The Green touch

Initially published on 23/08/2011 You're concerned about environnment, lucky you, dishwashers use less water and electricity than hand washing: hand washing with open tap can make you spend up to 100 liters water! To sum up dishwashers are more ecological... depending on what you use as a cleaning powder, which necessarily has to be strong enough to compensate mechanic action. These chemical products that replace the movement on your arm can be very polluting and end up in the environment. That is why it is important to choose your powder carefully. You can find "svanemerket" products but as many ecological products, this has a cost. Here is a solution, based on this kind of powder, but that you will need in less important quantities. It is a recipe I found on the French blog http://untrucparjour.blogspot.com/ : - 30% krystall soda (supermarket) - 30% sodium bicarbonate (natron) ; if someone knows where to find it at a reasonable price... ...

Initially published on 24/06/11 In my previous article I explained what my favorite ecological washing liquid was (soap) and how difficult it was to find it (soap). That is why I decided to make my own soap, but you can use any soap for this recipe. It is a good way to use soap leftovers, which are too small to be used easily, but you need a certain quantity. The soap (if you have one already, skip this paragraph) Making soap requires some precaution as it is made with sodium hydroxide (same as for lutefisk, NaOH). You can use alreaydy made soap for the laundry liquid. I may have the occasion to speak further about the process as I'll have more soaps to show within the next months :) I made mine with olive (75%) and rapeseed (25%) oil. It might be interesting to use other cheap food oil but I don't know about their efficiency. I heard that lard (spekk) was even more efficient to wash clothes. If you make your own soap for the body, and ...

Initially published on 22/06/11 Why make your own washing liquid?  Conventionnal washing liquid, even with eco labels, are not judged satisfactory: - you don't know exactly where all the ingredients come from, maybe all from differents place. The more ingredients you have, greater the chance is at the cumulative carbon foot-print of all the transport of ingredients is heavy - if you buy a washing liquid, even ecological, you also buy plastic with it (which makes the footprint heavier) - Do you know the criterias of the label you chose? Is it strict enough? Is your vaskemiddel really biodragradable in water? © Dailyllusion When it comes to ecological (clothes)vaskemiddel, there are two schools: soapnuts and  Marseille soap . They both contain surfactants and are biodegradable in water. Surfactants acts as detergents - they pull fat out of clothes or skin -  and are also contained in ordinary washing liquid. If you want to understand how, wiki...

Initially published on 12/05/2011 And by it, I mean your dishwashing liquid. Here is a very simple recipe I found on the French blog untrucparjour and tested: When there is only a fifth of liquid left in the bottle, fill it with water. You've done that before and it was so liquid that it all disappeared within two days, huh? The secret is to add 1 to 3 coffee spoon of salt (the cheapest you have), and it will make the liquid thicker (you can add salt if not thick enough). Then shake it. I tried it about a month ago and there is still some left now. Like it was a brand new bottle (which means one less to pay for!). It seems like it works for shower gel as well but for every food-product you use for skin, buy organic. NB: if your dish liquid is "konsentrert", you don?t have to wait until you?ve almost finished the bottle: you can make your own liquid in another bottle.