How about ditching the bin bag unless absolutely necessary, and then choosing a compostable (not degradable, because these often aren’t as good as you think) bag.

Maia and the Permayouth, invite young people (11-17yo) who want to learn about permaculture and sustainable ways of living to join in. Check out the Permayouth website and get involved: https://www.permayouth.org/

What have been your best tips for cutting the waste that ends up in your bin?

To learn more about growing a permaculture gardening simply and easily, check out our course The Incredible Edible Garden and learn how to design your own permaculture landscape in our Permaculture Design Course.

Hi! I’m Maia from the Permaculture Education Institute and also from Perma Youth. And this is one of the last plastic free July videos. 

So today I’m going to be talking about bins. So one of my friends Eleni, who lives in Crystal Waters Eco Village as well. She has this thing that she does every time she puts something in a bin. So you ask yourself, can I reuse repair or recycle this? And then you ask yourself, can I turn this into something else? Can I live without this, and is it necessary? And if you can’t answer any of these questions, then it goes in the bin. But this is just a good way of filtering out things that you should and should not put in bins.  Also, another thing you can do is, not use bin liners because most of the time you don’t really need them, unless there’s something sloppy in there.

Which you can just either put it in your garden, the compost Bokashi bin or just wrap it up in paper, and put it in the bin if you really don’t want to put it outside. And then after that you just put it in a big bin, and then take it down to your bin. If you really do need to use a bin liner, then you can use compostable bin liners. But don’t use degradable ones, because they just break down into tiny little micro plastics. Microplastics are really bad for the

environment, because when they get washed into the ocean, they can accumulate in marine animals and then subsequently end up in us when we eat them. So it’s best not to use degradable bin liners. When you are going to put something in the bin, just remember to ask those questions and also think about whether you really needed it in the first place. And whether next time you go out shopping, you could not buy it. And also think about how you’re dealing with the rubbish from your household. So remember, there’s only a few days left of plastic through July and come back tomorrow for another tip about how to reduce your plastic consumption.

The post How to reduce plastic with your bins & bin bags – ft Maia Raymond appeared first on Our Permaculture Life.

Do you ever have apple cores & peels, or make kombucha? Then you can make your own vinegar to clean sinks, walls, floors, windows, rinse hair and more!

To learn more about growing a permaculture gardening simply and easily, check out our course The Incredible Edible Garden and learn how to design your own permaculture landscape in our Permaculture Design Course.

Hi! Welcome back, it’s Morag Gamble from Our Permaculture Life and the Permaculture Education Institute. And every day, we’re here talking about something to do with getting rid of the single-use plastics in our life. Or actually, just generally plastics. 

So every day, since the start of July we’ve been talking about something different. I’ve missed yesterday, I know I had a mass class on talking about eco villages. So I might put the link below too, if you wanted to check out what’s going on with that. About ways of creating, thriving neighborhoods. But today, I wanted to talk about something different and that is ways of cleaning. So often, our cupboards get cluttered with different sorts of bottles, for cleaners all different sorts of things from the bathroom, to the kitchen, to generally everywhere and even our own body. So how can we actually find some simple cleaners that we can make at home and actually create no plastic? In terms of having plastic bottles of all different sorts of things. So one of the simple things that we can do and I know that you know particularly at this point in time if we’re wanting to do a deep clean, to do with covert. Then you may be wanting to think about something differently, but generally cleaning around the house really effectively can do windows and bathtubs, and sinks and hair, and even be out in the garden as some kind of fertilizer as well and that’s Apple Cider Vinegar. So I make this Apple Cider Vinegar, do you ever have after you’ve finished your apples the cause or maybe sometimes you might peel them. But something will keep those cores and keep those peelings, and pop them in a jar. Now I’ll put a link below, on how to make the Apple Cider Vinegar. I made a little video about that before, but I just wanted to talk about how actually by making your own vinegar. You can actually make your own cleaner, then you can use this, for making salad dressings or in the morning if you want.

