The Green Vegan

… a regular eco-friendly feature by Terri Morris

Yes I recycle, but I also reuse. After my last feature I looked around my home and realised that there are more ideas I can share on how to reuse things, so here they are …

Jars

Wash your coffee, sauce or other jars and peel the labels and use them to store anything from tea bags, lentils, pencils, string, coins – just about anything can be stored in a glass jar.

If you get ones that “fit together” they can be a nice space saver too. I have my 12 favourite teas in old coffee jars – clip the name of the tea from its original cardboard packaging and display through the jar.

Wine bottles

Use rinsed wine bottles as dinner candle holders at your next party, a standard taper “Price’s” candle fits
perfectly and who cares if the wax drips on it? Then you can layer different colour waxes for a pretty effect
and when your done scrape off wax and recycle the bottle with the rest of your glass.

Glass bottles – other ideas

Do you have flowers blooming in your garden? Why not make yourself a bouquet and display them in a jar or bottle instead of a vase – a lovely rustic effect makes it more homey. Or buy a bunch of flowers and display one in a bottle of various heights throughout your home?

More green tips coming soon.

… a regular eco-friendly feature by Terri Morris

While I recycle as best I can sorting bottles, cans, plastic and paper and taking them to the relevant skips at the local dump, sometimes I feel it’s not enough.

There is a saying “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” which I keep thinking about so have started looking for ways to reuse instead of recycle, and here are some of the latest findings:

Can Garden

Peel the labels off your cans and wash well, poke a couple of holes in the bottom and put a light layer of pebbles in the bottom for drainage. Top up with soil and plant herbs either from seed or buy seedlings. These can be attached to the wall outside your kitchen for easy access to add to your vegan cooking and make great gifts!

You could use glass jars, plastic containers, just about anything in your recycling bin could be turned into a planter with some imagination. Perhaps you could paint them or glue on beads, buttons, gemstones just about anything with some imagination.

Hanger Frame

Do you have one of those metal space saver hangers lurking in your closet that you had to buy but never really use? Well here is a great creative idea to turn it into something wonderful you can hang on the wall and show off your precious moments.

It’s really easy and only takes a few minutes – just slide the pegs it came with to stagger your photos and clip them up. Hang it on a hook or nail in the wall, and presto!

You could change it monthly or annually, or you could use it as a to-do or wish-list; the possibilities are almost endless.

More green tips coming soon.

… a regular eco-friendly feature by Terri Morris

When walking through the cosmetics or toiletry section of any store one is bombarded with so many products, creams for every part of our body and other lotions and potions promising radiant beauty, but at what cost to the animals the products are tested on?

Remember, everything you use in the bath or shower goes into our water supply so the purer your body cleaning products are, the cheaper the cost and the lower the carbon foot print.

Here are some basic recipes that I have been using to get you started with some home made beauty products:

Body Scrubs

Salt scrub – Use a cup of coarse sea salt and add about a ½ cup of oil (olive, grape seed, jojoba, whatever you have) and if you want to make the scrub to smell heavenly add 2-3 drops of essential oil like lavender or ylang ylang. Scoop the mixture and scrub your skin, rinse and dry.

Sugar scrub – 2 cups sugar and 1 cup oil, mix the two together and scent with essential oils if you desire. To use, put some scrub on a face cloth and rub in circular motions wherever you need exfoliating and rinse. It is probably a bit much for a single body scrub so you can store in a jar. It might separate in storage so shake it well before your next scrub.

Face Scrubs

Bicarb Scrub – can be used daily. 2 tablespoons of baking soda and about the same amount of water. Mix together to form a paste and apply to your face in circular motions, rinse and pat dry.

Face Wash

Combine 100 ml of grape seed oil with 10 drops of lavender and 5 drops of geranium essential oils in a dark glass bottle; store in a cool dark place. When ready to use, put 1 teaspoon of sugar in the palm of your hand, shake the bottle and add the same amount of oil to the sugar. Mix, and use on your face in circular motions. Rinse with warm water and pat dry.

Skin Toner

Pour 1 cup of rose water (available at pharmacies) into a bottle and add 5 drops of lavender essential oil, 2 drops of rose geranium and 2 drops of ylang ylang and shake; allow to ‘cure’ for 24 hours before using. I like to use a pump bottle and spray on the toner and let it dry naturally, but you can use a cotton pad if you prefer. For mature or dry skin you can add 5 mls of glycerine or jojoba oil to the mixture.

More green tips coming soon.

… 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.