The End of the Tupperware Age: Choosing Safer Food Storage Containers and avoid BPA and BPS

                                                                       

Many of us grew up in the Tupperware age. Our parents’ fridges were full of plastic food storage containers, and we even kept plastic margarine tubs for storing leftovers!

A lot has changed since then, and more and more research is showing that plastic leaches chemicals into our food and drinks, which can harm our health. Plastics like Bisphenol A (BPA) and Bisphenol S (BPS) have been shown to have hormone-mimicking, estrogenic properties. BPA has even been linked to breast cancer tumors. Unfortunately this seems to happen quite a lot, a new fabulous product is introduced and as the years go on and the research that should have taken place before being sold to the public, takes place they find that it is not so wonderful after all.While BPA has been taken out of many plastics due to consumer demand, it has been routinely replaced with BPS, which may be even more toxic. Studies show that it’s now found in 81% of blood tested and that it can lead to ailments such as diabetes, obesity, asthma, birth defects, and cancer. Just because something is labeled BPA-free doesn’t mean it’s safe.

Safest: Glass Storage Containers

If you’ve been working on your green resolutions this year, choosing safer food storage containers should be on your list. The safest choice for food storage is glass. A couple of years ago, glass food storage containers were hard to come by and expensive. Prices have come down a lot and major manufacturers are adding glass storage to their lines, so it’s much more accessible.

Look for brands that are made in the Europe or the United States because some glass imported from China has been shown to contain lead or cadmium (especially if there is paint or enamel involved). Two brands include Pyrex and Anchor Hocking. Duralex is made in France and Lifefactory is made in Europe, so they should also be safe. Both Ball and Kerr canning jars are made in the U.S. and are a great choice for food storage as well. You can check your existing glass for lead with LeadCheck Swabs. 

Safer Than Plastic: Stainless Steel or Silicone

If you don’t want to make the switch to glass but still want something that’s considered safer than plastic, you can choose 304-grade stainless steel or silicone. Neither of these materials should leach chemicals into your food.

Avoid High-Risk Plastics

While it’s best to avoid plastic food storage containers altogether, there are safer choices if you don’t have the means to make the switch yet. If you look at the bottom of your plastic food storage containers and they have a 2, 4, or 5, those are generally recognized as safe for food and drink. If any of your containers have a 3, 6, or 7, those should be disposed of because they are considered high-risk plastics.

If you’re going to use one of the safer plastics, it’s best not to store acidic or greasy foods in them. Also be sure to throw out any plastic containers that are scratched up, worn badly, or are cloudy. And don’t use them in the microwave or dishwasher for improved safety.

 If you need to dispose of plastic containers it is best to take them to the local recycling station, I take all my bits and bobs to the one on the Poligono in Ciutadella, they have special containers in which you can leave them.

The blog song for today is: " Duchess" by Genesis

TTFN

 

 

Everybody had to pay more for their electricity because of the cold wave- What a JOKE the reaction was

 

Everyone has been complaining about how this is in fact possible because the electricity and gas companies are supposed to be regulated by the government here in Spain. It is an absolute disgrace, but what I find more incredible is the amount of Whatsapp action messages to turn off all the electric for 20 minutes 

I have been involved in a yearly action to ask people to do one simple thing for Earth Hour (normally in March) which is to turn off the lighting in their homes for one Hour.  The pathetic excuses I have heard in the past are absolutely mind blowing.  

What has ticked me off is the fact that because people have had to pay more for the cold snap and it affects them financially they are up in arms, shouting from the rooftops, switch off electricity ¡, blah blah blah yet when it comes to actually doing something to help reduce the effects of climate change, very few can be bothered to do it.   

All we ask is that people turn off their lights at 20.30 (local time) on Saturday 27 March 2021 for one hour.

 

Here are some suggestions of activities!

1. Switch off your lights

This is the DNA of the Earth Hour movement and the easiest way to participate this Earth Hour. Simply switch off all non-essential lights for an hour!

2. Dinner-in-the-dark

Get some candles ready and whip up healthy and delicious meals that will make your taste buds tingle! Don't know where to start? Check out our list of 50 foods for a healthier planet and a healthier you!

Up for a challenge? Try a zero-waste cookout or put on a blindfold and try and guess what's been cooked up!

