reducing waste Archives - Our Permaculture Life

27,000 Trees A Day to Wipe Bottoms – What’s Your Wipe of Choice?

Morag Gamble — Fri, 14 Oct 2016 15:03:00 +0000

Toilet paper. We don’t talk about this much, but I reckon we should. We all need it and use it – well a great proportion of people in developed countries anyway, and global consumption is rising. What’s your wipe of choice? I’m shifting from recycled paper to tree-free.

27,000 trees a day to wipe bottoms.

Worldwide, around 270,000 trees are either flushed or dumped in landfills every day. About 10 percent of this is toilet paper. Also the production of each toilet paper roll uses about 140 litres of water.

Only 5% recycled toilet paper used.

Most toilet paper is made from virgin paper. In Australia, only 5% of our toilet paper comes from recycled paper.

According to the Australian Conservation Foundation every tonne of paper recycled saves:

13 trees
2.5 barrels of oil (average car would use this in 2-3 months)
4100 kilowatts of electricity (average household use per year)
four cubic metres of landfill
31,380 litres of water (roughly a household’s annual water use)

That’s significant.

But if you are choosing recycled loo paper, be sure to pick one that doesn’t use chlorine bleach. Before being pulped and processed, recycled paper is de-inked. Chlorine can be used for this. Chlorine-based chemicals however can react with paper fibres and create toxic compounds such as dioxin and organochlorines.

What toilet paper should I use then?

More and more sources of eco-loo paper are becoming available. New small ethical subscriber-based companies are starting up supplying homes with bulk orders of toilet paper made from non-chlorine bleached recycled paper or bamboo and sugarcane paper (the softer option for sensitive bottoms). Bamboo grows so much faster than trees!

There’s also people exploring fibre crops, such as hemp, and abundant agricultural and industrial byproducts ranging from wheat straw to garment scraps, sunflower stalks, and rags – all logical sources of tree-free pulp.

How many trees are there in the world?

As an aside, while I was writing this, I came across a research paper that showed the planet has 3.04 trillion trees – or approximately 422 trees per person. This information was published last year in the journal Nature and based on research conducted at Yale. The research also says that 15.3 billion trees are chopped down every year – with the highest losses in the tropics where some of the oldest and biggest trees live. It also estimates that almost half of the world’s trees have been cleared already. This has significant implications for the planet in terms of climate change, biodiversity, and therefore also human well-being.

Let’s think before we wipe and go tree-free! If you don’t already use it why not give the paper made from sustainable, renewable resources a go.

Here’s some of the sites I visited while writing this tonight.

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Ingeniously Simple Idea to Harvest Compost Worms By 8 Year Old Boy: Film #14 with Morag Gamble

Morag Gamble — Sat, 08 Oct 2016 12:06:00 +0000

This ingeniously simple idea to get compost worms out of a worm farm is the brainwave of an 8 year old boy.

The inspiration…

My son, Hugh, was inspired to find a simpler and better way to extract worms from a worm farm. He was selling worm tower kits at the local market and was getting tired of the long process of separating the worms from the castings. He knew there had to be a better way …

Hugh’s method of collecting worms had us harvesting an abundance of worms so rapidly.

The typical method – too slow for Hugh

We had taught Hugh the typical method of separating worms, but he found it was fiddly and took too long. The standard method is up-ending a worm farm on a table or other smooth surface and mounding it up like a volcano. The worms move away from the heat and light towards the centre. Bit by bit you gently scrape away the castings, wait, scrape some more etc… and you are eventually left with a bundle of worms in the middle.

The typical method of separating castings from worms. Mound it up, scrape it off …. repeat a few times…

This method is still good for collecting the castings for your garden since you are rescuing most of the worms to put back into the farm. If however you are particularly wanting to extract bundles of worms for whatever reason – to feed to chickens, for fishing bait, for a micro-enterprise as Hugh was doing – I’ve not come across a simpler way.

