Week 3 of Zero Waste

This week, when I went to put together my list of meals I realised that we still had enough for 6 meals. This is because we were buying "bulk" deals at the butchers ie: instead of paying 1.50€ per chicken breast you could get 4 for 5€ so we'd freeze 2 and use 2. After 2 weeks of shopping we'd actually built up enough extras to get us through another full week. All we were missing was a few fruit and veg, cheese and milk.

This week however I wanted to experiment with a few things.

DIY Cat food

1. I wanted to properly introduce Ezio (our cat) to a frankenprey diet (a raw diet simulating their natural diet) - I had started giving him raw chicken last week which he loved - mixed with his usual wet and dry commercial (heavily packaged) food but in my research to properly simulate the diet they need small portions of organ meat and bones as well so wanted to get that this week. Full post on this to follow. The benefits of this diet are to reduce packaging but it's also better for the cat, and he will poop less meaning a reduction in cat litter as well. So overall this should be cheaper than the commercial diet, better for the environment and save on veterinary bills in the future.

DIY Mouthwash

2. As we are running low on mouthwash I wanted to try and make my own. I've been researching all kinds of DIY recipes for bath/beauty and cleaning products and there is a lot you can do with the same basic ingredients. I only want to try making things when I run out of something as it would be too much to take it all in at once. So this week was stuff to make mouthwash.

Shopping

Here is a pic of my shopping this week. The aloe plant, coconut oil, swing top bottle, funnels and sieve are all for the mouthwash and future DIY products.

The meat is for the cat food (though I got sick this weekend and used a good portion of the wings to make homemade chicken soup) - I know they are in plastic but I won't get every shop perfect. The milk is in tetrapaks which is comparable to glass jars when you look at the overall CO2 emissions to transport and recycle according to this study however if I find glass jars I will use them as the reusability is better and in Ireland the distance to transport them would be low (as there are many dairy farms all over the country). I'm also trying to wean myself off cow's milk as the impact of almond milk must be less than cow's milk so...baby steps. The gherkins are in a glass jar which I will reuse and if not glass is more efficient than other recyclables.

Fun fact: Recycling glass requires 34 percent less energy than producing glass from natural materials. Glass bottles and jars are 100 percent recyclable and can be recycled endlessly without any loss in purity or quality

Cost:

82€ Breakdown below includes some staple items for more DIY cleaning products

20€ in Dunnes (groceries)

13€ in the butchers for 5 pork chops, 5 chicken breasts, 1 kidney and 1 liver (not pictured as I already had it cut up)

14€ in woodies (aloe vera plant, bottle and funnels)

35€ in the health food shop for coconut oil and 4 essential oils

As per above - when I went to the health food shop I decided to stock up on essential oils as I intend to use them for other cleaning and beauty products. Nice range to get me started.

Mouthwash Recipe

Last but not least here is the recipe I used for mouthwash.

To get the aloe out of a small houseplant cut the leaf at the root, use a vegetable peeler on the 2 small sides and then on one of the wide sides and scoop out the gel with a knife or spoon.

For the recipe I only put 7 drops of essential oil when the recipe called for 10 and I did not have tea tree oil - it tastes very essential oily so next time I will use less or maybe try one of the infusion ones with natural infusers like one of these.

That's it for this week!