Tag Archives: Waste not want not

Waste Not! Want Not! Week 11…

Good Morning and my how the weeks fly…Week 11 and every week I come across new exciting projects and it is lovely it is restoring my faith in human nature so many people really do care about the legacy we leave our children and grandchildren.

Here in Asia, much plastic is used it is a hot topic with many initiatives springing up all over the place…A long, long way to go but the signs are good.

Many people holiday abroad and seek out the beaches… BUT and this is where you can help…Are you mindful of how you dispose of your rubbish?… I have witnessed many tourists just leaving the beach and their rubbish with no thought of the environment or who clears up behind them.

What would you rather see this?

 

Or this?

Please if you are on the beach or on a boat dispose of your rubbish correctly.

Would people do it at home? Many do but many don’t!

The tiny little cigarette butt...

cigarette butt

 

A tad larger than life here… I don’t smoke …my hubby does… Trust me he knows my feelings…haha…He used to when he was outside in the garden smoking stub them out in my plant pots! He no longer does that…Just in case you can’t tell this was typed through gritted teeth …The man learnt!

Cigarette butts…

The Ocean Conservancy has sponsored a beach cleanup every year since 1986. For 32 consecutive years, cigarette butts have been the single most collected item on the world’s beaches, with a total of more than 60 million collected over that time. That amounts to about one-third of all collected items and more than plastic wrappers, containers, bottle caps, eating utensils and bottles, combined.

People sometimes dump that trash directly on to beaches but, more often, it washes into the oceans from countless storm drains, streams and rivers around the world. The waste often disintegrates into microplastics easily consumed by wildlife. Researchers have found the detritus ( waste or debris) in some 70 % of seabirds and 30 % of sea turtles.

Those discarded filters usually contain synthetic fibres and hundreds of chemicals used to treat tobacco.

Please if you must smoke dispose of your butts responsibly…Not in the sand or flicked into the sea, not flicked as you walk along the street or out of your car window…Use an ashtray!

ash tray with smoking cigarette

Find a bin…Take it home stick in your cigarette packet…Just don’t flick it and forget…Just remember it has also only taken a cigarette butt carelessly flicked to start a fire…

If you thought they were biodegradable think again…

It may look like cotton, but 98 % of cigarette filters are made of plastic fibres (cellulose acetate) that are tightly packed together, which leads to an estimated 1.69 billion pounds of cigarette butts winding up as toxic trash each year.

Are they biodegradable…No! The plastic fibres in cigarettes are non-biodegradable which means they DO NOT break down organically.

They can gradually decompose depending on the environmental conditions like sun and rain but after 2 years research shows only 38% has decomposed…

 

I give you Better butts… 

There is nothing better that I love apart from writing is the comments from you… Last week I touched on recycling and Adele sent this link …I love it! So innovative …

Adele shared this great video on how to make tee-shirt yarn it is soooo cool and I will definitely be having a go with my granddaughter. Thank you so much Adele xxx

 

That’s all for this week I hope you have found something interesting and please carry on commenting and letting us all know what you do or any great incentives you have come across… I love to hear from you and if we share our good practices then the world benefits xxx

 

About Carol Taylor:

Enjoying life in The Land Of Smiles I am having so much fun researching, finding new, authentic recipes both Thai and International to share with you. New recipes gleaned from those who I have met on my travels or are just passing through and stopped for a while. I hope you enjoy them.

I love shopping at the local markets, finding fresh, natural ingredients, new strange fruits and vegetable ones I have never seen or cooked with. I am generally the only European person and attract much attention and I love to try what I am offered and when I smile and say Aroy or Saab as it is here in the north I am met with much smiling.

Some of my recipes may not be in line with traditional ingredients and methods of cooking but are recipes I know and have become to love and maybe if you dare to try you will too. You will always get more than just a recipe from me as I love to research and find out what other properties the ingredients I use contain to improve our health and wellbeing.

Exciting for me hence the title of my blog, Retired No One Told Me! I am having a wonderful ride and don’t want to get off, so if you wish to follow me on my adventures, then welcome! I hope you enjoy the ride also and if it encourages you to take a step into the unknown or untried, you know you want to…….Then, I will be happy!

