Family Tree - Reducing Your Household Waste - Even With Children in Nappies!

Firstly - paper waste. We all know about recycling paper and newspapers/magazines. But what we all should be doing is using recycled products as well. Recycled toilet paper is a big one! But it also has to be unbleached. Did you know the deadly dioxins caused by chlorine-bleaching paper products causes untold damage to marine creatures and pollution in our waterways? These dioxins leach into the food chain through marine animals that we eat, eventually reaching our babies through the breastmilk in nursing Mums. Make sure your toilet paper is unfragranced. The chemicals used in artificial fragrances can be severely damaging to your health and may trigger allergies in those who are susceptible such as young children and babies or those who have a family history of allergies or asthma. If you have a baby in nappies, if you use disposables, try to use environmentally-friendly brands that don't use chlorine-bleaching or contain filling material that is biodegradable. Dioxin poisoning from chlorine-bleaching of paper products is of particular concern if you have young children. Better still, use cloth nappies with biodegradable nappy liners. Dispose of disposable nappies in biodegradable nappy bags or even cheap Homebrand paper bags! Re-use your plastic shopping bags as bin liners or better still, use those enviro-bags sold in almost every store these days! If you must buy bin bags, make sure they're biodegradable and unfragranced. If you have a child at kindy or pre-school, save those yoghurt containers and other plastic pots in a box which you can drop off at kindy every week. The teachers will love you for it! Egg cartons can be used as seedling pots which can then be planted straight into the garden where they will break down thus reducing the transplant stress on your precious seedlings. Donate your used mags to kindy or your local doctor's office - you'll be grateful for something more-up-to-date to read when you next have to pay them a visit! You can shred your newspaper and use it as a dry filling for your compost heap. Put it in a corner of the garden, add some grass, some chook poo or mushroom compost and let it break down over time. Use some of this as a dry filler for your vege compost or worm farm if you have one. Don't buy too much pre-packaged food or prepared meals. Just think about how your Mums would have coped in the 70s in the days before Chicken Tonight and Patak's Simmer Sauces! They made everything from scratch! Rediscover the art of family meals by making your own sauces. Wonderful spag bol can be made with just a couple of cans of tomatoes, some basil, garlic, chopped onion and tomato paste! You'll save money and help reduce the amount of packaging that goes into landfill. Don't buy pre-packed biscuits and snacks for the kids' lunchbox! Make your own delicious, simple, nutritious morning teas like muffins, grated apple pikelets, apricot slices etc... Not everyone has time during the week to cook - just one hour on the weekend to make some muffins which can be individually wrapped in Glad-Wrap for the following week will mean your kids can grab one straight from the freezer and you'll feel good knowing they are free from preservatives and colours and higher in fibre, with less sugar. So as you can see, reducing your household waste is easy! Gabrielle Edwards is an organic skincare expert and dedicated environmentalist who maintains a successful blog and website on organics and environmental and sustainability issues. For more information, please visit: www.skinorganicsonline.com Article Source:http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Gabrielle_Edwards