You know, if you like to actually have a little bit of Apple Cider Vinegar at the start of each day, it’s the same thing. 

So we can use it to clean our house, to fertilize our garden, to drink, to rinse our hair, do all sorts of things. So one little thing that we can make ourselves, and we can keep it in whatever jar that we’ve got, absolutely easy! Another thing that you could do, is make your own Kombucha Vinegar. Now if any of you are into making Kombucha, you have probably ended up making Kombucha Vinegarat one point in time or another. And they’re the ones that are up on your shelf for too long, and they go past it. When you smell it, it’s definitely vinegar. So same thing, this is vinegar you can use for all those purposes that we’ve just mentioned, in cleaning around the home. So you know, that’s a really simple way to get rid of all those extra cleaning bottles and also save yourself a huge amount at the same time. And remove things from the waste stream. 

So join me again for the only few days, until the end of July and that’s the wrap-up of this series. You can catch all of the links to them if you scroll back through this facebook page or also I pop them over on to my youtube channel. Which is Our Permaculture Life, so Morag Gamble Our Permaculture Life. You can check out on youtube and subscribe there.

There’s videos of all sorts of things to do with Permaculture. All right, well I’ll catch you again tomorrow and another few more tips. And I’d love to hear what you’ve been doing this plastic free July as well. So put some comments down below, and tell me some of your favorite ways that you can actually reduce the single use and just general plastic.

The post Make your own Multi-purpose Vinegar appeared first on Our Permaculture Life.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup of wholemeal flour
• 50 ml olive oil (can you refill your jar) – 45mls with plain flour or gluten-free flour (may need to experiment a bit)
• 60 ml water
• herbs and seeds (optional – what’s growing in your garden?)
• pinch of salt (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Mix all together
2. Chop into segments
3. Roll as thin as you can without them breaking apart
4. Cook at 200C/390F until just brown on the edges (10-12 mins)

To learn more about growing a permaculture garden simply and easily, check out our course The Incredible Edible Garden and learn how to design your own permaculture landscape in our Permaculture Design Course.

Hi! It’s Morag Gamble from our Permaculture Life and the PermacultureEducation Institute. And welcome back!

Every day, I’ve been talking about something you can do. To get rid of you know, the excessive plastics that we have in our daily lives. So the thing that I wanted to talk about today, because it’s plastic free July of course. What are you gonna eat, if it’s movie night, it’s Saturday night? What are we gonna have as a snack with that? Or if you’re going over to someone’s place, what can you take that’s package-free? You know the standard dip and biscuits end up creating a huge amount of waste. Most dip you know, come in they’ve got the plastic tub and then they’ve got the rip-off plastic bit. And then the biscuits themselves, they typically come in a package inside another package. So I wanted to tell you about my favorite little biscuits that I make, that are dip biscuits. Now these things you can often buy, they’re quite expensive to buy. You know, a pack of these I’ve seen in the stores like ten dollars for something like that. You can make them so easily, and inside of these I’ve got also things from the garden. Like some rosemary and some lemon myrtle that I’ve chopped up. So whatever you feel like adding into them. aAso some different sorts of seeds you can add in. So a simple recipe, one cup of flour and so I always buy my flour bulk like this in paper bags. And so it’s you get quite a lot, but if you store it well it lasts for ages. So just plain flour so I use organic whole wheat flour, but you could use any sort of flour. It works a bit differently though, with gluten-free flours. 