Carol is a contributor to the Phuket Island Writers Anthology: https://www.amazon.com/Phuket-Island-Writers-Anthology-Stories-ebook/dp/B00RU5IYNS

Connect to Carol

Blog: https://blondieaka.wordpress.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheRealCarolT
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carol.taylor.1422

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/caroltaylor56/pins/

Thank you once again for reading this post I hope you all have a great Valentines Day and a brilliant weekend xx

 

 

Waste Not! Want Not! Week 9…

Good morning and it is certainly a lovely sunny one here although earlier on it was a tad chilly…

Foot prints-990332_640

 

It has certainly been a week of discoveries this week and good ones sometimes due to where they are published you chance upon things unexpectedly and that was the case in this instance when Alethea from not tomatoes was browsing her local newspaper she came across this article called ” The Milkman ” model…

https://nottomatoes.wordpress.com/2019/01/27/watwb-big-brands-going-green/

I remember the milkman and that lovely gold top milk which was a treat for us the empties went outside to be replaced by full bottles…

TerraCycle, a company that has long been devoted to repurposing packaging and reducing waste, is behind the initiative. Coming this spring to major cities such as New York and Paris, customers will be ordering from a website called Loop, and receive popular products such as ice cream and shampoo in reusable containers delivered to their doors.

There are also plans to roll out to The Uk next year…One of the comments about the big names involved some of whom don’t have a good record as regards waste and ethics …Nestle being one of them… for a few years now I have not bought any products associated with them…Let’s hope it is not just for publicity and they really have changed for the good…I certainly hope so…

Next to come up on my radar is this cute idea for collecting rubbish on beaches…

goby fish

http://yupthatexists.com/goby-plastic-beach-fish/?utm_campaign=meetedgar&utm_medium=social&utm_source=meetedgar.com&fbclid=IwAR3QkyKayfMjikAL8D4Qcwz8dsOCYmMat06BBbg5nEkqOGKT6a80g9E5O64

Australia has found a very simple way to stop waste going into the ocean…

australia-found-a-way-to-save-water-from-plastic-pollution-and-we-can-start-doing-the-same-650x341

https://www.healthyfoodhouse.com/australia-found-a-way-to-save-water-from-plastic-pollution-and-we-can-start-doing-the-same/?utm_source=Grid&utm_medium=Grid&utm_campaign=Grid&fbclid=IwAR36mnd8qLQLkAu0BoDdzgk8tyBB98RQQggmVC92h4S8fZ5ZrRUsYdWiccg

Lots of local efforts to stop this avalanche of plastic waste going into the sea…What is happening in your area to stop plastic waste ???

If all the different grades of plastic have your head spinning then this post on plastic will help you make sense of symbols on bottles…

 

https://carolcooks2.com/2018/02/15/plastic-are-you-confused/

Although there are lots of great incentives going on only 8.21% of the 195 countries in the world have banned single-use plastics. When you look at it that way it is excuse the pun nothing but “a drop in the ocean” …We all need to be doing so much more…Joining organisations and talking to your local politicians about what their parties plans are …Not just thinking but doing…

There are so many ways we can reduce our carbon footprints and reduce our waste…

Did you know what impact textile waste has on the environment?  

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 84 per cent of unwanted clothes in the United States in 2012 went into either a landfill or an incinerator.

When natural fibres, like cotton, linen and silk, or semi-synthetic fibres created from plant-based cellulose, like rayon, Tencel and modal, are buried in a landfill, in one sense they act like food waste, producing the potent greenhouse gas methane as they degrade. But unlike banana peels, you can’t compost old clothes, even if they’re made of natural materials. “Natural fibres go through a lot of unnatural processes on their way to becoming clothing,” says Jason Kibbey, CEO of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition. “They’ve been bleached, dyed, printed on, and scoured in chemical baths.” Those chemicals can leach from the textiles and—in improperly sealed landfills—into groundwater. Burning the items in incinerators can release those toxins into the air.

Meanwhile, synthetic fibres, like polyester, nylon and acrylic, have the same environmental drawbacks, and because they are essentially a type of plastic made from petroleum, they will take hundreds of years, if not a thousand, to biodegrade.

It was thanks to Anne Copeland who blogs at All in a day’s breath she opened my eyes to this she also told me how she rarely buys new clothes but recycles and re-styles second-hand clothes that is something which goes on a lot here every market will have at least one stall of second-hand clothes here in Udon Thani we have a huge section and my daughter in law spends hours there we always know where she is going when she says in the afternoon I am just going to the market …Sometimes she comes back with nothing and other times she comes back with some lovely things sometimes still with the labels on…It seems to be a pastime of many Thais they spend hours sorting and chatting it is like social event…

Here are some really cool ways to recycle your unwanted clothes…

 

That’s all for this week I hope you have found something interesting and please carry on commenting and letting us all know what you do or any great incentives you have come across… I love to hear from you and if we share our good practices then the world benefits xxx

About Carol Taylor:

Enjoying life in The Land Of Smiles I am having so much fun researching, finding new, authentic recipes both Thai and International to share with you. New recipes gleaned from those who I have met on my travels or are just passing through and stopped for a while. I hope you enjoy them.

