Smart Consumer
Getting to grips with the nitty gritty of running a household efficiently, without stretching you to the max but still maintaining a healthy mind, body and environment.
Can I Recycle My Asthma Inhaler?
If you are looking for somewhere to recycle your asthma inhaler, then you will be pleased to know that a recycling service is available in many pharmacies and GP surgeries. The Complete the Cycle programme recycles asthma inhalers of all brands and manufacturers them into new products.
Read more »Plastic-Free Tea | The Latest List of Converts
A little-known fact until relatively recently was that most tea bags do in fact contain plastic! More often than not tea bags are or were heat sealed with a small amount of polypropylene and unwittingly consumers have been disposing of them thinking they were more than fit for their compost heaps!
Read more »The Spice of Convenience | Ready-Made Fajita Spice Mix Versus Make Your Own
Yep, we’ve all done it. Picked up the packet of Fajita Seasoning thinking there’s a simple dinner. In fact, I’m not sure I even realised that it was possible to construct your own Fajita Seasoning without a catering qualification from the Acapulco School of Cookery. But if you are a frequent consumer of the fajita, we thought this might be of interest to you! Bottom line is, it is blindingly simple! Not only that, but there is considerably less packaging and plastic involved!
Read more »Plastic Confusion and Why it is So Important to Look at the Bigger Picture
Today I am meant to be writing about how to have a resourceful Christmas, but frankly, this feels more important. I am coming across more and more cases of products that according to their appearance, and their description, would seem to be ‘plastic free’, recyclable or kinder to the environment because they are ‘biodegradable’!
Read more »Spread the Love and Reduce the Waste this Easter | Our Guide to Low Waste Easter Eggs
Arguably the most uncomfortable time of the year for a waste reducer outside of Christmas is Easter! All that plastic packaging containing such a small amount of chocolate! Over 80 million eggs sold in this country alone! Yikes!
Over the past few years, some of the larger manufacturers have heard the public cry of dismay and started introducing some lower packaging and waste options. And there is an increasing amount of ‘ethical’ brands out there with great green, fair trade and plant-based credentials.
But what sets this year apart is that we have fewer retailers to choose from – we can’t wander up our high streets and support the specialist shops and smaller businesses, so the supermarkets have an unfair advantage.
Read more »Green Tomato Spiced Cake | Deliciously Different
Fancy doing something a bit different with the glut of green tomatoes you have left? Give this tried and tested green tomato cake a go! If like me you are a fan of sticky spiced cakes you will love this. Given the seal of approval from my work colleagues, even converting those who don’t believe vegetables belong in a cake (although most class tomatoes as a salad or a fruit!) gave it rave reviews. It is after all, quite delicious.
Read more »Disposable Coffee Cups | The Full Picture
So disposable coffee cups annoy just about everybody, not just Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. As a nation we use 7 million disposable coffee cups EVERY day – that is 2.5 billion a year. That is just plain crazy and it doesn’t take a genius to work out the impact that is going to have on the environment. And don’t get us started about the lids, the stirrers and those gargantuan plastic smoothie cups!
Read more »Let Loose the Juice | Three Ways to Save Your Wrinkly Satsumas from Extermination
I don’t know about you, but I often find buying satsumas, mandarins or clementines a bit of a lottery – sometimes they are delicious and juicy and the kids just romp through them. At other times they are disappointing, tough and destined to a future languishing in the fruit bowl unloved, ignored and ultimately deteriorating.
Read more »