And I do have a recipe in my blog that is, particularly for gluten-free flours if you’re wanting to do that. So the measurement would be a bit different for what i’m about to tell you because it won’t work so well. Okay, so it’s one cup of that 50ml of olive oil, and so you can get olive oil in bulk too from your local coop. If you like and get your jars refilled and then 60 ml of water that’s it and then you can add whatever flavors you want. So I just add them all in, then I roll it out a few times and I just use these preserving jars as my rolling pin, a really nice side for those so you know, it’s multi-purpose. And then I cook them for about 10 minutes at 200 degrees and that’s it. And so, you just break them up into little segments and then you can get your package free or natural packaged dip. And that’s it, so it’s so simple! So that’s a way that we try, and get rid of our plastics in those sort of snacks for a saturday, or for going over to friends, or you know we’ve got a couple of extra kids running around the house at the moment. Who may well zip past. Who knows, a quick thing to do it takes me 15 minutes to whip up a batch of these instead of pulling out another pack of something else. I actually, strangely enough, never really thought I’ve always baked since I was a kid. But I never really thought about making dry biscuits until a few years ago. So it’s revolutionary, and so simple, and all different flavors.

So join me again tomorrow, for another quick tip. About how you can get rid of some single-use plastics in your life. I’ll put down some links below and I think i’ll try and put down that recipe for you as well.

The post DIY Dip Biscuits appeared first on Our Permaculture Life.

Each washing machine load of clothes can shed millions of micro-plastic fibres which cannot typically be filtered by the washing machine or sewage system. Especially if your clothes contain synthetic fabrics such as polyester, acrylic, nylon and fleeces. These fibres attract pollutants, oils, pesticides and become toxic in the waterways and enter the food web.

So here are my 4 simple tips that can make a difference.

To learn more about growing a permaculture garden simply and easily, check out our course The Incredible Edible Garden and learn how to design your own permaculture landscape in our Permaculture Design Course.

1.  Limit wasting until required

A simple and effective option is to simply wash our clothes less. This is something that I learnt from my mum – She doesn’t actually wash after every time she’s worn something, she’ll spot clean if necessary. Of course, there are some clothes you need to wash after every use, but it’s about being mindful and knowing the difference. Because we simply don’t need to wash every piece of clothing after every use. Not to mention, washing your clothes less increases the life of the fabric, meaning that you can keep them for longer. 

2.  Contact the companies

You could also try writing to those companies who are making plastic-based fabrics. This can encourage them to take on the challenge and make different kinds of fabrics that aren’t going to shed quite as much. As we know, consumers do have a lot of power to change the habits of big companies.

3.  Use filters or bags when washing

This is an excellent option for those who can’t quite afford clothes without microfibre and need to wash often. There are many filters, bags and washing balls on the market that stop microfibers from entering our waterways when we wash our clothes. I recommend heading to your local bulk store or eco-friendly retailer and asking for their products.

4. Select clothing that is compostable

There are a few clothing materials that we can buy, which don’t include micro-plastics that pollute our waterways. For example, cotton is natural, compostable and biodegradable, meaning that any micro-organisms that come from it won’t be as harmful. Other options are coir, linen, hemp, flax, wool, silk and there are many more.

Interested in learning more? I recommend checking out The Story of Stuff’s short film about Micro-fibre. It’s a 2 minute watch that talks you through how this problem can be solved when we all do our part.

Do you have another method for reducing micro-fibre pollution from your clothes?

Thank you for reading. Enjoy and please share.

The post 4 Ways To Reduce Microfibre Pollution From Your Clothing appeared first on Our Permaculture Life.

These tiny bag gardens can be grown anywhere using anything you can find. I use old 1kg coffee bags – they last for ages and you can find them everywhere. If you can, try to find a local cafe that stocks sustainable beans.

Six easy steps

1. Trim and roll the top.
2. Put some holes in the bottom.
3. Fill with compost or good potting mix.
4. Plant a herb cutting or a salad green.
5. Put on a tray to collect drips.
6. Place close to your kitchen for easy harvest.

In July, I film a short live video every day, from my garden or inside my house. During these lives, I talked about a number of simple ways that we can actually get rid of some of the single-use plastics that enter into our daily lives. This video is a from Day 15 and it focusses on the ways we can reduce plastic waste by re-using our old coffee bags.

To learn more about growing a permaculture garden simply and easily, check out our course The Incredible Edible Garden and learn how to design your own permaculture landscape in our Permaculture Design Course.