Hugh’s ingenious idea…

You’re not going to believe how remarkably simple this method is, and just how effective it is. I love that Hugh brought his creative thinking to a challenge he was facing and found a solution. This method he has developed is a standout – it revolutionises the process, making it so easy and convenient. Essentially, he decided it would be much easier to entice the worms to come to him. Check it out how he does this in our short 3 minute youtube clip (link above).

Please share….

Please share our little video and spread Hugh’s positive idea. Don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/c/moraggambleourpermaculturelife to get notice of each new movie I make. You can also subscribe to this blog so you get notice of each article and film.

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Permaculture & Healthy Living: Morag Gamble Speaks with Cyndi O’Meara & Friends on the Wellness Couch Podcast

Morag Gamble — Tue, 06 Sep 2016 13:53:00 +0000

Today the Wellness Couch podcast was posted with me in conversation with the wonderful Up For A Chat ladies – Cyndi O’Meara, Kim Morrison and Carren Smith. We chatted about my way of life – living a low-stress, joyful and simple way of life – an abundant permaculture life, growing food, homeschooling, living lightly on the earth, and more…

Grab a cuppa and take a listen. Please leave comments on the Up For a Chat site (and also here on my blog) about the sorts of things you’d like me to speak about when I return to the Wellness Couch for a follow-up conversation about how to get your own simple garden set up.

UC196: Permaculture with Morag Gamble (73:03 mins)
http://thewellnesscouch.com/uc/uc-196-permaculture-with-morag-gamble

Some of the points of conversation include:

How I came to live a permaculture life
How to live a simpler, less stressful life and step away from the over-consumerism.
How the healthier the earth is the healthier we all become
How living in nature is like a natural meditation.
How superfoods come from supersoils – the importance of keeping your soils healthy
How everything has a context for learning – my approach to homeschooling.
How seeing the world through children’s kids eyes opens up the world tenfold.
How to reduce waste in our home – food waste and single-use plastics
The value of growing as much as we can at home & how there’s is more food in most edible gardens than we typically imagine.
How to think of your garden as one big ecosystem
How we all have a voice – we can all be part of the change.

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Did you know our clothes are poisoning us? More Reasons to Choose Simple Natural Fashion for Earth Care and People Care

Morag Gamble — Wed, 31 Aug 2016 16:54:00 +0000

Australians throw away over 80% of their textiles each year – we are second highest wasters in the world! I find figure is disturbing – do you too? Most of these fabrics are synthetic and as you know, in landfill these take ages to break down.

image source: www.onegreenplanet.org

Did you know, even more disturbingly, that when we wash our synthetic clothes they are contaminating the oceans too – poisoning all types of sea creatures and coming back as toxic food? Microfibres from degrading synthetics, a type of micro-plastic, are a major global problem. Thousands of fibres come off every time we wash – polar fleeces are one of the worst. The chemicals from these microfibres have been found in the flesh of fish (not just the gut). One quarter of all fish contain micro-plastics and micro-fibres.

According to Dr Mark Brown of UNSW, 85% of plastics in the environment are micro-plastics and these are persistent, cumulative and toxic. Dr Brown has studied fish on 6 continents and found that micro-fibres from synthetic clothing are the main micro-plastics in fish. So what does this mean? For one, micro-fibres contain flame retardants which are endocrine disruptors affecting our hormonal systems and altering our immune responses. Read more in the ABC Catalyst story : http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/4424996.htm .

There are billions of people wearing and washing plastic clothing every day. This micro-fibre problem is immense – more diabolical than micro-beads.

Let’s stop and ask “What impact do the clothes I am wearing and the sheets I am sleeping on have on my my health, my family’s health, on the health of Earth’s ecological systems, as well as the well-being of the people that made them?”

The long and short of this:

Synthetic fibres shed and accumulate as toxicity in nature.
Natural fibres biodegrade and are recycled by nature. (Most of my old clothes end up as mulch, worm food and compost)

Those of you who have read my blog posts before know I focus on food and growing, but today I am moved to write from a different angle. Thanks to the many recent conversations I’ve had with people on this disastrous link between fast fashion, ecological systems disruption and toxicity in our food.