3. Have a night of board games or book readings in candle-light

Note: Our Earth Hour team will not be held responsible for any friendships ruined by a game of Monopoly 😇 

4. Themed movie night

Get the popcorn ready and enjoy your most treasured Disney movies or take on those Harry Potter marathons that you've been always wanting to do. You can even watch some spectacular Emmy Award-winning documentaries like Our Planet on Netflix to experience our natural world in all its glory #ShamelessPlug 😎! No Netflix? No problem! You can even catch one bonus episode for free here - Our Planet: Our Business.

Still can't get enough of nature documentaries? The Environmental Film Festival is showing a large selection of their films for free on their website for a limited time!

5. Make an impact in only 60 seconds - sign our Voice for the Planet petition

Only have a minute? Add your Voice to call on world leaders to take urgent action to protect and restore nature! Our Voice for the Planet petition will be presented at major global conferences later in the year. 

6. Camp in your backyard or living room

If you love the adventure of camping outdoors, we challenge you to turn your back garden or living room into your very own camping space! Don’t have an actual tent? Why not make one with bedsheets, pillows, and other household items! 

7. Create your own mini-golf course using household objects

A little friendly competition can’t hurt - up the stakes by making the loser do the washing up or any household chore 😅!

8. Challenge your artistic side with a candle-lit paint night

Feeling funky? You can also try using glow-in-the dark neon paint!

https://www.earthhour.org     

The blog song for today is" I was born on a wandering star" by Lee Marvin

TTFN

First visit of 2021 to one of our local beaches, what did we find?

 After a visit to our local beach La Vall in which we had a very lovely walk, a little bit windy but still very calm, collecting a bit of drift wood and generally looking out for our lovely friend Mr Plastic, we came away with a carrier bag full of enemy no 1.

We were only there for about an hour and this is what we collected:

                

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see there was a nice little assortment of goodies in the bag, I was very surprised to come across plastic straws, but I shouldn´t have been because the awful things get everywhere.

There was also what appeared to be parts of a motorbike or scooter, there was a nice little green light cover and various black plastic pieces too!

The haul mainly composed of plastic bottle tops, the actual bottle was nowhere to be seen, which makes me wonder where the tops came from!  

What we did notice was the very small pieces of hard plastic, hidden in the sand, it had obviously been hammered by the sea, but it is quite alarming to see how much of it there was.  I have no idea how these small pieces can be removed from the sand before being swept back out to sea. 

Information I found on the National Geographic Website is very interesting, here is some of it!

In the last decade, beach cleanups have grown into a global phenomenon, with volunteers gathering at regular intervals for the enormous task of cleaning up plastic rubbish. Now, new research on a remote Australian island chain suggests that beach cleanups can inadvertently mask the full scale of plastic pollution, much of which lies below the sand’s surface.

The look at isolated islands also provides a disturbing glimpse of what beaches in populated places might look like if they were never cleaned up and plastic simply accumulated year upon year, breaking down ultimately into smaller and smaller pieces: microplastics.

The Ocean Conservancy began conducting beach cleanups on a single Texas beach in 1986. It now directs such operations in more than 100 countries that over the decades have collected some 300 million pounds of rubbish.

Whose rubbish?

More than 80 percent of the 8 million tons of plastic trash that end up in the world’s oceans every year originates on land. But remote, uninhabited or sparsely populated islands offer scientists a unique window into the consequences of global waste and its movement around the world because little or none of it is generated locally.

The Cocos (Keeling) Island group, an isolated chain of 27 small atolls in the Indian Ocean 1,300 miles northwest of Australia, is home to fewer than 600 people. Almost everyone lives on the two largest islands. Essentially all of the trash that ends up on Cocos beaches is carried by ocean currents and washes ashore.

The islands are advertised as “Australia’s last unspoilt paradise.” Levers and her team arrived in 2017 to take samples of beach trash from 25 beaches on seven islands. They collected wood, glass, metal and plastic from the surface areas of beaches and the overgrown areas directly behind beaches where waste that washes ashore also accumulates. They also collected microparticles buried about four inches below the surface. Ninety-five percent of the materials were plastics.

Based on the sampling, Lavers estimated that the string of islands contained 414 million pieces of debris, weighing 238 tons. Microparticles buried in the sand comprised 93 percent of the estimated count.

“What you can see on the surface is the absolute tip of the iceberg,” Lavers says. “What is actually there is completely hidden from view.”

Among the larger items, 25 percent included straws, plastic bags, toothbrushes, and shoes. Only 2 percent of the beach trash was fishing gear, evidence that most of the fishing around the islands is small-scale and not industrial, Lavers says.