Best way to buy bulk coffee beans

When I go out shopping now, my goal is typically to try and buy as much bulk as I can. I recently went into my local co-op, and I noticed that they had big vats of coffee and the option to get beans in any size that you want. But then I watched as they just topped up the big vats with smaller bags, and I was quite surprised. After asking some questions and talking with people, I realized that buying the regular-sized bags of coffee beans is the best way to get fresh coffee beans for your home.

What I’ve noticed now though, is that I’ve ended up with lots of the bags and didn’t know what to do with them. So what do you do? Well, actually coffee bags make really good planters.

My hack for left-over coffee bags

What I do is trim off the top (watch the video to see exactly where I do this). I then make a couple of little holes at the bottom corners so that the water can drain out. Otherwise, you’ll get flooded plants and they’re not going to be happy about that. Next, you can roll the top of the bag back onto itself (see video).

Inside I start by filling it with compost, or good quality potting mix if you don’t have compost (read my blog on 5 ways to make compost here). If you do end up using a potting mix, then it’s really just another bag that you have to find a use for. You could make a little garden out of it, but it is a lot easier to quickly make your own compost and use that.

With your compost when you are filling up the bag, it’s always really nice to get your hands in it and test the soil. You can also have a smell, because good compost always has a lovely smell. Using your hands also lets you check for any big chunks, which you should throw back into the compost because they aren’t ready yet.

The finishing touches

Once you have a nice bag full of compost, you can then go ahead and plant your chosen herb or plant. In my video, I use a small stem of lavender and show you how to cut it and replant it so watch the video for my tips on that. After you’ve readied your plant, you can make a small hole into the potting mix, put the plant in and firmly pat the soil around it. Then just grab a little bit of mulch and then pop that around the top too. Lastly, add a lot of water until it starts to come out the bottom holes that you cut earlier. Soon you’ll have a happy herb growing!

You can now put your new pot in a nursery if you have one, or on your veranda, the back patio, or in the kitchen (though it leaks when watered, so beware). As you can see, it is so so simple to take the things that come out of your home and reuse them to make something great and useful for your edible garden.

Thanks for reading!

The post Make a Tiny Coffee Bag Garden appeared first on Our Permaculture Life.

(NB: for some reason the last few words are cut off – apologies)

To learn more about growing a permaculture garden simply and easily, check out our course The Incredible Edible Garden and learn how to design your own permaculture landscape in our Permaculture Design Course.

Read the full transcript below:

Welcome back, it’s Morag from our Permaculture Life and the Permaculture Education Institute and it’s plastic free July. 

And every day and around four o’clock, I’m going live talking about something you can do to diminish the single-use plastics or just the abundance of plastic containers. That we end up bringing into our homes every day or every time we go to the shops. So I’m in my laundry today

and I wanted to talk about these. These are soap nuts, now soap nuts are actually the fruits of a tree that comes from a tropical area. And so I sauce these from fair trade organizations and the amazing thing about these is that you can use them not only in your laundry. But you can use them to wash dishes, you can use them to wash your hair, you can use them to wash your pets. You can use them around your house you know, doing floor or surface cleaning. So there’s so many different uses for these. Now there’s different ways that you can use them typically when you buy them. You get a little calico bag and you can grab maybe let’s see four or five. So one, two, three, four, five I’ll put 5 in. So you put five in and you just tie up this little bag, and then what you do is you toss that into your washing machine. Put all your clothes in and that is it! Thing about it too is that it worked; they last for about four or five washes. And so once they’ve finished, you just take them out of the bag, pop them into your compost and it’s completely compostable. You reuse the bag and get some more of those that’s one way of doing it. Another way of doing it is, making a liquid. So this is one way I often do; I just put the five in the bottom and I’ll just shake it up a bit, so you can actually see how. I see it’s quite soapy there, they are actually very soapy. Little things I’ve tried finding something in Australia, that’s equivalent but I can’t find anything quite as good as this. So what I’ll do is, it hasn’t been going for long enough but I will soak these overnight. 

