Week 10 of Zero Waste
Pretty standard week this week. Shopped in the market, prepped some beans for the coming weeks and made some natural washing up liquid. I also had a pretty abrupt wake-up call on the products I use for cleaning and beauty - more on that below.
Shopping
We packed up our containers into our wheelie backpack and thought we'd chance walking in this week despite the cloudy skies (getting some exercise and saving 6€ on parking). On the way in we stopped to take in some street performers playing tribal drums - one of the benefits of doing our shopping in the city - we get to soak up the weekend atmosphere and entertainment.
Shops
85€ this week
English market (all pictured except for the nuts/chocolate) - 35€
Holland and Barrett (nuts and chocolate) - 9€
Dunnes (cat food, g/f bread, sausages, rice cakes cheese, bananas, avocados, potatoes - 36€
Blackpool Butcher (chicken for the cat) - 5€
We've been trying to buy as much as we can local and support the local markets and surprisingly it's actually cheaper than the big supermarkets, even imported fruit is cheaper in some cases (though we got burned by an 1.50€ avocado one of the weeks). Just comparing the costs:
English market wins:
Lemons/limes 5c cheaper each
Apples from a farm down the road 25c cheaper each (and less carbon footprint!)
Eggs - although you can get eggs for the same price in Dunnes (1.05€ for 6) the market wins as they can be bought loose and are from a local free-range farm - the ones in Dunnes for the same price are in plastic and I don't think free range
Dunnes wins:
Avocados 1€ cheaper each
Will compare more next week.
Meals
spaghetti
burgers
eggs/bacon
taco salad
bean burrito
Bean prep
Since we've been buying beans loose rather than in tins (less packaging, fresher and cheaper (I think) - I'll confirm the price difference on my next visit), it takes a bit more time to prepare so this weekend I'm preparing a batch to freeze. Apparently you can freeze cooked beans up to 6 months and just use them from frozen in your dishes. I'm doing up black and kidney beans this time. I followed this guide. I rinsed and started soaking the beans at 10am this morning and starting cooking them at 8:40pm, I made my dish soap and am writing this post at the same time. Interestingly it's important to soak and fully cook beans to avoid gastro-issues (kidney beans in particular) - according to the guide.
Dishsoap/Dishwasher detergent
The castille soap we have been using isn't cutting it - grease that is - rather than cut grease it leaves a grease on everything. Apparently homemade soaps can be finicky and react differently to hard or soft water and whatever chemicals are added in your local treatment facilities. SO...we are trying a new recipe, this may be a trial and error thing but hoping this one works better. It's all natural and meant to work for both hand washing and dishwasher. It's cooling as I type and smells great so at least there's that. Will let you know how effective it is. (Update: I used the soap to clean up from the beans and soap prep and so far so good and smells delicious).
Recipe here
Multitasking work in progress
Finished product
4 tins worth of kidney beans in the freezer and 1 tin worth of black beans
A couple of months worth of dish soap
Product wake-up call
As I've been making more of my own cleaners and products - more to cut down on plastic and packaging, I've been amazed to find that there are so many recipes for simple, effective and all natural products - which has led me to question what was actually in the other products I've been using. I downloaded 2 apps. Healthy Living and Think Dirty - these are not great for Irish products just yet but I managed to check out a few and was shocked. My shampoo, conditioner, M.A.C make-up and "natural" deodorant that I bought instead of antiperspirant as I thought it was more healthy were all rated 9 or 10 out of 10 for carcinogenicity and or developmental/reproductive toxicity!
Even though Europe has thousands of banned ingredients (the US only has 11!) I think we've become too complacent, relying on the government to regulate and control chemicals that we bring into our homes and put in or on our bodies on a daily basis.
Now more than ever I will be keeping a closer eye on what comes into the house and make as much as I can myself.