Microplastic’s effects

The finding that the majority of the Cocos beach plastics are microplastics embedded in sand is a logical outcome, given how plastics break down into smaller and smaller pieces as they are exposed to sunlight and wave action, said Kara Lavender Law, a research oceanographer at the Sea Education Association in Woods Hole, Massachusetts,

“I’m glad people are doing this kind of field work to look in more detail about the kind of debris, including the sizes found on beaches and how,” she says. “We don’t know the full extent of contamination of beaches.”

Nearly a decade ago, scientists in Hawaii found that microplastics embedded in beach sand made it easier for water to flow through the sediment, which in turn affected how fast sand dries out. As microplastics accumulated, they acted as an insulator, preventing heat from reaching deeper layers of beach, affecting the temperature of sand. That in turn had affected the sex of turtle hatchlings, which is determined by the temperature of eggs during incubation.

“Colder nest temperatures mean longer incubation times and can shift the sex ratio of turtles, with more males being born,” says Steven Colbert, a marine scientist at the University of Hawaii, one of the authors of the 2011 study.

Lavers says the Cocos research—along with her 2017 study of plastic trash on isolated Henderson Island in the South Pacific’s Pitcairn Islands, where she found the world’s highest density of plastic pollution—provide a new platform to move this kind of beach research forward.

“This is the million-dollar question: What does plastic do to the functionality of beach sediment? You can’t keep adding to the beach and not have it change,” she says. “At some point, it will change the temperature of the beach, the chemistry of the beach, how the beach absorbs or evaporates water. All of these things will be altered and all of the animals that live on the beach will be affected.”

Lavers, the last scientist to visit Henderson, plans a 16-day return trip to the uninhabited island to collect data on temperature, humidity, and water content. She leaves June 1.

George Leonard, the Ocean Conservancy’s chief scientist, said he is dubious of the idea that California beaches might look similar to the Cocos beaches if California beach cleanups stopped.

“You can’t make that leap,” he says. “Habitats are different. The oceanography is different. But the fact that plastic goes to places untouched by humans and leaves such a ghastly footprint of our plastics obsession is pretty terrifying. It’s a call for a global effort

The National Geographic Society and Sky Ocean Ventures have launched the Ocean Plastic Innovation Challenge, which asks problem solvers around the globe to develop novel solutions to tackle the world’s plastic waste crisis.

National Geographic is committed to reducing plastics pollution. Learn more about our non-profit activities at natgeo.org/plastics. Learn what you can do to reduce your own single-use plastics, and take your pledge.   

Has a way been found to safely remove the microplastics from the ocean?  Read below!

 A teen from Ireland may have found the solution to rid world's oceans from the microplastics that are near impossible to remove.

Fionn Ferreira, 18, designed a new method for the extraction of microplastics, or particles of plastic less than 5 millimeters in diameter, as part of the Google Science Fair, an online competition open to students between the ages of 13 and 18.

The procedure, inspired by an article written by physicist Arden Warner, involves using non-toxic iron oxide to clean up oil spills, according to Ferreira's project study. When he tested the method on water containing a known concentration of microplastics, the plastic particles migrated into the oil phase, and the fluid was able to be removed using strong magnets, he wrote in his project synopsis.

He first produced microplastics to remove from the water and then extracted them using his method. Ten of the most common microplastics were used for the experiment.

Bernd Wastneck/Picture-Alliance/dba via AP

Pieces of microplastic, which were found on the banks of the Warnow in Rostock, Germany, Marc...

Ferreira concluded that his extraction method would remove 85% to 92% of microplastics in samples. The next step would be to scale the project up to an industrial level, he said.

"From this I can conclude that using magnetite with a minimum of oil forms a viable method for the extraction of microplastics," he wrote.

Ferreira was inspired to launch the project after growing up near the shore in West Cork, Ireland, where he became "increasingly aware of plastic pollution of the oceans," he said.

"I was alarmed to find out how many microplastics enter our [wastewater] system and consequently the oceans," he wrote. "This inspired me to try and find out a way to try and remove microplastics from water before they even reached the sea."

Because he lives in such a remote area, he had to build his own equipment and lab to conduct tests and experiments, he said. On his website, Ferreria describes himself as not only a scientist but a musician, gardener, educator, entrepreneur and innovator.

I think that is really great! But just because we have potentially found a way to remove the microplastics it doesn´t change the fact that we should be using less plastic.