I love shopping at the local markets, finding fresh, natural ingredients, new strange fruits and vegetable ones I have never seen or cooked with. I am generally the only European person and attract much attention and I love to try what I am offered and when I smile and say Aroy or Saab as it is here in the north I am met with much smiling.

Some of my recipes may not be in line with traditional ingredients and methods of cooking but are recipes I know and have become to love and maybe if you dare to try you will too. You will always get more than just a recipe from me as I love to research and find out what other properties the ingredients I use contain to improve our health and wellbeing.

Exciting for me hence the title of my blog, Retired No One Told Me! I am having a wonderful ride and don’t want to get off, so if you wish to follow me on my adventures, then welcome! I hope you enjoy the ride also and if it encourages you to take a step into the unknown or untried, you know you want to…….Then, I will be happy!

Carol is a contributor to the Phuket Island Writers Anthology: https://www.amazon.com/Phuket-Island-Writers-Anthology-Stories-ebook/dp/B00RU5IYNS

Connect to Carol

Blog: https://blondieaka.wordpress.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheRealCarolT
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carol.taylor.1422

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/caroltaylor56/pins/

Thank you once again for reading this post I hope you all have a great weekend xx

Waste Not! Want Not! Week 8

I hope you all had a brilliant festive season and that the New Year will be kind to you… I really feel that these posts seem to be taking a life of their own…The war on waste has begun in earnest…There are so many facets and ways you can reduce your waste and your carbon footprint…

A very valid point was raised by Adele …Adele also has a lovely blog and writes very good horror stories which if you are like me love a good horror story so pop over and say hello…

Adele said…

Fantastic, Carol. I get so uplifted by reading the tips and posts people have sent you about their recycling. I have thought about the textile industry a lot and I received an email from a recycling group highlighting organic, recycled wool. The problem was; the wool was around £58 a ball. I wrote to her and asked why these things, not just the wool but the organic clothes too, were so expensive and how a mother of three or a single mother on benefits could afford these things. I didn’t get a reply which was disappointing. More swap shops are needed, I think, where old jumpers are used for their wool, or clothes cut into new shapes. xxx

That truly is the case many times over anything healthy, organic or designed to cut waste is generally expensive and many times unwarranted.

Zero Waste shops    https://thezerowaster.com/zero-waste-near-you/

♦♦♦♦♦

I was really pleasantly surprised a few days ago to read that the Canadian Government has issued NEW food guidelines… Stating that you should eat … A Healthy Balanced Diet … Be mindful of your eating habits… Make water your drink of choice… cook more often… have plenty of fruit and vegetables… enjoy your food… be aware of food marketing… limit foods which are high in sodium, saturated fat and sugar…It sounds like me talking…Does it not??

Healthy - Vegetables- Fruit- Lady

Healthy Eating

Well done to the Canadian Government…Read the full content here…

It covers in depth how clever marketing can tempt you…I am sure the food manufacturers probably don’t like this new version…Well about time we stood up to them and their marketing ploys and prove we aren’t all stupid and easily swayed… It also has recipes it is a great new move by the Canadian Government lets hope we can put pressure on our governments to follow …If they are then please let us all know what they do to help improve your health and wellness as a nation.

♦♦♦♦♦

Although I have previously stated I am not a vegetarian I eat meat-free meals and my aim is to increase the meat-free meals I eat in a week.

Annika said:

Carol, an interesting article and as a vegetarian since birth I’m smiling how my ‘oddness’ is now becoming the norm. Supposedly a quarter of the UK are vegans at the moment and I personally know many who used to eat a lot of meat but have totally changed. As for trees, I worked within the timber trade and know that in Scandinavia there are actually more trees than a hundred years ago (70% of the land mass in Sweden is forested). Alas, forests in many regions of the worlds are not treated so ethically and suffering terribly … as a consumer it is our responsibility to check where items are sourced and managed.

Annika is a writer and an avid book reader and reviewer please pop over and check her out

https://annikaperry.com/

♦♦♦♦♦

Fish is my favourite food but it is becoming increasingly difficult to source sustainable fish or avoid farmed fish and as you know pollution is my baby especially the ecosystem as without that we won’t exist…

It is pleasing to see how the younger generation is doing something and this article caught my eye and what these young people did was actually promoted at the World Trade Centre…How brilliant is that?