So then tomorrow when I want to come and do some washing, I can just put it in the normal spot near where you put the washing liquid. And use that, pop it in and then that will be what it’s needed to wash the clothes. Then you just refill this and I always check to see whether there’s enough soap before I use it again. Otherwise I’ll put some more in. So generally it’s four or five times so that’s great! And this is the thing that you can also use to wash your hands, to wash your hair and wash dishes as well. So that’s soap nuts, you can typically buy them in sort of natural food stores or buy them online as well. So really make sure that you look for the fair trade ones, so that they’re coming from. A place where the people are growing and harvesting them is getting a fair price and they’re being treated fairly. 

So I’ll catch up again tomorrow back in my garden or somewhere in my home. Talking about ways that we can get rid of the single-use plastics in our life. And I’ll put some links down below too, about some of the permaculture ways of thinking and ways of gardening. Because all of this is part of a Permaculture way of life, of how to diminish our impact on the planet. 

The post Natural Laundry Liquid with Morag Gamble appeared first on Our Permaculture Life.

Simply grabbing a thermos and water bottle before leaving the house means you can enjoy a waste-free outing with your friends and family!

To learn more about growing a permaculture garden simply and easily, check out our course The Incredible Edible Garden and learn how to design your own permaculture landscape in our Permaculture Design Course.

Using a Thermos during Covid

I know that during Covid, it’s been much more challenging to use our own takeaway cups and get them refilled. Right now we’re not even allowed to bring our reusable coffee cups to cafes, which is understandable. So I have started embracing something I used to do a lot, a long time ago and that is crack out the thermos. The one I used in this video is actually so old it doesn’t have a handle, but it still works absolutely fine. Plus, you can find these all throughout second-hand stores everywhere.

So I fill up a thermos before leaving my home and grab a few cups that won’t break in transit. It means I can prepare a  nice coffee, or tea, or chai, or herbal tea, and be able to drink it wherever I go. If you were going out mucking around with the kids in the park or down by the river, you can just bring the thermos instead of going to a cafe.

Although I know it’s really important to support local cafes at the moment as well, so it’s great if you are going to sit at a cafe then do that. But if you want to take something away with you, bringing your own thermos and cups will be really handy. I know my parents are doing this where they live in Melbourne right now.

My favourite water bottles

Also, remembering to take your water bottle is the best way to make sure you’re always hydrated and don’t have to buy a single-use plastic bottle. I really love the sort of water bottles (see video) that double as a thermos too. They keep cold drinks cold for hours, and also work to store hot drinks too.  Sometimes I even fill it up with soup. by that same token, a thermos can also double as a water bottle and a lunch carrier. And so it only takes a few minutes before you head out to get prepared.

Though I’m probably a generation or so ahead of you, but my mum used to do this all the time. We would be prepared before we went out and had our little picnic. She always bought her thermos, water bottles, cups, and our cutlery too. I remember it being so simple and lovely.

So I encourage you to really embrace this simple tradition of bringing your own water and hot drink. Or go one step further and bring your drink, your crockery and cutlery and a nice little bag. Then you can find a beautiful spot to enjoy it with your family and your friends, and get out in nature.

Take care and enjoy!

The post Don’t Forget To Take your Thermos! appeared first on Our Permaculture Life.

To learn more about growing a permaculture garden simply and easily, check out our course The Incredible Edible Garden and learn how to design your own permaculture landscape in our Permaculture Design Course.

Read the Full Transcript

Hi! Welcome again my name is Morag Gamble from Permaculture Life and the Permaculture Education Institute. And every day I’m doing something either in my garden or in my house. About how you can actually get rid of single-use plastics, it’s plastic free July. 

