The Green Vegan

… a regular eco-friendly feature by Terri Morris

The modern mass produced cleaners available all use some variation of natural ingredients and scents; we all know the mint fresh or lemon scented stuff I’m talking about. The purer your cleaners are, the cheaper the cost and the lower the carbon foot print. And half the time they work better than the store-bought prepared products and most of the ingredients are already in your kitchen cupboard and are edible and non toxic.

Here are some tips and cleaning formulas to get you started:

Fresh Lemons

Aside from the normal culinary uses, lemons have many cleaning uses that can cut down on the use of chemicals in our homes. Try removing smells (garlic, onion) from knives and chopping boards by rubbing them with lemon peel. If your Tupperware has absorbed smells, fill them with warm water and some sliced lemon and leave to soak. Shine up your wok by boiling lemon peel in it.

You get the idea; next time you juice up fresh lemons, refrigerate the peels with pulp and use as needed.

Homemade household cleaners

Basic Shopping List:
Baking soda
White distilled vinegar
Tea tree oil
6 clean spray bottles
2 glass jars

Natural Creamy Scrubber:
Pour 1/2 cup of baking soda into a bowl, add a bit of liquid detergent and water to make it pasty. Apply with a sponge.

Works wonders on the bath tub and any other place you would use a cream type cleaner. If you have any left over, pour into a jar and add a bit of vegetable glycerine to the mixture to keep it moist and store in a dark place.

Window Cleaner:
Mix 2-3 tablespoons of vinegar with 2 cups some water in a spray bottle and shake.

Shake before spraying on the glass and wipe with a cloth or even newspaper. You may add 2 drops of tea tree or lavender essential oil to scent if you wish.

Spray Cleaner:
Combine ½ Tsp baking soda, a small squirt of liquid soap and 2 cups hot tap water in a spray bottle and shake until the washing soda has dissolved. Apply to surface and wipe off with a sponge or rag.

Tea Tree Mould Remover:
Combine 20-30 drops of tea tree oil soap and 2 cups of water in a spray bottle, shake to mix and spray on problem areas. Apply to surface and wipe off with a sponge or rag.
If the mould is heavy, you will need to scrub it off with a sponge scourer. Once removed, keep the spray bottle in the shower and spritz after each use as a preventative measure.

More green tips coming soon.

Welcome readers to my first blog entry.

… a regular eco-friendly feature by Terri Morris

For those who read my introduction to Vegan SA on the blog recently, one of my main reasons for going vegan is the impact on the environment of eating animals and products of animal origin. Before going vegan I thought my carbon footprint was admirable; after all I didn’t eat much red meat and I went out of my way to recycle, until the day that I realised that there was so much more I could do.

I started reading up on green living tips and read many pages of various eco websites and blogs and looked at what else I can do to be more green. While I’m not ready to live completely off the grid, I have found lots of ideas for reducing, reusing and generally being a smarter consumer so that I can walk lightly upon the Earth, and I would like very much to share these findings with you.

The first first tip I want to share is ways to reuse coffee grinds. It stems from advice my aunt shared with me years ago. She told me that pouring the grinds out in the rose beds kept the bugs away, so every morning I rinsed my plunger and swirled the grinds out into one of the rose bushes in my garden. Then one day I thought to try it on the spinach and basil that seemed to be getting eaten by insects. It worked! So now each morning the diluted leftover grinds get poured onto one of the edible herbs in my garden, which is now also mostly pest free.

This got me thinking – what else can I re-use the coffee grinds for? After a bit of research I discovered a couple of beauty secrets.

Coffee rinse to darken hair:
Needed – strong brewed coffee and a bowl.
Allow the brewed coffee to cool then wash your hair.
Turn off the water and pour the coffee through your hair with a bowl underneath to catch it.
Repeat the process several times until you achieve your desired color.
Wash and condition your hair.

This can be repeated monthly to maintain a natural dark colour.

Coffee treatment to darken hair:
When your hair is a bit dry and you want a more intense colour try this -
2 cups of leave-in conditioner (adjust according to your hair length)
2-3 Tbsp of used coffee grinds
1 cup of cold brewed coffee

Mix the above in a bowl and put it on your hair as if using “regular dye”. Leave it in for 30-90 minutes, depending on how dark you would like it to go, then wash as normal.

Please note the coffee smell will almost certainly remain in your hair for a couple of days.

Coffee Cellulite Scrub
Used coffee grinds
Body wash/shower gel
Used paper coffee filter or old pantihose
Bowl
Cling wrap (ok, I know the cling wrap isn’t very green but you could rinse the wrap that comes from your produce and recycle it when you are done …)

Bring all the items in to the shower; open the window as the aroma can be quite strong. Wet your skin and turn off the shower and mix a small amount of body wash with the grinds in the bowl – you may add some grapefruit oil to assist with detox if you like. Then rub the mixture into your thighs (or other affected areas) and cover yourself with some cling wrap. Then wait 10-20 minutes for the coffee to really do its thing.

I’m not convinced of the science behind this treatment but it does exfoliate and left my skin looking smoother – might be a good time to scrub the shower tiles too!

Place the filter or pantihose over the drain to catch the grinds and rinse and towel dry. Then pour the well-used grinds into your garden.

I hope that you will leave a comment below, letting me know what topics are of interest to you – what ideas you or your colleagues have heard or wondered about.

More green tips coming soon.