So traditionally chewing gum what made with chicle which is a natural gum that is made from tree sap. These days however most gum manufacturers have replaced chicle with polyethylene and polyvinyl acetate. Disgusting right?
]]>So traditionally chewing gum what made with chicle which is a natural gum that is made from tree sap. These days however most gum manufacturers have replaced chicle with polyethylene and polyvinyl acetate. Disgusting right?
Not only does this have some adverse health implication (I definitely don’t want to be chewing on plastic), especially when swallowed by accident ~ but it also comes with implications for our planet. One; the plastic needs to be produced which we all know by now comes with major environmental impact. Two; what happens to the gum once chewed up and chucked out?! As it’s neither biodegradable, nor recyclable it will end up in landfill or the ocean like any other single use plastic. Sadly we are all too familiar with this story already…
Cigarette buds are the most commonly littered item in Australia, but chewing gum is quick to follow and comes second in place together with drink bottles and paper.
Luckily there is a solution if you are a big gum lover! Switch to one of the natural gums that use the traditional gum ingredients. One great brand that has gone back to the good old fashioned recipe is Honest Gum; http://www.honestgum.com.au/
2. Tea Bags
Are you a tea lover? Do you long for that soothing cup of tea when you come back home from a long day? Let’s have a more in depth look at what that cup of tea really does to our planet.
Did you realise whilst you’re drinking your tea that most tea bags are made out of a plastic mesh?! Some are a combination of paper fibre and plastic, but hardly any are completely biodegradable. For years I had been throwing my teabags into the compost bin to only realise now that I have been so wrong all this time as plastic does definitely NOT belong in the compost.
So whilst we are ditching single use plastic the common tea bag is most definitely one we should get rid of. Don’t be alarmed though! We can still drink tea!
Thankfully there are some brands that are onto it and do use teabags which are biodegradable. T2 is one of them. And then of course there is always the traditional way; get a tea strainer or tea pot with an infuser and buy loose tea-leaves. Most true tea lovers will agree that this method results in the best tasting tea.
3. Paper Receipts
Do you take the receipts after each purchase? Where do these receipts end up?
This comes back again to a general misconception that paper isn’t that bad, after all, it’s recyclable, it doesn’t remain on our planet forever like plastic does. However, there is a dark side to single use paper which I go into in more detail in one of my previous blogs; https://mylastbag.com.au/blogs/news/the-no1-thing-you-need-to-improve-your-bulk-food-shopping-experience
Take note on your next shopping trip and ask yourself if you really need that receipt? When it comes to items that have a warranty on them ask the shop if they are able to email you the receipt rather than handing you a printed copy.
These small steps help to make a big difference.
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Personally I have very sweet memories of Easter with SWEET being the key word here, haha… I love the Egg hunt and how excited my two boys get. It’s a Sunday Morning I look forward to with joy.
However, with all that SWEETness often also comes much mess and unfortunately much waste! Most holidays create an incredible amount of waste and an attitude of consumerism that I detest. So with Easter only 2 days away I’d like to share some last minute tips on how to make this Holiday a bit more Waste Free and a bit more Planet Friendly.
3 steps to a Waste Free Easter;
1. Reusable Easter Baskets
The stores are full of bright coloured often poorly made plastic Easter Baskets. Let’s face it, we all know that most of these baskets will end up in the bin within a few weeks if not earlier as they will break quickly and have no further use.
Instead opt for a Reusable good quality basket or a basket you already have in your home. If you don’t have a little basket already buying a proper little basket may initially cost you more, but you can use it every future Easter ~ in the long run you will save money and more importantly you will be saving on a lot of unnecessary plastic waste.
Be creative ~ Make your own little basket with some scrap paper you have lying around and a stapler, there are many options ~ even My Last Bag’s Small Reusable Bulk Food bag doubles up perfectly as a little Easter basket ;)
2. Easter Eggs & Easter Bunnies
Most Bulk Food stores these days sell Easter Eggs in bulk, how great is that!!! Simply bring your Reusable Bulk Food bag to your local bulk food store and fill it up with eggs. Due to the lining on the My Last Bag bulk food bags there is no need to worry about the chocolate staining your bag, you can simply turn the bag inside out and wipe it clean with a wet sponge.