So today, I wanted to talk a little bit about how you can get rid of you know the single-use cling wrap, cling film. So there’s a number of different things. So using jars obviously, to store food either on the shelf or in the fridge. You’ve got leftovers, you could simply do the old plate on the top of the bowl method. Which is absolutely fantastic or you can make something like these wax wraps. Now many of you, I know probably either bought these or seen these around. I think they’re absolutely fantastic and I make them myself for a few cents each. Like you can buy these in the stores but it’s probably about thirty dollars for a couple of them. So these actually create a beautiful seal. On whether it be a bowl, or a jar, or you

can use them to wrap around sandwiches for lunch boxes which is really great. Because here in Australia anyway we’re on school holidays but   tomorrow, or the next day the kids are going to be going back to school again. So these are absolutely fantastic! So what I’ve done is, I’ve just taken an old piece of sarong that’s kind of like a really fantastic type of fabric, a cotton fabric. So this one had a bit of a blowout as you can see I wore it till it’s actually long gone now. So this is what I keep for making  things, like beeswax wraps and and polishing clothes and things like that. That’s a really nice thickness and density of the cotton that you want. So it’s simple, all you need is one little bit that you snip out kind of, like a handkerchief size is what I’m going to show you today. But you can make them any size you want really. You can make them a larger size for wrapping up a sandwich, or even bigger again to wrap around a loaf of bread, or cheese whatever size you want you can make it now. Some of the instructions that you might have seen on the internet, have been about using a tray and painting them and putting them and all of that. I came across a different method and particularly, because I’m even in a subtropical environment and I was first exploring these when it was summertime. It was too hot to turn on the oven so I’ve been using a sandwich press. 

Now I find this a really easy way, so all you need. And also the thing is that, it actually doesn’t limit the size that you want to use

because I’ll show you. You can actually wrap them up in two little bundles. So all you need is a piece of cotton fabric, nice fine weave, some grated beeswax. So I use probably about 10 grams of wax for something this size. Now you can buy them in blocks like this, from either your farmers market or from a local organic group, or beekeeper. Something like this

cost me about ten dollars. It’s about 300 grams, so I didn’t need 10 grams to make one. So you can see, it’s really very cheap and this is a scrap of fabric. So I’m just going to pop this actually on the hot plate and I’m gonna put my 10 grams of beeswax. I’m not going to use it all, because I may not need to. I can always add some later, and then this is some coconut oil. So you use just about a half quarter of a teaspoon of that, pop it on. They can see, I’m not being very fussy about how I’m doing this, because what I’m gonna do is actually roll it up into a little parcel like that. So as you can see, it doesn’t really matter what size it is. Because you ball it up and as it gets squashed down, it’s just gonna infuse its way through the whole thing. Alright, so I’m just going to turn that on now, the trick is not to preheat your sandwich oven because if you do that it gets too hot really. You only want it for a few seconds, so I’m just gonna just have to wait while it does heat up a little bit. And I’m gonna check it regularly okay, so it’s not quite done yet I’ll just leave that warm up a little bit more. I just keep checking it, maybe turn it over a little bit, it’s getting there. It’s all melting now, it’s starting to go through and you can press it down a bit. Another thing, don’t be worried about actually using your sandwich press for this, because it’s coconut oil and it’s beeswax. And beeswax you know, if you’ve ever eaten the honeycomb, then you’re eating beeswax. Anyway it’s edible, particularly using you know raw organic beeswax. I wouldn’t be using any of the sort of synthetic or non-organic ones. Because they’re not necessarily food. Well you know, this one is all right let’s take a look

at that. Wow! That’s starting to look good, now I’ve got my tongs because the wax gets hot and what I’ll do is, I’ll just wipe it around a little bit. Wipe that off, I always have another one to wipe off the surface and if it gets on your next sandwich. Okay, so now we need to just open that up. Now I’m gonna be careful how I open this up. It is quite hot, actually just turn off the hot plate. I’m just gonna let that dry for a little bit, it doesn’t take long. 

