Tag Archives: waste

General ramblings, Green Home, Green news, Interviews, Sustainability, Upcycling, War on waste, zero waste

Antoine Repessé: Portraits of Waste Through the Eyes of a Photographer

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I’ve often wondered what all my rubbish would look like if I could see it all laid out in front of me. Though I am uber conscious about throwing things in the landfill, and avoid packaging as much as I can, I am far from the girl who can store her waste in a jar!

But perhaps if we couldn’t hide from the waste we produced, and had to live surrounded by it instead, we could see just how much we still need to cut down on.

This is something which has been beautifully presented by Lille-based photographer Antoine Repessé  in his latest project; #365 Unpacked. In 2011, Repessé stopped throwing away his recyclable rubbish and instead began storing it inside his home for this fascinating photography project. To date he has 70m3 of waste stored!  Continue reading Antoine Repessé: Portraits of Waste Through the Eyes of a Photographer →

Green Home, Green ideas, Green news, Seasonal, Upcycling

Make your own ‘living’ table centrepiece

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‘Tis the season to sit around the table and share food with loved ones. The one thing about Christmas I can’t be a Grinch about! I love seeing everyone sat around the table, with our personalised napkins (that my mum lovingly sewed for us), and a few candles lighting our smiling faces. We all have our own table traditions; from our “special” cutlery to how we dress it to look pretty.

personal napkin

I love the idea of a big center piece on a dinner table to mark a special occasion, but have always been reluctant to buy anything (and am never creative enough to design something myself) .

But recently my friend Dee at ItDoesTheJob.com told me about their ‘waste free’ living table centerpiece, following one of their successful sustainable suppers. I loved the idea so much I asked if they could share some simple steps to how someone lazy or not very creative could make such a masterpiece.  Continue reading Make your own ‘living’ table centrepiece →

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 →