My existential beeswax wraps.

Zero waste is all about being sustainable, mindful and surrounding yourself with things that you really need and are useful to you.

 It's no surprise that a lot of people who are zero waste are also minimalists.And I do find myself getting all hung up and frustrated if there is too much clutter.Of course I have to find balance, seen as Mila has inherited her dad's hoarder gene.Then again I, too, used to get attached to every little piece of paper, had shelves full of hideous figurines that each reminded me of that time I went to that place with that person, so I can't get off scot free either, I guess.

And of course then there's the mentality that you need shit loads of stuff to be happy and to validate your existence, but I actually think that it's a way trying to fill a void or to fill what you think is a void, in fear that you don't know who you are without all your things. Does that make sense? Because I kind of gave myself a stroke trying to type that one out.
Jon Krakauer wrote in "Into thin Air" (or maybe I read it off a bathroom wall somewhere, I can't really remember where I heard that one)anyway, I'm paraphrasing here at best: if you get on the top of the mountain, you can either see a lot there or only see clouds and snow.It all depends what you yourself bring there. And that's what I try to always remember, to emphasize the importance of memories and experiences over things.
And I guess there's always that fear, what if I get rid of most of my things, would that get rid of parts of me, or what if I'm just boring if I don't have all the clothes and accessories and make up to cover myself with.I feel that a lot of people(I include myself in there) who aren't for example artist, whose work would be a way of defining themselves, find the easiest way to do it through buying things, but they are things made by someone else, and the purpose of those things was never to help you, it was to make money for someone else.And with advertising they want you to redefine yourself every week and most don't give a shit what they put in there as long as they can make it as cheap as possible....WHICH FINALLY got me to the point I was trying to make with this post:Do it yourself.
(Didn't expect that from someone who is working at selling things to others in TK Maxx, although TK Maxx isn't so oblivious to zero waste either.)

What I like about Zero waste, is that before you go buying something, you first look around your home and see if you can make it yourself.And you can take home in a wider sense, like a community.Your neighbor might have really good beeswax wraps made up herself.And zero waste itself is a community, people share tips and recipes to try at home.

One of the things I wanted to try was beeswax wraps.I had the fabric leftover from years ago and all I had to get was beeswax and jojoba oil.Now I've read that most company produced wraps also have tree resin as one of their ingredients, but I've read mixed reviews about that plus I had no idea where to get tree resin, other than go to Fitzgerald's park and start hammering?? maybe at a tree there, I don't know, how's the official way one obtains tree resin.Anyway, here it is :

I chose a fairly small piece of fabric to test out first, before I go beeswax mad.

These are the tools needed

                                         
                                            All you have to do is to grate the beeswax and add the jojoba oil
                                      and put the wrap in the oven.Max Gas mark 4, anything higher and you'll                                                                                    burn the wax.

It will literally take few minutes, so keep an eye on it, once the wax has melted, take it out and use the brush to evenly spread all the wax round, if you need more wax in some parts, just add it to the fabric and put back in the oven.After all that's done, leave the wrap to dry

At first I thought it was a clear fail, the wrap doesn't cling well do itself, so that's the part tree resin will play, (you might see me in Fitzgeralds's park with a hammer and nails after all) but I tried it over the bowl of blueberries there and it sits fine, I need to make bigger ones for cheese and thing like that.

So there it is, alternative to cling film, less toxic to use and less toxic to make.You can wash them in cold water with mild soap, and they could last you up to a year.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

So far the changes we've made towards a more sustainable life have been fairly easy.

The first thing I ever did, and that was years and years back, was give up using plastic bags.Alan still occasionally gets one as he keeps forgetting to bring a bag with him when going shopping, but I'm working on it.

I use smaller cloth bags for produce in the market or shops for fruit and vegetable, the first time I used it in a supermarket I was ready for few puzzled faces at the tills, but they never gave me any hassle :)

The drawstring bags I got from Sostrene Grene are perfect to buy pasta or rice in bulk.

Another, slightly more difficult change, was swapping kitchen paper towels for reusable cloths.I couldn't find a material that was absorbent enough and which wouldn't leave a trail of fiber all around the place(I'm not a fan of the microfiber cloths ).After testing out different products, all which I still have and use, I came across the (current) winner

You can compost the sponge cloths at home, but the packaging, which is made from 100% renewable resources(cornstarch) is only compostable in industrial facilities.

