Thursday 2 December 2010

I'm loving right now!!

I'm really loving this creamy body wash from Weleda, not only is it a pH balanced wash but its also an Eco friendly product. I came across Weleda earlier in the year and I have to say this Pomegranate body wash is lovely. When I first read the blurb on the back it stated that it invigorates the senses, I did the normal thing of thinking yeah OK it smells nice, but when I used it in the shower it reminded me of Summer, fruit flavoured cocktails and ginger beer. Now I know that sounds strange but those are some of my favorite things about Summer. And for the most important bit it made my skin very soft and C even said when we got into bed later that I 'smelled like fruit' I'm taking that as a compliment :D It is a little more expensive than the body wash I normally use but I can tell the difference so you do get what you pay for. I'd buy it for the smell alone.

I'm very eager to try some more of their products and like the fact that they also do a cleansing and toning range. Oh I must not forget to add that this product is suitable for Vegans too.

They have a great range of gifts too for Christmas, hint hint Chris!!!

Friday 5 November 2010

Some things I'm loving right now

Hello! Rachel here. Remember me? Goodness, it's been a long time since I've been here, for which I can only apologise profusely! When you've been away from something for a while it's very hard to get back into the swing of things, so that's my only excuse, but I will try and make up for it and be a better blogger! Today, to ease myself in slowly, I thought I'd just share with you a few products that I've been using lately that are that little bit greener.

First up we have this Method laundry liquid. Now, I will put my hand up and admit that I only bought these because they were on special offer - the normal, full price is more that I would really want to pay, so I snapped up a couple of bottles when I saw they were reduced.


On the back of the bottle it says " biodegradable, 95% plant-based formula, 70% less detergent, water + plastic per load than 2x concentrated detergent, save energy and wash at 30degrees"
I almost always wash at 30degrees now and I've been very happy with how this detergent performs - our clothes are clean and they smell nice, what more could you want? I shall be keeping a eye out for more special offers on this so that I can stock up!


Next, is this Dr Organic range of toiletries which I recently discovered in our local Holland&Barrett. I am rather fickle when it comes to toiletries and do love trying new things, so I thought I'd give this range a go. The range includes soaps, shampoos & conditioners, shower gels, body lotion, hand cream and facial moisturisers (but, rather oddly I think, no facial cleansers) and there are a number of varieties - lavender, tea tree, Vitamin E, Manuka Honey and pomegranate. So far, we have tried 2 of the shower gels (tea tree - big thumbs up from my eldest - and vitamin e) and I have been using some of the face creams and a body lotion. The vitamin e oil is my latest purchase - I have very dry, sensitive skin and it does need a bit of extra care, especially in the winter, so this is perfect. In fact, I really do like all the products I've tried so far and am planning to try out the shampoo & conditioner next. The whole range is very reasonably priced and contains bioactive & organic ingredients and no parabens, SLS, artificial colours or fragrances.


Finally, I am loving these mineral cosmetics by Lily Lolo. I don't wear a lot of make up but I am finding that, as I get older, I do need to make a little bit more of an effort! So I use their mineral foundation and have several of their eyeshadows, which come in a fabulous selection of colours. The products are free from harsh chemicals, dyes & fillers and parabens. Almost all the products are manufactured in the UK and are not tested on animals. They do some brilliant kits too, some of which can be customised with your own choice of product shades, and also sell make up brushes.

So, those are the products that I am enjoying right now. How about you?
Rachel x





Tuesday 5 October 2010

Eating this chocolate saves trees

Do you remember back in June'ish when Rachel and I set about organising a 'Green' themed swap? Quite a few of you took part and there were some fantastic parcels exchanged. My partner in the swap was the lovely Jane from over at Hooked Yarn, she sent me the most lovely things in my parcel. Amongst all the goodies she sent me there was a bar of Organic Meltdown Hazelnuts and currants Chocolate (did I mention that it is also fair trade chocolate). Ashamedly it took way less time for me to gobble down the chocolate than it did for me to actually getting round to writing this post. The main thing is that I am doing it now :D

On the front of the bar it quotes "Eating this chocolate saves trees", intrigued? I was.....so after eating the chocolate I read the inside of the wrapper. Inside it stated that if you went to their website which is in partnership with the World Land Trust and enter your code you could track the tree that you saved by buying the chocolate.