Have you heard of Pollution Popsicles??? Have a look it is an awesome project and designed to raise awareness as I am sure it is.

♦♦♦♦♦

What else is on my agenda? I have been puzzling how to get my meat/fish home without a plastic bag…Carrying glass containers as well as our own cup it could begin to be a mission. Thinking back over the years all meat and fish was wrapped in paper…What paper though as we need to think o the trees…

Foodservice providers often use butcher paper that has been coated with a fine layer of wax or oil to make the paper more resistant to leaks when wrapping moist foods. Waxed or oiled butcher paper cannot be recycled, but it can be composted. … Butcher paper with food residue also cannot be recycled but can be composted.

It got me thinking can you buy recycled butchers paper?? Apparently yes you can…Amazon does and there are other companies who also sell recycled food wrapping. I just need to find one which deliveries here or I can buy here so that is my current mission…When I do I am sure I will be getting some very amused look at the market…haha

♦♦♦♦♦

Fruit Pulp…Leftover from your juicing…Do you use or throw it away?

Victoria Zigler sent me the link to an interesting article on using pulp leftovers…Thank you, Tori…

Food Pulp  get the info here

It will certainly something I will be having a look at but if any of you already use food pulp and have recipes please share  with us we would all love to see your recipes and tips xxx

Tori also writes some awesome children’s books which are very popular and have wonderful illustrations http://ziglernews.blogspot.com/

♦♦♦♦♦

Dogs and cats also pick up fleas and some of the commercial ones are not the best to buy for our beloved pet or for the ecosystem when they are washed away…Never fear the solution is right here…

https://acflory.wordpress.com/2018/11/28/natural-flea-control-for-cats-dogs/

 

♦♦♦♦♦

That’s all for this week I hope you have found something interesting and please carrying commenting I love to hear from you xxx

About Carol Taylor:

Enjoying life in The Land Of Smiles I am having so much fun researching, finding new, authentic recipes both Thai and International to share with you. New recipes gleaned from those who I have met on my travels or are just passing through and stopped for a while. I hope you enjoy them.

I love shopping at the local markets, finding fresh, natural ingredients, new strange fruits and vegetable ones I have never seen or cooked with. I am generally the only European person and attract much attention and I love to try what I am offered and when I smile and say Aroy or Saab as it is here in the north I am met with much smiling.

Some of my recipes may not be in line with traditional ingredients and methods of cooking but are recipes I know and have become to love and maybe if you dare to try you will too. You will always get more than just a recipe from me as I love to research and find out what other properties the ingredients I use contain to improve our health and wellbeing.

Exciting for me hence the title of my blog, Retired No One Told Me! I am having a wonderful ride and don’t want to get off, so if you wish to follow me on my adventures, then welcome! I hope you enjoy the ride also and if it encourages you to take a step into the unknown or untried, you know you want to…….Then, I will be happy!

Carol is a contributor to the Phuket Island Writers Anthology: https://www.amazon.com/Phuket-Island-Writers-Anthology-Stories-ebook/dp/B00RU5IYNS

Connect to Carol

Blog: https://blondieaka.wordpress.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheRealCarolT
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carol.taylor.1422

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/caroltaylor56/pins/

Thank you once again for reading this post I hope you all have a great weekend xx

Waste Not!Want Not! Part 8

I hope you all had a brilliant festive season and that the New Year will be kind to you… I really feel that these posts seem to be taking a life of their own…The war on waste has begun in earnest…There are so many facets and ways you can reduce your waste and your carbon footprint…

A very valid point was raised by Adele …Adele also has a lovely blog and writes very good horror stories which if you are like me love a good horror story so pop over and say hello…

Adele said…

Fantastic, Carol. I get so uplifted by reading the tips and posts people have sent you about their recycling. I have thought about the textile industry a lot and I received an email from a recycling group highlighting organic, recycled wool. The problem was; the wool was around £58 a ball. I wrote to her and asked why these things, not just the wool but the organic clothes too, were so expensive and how a mother of three or a single mother on benefits could afford these things. I didn’t get a reply which was disappointing. More swap shops are needed, I think, where old jumpers are used for their wool, or clothes cut into new shapes. xxx

That truly is the case many times over anything healthy, organic or designed to cut waste is generally expensive and many times unwarranted.