The blog song for today is "BlockBuster" by Sweet

TTFN

                        

Bees-What are the British , Spanish , Danish and Belgian Goverments doing? Money over Nature, Profit from destruction

 

The British government has just given the green light for bee-killing pesticides to be sprayed in the UK. The pesticide being used has been banned for being poisonous to bees, but it’s just been approved to help grow sugar beet in the spring

 

This is about bees, but it's also about us. If we keep harming bees, we risk our food supplies. It's estimated that a third of our food is dependent on pollinators, of which bees are some of the most important. A third of bee populations are already shrinking.  We can’t allow pesticides to destroy our environment and kill any more bees. 

 

Can you sign this petition so we can get the Environment Minister to act fast? only applicable to people living in the UK.

“Enforce a total ban on bee-killing pesticides.”

Sign the petition

 

 

 “We cannot afford to put our pollinator populations at risk.”  These were the words of Michael Gove when he introduced the ban on bee-killing pesticides in 2018. So how come it doesn´t apply in 2021?

 

So what’s changed since then? Well, it’s certainly not the science. Pesticides, including neonicotinoids, are still bad news for bees. Studies have shown that these pesticides can affect bees’ navigational abilities and breeding success, and they are unsurprisingly ravaging other insects as well.

 

The government are now saying that their reasons for allowing emergency use is to protect growers of sugar beet. But this is a short-sighted and dangerous approach to take, especially when you consider we rely on bees to help pollinate lots of crops like apples, beans, squashes and almonds.

 

George Eustice has the power to change all of this. We have the opportunity to shift away from chemical-intensive agriculture to organic farming that protects nature. As Environment Minister, he can show he’s on the right side of protecting nature by enforcing a total ban on bee-harming pesticides. Can you get the Environment Minister to act now?

 

We have the power to make George Eustice act. He’s approved this emergency use of a deadly pesticide, but we need to remind him that we’re in the middle of a climate and nature emergency. 

 

We can stop this now. If lots of people sign this petition we can pile pressure on the government to quickly reverse its decision and keep bee-killing pesticides away from our environment.

 

An article in the Guardian Newspaper reported the following:

A pesticide believed to kill bees has been authorised for use in England despite an EU-wide ban on its use outdoors two years ago and an explicit government pledge to keep the restrictions.

Following lobbying from the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) and British Sugar, a product containing the neonicotinoid thiamethoxam was sanctioned for emergency use on sugar beet seeds this year because of the threat posed by a virus.

Conservationists have described the decision as regressive and called for safeguards to prevent the pollution of rivers with rainwater containing the chemical at a time when British insects are in serious decline.

Formally, EU members in 2018 banned most neonicotinoids for use on crops outdoors, to protect bees. Subsequent decisions by 11 countries to allow emergency use come amid a growing awareness of the harmful role played by refined sugar in the development of long-term health problems.

Matt Shardlow, the chief executive of the invertebrate conservation group Buglife, said it was an “environmentally regressive” decision that would destroy wildflowers and add to an “onslaught” on insects.

 The UK, however, has now joined EU countries including Belgium, Denmark and Spain in signing emergency authorisations for its use, according to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

A similar emergency application for England in 2018 was refused after government pesticide advisers said it would “cause unacceptable effects to bees in flowering crops and flowering plants in field margins”.

It added that it would harm “birds and mammals eating seedlings from treated seed and birds consuming pelleted seed” and risked “adversely impacting populations of aquatic insects”.

Scientists have observed significant declines in some British bee species since 2007, coinciding with the introduction of thiamethoxam, which was previously widely used. Studies suggest that it weakens bees’ immune systems, harms the development of baby bees’ brains and can leave them unable to fly. Another study has found honey samples being contaminated by neonicotinoids.

The proposed use of the pesticide to protect beet crops in the east of England in 2018 was estimated by the government to be worth about £18m. Yields from 2020 are forecast to be down by as much as 25% on previous years, Defra said. The pesticide, sold by the Chinese-owned agrochemical company Syngenta, is advertised as increasing crop yields by 13%.

A Defra spokesperson said: “Emergency authorisations for pesticides are only granted in exceptional circumstances where diseases or pests cannot be controlled by any other reasonable means. Emergency authorisations are used by countries across Europe.

“Pesticides can only be used where we judge there to be no harm to human health and animal health, and no unacceptable risks to the environment. The temporary use of this product is strictly limited to a non-flowering crop and will be tightly controlled to minimise any potential risk to pollinators.”

