
Since the planting season has finally begun again, this blog post will show you how you can fertilize your plants organically using simple household ‘waste’ 🙂 .
So what kinds of household ‘waste’ can you use as fertilizer for your veggies and fruit and other plants? Here are a few examples:
coffee grounds or tea bags – just mix it into the soil around your plants or put on top of the soil. Both are rich in phosphorus, nitrogen and potassium. To avoid them getting mouldy, best dry them before you give them to your plants.
tank water from aquatic pets like turtles or fish – rich in nitrogen and other substances. Just pour your plants with it! 🙂
ground eggshells – rich in calcium which increases the pH-value of your soil and neutralises acids in the soil.
finally, banana peels and onion skins – both contain potassium and magnesium. Just cut the banana peels into small slices and mix with the soil, or shred the banana peel.
Do you use any other non-toxic household products as a fertilizer? Tell us about it in the comments! 🙂
Today’s blog post is about how to do one’s laundry ecologically and without causing any waste. The answer is: using soap nuts.
Soap nuts are 100% natural and non-toxic and can be composted after use. They are usually sold either in a fabric bag or cardboard box, together with a little fabric sachet in which you put about 6-8 nut halves and which you put into the washing machine to wash along with your laundry. Soap nuts are the fruits (or ‘nuts’) of the Sapindus tree, a tree of the lychee family, and have their origin in the Himalaya region, in North India and Nepal, were they were first grown. A 1 kg (2 pound) bag can be bought for as little as £ 10 (€ 12) and this will last for a whole year (!) if you wash at low temperatures and 2 or 3 machine-loads a week. So using soap nuts is also considerably cheaper than using conventional laundry powders. This is because each sachet of soap nuts can be used up to 3 times if you wash at low temperatures. Once you are done with them, you can boil the used nuts and use the resulting soapy liquid to do your dishes or you can use it as fertilizer or pesticide on your house plants or use it as a cleaning liquid– so you can get up to 4 uses out of each sachet of nuts. Soap nuts are also especially recommended if you have allergies or skin conditions since they do not contain any aggressive chemicals.
When using soap nuts, you will not see any foam (or hardly any) and your laundry will smell of nothing. If a ‘fresh’ scent of your laundry is important for you, you will have to add some drops of a natural essential oil, e.g. lavender oil, before the rinse program starts. Soap nuts do their job perfectly well for everyday laundry with mild stains, but if you have items that are heavily stained, you will have to pre-treat the stains with a bar of soap (just rubbing it over the stains) or a stain-remover before throwing them into the machine. Also, you will usually have to pre-treat the greasy stains on shirt collars, especially if you wash at low temperatures (30°C or 40°C) – briefly rubbing a bar of natural soap over the damp collar before putting the shirt into the machine usually does the job.
Since the natural saponins in the soap nuts make fabrics soft in a natural way, a fabric softener is not needed, and your garments and textiles also keep their colours for longer since soap nuts don’t contain any bleaching agents.
Today’s blog post is about how to remove pesticides from produce. While the best, and most healthful, option would be to buy only organic fruits and vegetables, of course, sometimes this is just not possible, especially for people on a very tight budget or because the food item you want is not available in an organic version at your usual place of purchase or when traveling. While it is probably not possible to remove every trace of all pesticides from your produce, there is a very easy way how you can at least reduce the amount of the pesticides on your fruits and veggies. The magic solution is: vinegar. 🙂
Simply wash your fruit and veggies in a mixture of water and vinegar (50:50) for about 10 minutes, then rinse with fresh water – this removes a large part of the pesticides on their skin as well as preventing mold. If you wash strawberries in a vinegar solution, they will keep a few days longer as the vinegar kills off mold spores on the berries.
Since the summer season is about to start in the northern hemisphere where many of us like to be outside, today’s blog post is about how to make non-toxic sunscreen.
Making sunscreen yourself is really quite easy and inexpensive at that. All you need are sesame oil (choose one in a glass bottle for a zero waste lifestyle) and zinc oxide (sold in pharmacies). For 100 ml of sunscreen lotion, you will need about 20 g of zinc oxide, a white powder, so about 20 % of the amount of sunscreen you want to make. This will give you a sunscreen with a protection factor of about SPF 20.
If you just want a light sunscreen , you can apply the sesame oil pure to your skin as this oil itself has a light sun protection factor. If you want stronger sun protection, just mix the zinc oxide with the sesame oil – the more zinc oxide the blend contains, the stronger the sun protection factor.
Today’s blog post is about how to shave without creating waste and without using toxic products. The first and most important thing is to stop using any disposable razors, and to find alternatives for conventional shaving products, which are usually full of toxic chemicals and come in plastic packaging.