Please join me in thinking about this big issue and next time you are heading out to make a textile purchase. And please me spread the word by sharing this post with your friends and networks.

Think, buy, use, renew and make natural!

Might be time to get those alpacas ….

image source: www.goodonyou.org.au

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Five Easy Steps to Make Cheap Beeswax Wraps & Reduce Cling Wrap Use. Film #10 with Morag Gamble (5 mins)

Morag Gamble — Sun, 28 Aug 2016 15:32:00 +0000

In less than 5 minutes you can make your own beeswax wraps to replace plastic cling wrap. These will last you well over a year and then you can compost them! Let’s do something about the trillions of tonnes of single use plastic swilling around the oceans – contaminating earth’s systems and our food system. Please share this.

Watch this 5 minute film to see how to simply and cheaply make your own natural beeswax wraps – to wrap veggies and fruit, leftover bowls, cheese, sandwiches, jar tops, bread loaves, lunchbox snacks and so much more.

Yes, it’s a small step, but many small steps, and a sense of commitment to want to make a difference, is more powerful than you may think. When you take positive steps forward, there’s a ripple effect of positive change.

For the method shown in the film, all you need is to make your own beeswax wraps is:

a piece of natural cotton cloth (choose the size you need for your particular use – I find 20cm x 20cm is a useful bowl-top size)
natural beeswax (about 5-10 grams is all you need for 20cm x 20cm cloth)
1/4 teaspoon coconut oil
flat sandwich hotplate

5 easy steps to make beeswax cloths:

Trim cloth to size (pinking shears make a nice edge – zigzag)
Grate 5-10 grams beeswax
Make a parcel with the wax and wrapped inside the cloth.
Place parcel on hotplate and press down with sandwich press lid for 10-15 seconds. Check and do again if beeswax still unmelted.
Lift off hotplate and hang on line for 1 minute (watch out – it’s hot!)

That’s it! Quick and easy aren’t they. I’d thought they were going to be much more fiddly than that.

To wash – simply wipe, rinse off or use warm soapy water – not hot.

To revitalise – after a lot of use, you may wish add a little more beeswax and melt again as above. Helps to keep them sticking well.

Another method: place cloth on a tray in a warm oven. Cover with same quantity of grated beeswax and oil and allow to melt and infuse (about 5 mins in a 50 degree celsius oven). I sometimes use a paintbrush to spread wax to the edges. (You may want a separate old tray to do this on, but you can clean it OK and a little natural beeswax isn’t going to hurt).

See a previous post on making beeswax cloths:

Plastic-wrap free food – DIY beeswax cloths

Learn Permaculture with Morag Gamble

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Five Easy Steps to Make Cheap Beeswax Wraps & Reduce Cling Wrap Use. Film #10 with Morag Gamble (5 mins)

Morag Gamble — Sun, 28 Aug 2016 15:32:00 +0000

For the method shown in the film, all you need is to make your own beeswax wraps is:

a piece of natural cotton cloth (choose the size you need for your particular use – I find 20cm x 20cm is a useful bowl-top size)
natural beeswax (about 5-10 grams is all you need for 20cm x 20cm cloth)
1/4 teaspoon coconut oil
flat sandwich hotplate

5 easy steps to make beeswax cloths:

Trim cloth to size (pinking shears make a nice edge – zigzag)
Grate 5-10 grams beeswax
Make a parcel with the wax and wrapped inside the cloth.
Place parcel on hotplate and press down with sandwich press lid for 10-15 seconds. Check and do again if beeswax still unmelted.
Lift off hotplate and hang on line for 1 minute (watch out – it’s hot!)

That’s it! Quick and easy aren’t they. I’d thought they were going to be much more fiddly than that.

To wash – simply wipe, rinse off or use warm soapy water – not hot.

To revitalise – after a lot of use, you may wish add a little more beeswax and melt again as above. Helps to keep them sticking well.

See a previous post on making beeswax cloths:

Plastic-wrap free food – DIY beeswax cloths

The post Five Easy Steps to Make Cheap Beeswax Wraps & Reduce Cling Wrap Use. Film #10 with Morag Gamble (5 mins) appeared first on Our Permaculture Life.