In the final line of its background statement, Defra added: “Protecting pollinators is a priority for this government.”

• This article was amended on 13 January 2021 to make clear that the EU ban on most neonicotinoids prohibited use outdoors.

Let us hope that these guidelines are adhered to and that the producers don´t find loopholes to use this awful pesticide for a long time.  It dismays me to read about this because without the bees we are all in serious trouble.  Yet again, money rules.

The blog song for today is:"  Price Tag" by Jessie J

TTFN

Climate change and instead of just letting it happen, DO SOMETHING

Despite what many of us having being saying for years and trying to avert by bringing it to the attention of everyone, it has not been enough.  Because we as people have refused to change even the smallest of things ranging from cutting down on waste, using the car less, recycling, eating less meat to name but a few.  There are so many ways in which we all could have and still can do to try and slow down the warming of the planet.

On one of my favourite websites I found this article, it is not all doom and gloom, but everyone has to do their bit, not leave it to others to do, but actually taking responsibility for their own actions. One small change can help.  Here is the article.

"1.5° C Warming Is Inevitable Despite the Paris Accord, Scientists Warn

An international team of scientists have analyzed recent climate trends and warn between 1.5° C and 2° C atmospheric warming is virtually certain to happen, according to a report in Nature Climate Change. The current Paris Accord CO2 targets are not aggressive enough to prevent reaching this critical tipping point. Andrew Dessler of Texas A&M University, one of the report coauthors, told EcoWatch: “While I would not categorize this as good news, it is not game over for the climate.” In other words, we can set more aggressive limits on carbon emissions. Dressler explained the findings in a YouTube video. These reports echo the comments on a recent Earth911 podcast with James Renwick, coauthor of the upcoming 2021 United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (UNIPCC) report and head of the School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences at Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand. What can we do? In addition to supporting a rapid transition to renewable energy, we can embrace electric vehicles and stop driving internal combustion vehicles. Renwick also suggested that reducing the amount of meat in our diets, particularly industrially raised cattle, will make a big difference.

Scientists Call for Declaration of Climate Emergency

Another team of climate researchers published a call for a global declaration of a climate emergency in Scientific American this week. Pointing to record global temperatures, a historically long hurricane season that caused more than $41 billion in damages in the U.S. and Caribbean, and wildfires that burned more than 4 million acres in California, they declared that, “The climate emergency has arrived and is accelerating more rapidly than most scientists anticipated.” Earth911 will have coauthor William Ripple of Oregon State University on the podcast in the coming week. The call for a climate emergency comes on the heels of another Scientific American report that atmospheric warming is reshaping ecosystems as animals and plants respond to higher temperatures. But minds are starting to change, too. A University of Houston survey found that four out of five Texans now acknowledge climate change is real. It is time for steps toward a sustainable future. Let’s hope that this week’s calamitous events in Washington, D.C., lead to a fundamental shift in the national dialogue and that we respond forcefully to the emerging global crisis."

  

Horses panic as a wildfire approaches near Canberra, Australia in February of 2020. Credit: Getty Image 

I understand that people have the opinion that nothing that they do is affecting the rest of the planet, but it is! We really must all try to do something.

"The climate emergency has arrived and is accelerating more rapidly than most scientists anticipated, and many of them are deeply concerned. The adverse effects of climate change are much more severe than expected, and now threaten both the biosphere and humanity. There is mounting evidence linking increases in extreme weather frequency and intensity to climate change. The year 2020, one of the hottest years on record, also saw extraordinary wildfire activity in the Western United States and Australia, a Siberian heat wave with record high temperatures exceeding 38 degrees C (100.4 degrees Fahrenheit) within the Arctic circle, a record low for October Arctic sea ice extent of 2.04 million square miles, an Atlantic hurricane season resulting in more than $46 billion in damage, and deadly floods and landslides in South Asia that displaced more than 12 million people.

Every effort must be made to reduce emissions and increase removals of atmospheric carbon in order to restore the melting Arctic and end the deadly cycle of damage that the current climate is delivering. Scientists now find that catastrophic climate change could render a significant portion of the Earth uninhabitable consequent to continued high emissions, self-reinforcing climate feedback loops and looming tipping points. To date, 1,859 jurisdictions in 33 countries have issued climate emergency declarations covering more than 820 million people.

