I caught up with my friend Allison recently at the fabulous Steam Engine in Chatswood. Not only do they make great coffee, they also encourage folks to bring their own reusable cups by showing them exactly how much goes to landfill from one takeaway coffee a day…
Inspired, I decided to add to my KeepCup set.
After eight months and over 150 uses, my baby 4oz cup is still as good as new. This week I added a large cup for herbal teas and a 6oz cup for iced piccolos. I toyed with the idea of just buying a large one, but my baby cup has a permanent coffee aroma, and I was keen to have a dedicated one for tea.
If you’re in Sydney’s Inner West, Caffe Bianchi in Leichhardt has the full range on offer (it can be hard to find the smaller sizes in coffee shops), or you can order directly from KeepCup. Doing the latter lets you choose your own colours as well…
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Our beeswax wraps are going strong!
Here’s how our Korean dinner party prep looked a few weeks ago. My homemade cloths aren’t as sticky as the commercial ones, but it’s nothing a rubber band can’t fix. We haven’t used any clingfilm so far this year…
Being Chinese, I’m probably washing the wraps more often than recommended, and I noticed recently that the wax coating was slowly wearing down. So I rewaxed a pile of them – it took just a couple of minutes and the addition of a small amount of sheet wax – and now they’re as good as new! If you’d like to have a go making some, our tutorial is here.
One last tip – if you have a friend who keeps bees, ask them to buy the beeswax foundation sheets for you. My friend Ian picked some up for me at under $2 each, compared to the $3.50 per sheet charged at candle shops. Having said that, each sheet will wax a piece of fabric up to eight times its size, so it’s still remarkably good value compared to buying them ready made!
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The cloth napkins and crocheted/knitted dishcloths are going well – we haven’t used a paper napkin all year, and we’re still on our first roll of paper towels. There’s more effort involved – a bit more washing and a lot more folding, but it’s well worth it. As I mentioned last time, having a large stack of napkins reduces the need to wash too often.
The tenegui from Daiso that I used to make the napkins have been perfect – they’re pilling a bit after three months, but still holding up otherwise, and they wash and line dry very quickly. Most importantly, I don’t have to iron them!
I’ve cut up an old waffle weave bedspread and turned it into towels – they’re super absorbent for everything from drying vegetables to wiping up spills…
All the towels and dishcloths are stored in a drawstring bag in the kitchen, ready for use at a moment’s notice…
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The furoshiki continue to be a great success.
I don’t take shopping bags anymore as the cloths live permanently in my handbag. They’re surprisingly strong and can hold up to twice as much as a regular plastic shopping bag. At home, we use them to wrap everything from lunch boxes to excess linen to loaves of bread. A couple of my furoshiki have even become fashion accessories, thanks to these snazzy magnetic handles that Kevin and Carol bought me in Japan…
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Finally, the Bokashi has stalled temporarily while we figure out what to do with the broken down waste material.
The system performs well for the most part (there are some things which it can’t seem to process like pork rind and processed meats), and our original thinking was to feed all the waste to the worms after it had fermented. However, we also collect our vegetable scraps for the worms, and they seem to far prefer that to the Bokashi waste.
We’ve just invested in a second worm farm which we plan to keep just for Bokashi scraps. Pete was also mumbling something yesterday about soldier fly larvae (which apparently eat the scraps very quickly) and engineering a device to add to the second worm farm so we can collect pupating larvae for the chickens…and it was all so gross that I switched off. Suffice to say that I’ll just keep sewing cloth napkins and crocheting dishcloths and leave all of that to him…
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So, what can we improve?
We’ve reduced our paper bag usage, but I think we can still do better there. And while I always have my reusable coffee cup, I don’t always remember to take my plastic containers to the deli. We’ve invested in sturdy plastic storage containers for the fridge and freezer (glass would be preferable, but we find it too heavy), but a lot of plastic takeaway containers are still coming into the house.
Parchment paper is an ongoing problem – it’s non-recyclable, but I don’t like the result I get from baking on silicon mats. I’m reusing each sheet twice (three bakes at high heat is all it can take before it starts to crumble apart), but it’s still not ideal.
Being more aware of what we purchase means that our food waste has reduced, so that even with the Bokashi temporarily on hiatus, we’re still managing to keep our household rubbish down to one kitchen bin bag a week. I’m making the boys eat a lot of leftovers! Unfortunately, the compostable bags we bought are quite flimsy, so we’re occasionally having to use an old fashioned plastic one.
I think the next area of focus will be really looking at how the goods which come into our house are packaged. Whilst a lot of packaging materials can be recycled (the soft plastics can be REDcycled), there are still some items (like polystyrene) that need to go straight into the red bin.
