Saving the planet

Does anybody know of any natural sun protection products, suitable for children.

If you do have you tried them? Are the they effective? Do you know what they are made from?

I am going to do a bit of googling myself, but wondered if anybody already uses this type of thing.

I do worry about long term affects of sun-screen. I wonder if the sunscreen will  cause any effects for them in their elderely years. Something we personally will never know.

Of course I'm not going to stop using sunscreen, but these things are in the back of my mind and I'd just like to consider alternatives.

Palm oil is in everything from biscuits to bio fuels.  In Indonesia farmers clear the old growth by chainsawing and then burning the forests.  This not only creates dangerous pollution and green house gases but destroys the natural habitat of animals such as the Orangutan.

In certain areas, like Borneo, they have already lost 50% of the forests and the forests are disappearing at a rate of one football field per 10 seconds.

This doco The Burning Season was extremely inspiring and sad.  Dorjee Sun, a young Australian entrepreneur, is trying to find a way to stop the deforestation in Indonesia, by turning the farmers of palm oil into the caretakers of the forests.  Forests can be brought by  companies to off set their carbon deposits.  Although some are worried that it is an easy way for companies to be 'carbon neutral' by not actually reducing their emissions, i think if their emissions are still managed properly it could be a solution for the Forests, the Orangutan and the Farmers.

So, is there an alternative to Palm oil.  Well, i'm not sure but a start would be to not buy products that have palm oil in them, although this can be hard to determine as it is not always labelled but just identified as vegetable oil.  This site has a general guide and a list of some products in Australia that are palm oil free......it is a start.......have a look at the Orangutan's, they are so worth it!

anyone know how to set up a worm farm and how much it will cost and what i will need and stuff? i want to start one with chloe for my food scraps.

OR

i watched a UK show on carbon imprints and how to change your lifestyle and at the end it had that the family had a portable chicken coop it was awsum! 

it looked like a rabbit hutch, does anyone know if they are sold in aus and how much? if they are any good or if i could use a rabbit hutch instead and what convertions id need to make?

well if you cant afford to buy organic food your not alone!

while watching oprah today (ok shutup! yes i watch oprah!) ...... anyway i was watching oprahs earth day special and they were talking about organic foods and the risk of pesticides on our food, the effect of pesticides is much worse on small kids and babies obviously.

so if we cant afford to buy organic what do we do? wash them? well that will get off SOME of the pesticides but not alot really.

OR you can try the veggie spray! its free coz you can make it at home with a few simple ingredients! hurrrah! so give it a go!

INGREDIENTS
1 cup water
1 cup distilled white vinegar
1 Tbsp. baking soda
20 drops of grapefruit seed extract

after mixing fill up a spray bottle with the liquid and off you go! spray them and leave for about ten mins then rinse well and it will remove a vast majority of chemicals from your food. lets face it ANY less is better and it doesnt seem like a difficult thing to do does it?

anyway happy spraying!

xxxnat 

well we all know that nappies are a HUGE environmental problem in the world.

around 8 million nappies go into landfill each year in australia alone! ive heard that would fill the MCG up at least 3 times! yucko! now thats alot of poop!

with the impact on the environment in such a massive way we often ask how can we fix it? would it be better if we used washables like granny did?

well the answer to that is... its inconclusive! with water shortages and the use of power for washing and the effect of detergents basically it may work out to be just as bad if not worse than the mountain of poop that populates aus!

so what to do, what to do we all say! there is one newish option that wasnt available to us a few years ago which now is, THE BIODEGRADABLE NAPPY! sorry had to capitalise i think its important lol

the biodegradable nappy is being used by several brands now, but i use one particular type natures babycare, i came across it at my shop by accident and didnt actually look at the packet until id started using them, i liked that they were thin but worked the same if not better than the other nappies id tried.

tobias as a newborn had issues with his nappies leaking so i was constanly trying new ones to see how they worked for us, these didnt LEAK!

then i looked at the packet and a lil green circle caught my attention ECO..... this made me look into the nappy furthur! the nappy is made with a film based on corn not plastic it contains chlorine free pulp and tobias has not suffered nappy rash at all (except one week when my local shop was out of them and he was teething haha) since we started using them!

there are many brands that now stock compostable and biodegradable nappies and baby products like wipes, disposable bibs, liners and womens products now all you have to do is look for them!

they can be slightly more expensive than alot of nappies around now but they are still cheaper than alot too and the cost on the environment is alot more costly to me anyway.

so check them out and give them a try!

xxnat

 

well i really really like this group! hehe so i thought id try to contribute something meaningful that i do to try and help the earth as i love to hear other ppls suggestions and have acted on several after reading blogs here.

sometimes something we do in our household seems normal but often ppl just dont think about it and it takes a heads up or a lil info for them to make a change and thats how this group has effected me. i look here for new ideas to help the environment that may seem simple but has just plain missed the boat with me until i read.....

so keep bloggin ppl! it makes a difference, it has to me......

oh and p.s this isnt the meaningful blog lol im workin on that!

xxnat

 

According to G Magazine; Worldwide, about 270,000 trees are flushed down the toilet every day in the form of toilet paper.

Thats a lot of trees, so what do you use?  Virgin or recycled?

I still can't believe the amount of plastic bags still in use. At the local supermarket you only get a 'plakky' if you buy more than three items. Well, that is what the sign says! I see so many people ask for a bag when they only have one item. I have recently switched to using calico bags as I found out that the 'green' bags aren't biodegradable. So I use my 'green' bags for travel and giving to my family to encourage them to use less 'plakky' bags. My daughter takes her lunch in a paper bag and brings it home each day to reuse until it falls apart. She told me the other day that she was a little worried when she saw one of the school bins overflowing with plastic bags from the childrens lunch. I'm glad she notices these things, but it's hard for children to learn to use less plastic bags when their parents aren't. It's a hard lesson to learn. And I'm not being sarcastic! It really is...

http://www.heavenfelts.com/assets/Mawu%20A4%20Postermod.jpg

fabsugar.com/208285

Here is one for the fashion conscious gal....