In January 2020, we warned of untold human suffering in a report titled World Scientists’ Warning of a Climate Emergency with more than 11,000 scientist signatories from 153 countries at time of publication. As an Alliance of World Scientists, we continue to collect signatures from scientists, with now more than 13,700 signatories. In our paper, we presented graphs showing vital signs of very troubling climate change trends with little progress by humanity. Based on these trends and scientists’ moral obligation to “clearly warn humanity of any catastrophic threat” and to “tell it like it is,” we declared a climate emergency and proposed policy suggestions. We called for transformative change with six steps involving energy, short-lived air pollutants, nature, food, economy and population"

 How many more times will we ignore what is going on!  The time to do something was YESTERDAY! and TODAY and TOMORROW.

We cannot keep blaming businesses, governments, everyone else for the things that we are ALL not doing.  It is the fault of us HUMANS for the mess we now find ourselves in, so it is up to us to put it right.

Make those lifestyle changes, even if it is just you, others will too in the end.  It is up to people like you and me to convince people that even a small action can make a difference. This wonderful planet is our only  home and we must act to save it, NOW.

The blog song for today is" It´s a living thing" By Electric Light Orchestra

TTFN

 

Plastic Coat Hangers, can they be recycled?

   

The answer is yes and no!  To dispose of them they cannot be placed in the yellow bin because of what type of plastic the coat hanger is made of, which is a problem for normal households.

At the moment the instructions from Ecoembes (the recycling company here in Spain) are to take them to a local recycling centre.  The nearest one here is on the Poligono in Ciutadella, they are open in the mornings until around 13.00 and in the afternoons from 15.00 until at least 18.00.  There is a new system in place where you have to register and then everytime you drop something off, if you are in a car, there is a weighing system when you enter and when you leave!

The ideal solution is to buy wooden or cardboard coat hangers, so when they do break then they can disposed of easily.

On a larger scale there are companies available to arrange recycling, however I have not found any in Menorca.

There are companies in UK but they only recycle plastic coat hangers – not wooden hangers or metal. Your coat hangers need to be 100% plastic although the metal hook parts are absolutely fine.

After they are collected and taken to the plant the following happens: 

Shred the coat hangers

They use special machines to shred your plastic coat hangers into tiny pieces at their licensed recycling facilities.

Granulation

Lastly, they granulate the plastic coat hangers after shredding. This lets the plastic be reprocessed and used as new products.

So really they are not recyled but are reused to make different products.  I suppose it is better than them filling up landfill sites.

I do find that plastic coat hangers seem to last for ever! Also I keep inheriting them which is good so at least they are being recycled in some form.  

The blog song for today is "crazy little thing called love" by Queen

TTFN

Cutting down on plastic, refill used containers with your own home made products! No 1. Fabric Conditioner

  As you know I have been looking for ways to avoid buying stuff in plastic containers and have also been searching for ways to make my own products.  I have come across an easy recipe for Fabric conditioner, which I have tried and it does work! This means that I can reuse any plastic bottle over and over again, terrific for the planet, and also for saving money! 

The most expensive ingredient was the essential oil, but if you check out an earlier blog you will see there is a use for it for making home made reusable wipes.  I will also be giving more tips for home made products soon, so it will be needed again.  I have also bought Orange essential oil which smells heavenly!

Ingredients:

330ml Hair Conditioner (any type, obviously palm oil free would be the best)

375ml Distilled White Vinegar (or Malt Vinegar will do)

750ml Warm Water

20 drops of Lavender Essential Oil

Utensils:

Air Tight Container

Large Bowl

Whisk

Method:

Put the Hair conditioner in the bowl, add the vinegar and the water.  Whisk until fully combined then pour into the airtight container.

65ml for each wash should do the trick.

I can also say that this product is fully Zero KM! 

The blog song for today is : " December 1963" by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons (brings back memories of dancing around our handbags 1975 style)

TTFN

   

 

Home made draught excluder made from recycled stuff

     

It is really cold here at the moment!  Freezing and we are frantically searching the house for any draughts coming in.  The front door is particularly blowy, mainly because of the catflap, we have tried in the past to use that stuff that they sell which you put around the door frame and it is supposed to make a seal, what a load of rubbish!  After a while it comes off and sticks to the door or gets all twisted up! and the door won´t shut properly.  A curtain is a great idea if you don´t have a catflap, I suppose we could cut out the shape of the flap from the curtain, which defeats the object a bit!  