As a mum I do get it ~ your kids want the sparkly shiny eggs ~ it’s often naturally what they are attracted to. In this case (or if you’re planning an outdoor egg hunt) opt for the foil wrapped eggs. Make sure to collect all the foil wrappers and scrunch them all together into one big ball (I often wrap a big piece of foil from one of the big eggs around all the little ones). This way you can throw the aluminium foil ball into your recycling bin.
When it comes to the larger Eggs and Bunnies that are often part of the Easter gifts again opt for the foil wrapped ones for the same reason, avoid the ones that are in a cardboard and plastic box, this is unnecessary packaging. There are heaps of options out there without the extra packaging.
3. Hot cross buns
Enjoy a SWEET yet WASTE FREE Easter!!
]]>Here are a few short facts on paper bags;
Bulk Food shoppers are sending a clear message of protest to over packaged goods in our supermarket, but are we really saving on packaging if we are still throwing away paper bags and plastic bags that we have scooped our grains into at the Bulk Food Store? I could see that it was going to take one more step to truly turn our back on packaging. A Reusable Bulk Food Bag to scoop our produce into seemed the only clear answer for me.
Last year I identified the missing link in the bulk food shopping experience. If the purpose was to save on packaging, why was I still throwing away paper bags or plastic bags when I got home? In recent months it is safe to say we have hit a recycling crisis as recycling only works when there’s a market for it, unfortunately the market cannot keep up with the amounts we recycle. After months of research I discovered some disturbing facts about single use PAPER bags as well. I had found the next missing link in our war on waste and I set out to solve our next Waste problem!
After 18 month of research including designing a fabric that did not exist, I have invented My Last Bag. This Hemp bag fills the gap that I experienced when I shopped at my local Bulk Food Stores.
My Last Bag ensures that Bulk Food shopping is a True Zero Waste Shopping experience. No plastic or paper bags to throw away at all!!
But what is wrong with paper bags you may ask?
Surely paper is far better than all the plastic packaging out there. We can recycle the paper bags, we can even compost them, so how is this new trend in any form harmful for the environment?!
Here are a few short facts on paper bags;
Single use paper bags traditionally used in Bulk Food Shopping are NOT an environmentally friendly or sustainable option and this has been my inspiration for developing My Last Bag’s Bulk Food Bags.
Next time you shop in your Bulk Food Store take note of how many paper bags you still actually throw away at home. Multiply this by 52 to see how many bags you could be saving per year by using a Reusable Bulk Food Bag.
Bulk Food Shopping is clearly a trend on the rise, shops like the Source, Naked Foods and Scoop can easily be found these days. We see mothers, fathers and students proudly shopping in Bulk with a feeling that we are doing something to make this world a better place. Let’s all take that one Extra Step. The name My Last Bag says it all, are you ready to make it your Last Bag?
When shopping with our Bulk Food Bag’s you truly can go to the Bulk Food or Health food store with a clear conscience and come home ‘Zero Waste’!
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12 Steps to Waste Free – Join Our Blog – Get 12 Tips, one a month all year – True Change happens slowly and in small steps. It’s hard to change all at once so find small ways to change and let them integrate into your life throughout the year.
For my first blog as part of My Last Bag’s 2019 Waste Free campaign I’m going to talk about what I call ‘BRING IT BACK’.
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Most of us are familiar with the 5 R’s of Zero Waste; Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rot. However when we apply BRING IT BACK we don’t even really need to start here. BRING IT BACK is something I only get to apply at my local farmers market ~ but as I try and do the majority of my shopping here it works well.
Here are 5 ways I ‘BRING IT BACK’ at my local market. Can you find a local organic shop or farmers market you can do this with? Remember that most store holders will not advertise this ‘service’ but when having a friendly chat, most store owners and stall holders are delighted to help and some will even give you discounts for it.
My personal most favourite dip from the market is a black olive paste, it’s just divine. The man who makes them happily accepts the clean empty glass jars I bring back and also gives me a discount on my next purchase pending how many jars I return.
I get most of my veggies, potatoes, carrots, capsicum, cucumber etc from my one trusted favourite store at the market. Any loose items like snow peas I put into the My Last Bag Veggie bag. At this particular stall they also bag up passion fruits or cherry tomatoes sometimes and you get a bag for $5. As I don’t want to bring the netted bag home I empty the netted bag into my own Veggie bag and give them the netted bag back, they reuse it to bag up the next lot. Practising REFUSE where they in turn REUSE.