A few minutes until it’s nice and starts to get a little bit stiff as it dries, that’s good. It’s a good sign thing is, if you don’t actually put enough on it and it’s not sticking when you trick it. That’s when you crunch it like this, it’s gonna stay as a ball. You know, you’ve got enough then if you haven’t quite got that amount. Then you can always add more. Now, what I like

about these two is that, after you’ve sand you just need to wash them off with some cool water. Or if you’ve got food on it, you can use cool soapy water. If after a few months it feels like they’re not sticky anymore, you can just take them across to sandwich press. Put a little bit more beeswax on, and then keep them going, and going, and going. And if you rinse them off, and then hang them up to dry in a nice Airy spot before you store them back into your shelf again that’s absolutely perfect! All right,

let’s have a look. Let’s see, this one’s good enough, fantastic! So we have another one, so as you see simple and easy and then just to make it stick on your jar. You just use a little bit of pressure from your hands and there we are, that’s it! So that’s how to make your own beeswax wraps at home. Really simply using things that you may, well have just in your kitchen, or scraps of fabric and a sandwich press. Alright, well I’ve put down a few links below. About some of the things, where you can find more information about Permaculture. And I’ll catch you again tomorrow back for another tip about how to get plastic out of your life. Cheers!

The post DIY Beeswax Wraps with Morag Gamble appeared first on Our Permaculture Life.

I know the whole ‘plastic-free’ idea is so much more challenging during the pandemic, especially if you live in an area that is still on high alert. If this is the case for you, just do what you can and see if there are any new ways of thinking you can adopt. For example, consider how and where you source your food and learn to refuse plastic where possible.

To learn more about growing a permaculture garden simply and easily, check out our course The Incredible Edible Garden and learn how to design your own permaculture landscape in our Permaculture Design Course.

Transcript:

Hi it’s Morag Gamble from our Permaculture Life and welcome back for another live, in the garden. We’re exploring different ways that you can think about getting rid of single-use plastics in your life it’s plastic-free July.

And there’s so many different things we can do and while it doesn’t seem to be something that makes an enormous difference. Each of these little actions actually adding all up together it does. And also something about how we start to think differently about lots of different things in our life. When we start to focus on one, it opens up a whole world. It’s like you know, opening a door, opening a portal to another world. Another way of thinking and so I really value a lot of these steps that we can take that it seemed little. But actually represent something much larger in our consciousness and you know in our culture as well today. I’d like to encourage you to choose to refuse. So to supplement the things that you’re growing in your garden when you’re heading out to the store, we really think twice before you grab a bag or grab something wrapped in plastic. And really see if you can come home with almost no plastic wrapping or even none. And one of the ways to do that is you know when you’re in the fruit and veg section, look at everything that they’ve got there and think actually. I don’t need to wrap that, I can just put it into my basket and take it to the checkout. And just put it through like that there’s absolutely no need to put it into a bag just for that short period of time. I mean so many said, I’ve said before in this series that so many single-use plastic bags have a life of 15 minutes. And then, they’re around for millennia.

So choosing to refuse is a really good concept, it’s you know it comes away before recycling. And so wherever we can just keep your foods in their simple natural form. And then you know actually if you look around in the stores often. And another part of this is that, you see that they come pre packaged in bags of apples, or tubs of strawberries or all different sorts of things that come in. In prepackaged hard plastic tubs see if there’s another way that you can get those sorts of things or choose not to buy that particular product that is completely wrapped like that. I have actually gone looking around in some of the local waste areas or here for the tubs that the stories do come in though. Because those ones actually make some really nice sprouting tubs. So if you do happen to bring them home then, we can use those. So rather than just having them one single use, you can actually use them over and over and over again as microgreens sprouting tub. So I’ll show you how to do that maybe in another time as well. So just the message today is really yep choose to refuse. And see if you can reduce the things that you bring home the plastic we bring home significantly just from taking the attitude with you all right. I’ll catch you again tomorrow, take care bye.

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Bathrooms are typically full of lots of plastic bottles and 80% of these get thrown away even though they are recyclable. I’m sure most of you can relate?