I’ll keep you posted on how we go!
Well done Celia. We also have been making a conscious effort to reduce all waste in our household. We don’t use any plastic bags, degradable or bio-degradable for our rubbish. What can’t be composted, fed to the chooks or the dogs, (eg. Meat fat, bones etc), is wrapped in a sheet of newspaper and put in the bin. The newspaper we use is either the free local rag or from my mums place after she’s read the Sunday paper. Originally we thought that this would make our rubbish bin smelly, but we have been surprised by the result. After all, that’s what my grandparents would have done!
sounds as though your family is doing well with recycling and waste Celia, good job. We’re also doing much better too. I have given up buying paper towels that was a biggy for me. Next focus is cling film. Our local council (Shoalhaven) is running free monthly classes for residents teaching Furoshiki, beeswax wraps, organic gardening and Bokashi. A marvellous idea and locals are getting on board. I’m looking forward to the beeswax wraps class. Best wishes
Inspirational! I especially like the re-use of the waffle blanket. I am just about to go through our linen cupboard and was wondering what to do with some too-old-for-the-beach towels, and now I know! Thanks for sharing. margret
A brilliant effort Celia! I feel the same way about the silicon mats for baking (even the super-expensive Silpats), but a friend suggested trying reusable barbecue sheets & so far they’ve been pretty comparable to parchment.
Helen, that’s a genius suggestion, thank you! I was given one of those bbq sheets but never used it (as we don’t own a bbq) but I’m going to cut it in half now and try it under my sourdough loaves. I’ll report back! Thanks again! :)
Helen, I tried it this morning, and it worked a treat!! Thank you! I’m off to buy some more now. I actually baked loaves on both the sheet and a piece of parchment and couldn’t tell the difference between them. You’ve solved my dilemma and I’m very grateful! :)
What an inspiration! Keep up the good work.
Soldier fly larvae are so good to have in your compost and to feed to the chooks – i believe they’re high in protein. Your home made scrubbies are a brilliant idea which i will have a go at and pass on to a friend who is having a ‘green’ stall at their church fete – scrub away your sins🤗
Another type of scrubbie you could make is one I’ve been making for ages and they work really well. I buy some tulle or netting, all you need is about a metre, and cut a thin strip of it, about 1 cm wide or less, from around the outside until you’ve got a ball of it. Then crochet or knit it up with cotton yarn into small squares or rectangles, whatever size you like. They wash well and have an added amount of scrubbiness for scouring pots and cooked on stuff. Loving your tips for reducing waste too!
Cathy, thank you! How do these go in the washing machine? I’ve been throwing the acrylic and cotton ones in with the wash…
Absolutely fine in the machine, they wash just the same as dishcloths. Probably best to make the tension a bit looser, so stuff doesn’t get caught in the cloth, and also it’s easier to knit/crochet – it’s pretty hard going to make up.
Hi Celia, I find blog posts like these so helpful to see how ‘normal’ (who – and what – is ‘normal’ really, but you know what I mean!) households are working to reduce their waste. I love the idea of the crocheted scrubbers – will have to try making some as our old plastic ones we were using up are nearly finished. Will be a good first crochet project for me! Thanks for the idea! Also, thanks for your positive comment about my blog the last time I commented- it meant a lot to me. Cheers, Sally at One Family, One Planet blog
Great post Celia, as always.
You might want to give those tools at the bottom left of your Bokashi bin photo, a bit of tender loving care. Place them both in a small tray or bowl, cover completely with vinegar for about 12-24 hours. Rinse them off and apply some oil, they will be as good as new :)
Thanks Nick! I’ll let Pete know!
Our solution to the bokashi problem is to leave the buckets for at least a month before attempting to do anything with the contents. We have a couple of large mango trees in the backyard, and we spread the contents under these and cover it up with the vast quantities of grass clippings we generate on our 3/4 acre. It seems to break down very quickly after that, and the mangos certainly aren’t complaining. The clippings keep the smell down and the flies off.
My cotton crochet dishcloths are magnificent, the more I wash them the better they get. Next job is the mosquito netting produce bags!
Thanks Kate! That’s a great solution, but trickier on our suburban block. We’ve buried a couple of batches, but this is a great alternative if we can find a spot. We’ve been letting the bins sit for a month after they’re full as well.
OK, I am feeling G U I L T Y……………woof
That certainly wasn’t the intention…sorry! After 30 years of full red bins every week, we’re certainly not judging anyone else’s waste output, only just trying to reduce our own. 😉
Glad to ‘meet’ another person who crochets cloths for the kitchen. I find my crocheted cloths are such much better for cleaning than the ones you buy in shops as well as being less damaging to the environment!