How To Make Your Own Self-Watering Pot: Film #8

Morag Gamble — Sun, 14 Aug 2016 13:41:00 +0000

Check out my new 5 minute film on my Our Permaculture Life YouTube Chanel – How to Make your Own Self-Watering Pot (or watch the embedded link at the end of this post)

It’s so easy to make self-watering pots from used milk bottles. They are free and make propagating seeds a breeze.

Not only do they keep your little seedlings hydrated much longer, by cultivating your own seedlings, you can choose from a much wider selection of food varieties and contribute to the protection of seed diversity.

This is how to do it. (For more details, watch the film.)

All you need is a milk bottle, scissors, sand, compost/potting mix, seeds and water.

Cut in half the bottle and put in an overflow hole in the base to prevent plants from flooding.

Put a few centimetres of sand in the bottom of the base.

Turn the top upside down and press into the base.

Fill with compost or good potting mix.

Make impressions in the soil for the seeds. Cover the seeds with soil.

Gently water the seeds in until the water comes out of the overflow.

Make sure to label the seeds.

Film #8: How to Make Self-Watering Pots by Morag Gamble

Learn with Morag in her garden:

If you enjoyed this film and like a hands-on approach to learning, I invite you to join me in my garden at the Permaculture Life Workshop over the next couple of months.

Click here for information and registration for October 29: The Simple and Abundant Garden

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Organic, Simple, Natural, Affordable & Plastic-Free Hair Care

Morag Gamble — Sat, 30 Jul 2016 15:17:00 +0000

I’d never thought before of washing my hair with a bar of soap. I’d always assumed that I needed shampoo and conditioner. I’m about to test out washing with bar soap and rinsing with apple cider vinegar. Many of you may have tried this before and I’d love to hear of your experiences.

As plastic-free July draws to a close, I find myself still stopping each time I find another thing that always enters my house in plastic and consider the alternatives. This is today’s new experiment. Shampoo bars can contribute to a zero plastic waste household. I think they’d be a handy thing to travel with too – no oozing bottles.

In the past, I have tried to choose the most natural shampoos and conditioners I can find. However the list of ingredients is still long and incomprehensible, and the plastic packaging significant, – even if recyclable. Besides, those shampoos are loaded with so many synthetic materials and chemicals that I can actually no longer use them – my scalp screams and my eyes hurt. Beware of the commercial shampoo bars – they are full of chemicals too.

I really like refilling my old bottles with bulk shampoos from my local cooperative shop, but now it’s time for something different – a new experiment in simplifying:

Shampoo: Paper-wrapped organic fair trade bar soap

Conditioner: Diluted Raw Apple Cider Vinegar Rinse (bought bulk in glass jars). Use 1tbsp to 250 mls water.

Shampoo Bar

I’m pretty keen to embark on some of my own soap making soon using natural ingredients – such as coconut oil, olive oil, shea butter and natural essential oils. Until I do, I’m going to buy some natural bar soap. Actually I am going to begin with the bar I bought for my DIY laundry powder and go from there.

My inspiration for this was reading the packaging of the Dr Bonner’s soap package and seeing it was good for hair too. I have been enjoying the peppermint one grated into my laundry powder mix and of course as a hand and body wash.

Apple Cider Vinegar Rinse

After washing my hair, I’m going to try rinsing with raw apple cider vinegar (1 tbsp: 250 mls water). It is meant to help balance hair pH, remove the build up of silicone sludge from commercial hair products, smooth the hair cuticles, treat an itchy dry scalp, work as a natural de-tangler and promote healthy hair growth. Just pour it on (avoiding eyes), massage in then rinse – you don’t need a conditioner. While your hair is drying it may smell of vinegar, but once it’s dry, the smell goes.

I love multifunctional things – a great permaculture principle. It makes me wonder why we clutter up our laundries and bathrooms with so many products when a handful of good ones can do the job of many.

I’ll let you know how I go with this and would love to hear your experiences of abandoning commercial shampoos and conditioners.

