Category Archives: War on waste

Events, Green Home, Green Living, War on waste, Zero Waste Week

2015: The Year of the Monumental Clear Out!

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2015 is set to be a very exciting year for me, with lots of planning but hopefully lots of fun too. In June I turn 30, in August I graduate from my (6 years in the making…) History degree and, in October, I am setting off on a 6 month backpacking trip of a lifetime (of which you’re sure to be sick of hearing about over the next few months!)

My travelling plans, however, will be requiring a lot of organising at home, as I’ll need to leave everything behind; living with the bear essentials of which I can happily carry on my back. So aside from 2015 being a big year of adventures, I sense it’s also going to be a year of BIG clear outs as well!  Continue reading 2015: The Year of the Monumental Clear Out! →

Green Home, Green ideas, Green Living, War on waste

Winter Rest for Washing

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Without the risk of sounding like a bit of a stinker, one of the things I love about winter is not needing to do my laundry as often. In the summer months clothes get sweatier, sandier and generally dirtier! But when it gets chilly outside, and my body turns to an icicle, I can get away with wearing outfits multiple times before they need to go through the washing machine.

A few months ago I swapped my usual washing powder to soap nuts, and have recently been experimenting with eco balls (which are awesome BTW!) to use less chemicals on my clothes. But it’s not just the toxins on our skins, and in our water, that excessive clothes washing contributes to.

It’s estimated that every year UK washing machines use £800 million of electricity, and 500 billion litres of water, just to keep up with our obsession for cleanliness. That’s a lot of time, money and natural resources to be spending on a few scraps of fabric to hide our nudity! Especially when you consider that demand for water has doubled in the last 30 yrs; and that by 2025, two thirds of the world population will face water shortage. Continue reading Winter Rest for Washing →

Green Home, Green ideas, Green Living, Seasonal, Sustainability, War on waste

Give-a-thing-away-a-day: my advent challenge

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Recently one of my close friends, Kate (who works for the awesome neighbourhood sharing organisations, StreetBank) drew my attention to a thought provoking film: My Stuff. The film centres around 26 year old Petri Luukkainen, a man from Finland who decides to put all of his stuff in storage and only take one item back per day, for a year.

The idea struck a chord with Kate, who believes passionately that we don’t need to own as much “stuff” if we simply opened our homes (and hearts) to others and shared the resources we already have. For Luukkainen, by shedding himself of his belongings, he was able to focus on the things that really mattered. Continue reading Give-a-thing-away-a-day: my advent challenge →

General ramblings, Green Home, Green Living, Green news, Seasonal, Sustainability, War on waste, What to buy, Where to shop

Trading Traditions and Ditching Consumerism

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It’s happening; I can feel it in the air. It’s barely November and already the steady increase of crazy Christmas consumerism has begun! As soon as the flurry of Halloween costumes, confectionary and unidentified themed plastic objects left shop windows, in popped the Christmas displays to fill the capitalist gap and empty our pockets. Still, no one is forcing us to buy things we don’t need. Are they?

In my previous life (not the one where I was a lucky cat who slept all day in a warm Californian sun…) I worked in retail management. It was my job to make people purchase more; from creating eye catching window displays, and buying in exciting “new” stock, to strategically placing impulse items by the till to catch people out as they stood in the queue, bored and eyes wandering. Christmas was when the big boys came out; the sparkle, the colourfully Christmassy packaging (exactly the same item as usual, only green and red) and of course, the wonderful sales charm. Continue reading Trading Traditions and Ditching Consumerism →

Green Beauty, Green Home, Reviews, Vegan, War on waste, What to buy, Where to shop

5 Steps to a Plastic Free Bathroom: My Lush Loot

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Today I am a very happy lazy green lady indeed. After months of testing out various natural/vegan/ethical/ toiletries and never quite being inspired enough to review them here…I have found a regime that works! And the best thing of all? They’re all plastic free!

As a self confessed pamper-holic, I have literally tried dozens of hair products, toothpastes, shower gels etc over the last few months; desperately trying to find products that meet my ethics AND actually work. But the answer was right under my nose, in a place I had always disregarded as “that stinky place on the high street”. Continue reading 5 Steps to a Plastic Free Bathroom: My Lush Loot →

Green news, Interviews, War on waste, Zero Waste Week

Your Green Life: Zero Waste Week

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I must admit, I’ve been dying to get in the head of Rachelle Strauss ever since I came across her genius on Twitter a few months ago. This lady, with endless enthusiasm and zero waste knowledge, was an early inspiration to me when I started A Lazy Girl Goes Green. With years of experience of running awareness campaigns, and an army of committed bloggers at her side (me being one of them this year) this chick knows her stuff!

That day has finally arrived, where we all get to hear from Rachelle on her inspiration, lazy green tips and why we all need to keep a Native American principle in mind… Continue reading Your Green Life: Zero Waste Week →

Recipes, Vegan, War on waste

Lazy Vegan Recipe: Beetroot and Apple, Juice Pulp Burgers

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I came across this recipe by complete accident a couple of weeks ago, when I’d made a batch of beetroot, apple and lemon juice for my breakfast. Inspired by my own attempts to use up Juice pulp during Zero Waste Week, I kept hold of the pulp leftover; determined to use it for something else.

The answer came that evening when I was tired after a long day and wanted a quick and easy meal. And thus my Beetroot and Apple Burgers were born! I freestyled and completely made it up on the spot though, so the below is a vague list of ingredients. So please feel free to experiment and try different amounts, and let me know if other fruit or veg juices work too!

Continue reading Lazy Vegan Recipe: Beetroot and Apple, Juice Pulp Burgers →

War on waste, Zero Waste Week

Confessions from the leftovers bowl

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Right, its confession time. When I said I had gone almost a whole week without wasting one scrap of fruit or vegetable leftovers, I may have been misleading in my zero waste success. Whilst it is true that I have not thrown any food in the bin for the last 6 days, there have been a few items which completely stumped me; and as such I have been keeping them in a bowl in the fridge until I could find a use for them.

But no such inspiration has come, so now I need YOUR help in finding a use for the following items:  Continue reading Confessions from the leftovers bowl →