At the olive store I simply practice REFUSE. Instead of accepting the plastic tubs they put the olives in I bring my own Tupperware container which they happily fill with the bulk olives they have. Sometimes I love buying the dried olives as an extra treat. They don’t have the dried olives in bulk, so I hand them my container and pick my dried olives up the following week.
At the blueberry stand I usually get two punnets of blueberries. After speaking to the stall holder he told me that he can legally reuse the punnets as long as they don’t leave his store. I bring my own container, we empty the blueberries into my container at the store and he then REUSES the punnets.
Then last but not least there’s the store where I get my Ghee, and the Honey store. Once again I bring my clean glass jars back which they then REUSE for their next batch. The Honey store even gives me a discount on my next purchase!
It takes a little bit of organising and finding out which stalls will and how they can cooperate towards a Waste Free 2019, but trust me, once you’ve done it a few times you pack your market bag without thinking, it just becomes habit.
I do my market trip coming home with no extra waste, nothing to Reduce, Reuse or Recycle and only left over foods to Rot. The only items I bring home that are not edible are items I will BRING BACK.
Looking at the examples above, in one market trip I will save 3 to 4 glass jars, 1 to 2 netted bags, 1 to 2 plastic tubs and 2 plastic punnets. See how you go shopping at your next farmers market trip!
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Next time you go shopping try to pay real attention to what you buy. Question the manufacturers packaging methods; is it necessary? Did they use excessive packaging? Can it be recycled? If you feel that the manufacturer did use excessive packaging ask yourself if you really need this product ~ is there something else you could buy instead that would be a better option?
]]>Please see my last blog on how to create your own kit; Reusable Kit Blog
2) Bring Bottles, cans and cartons to your Return and Earn point
More and more councils in Australia are introducing Return and Earn vending machines. Here you can return your bottles and receive 10 cents for each bottle you return. Most drink bottles, cartons and cans are accepted. Follow this link to find your nearest Return and Earn point in NSW; www.returnandearn.org.au Please check with your own council if Return and Earn is currently available in your state, if not ~ please encourage them to introduce it.
3) Reduce your Food Waste
It is estimated that Australians throw out 4 million tonnes of food each year. That's a lot of food!! Shop wisely. When buying products that will only last for a few days, make sure you will eat them within a few days. Don't buy what you won't eat.
Store your food wisely. There are ways of storing your food that will keep it fresh for longer. For nuts, grains, coffee and herbs it's a good idea to store them in the freezer if you have the space. Once you've opened your crackers or your corn thins also pop these in the freezer; it will stop them from going stale. Keep your leafy greens in a My Last Bag Veggie bag available Spring 2018. It will keep your veggies fresh and crisp for at least a week more.
Cos lettuce after 1 week
The food scraps that you do have; dispose of them wisely. Did you know that food waste that ends up in landfill undergoes anaerobic decomposition because of lack of oxygen and therefor generates methane, a greenhouse gas 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Don't let your food scraps end up in landfill.
The best option off course is if you have a home compost system ~ this way you can also make food for your veggie garden. The aerobins are quite amazing in this sense; www.aerobin400.com
If you don't have access to a home compost use the councils green bin. But before chucking it in the compost ask yourself first if there could be any other use for this food? Left over seeds and grains could be used to feed the birds ~ if you have pets what will they eat? Use your eggshells for your veggie garden ~ think creatively before throwing anything out.
4) Practice awareness for every purchase
Next time you go shopping try to pay real attention to what you buy. Question the manufacturers packaging methods; is it necessary? Did they use excessive packaging? Can it be recycled? If you feel that the manufacturer did use excessive packaging ask yourself if you really need this product ~ is there something else you could buy instead that would be a better option?
Start substituting some items for better alternatives; there are some awesome products on the market right now ~ a few examples;
- Dental lace instead of dental floss; The containers are refillable and the floss is made out of 100% silk; www.dentallace.com
- Shampoo bars instead of shampoo in single use bottles; Flora&Fauna stock some great shampoo bars; Shampoo Bars
- Soap bars instead of liquid body wash; Most often your local farmers market will sell some locally made natural soaps. You are not only reducing your waste, but also helping to support your local community at the same time. Church Farm soaps are my local favourite!