So my hubby had a brainwave and using some masking tape (the stuff that you put around glass windows to stop paint getting on them) and placed it around the edge of the door:  It is very cheap and works a treat, the only thing is that when it is really windy the door makes a sound like someone breaking wind!  

For the bottom I am going to attempt to make an excluder from old towels and sheets.  It involves some sewing and cutting up of  materials. Watch this space for the great unveil!

We used to have a really cool one which we bought in Gretna Green, when we got married! but it eventually went past the point of no return and we had to say bye bye!  So we are missing one! I don´t think that the one I make will be as good (it was in the shape of a sausage dog) but I will give it my best shot.

 The blog song for today is: "Waiting for the sun" by The Doors.

TTFN

What to do with old keys!

     

I was having a bit of a sort out the other day and near to my front door I have some hooks with a lot of keys hanging up, I have no idea what they are for!  This sent me on a mission and I then found even more stashed in drawers all over the house!

What on earth can I do with them!  I think some were even from somewhere in the UK! 

After a bit of investigation I came across this advice!

Best Suggestions

Reuse: Lots of people have suggested using them as different type of decorations and jewellery. At the moment this one is not an option for me!

Recycle: If you’d rather recycle them for charity, they’re collected by a number of charities. I have been l have found two so far, one is called key for hope and the other keys for kindness.  I am not sure how it works.

I haven´t seen anything here in Menorca, but I was thinking about just taking them along to our local recycling centre on the industrial estate,  They have sections for almost everything there, it must be better than throwing it in the green organic bin.

The blog song for today is" Telephone line" by Electric Light Orchestra

 

TTFN

 

How can I reuse or recycle old compact discs (cds)?

 

I came across a load of old CD´s the other day and was wondering what to do with them.  They did bring back memories of when normal folks like us were able to "burn" a cd and put whatever you wanted to put on them, which of course sounded much easier than it actually was!!

I really liked the 3 1/2 inch floppy disk, after the rigmarole of formatting them they did actually work every time unlike the cd which failed quite a lot in my experience, normally after a lot of time spent trying to understand the software that in theory enabled you to do it.  Each computer had its own software installed on it which of course was incompatible with any other!

What fun times!  When you finally figured out the software then you had to make sure that the thing you wanted to copy could actually be copied, which you never knew until you had gone through the whole process first!

Many people used the old Cd´s in the garden to scare off birds, we had cats for that so no good for us! Then of course there was the folders to store them in.  We brought all of them here to Menorca when we moved here and haven´t had the heart to throw them away, but now all new computers don´t even have a cd player in them, it´s all on pen drives!

Here are some interesting uses that I have come across for using old CD´s;

I make my old cds into clocks they look good and I put pictures on them any design I want by cutting out pictures from magazines and glueing the picture on them and then putting a clock motor on them and hands.

Discs have good reflective properties similar to amirror. If you want to experiment
form numerous parabolic dishes with a long focal length and glue discs to the inside then direct the dish directly towards the sun you can provide a concentrated beam onto a small area. Sounds fantastic, a bit out there!

When you have collected about enough, thread them on a minature fluo’ tube. Light the tube with the appropriate circuitry. The light shines through the edges of the discs and makes a super-geeky table lamp for your computer desk!!!
I have done it and it works! You can also use a small string of christmas tree lights with less effect.

If you have chickens they love to entertain themselves with old cds on a string.

For years, I have been reusing CDs at Christmas time by putting colorful string or yarn on them and hanging them from a tree outdoors to create a very festive Christmas tree. I encouraged my neighbors to add theirs also and it became quite a spectacle. Adding lights makes them even more reflective. Sometimes I glue two together to cover the writing on one side. People come and look at it all holiday season long.
I also use them as gift tags on packages since it is easy to write TO: and FROM: on them and it looks pretty too.
I saw an idea for using them instead of bird scare tape. I am about to go hang some CDs on my grape vines and plum tree. The reflections look like fire to birds and scare them away. There is always plenty for our feathered friends too so I will allow them to eat the fruit after a few weeks.

If you put them on top of a little jar (the smaller ones from hotel marmelades or patè) and then you put them in the oven you’ll get nice shiny tea-lights holders!
They’ll bend over the jar as little skirts.
With a towel you can give them even more shape if you press down when they are still warm. They can be used as candy mini bowls or for whatever you want!

I think my favourite one is the chicken entertainer!

The blog song for today is: "Roundabout" by Yes

 

TTFN