Refills is another big game changer.I get most of my refills from one place, Natural Choice health shop above Tesco in the Paul Street shopping centre. Natural Choice is a constantly expanding shop in giving more zero waste choices each time I visit them.They also support local businesses, so you know the product didn't have to come a long way to end up in your home.

I get refills for all my cleaning products there, and I don't really use that many different products anyway.They also recently started doing refills for shampoos and conditioners.

There are two more places in Cork city that do refills, a shop in the English Market called The Good Food shop from where I get the sponge cloths and Quay Coop which also has a lovely vegetarian restaurant upstairs.

I recently started using a shampoo bar I found from Natural Choice shop.So far I'm very happy with it.I only ever used shampoo and conditioner bar from Lush, but their ingredients aren't the greatest.Plus the shampoo bar I have is palm oil free and half the price of Lush bars.It will take some time to get my hair used to it, cause it will need conditioning after, so I either use the AppleCiderVinegar rinse or the conditioner I get refilled in the shop.

Another good way conditioning hair would be aloe vera hair mask.

Handy to have some growing on your windowsill.My dream house  would come with a massive backgarden where I could have a big greenhouse and grow anything and everything we need, to be as self' sufficient as possible.

In the bathroom we've changed to bamboo toothbrushes, that can be found in all three aforementioned shops and I used homemade coconut oil and baking powder toothpaste for a while but then got all paranoid that my teeth are going to fall out, but I'm going back to that again as my teeth felt healthier and looked whiter when I was using it after all.

So these are the little changes we have made/I have forced upon us so far.

In the near future I want to try and make beeswax wraps and I want to try make my own solid perfume.

Now as a honest and somewhat disheartening disclaimer: As I was typing this up, Alan came back from doing the shopping, I have never seen so much plastic in my life :) One day, we'll get there... one day

Welcome

   
Hello everyone,

  My name is Matilda and I live in Cork, Ireland with my 4-year-old daughter Mila and her dada, who funnily enough happens to be my boyfriend, Alan.
We live, work and go to school in what is possibly the best city in Ireland.

    For a good while now I have been fascinated with Zero waste movement.And this blog is mostly about just that.Zero waste and "converting" myself into a zero waster.
I first came about this brave new world a year ago.
I always liked to think I was environmentally conscious, but I don't think I did much about it.
For example until a year ago I was grand with plastic everything, thinking sure you can just recycle it later and they can melt it and make it into something else plastic and just keep doing that over and over again.Or that I didn't even think to check what all the chemicals I use for cleaning do to the earth once it's gone down the drain or what they even to to me and my family directly.
I think having Mila was one of the triggers that made me think twice about what I was doing and how my actions were affecting the planet and others on it.

   Now I'd like to note, that I am only starting off, with baby steps. What I've realized is that I'm going to have to find some sort of a balance. If I was living alone, the process would probably be easier, or at least faster, the only person I have to convince would be myself, but living with another adult and a 4-year-old is a different story.I'm not going to not buy her the my little pony toy because it's wrapped in a plastic bag, nor force my boyfriend to brush his teeth with homemade toothpaste if he doesn't want to, (getting him to use a bamboo brush was a task in itself already), I just hope that some of my actions towards being more environmentally conscious will eventually rub off on them too and they will want to make the switch themselves.

    As shallow as it might sound, I came across the zero waste lifestyle through a cute secondhand dress I spotted on instagram. The wearer was @stevieyaaaay whose advice and tips on zero waste,    I' ve been following since.The other person I found on youtube looking for a alternative toothpaste recipe is Lauren Singer from @packagefreeshop.

    Funny story on the side,when I first mentioned zero waste to Alan and how I've been reading about it, he stopped me before I could even go into detail and went off on this half-rant, why women have this fascination with being skinny and why do I want to lose weight, and how can one even have a zero waist.I couldn't stop laughing.I explained that it's WASTE not WAIST and it made a bit more sense to him then.
   
We are not vegan, or vegetarian, although our meat consumption is fairly low. We live in an apartment block, that unfortunately doesn't even recycle.I have started to separate glass and  what I don't need myself I take to a local health shop that gives it to it's customers to use in buying bulk products.And with reducing our plastic use,hopefully it won't be too big of  a struggle to start separating all the main recyclables myself and taking them to one of the collection points in town.
 
   I had several reasons why I wanted to start this blog: I am hoping it will spread some consciousness all around to anyone who chooses to read this, I am hoping that people with more knowledge would come and share their's and I also thought this is a good way to keep myself in check and see the process of becoming zero waste.

    In my next post I will share the little changes we have already made, how hard or easy they were and what switches I hope to do next.