Image taken from www.churchfarmgeneralstore.com
- Soap berries instead of laundry detergent; I buy my soap berries at the local bulk food store so there's no packaging involved what you ever. If your local bulk food store doesn't stock soap berries you can get them here; www.thatredhouse.com.au
5) Recycle - but recycle properly
After you have followed all the above steps start thinking about what you can bring back; at our local farmers market I bring the egg cartons back every week. A lot of farmers will be happy to reuse their own packaging.
Reuse what you can! Give your glass jars a wash, use some eucalyptus oil to get the sticky labels off and they are perfect storage jars for your bulk foods or crafty bits.
Then recycle what you can. Our recycling system is heavily overburdened and glass and paper is getting stockpiled in warehouses as we speak. Therefor I definitely don't believe recycling is the answer ~ best to have no waste ~ but with the waste we do create recycle what you can.
Every council in Australia differs slightly as to what you can and can't recycle. The best way to find out is to go to your local council's website or to give them a call. Here in the Byron shire all paper, cardboard, hard plastic, glass and cans can go in the recycling. Soft plastics can be bunched together in a plastic bag, small bits of clean aluminium foil can be collected, scrunched into a big ball and then both of these can be placed into the recycle bin.
Our household of 4 lives according to the above steps and our landfill waste is minimal ~ it's not so hard to achieve.
Always eat ice cream out of cone instead of a cup! ;)
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When it comes to reusable items to reduce our waste I most often hear 'but I never remember to bring it with me'; so why not create your own Reusable kit which you always stash in a big bag or tub in the boot of your car.
]]>One of the advantages is that we always have a big lockable space on wheels in which we can store items we may need throughout the day.
When it comes to reusable items to reduce our waste I most often hear 'but I never remember to bring it with me'; so why not create your own Reusable kit which you always stash in a big bag or tub in the boot of your car.
Items you could include in your Reusable kit:
- A KeepCup; www.keepcup.com.au Australians throw out approximately 2.7 million coffee cups each day. If you drink one coffee a day your KeepCup could help you save 365 single use coffee cups each year.
- Reusable Shopping Bags; As of July 2018 Coles and Woolworths will ban single use plastic bags. Stock up on some reusable shopping bags and have them ready to go in your Reusable kit.
- Plastic or Glass containers; Just in case you want to grab some Sushi on the go or you end up getting an unexpected take away meal it's always good to have some containers ready to avoid using the single use throw away ones on offer.
- Water Bottle; This one off course goes without saying! Always have your water bottle with you so to stay hydrated and so you don't have to purchase plastic bottles. Papaya Art make some really pretty water bottles; www.papayaart.com
- Reusable Bulk Food Bags & Produce Bags; Useful for when you go shopping at your local bulk food store or buy some fresh veggies. Always have your own reusable bags handy so you don't need to grab paper or plastic bags which will end up in the bin. My Last Bag will have the Reusable Bulk Food bags and Veggie bags ready for retail in Spring 2018. The small bulk food bag doubles up as a pastry bag for at your local bakery.
- Olive oil bottle, peanut butter jar, olive container; this is off course depending on what you buy and where you shop. I've listed these here as this is what is in my Reusable Kit. I get my olives and olive oil from the local market and have them refilled every week. Instead of buying a new jar of peanut butter when I need it adding a jar to the collection each time, I use the same jar every time and refill at the local bulk food store. Off course you can add or omit items that suit your household to your kit.
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Back then when My Last Bag was merely an idea I somehow believed I was just going to make a simple bag. Little did I realise that the research and development that went into this project was not going to be as simple as the final product. Here are some highlights from my 12 month journey into fabrics, sustainability and manufacturing, all while raising 2 boys under 6.
Material
I wanted to make the bag out of the most sustainable fibre I could find. This in itself started a long search into the world of fabrics. Even when I'd set my heart on hemp the question was then; which type of hemp? My Last Bag is made out of Unbleached Undyed Dew Retted Hemp. Dew Retting means the stalks are laid in the field after harvest and nature takes its course; bacteria, sun, air and dew help to dissolve the stem material surrounding the fibre bundles. This technique uses far less water than the more commonly used water retting where bundles of the stalks are submerged in water. Now that I'd chosen the fabric....