Do you have a garden? I make a hole in the ground for the bokashi waste and the soil converts it into compost. I use the liquid run-off to speed up decomposition in the compost bin and the help unblock drains as well as added to water for plants.
Last but not least, KeepCups are great, aren’t they?
What an inspiration you are Celia. So pleased with the beeswax wraps I have been banging on about them to anyone who will listen. Converted!
Did you know that chooks can eat polystyrene and bresk it down in theie sto ach with no health issues, so maybe look for someone who wouldnt mind feeding it to thrir chooks
Unfortunately I don’t think we’d be happy to feed it to our chooks, but thank you for the suggestion!
I also have covers for bowls. Using cotton, I crotchet around the edge of a circle and than sew elastic a 1/4” from edge to size of bowl. Use as cover while bread is proving. I also crotchet a 5” circle in fine cotton threaded hat elastic around edge and use it on a mason jar while feeding my ginger beer starter. I also crotchet another circle with a slot hole to fit a spoon handle for my honey pot to keep out bugs. I cook my bread in a silicon bowl, called a Dough Boy. I’ve used it dozens of times and it hasn’t deteriorated. I am still guilty of using baking paper but will find a barbe mat. Great idea! I have eliminated plastic bags for vegetable by making own out of old curtain netting. Erin from Gympie
Erin, great ideas, thank you! I cover my bread with glass wok lids which fit my mixing bowls perfectly. And snap on the mesh bags! I’ve been making them too out of a roll of lingerie lace I found at reverse garbage (if you scroll back through the posts, you’ll see them). They’re very girly hahaha
hey Celia, i bake a lot as I have a small baking business (cookies and granola) and we have been using teflon sheets instead of parchment – they are thin and not sticky like silicon and can be washed. Not sure of where you’d get them in sydney but a friend bought a roll for her cracker business – maybe give them a try.
Thank you! I’ve actually tried one today – a local company Magic Cooking Sheet – we were given one ages ago but it never got used as we don’t have a bbq. It worked brilliantly!
I really love your posts on reducing waste – they are inspirational to see what you are doing. It gets depressing seeing how much plastic there is about us so it is great to see ways to reduce it. I wish I was better at sewing when I see your lovely serviettes. Maybe I could take up crochet!
I thought I commented on your last reducing waste post but can’t see it – I am interested to hear more about the worm farm – I have one and it is going ok but am curious to hear more about others’ worm farm experiences.
Yes, you did ask about the worm farm, my apologies for not putting pics up yet. I will soon – I think there will be stuff to see. :)
Hi Celia,
Take a look at this website: https://purplegumbootsgreenpickles.wordpress.com/where-to-buy-waste-free-products-in-sydney/
You can use your own containers to buy bulk pantry and household items.
You are a great example to us. I’m still trying to fend off plastic bags from markets – no-one else is a problem but I felt battered by the time I explained that I wanted produce directly into my cotton shoppers yesterday! I think the UK is still well behind Australia in awareness although it’s getting better 😃.
Keep it up – the earth needs us to make the effort!
That’s intriguing Kim, as the UK were years ahead of us (still are) with banning plastic shopping bags! We can only keep trying, I guess! xx
Great inspiration Celia! Can the parchment paper be composted?
Gen, I think so, but we don’t have a compost heap (small backyard and rats, so we’ve opted for worm farms instead).
You are doing an amazing job Celia and Family! Congratulations!
Gen, I would say that Parchment paper is definitely compostable. Wax, and paper would both break down, I would say go ahead and give it a try!
Celia, I have a wrap making kit on its way to me as we speak! Cant wait to make covers in all shapes and sizes. You have inspired me to make many changes in my life, THANK YOU!!
I am impressed, you guys have totally changed the way you live! I use a lot fewer paper products than I have in the past, and I never leave home without my reusable bags, I even have a stash in Arizona where it’s not as common and they don’t charge for plastic bags. I’m going to take a look at the tutorial for the beeswax cloths, I bought a few for some blogging friends in Chicago but didn’t for myself, too expensive.
Lots of great waste reduction going on at your place, Celia. We’ve had a worm farm now for many years and it’s fantastic. A lot of our fruit/veg peelings go in and the worms process all that and produce worm castings and worm wee tea for the garden. I have been using beeswax wraps for a few years now and no longer buy cling film. Just don’t need it. I am also a fan of covering bowls with an upturned plate before they go in fridge. Works well too. Meg:)
A great progress report Celia. We are doing well also but there are always improvements to be made. I like the idea of the waffle weave cut up – I have cloth squares we use but need something a little more absorbent.