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500 billion cups of coffee

Morag Gamble — Mon, 18 Jul 2016 22:06:00 +0000

Do you also find it absurd that half the world’s plastics are used only once before ending up in landfill? And can you believe that we throw away 500 billion coffee cups a year after just one use? That’s a million a minute. An estimated 1 billion in Australia alone.

(Image: www.mbnep.org)

Coffee cups hare estimated to be the second- largest contributor to litter after plastic bottles.

We have indeed become a very wasteful species. Do we believe we are somehow living outside (or above) the natural ecological system, and the natural limits of this beautiful blue planet?

Ecological footprint studies show that we would need four Earth’s if everyone on the planet lived like the average Australian (using as many resources and wasted as much). Four Earths? We only have one!

I know I am preaching to the converted here, but In just about every aspect of our lives we need to do things differently.

Because it’s Plastic Free July, I thought I’d take a look at one of the big single use plastic wastes we create – the waste associated with the exponential growth of our collective caffeine habit. We call them paper cups but actually most are lined with plastic and cannot be recycled.

I do love coffee. I grew up in Melbourne with quaint cafes making magnificent coffee in colourful ceramic cups. I think I also came to love coffee because of the associations – meeting with friends, having great discussions; but also having personal free-thinking time – just me, a coffee, a blank-page notebook and artists pen. Mind-maps would start forming across the pages uncontrollably….I still find myself doing this. Even today, I had 15 minutes before having to pick up the kids, so I sat in a Maleny Cafe with my large cup of coffee, a big glass of water, and A3 drawing book and a pen. I mapped out a 3 day workshop program – magic!

Back in the 1980s, I hardly ever saw take-away coffee cups. Take-away cups were the stuff of fast food joints. I remember seeing people walking around with take-away coffee cups in the United States during a visit around 2000 and thinking how good it was that still Australians mostly sat down to have their coffee… it wasn’t for much longer though.

Let’s abandon the throw-away culture and become part of the re-user revolution.

In this context, we can simply:

start drinking coffee in ceramic cups again at the cafe – slow down and enjoy…
bring your own re-usable cup for take-aways and office use
if you do happen to get a take-away, refuse a lid and chose a cafe that has compostable cups
take a thermos from home
drink water instead 🙂 …. in a reusable container of course!

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Film #4: Incredible Edibles Talk with Morag Gamble at the QLD Garden Expo

Morag Gamble — Sun, 17 Jul 2016 17:00:00 +0000

I love edible perennial plants and self-seeding annuals – they make gardening so much easier and very productive. I rely on these plants as the backbone of my edible landscape because they provide such resilience and abundance. They are so useful for food, fiber, fodder, teas, medicine, mulch, organic matter, income …

I filmed my talk about Incredible Edibles at the Kitchen Garden Stage of the incredibly popular Queensland Garden Expo on July 10. In this talk, I share my passion for and knowledge about some of my favourite plants and strategies. The plants I talk about here are also very helpful for verge gardeners, small-space gardeners, and community gardeners.

Congratulations and thank you to all the volunteers who set up the WONDERFUL edible demonstration gardens at the Expo with the verge garden theme – a huge effort!! It was great to ramble through it with Costa Georgiadis, Jerry Coleby-Williams and chat with old and new friends.

This recording is 42 mins.

FILMING NOTE: This is the first time I have tried to film my own talk (I usually have a helper) and of course, I forgot about the camera. At one stage I moved too close – oops – half a head. A few minutes later I realise and move back again – please excuse this!

Take a look at my other short films:

Film #1: Our Permaculture Life: My Permaculture Garden (33 mins)

In my award-winning garden, Crystal Waters Permaculture Village.

Film #2: Our Permaculture Life: Community Permaculture Garden (9 mins 30 secs)

At the Yandina Community Gardens – I’ll be teaching a Permaculture course there each Friday from 23 September.

Film #3: How to Make Comfrey Tea with Morag Gamble (4:52mins)

In my award-winning garden, Crystal Waters Permaculture Village

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