The Roll and Snap Close System
How was the bag going to close?! The obvious and first answer that came to mind was Velcro. However, Velcro wears out quickly, especially when opened and closed on a regular basis and bulk foods could easily get stuck in Velcro. The second most obvious answer was a zip, but again, this just didn't sit right with me, to put flour in a bag and then zip it closed, well....
It took a lot of prototypes, a lot of thought, a lot of looking at the traditional brown paper bag, but we now have a closing technique, simply roll and snap closed.
No Washing Required
I wanted this product to be easy for people to use , to not add to the laundry basket ~ simply because I want people to ACTUALLY USE the product so we can prevent more single use items getting thrown out. This is why My Last Bag is laminated with food safe TPU so it wipes down very easily. No washing required.
Bag Weight
You don't want to pay extra for your produce because of the bag weight. This is why the empty weight of the bag is printed on the back. So when your bulk food store mentions the weight, just point to the bag weight that we have printed on the bag for you.
Label
And then there was one more issue! Once there was food in the bag how would you know what was in it?? The solution we found for this was to put a name tag on the bag. The name tag is also Unbleached Undyed Hemp laminated with TPU. With a chinagraph wax pencil you can write the name or item number of your bulk food on the bag and then simply wipe it off when you fill the bag with something else.
Storage
As a busy mum, I really wanted to eliminate 2 steps in the bulk food shopping process. Firstly, I did not want to deal with paper or plastic bags which I'd have to throw out after one or two shops, or bringing bulky glass containers to the bulk food store. Secondly, I did not want to transfer the produce from the bag into another container when I got home. The bag IS the container. My Last Bag is designed to look beautiful in your pantry and also works well for smaller homes where there's no space for rows of jars. You can also store My Last Bag in the fridge or freezer for extra long freshness.
Naturally Good Expo is very aware and onto it when it comes to waste issues; https://naturallygood.com.au/food-drink/food-waste-nuisance-business-opportunity/ so I feel we will fit right in.
If you are attending please come and say hi and check out My Last Bag. We will be part of the Chemical Free Community at stand F06 right near the cafe.
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And then all of a sudden there I was; a new mum completely and utterly overwhelmed with this new found love and also completely overwhelmed with my new busy life that wasn’t about ME any longer, but about my bub and everything that comes with that... Before I knew it wet wipe after wet wipe was getting thrown out and even more to my shock; I had become a user of disposable sandwich bags!
The first few years of my first child’s life we lived in a truck travelling Australia. I became increasingly aware of how many single use items there are on this planet. I also slowly came to realise that generally speaking being environmentally aware and acting on this awareness are two separate things.
Waste consciousness seemed to be more of a luxury set aside for people who had time; Time to make reusable lunch bags for their kids ~ time to always have a clean one ready ~ time to carry around bulky Tupperware containers with one babe on the hip and the other in the pram ~ time to have ten glass jars in your shopping bag when going to the bulk food store; The result being that many people in this busy fast paced world of ours simply weren’t managing to act in a waste conscious manner even when the awareness was there.
During these long truck journeys through the never ending red deserts I started dreaming up products; Practical easy to use products making waste consciousness an achievable option for busy people and families alike.
Once we had settled back in the northern rivers of NSW and I had my second boy in my belly I started researching; my main interest was in how different materials impacted our planet; I read any article I could find on the subject and became very interested in the difference between single use paper and single use plastic bags. To my surprise I found that single use paper bags are not much if at all better than single use plastic bags; https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/paper-plastic.htm
We all have our pet hates. Seeing environmentally unaware people lining up in the supermarket with plastic wrapped bananas, every vegetable and fruit in a separate plastic bag, to only then pack all of these in yet another disposable plastic bag is one of mine. But there is something that bugs me even more;
Seeing people convinced that they are being environmentally aware whilst they are not. Bulk food stores slowly became my place of irritation. I watched people putting bulk food after bulk food in paper bags, taking them home in their well chosen reusable shopping bags thinking they were doing the right thing, yet unaware of the truth about paper bags.
This is when I decided My Last Bag, the World’s First Reusable Bag for Bulk Food Shopping had to be my first product.
Baby number two was only a few weeks old when I started this venture. Many told me I was insane, many told me to wait till he was in preschool; there was no rush for me to get back to work. However, I figured that for every reusable bulk food bag used on average 52 bags less a year would end up in landfill; e.g. if one family uses 6 bags a week this is 312 bags per year per family.
Waiting a few years was not an option.
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