So, I’ve made it a mission to look for more ways to lessen plastic use and plastic found in my house and I came up with a few ideas that you can do, too.

Here’s some ideas on how to use things from your garden and kitchen to nourish your hair.

To learn more about growing a permaculture garden simply and easily, check out our course The Incredible Edible Garden and learn how to design your own permaculture landscape in our Permaculture Design Course.

Transcript:

Hi it’s Morag gamble from a Permaculture Life in the Permaculture Education Institute. And welcome back into my garden, we’re talking this month about ways that we can get rid of single-use plastic in our lives it’s Plastic Free July.

Now one of the things that it’s a place where we get lots of plastic is the bathroom and actually most of the bottles of stuff that we have in the bathroom get chucked out. Even though they’re recyclable and interestingly you know most of these bottles for shampoos and conditioners. Most of these get chucked out even if they can be recycled or refilled. So you can actually take these back in to say a bulk food store and get them refilled with shampoos or conditioners. And you can actually buy these little tops that mean that, you can sort of replace them with nice new pump packs that are actually really helpful when you’ve got you know young kids as well. If you don’t have a bulk food store close by, then you know maybe it’s something you can do to bulk buy with friends as well. You can actually order a bulk pack of shampoo or conditioner a natural one. Without the fragrances or the chemicals and split it up amongst your friends. This is a really great thing to do, too. But what if you actually don’t want to use those bottles because actually, every one of these bottles it takes about a quarter. If you filled it up with fossil fuels to about a quarter. That’s how much energy it takes to produce each bottle in terms of its production, transportation, everything which is kind of huge when you think about it. So what else can you do apart from having a plastic filled bathroom? Well, there’s a lot of things actually, and one of the things that I wanted to show you today is and it’s why. I’m sitting out in the garden using aloe vera as a conditioner. So I simply take a section of an aloe vera leaf and I slice up, take a section of it like this and just open it up. Now some people are a bit sensitive to them, to the liquid that’s in between the skin and the clear gel.

So what I’ve done with this is, I actually chopped it and then I set it in the sink to allow it to drain. And then just washed off any of that yellow liquid. So that helps to prevent any sort of sensitive skin issues. But for most people it’s absolutely fine. So I just open it up like this and then that’s what I shampooed my hair, grab a chunk of our view and just smear it through my hair, combing in and leave it as a leave-in conditioner. So that’s a conditioner and then once you’re finished with that, it just gets composted so there’s no bottle or anything. And once you get on your hands, you can rub it into your hands, rub it into your face as well. So the whole thing is absolutely usable all over your body and I really love it for that. And that’s why, I’ve got it here right close to the veranda so I can use it as a daily thing for hair or face or skin. And I can also use it if there’s anything, like burns and other first-aid needs that I have with it. But there’s other things that you can do to have zero waste plastic waste. In terms of conditioner, coconut oil from your kitchen is really great. So if you have dry ends and the kind of hair that I have, does quite often get dry in. So you just grab a little bit of coconut oil, and you just massage it into the ends. So that’s easy. Now if you’ve got a build up of our products and you’ve been using it for a long time, or you just want to soften the hair and make it more shiny. You can actually use apple cider vinegar to rinse your hair after you’ve done your shampooing and just leave it in for a minute or so. When you’re in the shower, just pour it through and then rinse it out and it’ll make a huge difference in your hair. Now I made this one here and I’ve got, I’ll put a link below to show you how you can make it just out of scraps. From Apple skins and apple cores as well.

So you don’t even have to buy the plastic bottles that the vinegar comes in normally. So there’s a few tips on how to reduce plastic in your bathroom and particularly around using plastic shampoo and conditioner bottle. So one recycling we’re using them or refusing them, and actually using things out of your garden or make your own from scraps in the kitchen. So catch me again tomorrow back in my garden for another tip about how you can actually integrate your permaculture way of thinking your garden and becoming far less dependent on the plastics that surround us in our world.

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