Zero Waste shops    https://thezerowaster.com/zero-waste-near-you/

♦♦♦♦♦

I was really pleasantly surprised a few days ago to read that the Canadian Government has issued NEW food guidelines… Stating that you should eat … A Healthy Balanced Diet … Be mindful of your eating habits… Make water your drink of choice… cook more often… have plenty of fruit and vegetables… enjoy your food… be aware of food marketing… limit foods which are high in sodium, saturated fat and sugar…It sounds like me talking…Does it not??

Healthy - Vegetables- Fruit- Lady

Healthy Eating

Well done to the Canadian Government…Read the full content here…

It covers in depth how clever marketing can tempt you…I am sure the food manufacturers probably don’t like this new version…Well about time we stood up to them and their marketing ploys and prove we aren’t all stupid and easily swayed… It also has recipes it is a great new move by the Canadian Government lets hope we can put pressure on our governments to follow …If they are then please let us all know what they do to help improve your health and wellness as a nation.

♦♦♦♦♦

Although I have previously stated I am not a vegetarian I eat meat-free meals and my aim is to increase the meat-free meals I eat in a week.

Annika said:

Carol, an interesting article and as a vegetarian since birth I’m smiling how my ‘oddness’ is now becoming the norm. Supposedly a quarter of the UK are vegans at the moment and I personally know many who used to eat a lot of meat but have totally changed. As for trees, I worked within the timber trade and know that in Scandinavia there are actually more trees than a hundred years ago (70% of the land mass in Sweden is forested). Alas, forests in many regions of the worlds are not treated so ethically and suffering terribly … as a consumer it is our responsibility to check where items are sourced and managed.

Annika is a writer and an avid book reader and reviewer please pop over and check her out

https://annikaperry.com/

♦♦♦♦♦

Fish is my favourite food but it is becoming increasingly difficult to source sustainable fish or avoid farmed fish and as you know pollution is my baby especially the ecosystem as without that we won’t exist…

It is pleasing to see how the younger generation is doing something and this article caught my eye and what these young people did was actually promoted at the World Trade Centre…How brilliant is that?

Have you heard of Pollution Popsicles??? Have a look it is an awesome project and designed to raise awareness as I am sure it is.

♦♦♦♦♦

What else is on my agenda? I have been puzzling how to get my meat/fish home without a plastic bag…Carrying glass containers as well as our own cup it could begin to be a mission. Thinking back over the years all meat and fish was wrapped in paper…What paper though as we need to think o the trees…

Foodservice providers often use butcher paper that has been coated with a fine layer of wax or oil to make the paper more resistant to leaks when wrapping moist foods. Waxed or oiled butcher paper cannot be recycled, but it can be composted. … Butcher paper with food residue also cannot be recycled but can be composted.

It got me thinking can you buy recycled butchers paper?? Apparently yes you can…Amazon does and there are other companies who also sell recycled food wrapping. I just need to find one which deliveries here or I can buy here so that is my current mission…When I do I am sure I will be getting some very amused look at the market…haha

♦♦♦♦♦

Fruit Pulp…Leftover from your juicing…Do you use or throw it away?

Victoria Zigler sent me the link to an interesting article on using pulp leftovers…Thank you, Tori…

Food Pulp  get the info here

It will certainly something I will be having a look at but if any of you already use food pulp and have recipes please share  with us we would all love to see your recipes and tips xxx

Tori also writes some awesome children’s books which are very popular and have wonderful illustrations http://ziglernews.blogspot.com/

♦♦♦♦♦

Dogs and cats also pick up fleas and some of the commercial ones are not the best to buy for our beloved pet or for the ecosystem when they are washed away…Never fear the solution is right here…

https://acflory.wordpress.com/2018/11/28/natural-flea-control-for-cats-dogs/

 

♦♦♦♦♦

That’s all for this week I hope you have found something interesting and please carrying commenting I love to hear from you xxx

About Carol Taylor:

Enjoying life in The Land Of Smiles I am having so much fun researching, finding new, authentic recipes both Thai and International to share with you. New recipes gleaned from those who I have met on my travels or are just passing through and stopped for a while. I hope you enjoy them.

I love shopping at the local markets, finding fresh, natural ingredients, new strange fruits and vegetable ones I have never seen or cooked with. I am generally the only European person and attract much attention and I love to try what I am offered and when I smile and say Aroy or Saab as it is here in the north I am met with much smiling.

Some of my recipes may not be in line with traditional ingredients and methods of cooking but are recipes I know and have become to love and maybe if you dare to try you will too. You will always get more than just a recipe from me as I love to research and find out what other properties the ingredients I use contain to improve our health and wellbeing.

