Dairy products and carbon emissions

About a year ago I switched to organic butter because it tastes (and keeps) better.

When I went to the emissions reduction target consultations and heard that some 16 percent of our greenhouse gas emissions come from nitrous oxides from nitrogen fertilizer use, I switched to organic milk as well (plus you can now get a low-fat version at Moore Wilson's and New World).

Now that Ravensdown and Solid Energy want to build a plant to convert lignite (brown coal) to urea, I'm going to break down and start buying organic cheese as well.

I never understood before that some fertilizers are literally made out of fossil fuels.

Why would we make fertilizer to grow more food to feed more people based on a resource that's going to run out one day? That's five kinds of crazy.

Global Climate Wake Up Call

This is the international clip for the Global Climate Wake Up Call on September 21.

See if you can spot Civic Square.

Deodorant update

So, risking this being Too Much Information, yet feeling the need to show journalistic integrity by following through with the whole investigation:

I've abandoned the whole baking soda deodorant approach - it was the most effective deodorant I've ever used, but after a while I got funny red patches under my arms. They weren't uncomfortable or itchy, but it just seemed like funny red patches couldn't be good.

So, back to plastic-y commercial roll-on. Sigh. It's really not as good.

A once-only plug for Starbucks

Normally I am anti Starbucks and all that it stands for (slick characterless multinational peddling overlarge overly calorific drinks in throwaway plastic cups) but in a personal lapse today I supported their profit margin by giving them my money. And yes, getting a throwaway plastic cup did make me feel a bit yucky.

(Did I mention their greenwashing with their token fair trade coffee? They talk up their fair trade drinks in their marketing material but if you look carefully at the menu you'll see that only one or two items are actually made with fair trade coffee. Ooh that bugs me.)

But (and here's the once-only plug) while I was there I figured I would pick up one of their bags of used coffee grinds for the garden. I have thought about it before but the bags were always too heavy and I didn't like that the grinds came in a plastic bag ...

Well, today I discovered that the bags aren't so heavy any more AND when I got it up to the garden the plastic bag turned out to be a bag the original beans came in that had been reused (at least, that's what it looks like it is—the top was cut open roughly and there was one of those little coffee bag "breathing" valves on the side).

So I might be popping back there again. Not to buy any drinks, you understand, just to pick up the coffee grinds :)

DIY lip balm

So, I admit this was more of a fun project than a serious plastic-reduction exercise :)

Three of my lip balm containers were running low so I decided to make my own to refill them rather than buying yet another plastic container.

The recipe is at bleuarts.blogspot.com(and check out the awesome knitted Princess Leia hair!)

I used beeswax, olive oil, vitamin E oil and orange essential oil. I had most of these already so the only cost was $9 for a bottle of essential oil—and there's heaps left over for other projects.

It took a bit of fiddling to get the proportions of ingredients right (my first try was solid-as so I had to add more oil ...).

Mmm, the final result smells yummy and orangey. And it seems to be just as good as the bought stuff.

Asparagus season, mmm ...

I've triumphantly added "asparagus" to the list of vegetables in season.

I harvested the very first spear of the year from the garden on Wednesday. It was the best-tasting asparagus I have ever had :)

The Triumph of Compost Girl

After a long campaign, the board of directors has finally agreed to allow a compost collection service for our building.

I'm getting my compost scheme!