There are several alternatives to disposable razors: One option is to use an electric razor instead, which you can use hundreds of times instead of just once, or to use a safety razor with a metal handle and replaceable blades which can be recycled after use. Little boxes with 10 metal blades are sold in most grocery stores and they are inexpensive and will last for years if treated with care. For a cheap safety razor, it is always worth checking your local thrift store.
Zero Waste shaving products
Here you also have several options:
– Use a special bar of rich shaving soap, which is sold at health food stores (or via the internet) and which you can store in a metal box for soaps or in a wooden box (some such soap bars are sold in wooden or metal containers). You can either apply the soap with a shaving brush or rub it directly on the skin to lather.
– Try shaving with olive oil or another rich oil like sesame oil or sweet almond oil. If you prefer a scented shaving oil, add 5-10 drops of a natural essential oil to a cup of your shaving oil, e.g. citrus, rosemary, sandalwood or lavender, or a mix thereof (or use any other essential oil of your choice). Store your shaving oil in a glass jar. Rub a small amount of the shaving oil into your wet skin, shave as usual, and then rinse with water. There is no need to wash off what little remains of the oil afterward since oil acts as a moisturizer.
-To prevent razor bumps on your skin, once a week lightly scrub your skin with baking soda and warm water and rinse well before shaving. This will remove any dead skin cells and soften the hairs which will help prevent infection.
After shave recipe
You will need:
– one cup of plain vodka
– one cup of witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) (either an alcohol extract of the bark or a commercially prepared liquid extract, available from health food stores; if you use the latter, a tablespoon or so of the liquid will suffice)
– fresh herbs of your choice, e.g. a sprig of rosemary, mint, lavender
– 1 cinnamon stick
– 5-10 cloves
– 1 teaspoon vegetable glycerin (available from the health food store or the pharmacy)
– optional: 5-10 drops of natural essential oils of your choice, e.g. lemon or orange
– jar with a lid
– storage container
Preparation:
Combine all the ingredients in a jar and mix well. Close the jar tightly with a lid and let the mixture sit in a cool, dark place for two weeks. Shake well every day. After two weeks, strain the mixture and pour your aftershave into the storage container.
Today’s blog post is about how to make natural, non-toxic toothpaste and a mouthwash that is not full of aggressive chemicals as the conventional type sold in stores. It is quite easy to make and will even save you money, apart from benefitting your health and well-being. 🙂 The main ingredient is sodium bicarbonate, which is also the agent in baking powder. You can buy sodium bicarbonate either in a good health food store or at your local chemist’s (or on the internet) and it is inexpensive (1 kg/2 pounds cost about £ 12, but you will have it for ages and you can also use it for cleaning, etc.). Sodium bicarbonate has abrasive, antiseptic and anti-caries properties.
Tooth powder
You will need:
– a small jar (e.g. a small, old jam jar)
– sodium bicarbonate – about half a cup per batch
– optional: peppermint essential oil or dried and powdered sage leaves (sage is especially good for gum problems) or fennel seeds (e.g. the contents of a teabag)
Fill your jar with the sodium bicarbonate (baking powder). If you like it natural and unflavored, you can just use it as it is. If you prefer a flavored variant, add a few drops of the peppermint essential oil and shake your jar well. If you use the essential oil, it is best if you make your tooth powder in small batches as the oil fades over time. Alternatively, you can also add powdered fennel seeds, which have slight antiseptic properties, or powdered sage leaves. Just add them to your baking powder and shake your jar well.
To use your tooth powder, just wet your toothbrush or tooth cloth and dip it in your tooth powder jar. Brush your teeth as usual. 🙂 (If you wonder what a tooth cloth is: it is simply a small square of textured fabric which you wrap around your finger and rub your teeth with – a good alternative to a plastic toothbrush in a zero-waste lifestyle!). Alternatively, for a zero-waste lifestyle, you can buy toothbrushes made from bamboo with natural bristles that you can compost when they are old.
There is also a traditional zero-waste way to brush one’s teeth, which is common throughout the Middle East, Northern Africa, India and Central and Southeast Asia: the miswak, a teeth cleaning twig made from twigs from the Salvadora persica tree. You just cut off the end of a miswak twig, chew its end so its bristles will turn into a brush, and then you use the end to brush your teeth as usual. Miswak twigs have slight antiseptic properties. Miswak twigs are available in Asian and oriental foods stores.
Author: Iqbal Osman, Wikipedia Commons Miswak twigs
Mouthwash
You will need:
– a jar or small bottle with a lid
– a cup of water
– 1 teaspoon sodium bicarbonate
– optional: peppermint essential oil, or tea tree oil for an even more antiseptic mouthwash
Fill your bottle or jar with the sodium bicarbonate and add 3 or 4 drops of peppermint essential oil (or alternatively, use tea tree oil instead). Shake well before each use and just use as you would use a conventional mouthwash.
EcoTurtleUpcycling & Zero Waste 