Exciting for me hence the title of my blog, Retired No One Told Me! I am having a wonderful ride and don’t want to get off, so if you wish to follow me on my adventures, then welcome! I hope you enjoy the ride also and if it encourages you to take a step into the unknown or untried, you know you want to…….Then, I will be happy!

Carol is a contributor to the Phuket Island Writers Anthology: https://www.amazon.com/Phuket-Island-Writers-Anthology-Stories-ebook/dp/B00RU5IYNS

Connect to Carol

Blog: https://blondieaka.wordpress.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheRealCarolT
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carol.taylor.1422

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/caroltaylor56/pins/

Thank you once again for reading this post I hope you all have a great week xx

 

 

 

 

Waste Not, Want Not…Part Six

Waste pollution climate change

Welcome back… How is your war on waste working I have had many notes from my readers on what they are doing to combat waste and it makes me happy that so many care about the world we live in.

Every time I go to the Farmers Market now I am so impressed as more and more of the goods are wrapped in banana leaves can you see the cone those little green buds are wrapped in it so lovely to get my fruit and vegetable wrapped like that or just loose without a wrapping if vegetables are too big like carrots and things, everyone is using brown paper bags and it takes me back to when I was young and you never saw a plastic bag they were all paper… Or my mum and all her friends used to take their wicker baskets shopping …That was a few years ago now…

wicker basket-2268218_640

Today I am going to look at how we can reduce waste of single-use plastic bags in the home.

Did you know about 300 million tons of plastic is produced worldwide every year and some 8 million tons is just dumped in the Oceans how much of that is recycled…ONLY 9%… That is disgusting…

How can we help?

  1. Stop using plastic straws, even in restaurants. Purchase a reusable stainless steel, glass straw or bamboo straw and take it with you…It soon becomes a habit…
  2. Use a reusable shopping bag. A single plastic bag can take 1,000 years to degrade. Purchase or make your own reusable produce bag and be sure to wash them often!
  3. Give up gum. Gum is made of synthetic rubber, aka plastic. I get so angry when I am walking and gum gets attached to the bottom of my shoe…If you have to chew wrap it and put it in a bin when you have finished… However, if you click the link you may not ever want to chew gum again.
  4. Buy boxes instead of bottles or glass bottles instead of plastic as they are recyclable.
  5. Cereal, pasta, and rice buy from bulk bins and fill a reusable bag or container. It saves money and unnecessary packaging.
  6. Reuse containers for storing leftovers or shopping in bulk.
  7. Use a reusable bottle or mug for your drinks, even when ordering from a take-out shop…All you need to do is ask or measure how much is in your takeaway cup and go and buy a suitable sized reusable cup…Sorted…

plastic-waste-3698194_640

  1. Use matches instead of disposable plastic lighters or invest in a refillable metal lighter.
  2. Avoid buying frozen foods because their packaging is mostly plastic. Even those that appear to be cardboard are coated in a thin layer of plastic. Plus you’ll be eating fewer processed foods! 
  3. Don’t use plastic cutlery at home and be sure to request restaurants do not pack them in your takeaway box.
  4. Make freshly squeezed juice or eat fruit instead of buying juice in plastic bottles. It’s healthier and better for the environment.
  5. Make your own cleaning products that will be less toxic and eliminate the need for multiple plastic bottles of cleaner.
  6. Pack your lunch in reusable containers and bags. Also, opt for fresh fruits and veggies and bulk items instead of products that come in single serving cups.
  7. Use a razor with replaceable blades instead of a disposable razor.

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Dolly from koolkoscherkitchen  is a keen supporter of reducing waste and plastic and came up with a great idea…She is having a book launch at one of her local stores soon and is going to take the advantage and ask what they are going to do to reduce waste and plastic waste…What a great idea…

Well done, Dolly please keep us updated …

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Here is a copy of a letter which you could write to your local store, council or government representative or even a manufacturer… the wording would need to be changed slightly depending on the recipient but we are bloggers and authors so that should be a doodle…

Dear …..

I support the initiative to ban single-use plastic bags in your store at …..

I hope this ban is the first step in which ……. your company shows vision and leadership in the region and perhaps in the nation by taking bold actions to reduce waste and litter and protect and improve local wildlife and marine life.

People coped before plastic bags and will do so again.

Without easy access to free bags, one quickly becomes accustomed to their own reusable bags.

Banning smoking from bars and restaurants was met with an uproar several years ago, and now it almost seems outrageous that this was ever allowed. People very quickly adapt …

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank you for the steps you have taken already by having days in the store where plastic bag are not available and by using banana leaves as packaging rather than a plastic bag…I would though like to bring to your attention the piece of plastic in the sushi packaging I noticed the other day could it not be cut from a banana leaf?

I await your positive response.

Kind Regards.

My local store is responding very positively about reducing waste and plastic which given that Asia is a haven for plastic and waste  I was very pleasantly surprised and pleased…

 

The cream coloured flower buds are called Daylily ดอกไม้จีน usually used in soups and very popular with Thais and often used in herbal medicine and healing but also used in stir-fries we stir-fried ours with the Ceylon Spinach and it was very nice. The Ceylon spinach had a sort of beetroot taste. It is also used in natural medicine here and is believed to have many healing properties…

vegetable stir fry

We just washed and cut and stir-fried with a little garlic and oyster sauce it made a nice vegetable side dish. It was a vegetable which none of us had seen or tried before and which I love about this market as the food is local and many of the fruits and vegetables not really grown commercially but by local people and farmers. The red Noodle snake beans were also a new variety for me very similar to the green and quite a rare bean so I will enjoy them while I can. It holds its colour when cooked and ideal for salads and stir-fries.

green and red snake beans

Notice how they are tied now with banana leaf and a bamboo tie instead of in a plastic bag and I think it is so much nicer isn’t it?

Thank you once again for indulging me in my war against waste… I have certainly opened a can of worms…xxx

About Carol Taylor:

Enjoying life in The Land Of Smiles I am having so much fun researching, finding new, authentic recipes both Thai and International to share with you. New recipes gleaned from those who I have met on my travels or are just passing through and stopped for a while. I hope you enjoy them.

I love shopping at the local markets, finding fresh, natural ingredients, new strange fruits and vegetable ones I have never seen or cooked with. I am generally the only European person and attract much attention and I love to try what I am offered and when I smile and say Aroy or Saab as it is here in the north I am met with much smiling.

Some of my recipes may not be in line with traditional ingredients and methods of cooking but are recipes I know and have become to love and maybe if you dare to try you will too. You will always get more than just a recipe from me as I love to research and find out what other properties the ingredients I use contain to improve our health and wellbeing.

Exciting for me hence the title of my blog, Retired No One Told Me! I am having a wonderful ride and don’t want to get off, so if you wish to follow me on my adventures, then welcome! I hope you enjoy the ride also and if it encourages you to take a step into the unknown or untried, you know you want to…….Then, I will be happy!

Carol is a contributor to the Phuket Island Writers Anthology: https://www.amazon.com/Phuket-Island-Writers-Anthology-Stories-ebook/dp/B00RU5IYNS

Connect to Carol

Blog: https://blondieaka.wordpress.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheRealCarolT
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carol.taylor.1422

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/caroltaylor56/pins/

Thank you once again for reading this post I hope you all have a great week xx

Waste Not! Want Not! Part Five…

POLLUTION RECYCLE WASTE

Wow, some of you are real stars with your war on waste and I will say that with regards to picking up rubbish that we see we do need to be careful.

If you signed up for the monthly I value food to good to waste challenge I have reduced my waste by over 50% and going down…Mainly by planning and only buying what I need and know I am going to use and also by freezing some things which I know will spoil if I don’t use them…So in essence, I am thinking more and planning…It works!

A comment on last weeks post made me think …It came from Will Dare who has a lovely blog on music and we should all have music in our lives …Don’t you think? So please pop over and have a look at his lovely blog …Thank you, Will, and please let us know how you get on with your Sushi and that little strip of green plastic…

Hurrah that you are making changes in your daily life and also writing to raise awareness among the rest of us! I remember reading a story a while ago about the huge changes that plastic bags had brought to an island culture which for hundreds of years had used really large leaves to wrap and transport items to and from a marketplace… until some enterprising capitalist introduced plastic bags. Everyone in this culture had been accustomed to throwing their wrapping leaves by the wayside because they would soon decompose… but plastic bags don’t decompose. Rapidly this island became littered with plastic debris! Today I (somewhat ambivalently since it is indeed served in a plastic container — and right now it is a huge question mark if anyone is going to step up in the USA and start recycling all of the various plastic objects which until recently we’ve been sending to China for recycling/reuse/disposal) bought a container of vegetarian sushi for lunch. It was served with a small strip of green plastic which serves no purpose other than some sort of decoration (or nod to cultural history?) It started me thinking that grocery stores (this was a Whole Foods, now owned by Amazon) could STOP including these little pieces of green plastic trash in their packages of sushi. The next time I go there I will speak with a store manager to ask how s/he recommends I send this idea to their corporate headquarters… Obviously, this is a tiny drop in the ocean of plastic contamination on planet earth — but all of those tiny, unnecessary, purely decorative, green strips of plastic probably add up to millions per year! Thank you for blogging about this hugely important topic!!!

Comments like Will’s make my day as those of you who blog know…It makes you feel all the time you have spent agonising over a blog post is worthwhile… It also sent me hot-footing it over to the sushi counter where I purchase my sushi… I was armed with the info on the company I found online and ready with my spiel…

I didn’t need it…I was also really pleasantly surprised as a lot of plastic is used in Asia to find my tomatoes NOT in a plastic bag but in a lovely little cocoon of banana leaves…

tomatoes banana leaves

And a brown paper bag to put them in…I will still be sending a communication but one of thanks as they are making every effort to discourage the use of plastic bags…

I know not everywhere has the luxury of utilising banana leaves but there is packaging which can be used and is eco-friendly and compostable…

It took me just minutes using Google to find out who owned the company and their contact details…So please I ask you can you do the same and send a letter or e-mail it won’t take long but could make a difference …

What else can we do?

DON’T BE FOOLED BY DATE LABELS 
Did you know that almost none of the dates stamped on our food packaging—“best by,” “use by”—indicate safety? They are a manufacturer’s best guess for when food is at peak quality, an unregulated standard that has nothing to do with safety. Next time you think a food has “expired,” use these tips to decide if it should stay or go:

What does “peak quality” mean? For the majority of products, manufacturers use their own methods to determine what dates to list on the packaging. There’s a financial incentive for manufacturers to sell their products when they taste best so that consumers come back and buy those same products again and again. Peak quality is not a standard of microbiological safety. Rather, it is a factor defined by consumer taste testing, lab tests for shelf life and product turnover rates.

My youngest son was a prime example he drove me mad…Literally, on the stroke of midnight, he would go through the fridge and chuck anything in the bin that had that day’s date on it…Come on we all know when vegetables and fruit are inedible …He was a nightmare and the laughing-stock of his friends…He was the boy who if he said I just have to do my hair …His friends would say we will meet you there…He was the boy who sat in the car on the edge of the seat holding the seat belt away from his shirt that he had lovingly ironed as I did not do it well enough…He was the boy who when he got a cab to work and he had asked for it to be there at 7.40…If it arrived at 7.35 it had to wait …If it wasn’t there at 7.40 he was on the phone…I could go on he was the epitome of the meaning of OCD…Then he came to Thailand….Phew…No more OCD and common sense reigns supreme…

Common sense is required…Any dates are a guide purely for manufacturers and stats…We have common sense, don’t we???

Leftovers…

Once a week have a leftover night…Get creative and please share with us…

Turn your leftover dinner into lunch the next day...With a little planning, you could create a week’s worth of taking it to work lunches.

Think ” Ingredients” not ” Leftovers”

Leftover Pasta or cooked vegetables make a Frittata.eggs garlic onions potato

  • Ingredients:
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 tbsp oil
  • 3 small cold potatoes  sliced
  • 1 small onion sliced
  • 2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 1/4 cup of milk
  • Few mushrooms sliced
  • Few slices of salami or chorizo
  • Grated cheddar


Let’s Cook!


Add oil to heavy-bottomed pan /skillet and add cooked sliced potatoes cover with lid or foil and cook until golden if uncooked then cook for about 10 minutes until tender but firm.
Cook salami/ chorizo…I like mine a little crispy. Add onions and mushrooms and cook until the onion softens. Add any other veg you are using I added sliced tomato but you could add anything spinach, finely sliced peppers, leftover cooked vegetables, cold sliced potatoes.
Beat eggs with milk and season well. Pour over your potatoes and vegetables and lower the heat. Add grated cheese. Cook for 5-7 minutes until the eggs are set. Turn out onto a plate and cut into portions. Serve with a mixed salad and crusty bread.
Enjoy!

Blend cooked vegetables with some tomatoes and make a sauce for pasta, Leftover rice then create some burritos with some meat and vegetables, top with sour cream and salsa…

Think soup… The steamed, roasted or grilled vegetables that you served as a side dish one night can become soup on another day. In a blender, puree the vegetables with 3 or 4 cups of vegetable or chicken broth, then warm the soup in a pot. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and finish the soup with a bit of pesto, olive oil or croutons.

There are so many ways you can use leftovers without just throwing them away you can in effect make a tasty meal out of virtually nothing.

What do you make with your leftovers?

Thank you so much for reading and your comments are invited…xxx

Thank you once again for reading this post I hope you all have a great week xx