So this morning off I went to www.organicmeltdown.com and registered my details and code. I watch two very sad video clips of the rainforest's in Ecuador and found on google maps where my tree is. It is situated near Rio Chico which is in between Ambato and Puyo. The proceeds from the chocolate bar are donated to the World Land Trust so technically both Jane and I saved the tree together.
Their goal is to save 5 million trees in Ecuador by 2012, that's a lot of chocolate bars. I'm sure I can help a little by eating a few more ;) Their website is definitely worth checking out, there is a lot of information on the World Land Trust and the work they do, including working with the Happy Charitable Trust, the rainforest's in general and all the beautiful plants and animals that reside there.

Monday 27 September 2010

UK Dumping its e-waste on Africa???

Taken from http://www.recycle.co.uk/:

"Recent evidence indicates that large amount of e-waste, which is the term for obsolete or broken down electronic equipment, is being taken from the United Kingdom and dumped in countries all over Africa. Ghana and Nigeria are two countries in particular that have reported large amounts of e-waste being shipped illegally from the United Kingdom. The government of the UK says that the surging amounts of waste make it extremely difficult to regulate, and that many businesses think that they are dealing with legitimate waste disposal companies."

You can read the full article here.

Just posted today:

"Environmental watchdogs have halted an illegal shipment of waste headed for West Africa. Leaving from Scotland, the Environmental Agency managed to halt the shipment of thousands of old televisions and tyres that were being illegally sent to Western Africa. According to the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) its inspectors were able to stop four containers from being shipped to Nigeria and Ghana after a tip-off was received."

You can read the full article here.

Is this really what the world has come to, dumping its waste on other countries....countries who have enough poverty and suffering without having this! I have never heard of this before and had no idea that it was going on, I do have to admit that I have been naive enough to not ever question what really happens to e-waste before, I think I've just always presumed that we recycled what we could???? It saddens me to think that we care so less for our world to treat it like a huge rubbish dump.

Friday 3 September 2010

I promise....

....we haven't forgotten about you all out there. Things have been p-r-e-t-t-y busy for both me and Rachel lately. Rachel, as its been the summer holidays for her two boys and me for all reasons linked to my little area of craftiness.

We have a list of topics that we will be writing about soon so I hope you're hanging in there.

Something that I tried this year that I haven't before was venturing out to the garden centres to pick up some vegetable plants. A) to save some money and B) the fact that I would def not be spraying all sorts of horrible things on them.

We bought tomatoes, peppers, strawberries and lots of herbs. I thought I'd start out quite small as I'm not the most green fingered person it has to be said. The tomatoes have grown in droves which is great because I LOVE cherry tomatoes as so did the strawberries which have all gone now for this year but they certainly were tasty. The pepper plant sadly I have to say was not a success.....we'll there was bound to be a casualty. I have come to the conclusion that the snails ate it as I never caught them at the crime. They started with the one and only pepper then finished off all the leaves too. If it survives I will be taking it into the house to see how it grows.

Normally our garden is kept quite neat and tidy but due to lack of time of late it has become quite overgrown and 'natural' ;) which has been great as we've had lots of birds visiting, happily munching on the stale bread and bird feeders that we've put up. The hedgehogs are back again, much to my delight, the second the security light pops on in the back garden I know shes there. We even have a birds nest in the tree at the bottom of the garden which I stumbled upon whilst picking blackberries. I was quite surprised how big the blackberry bush had grown at the bottom of the garden, in past years I've kept cutting it right back to keep it tidy but this year I've let it grow. I have picked so many tubs this year, I've frozen some and given lots away to friends and family. And I nearly fell over when I saw in Tesco's they were selling them for £3 a punnet and not a very big one at that!!

Next year I'd love to try growing my own potatoes in bags there are lots of places that sell these and some great tutorials on Youtube.

Do you grow your own veg or do you have any tips or advice for anyone wanting to try it? I'm still a novice at it all and would love to know how you keep those pesky snails at bay. We'd love to hear what you've been up to this summer.....and any 'green' activities you've been keeping up.

Wednesday 28 July 2010

Great repurposing idea

Hi, Rachel here. Just popping in very quickly today to share a link with you (I've been hit by a horrid summer cold and am feeling a bit blah, so please forgive the brevity of this post!)

I recently spotted this idea for repurposing old cosmetic jars and thought it was very cute! I personally have a whole shoebox full of these kinds of blue glass jars (I'm a Neals Yard fan) that I cannot bear to throw away, or even to put in the recycling bins, so I thought this would be a really great way of re-using them. I've never made candles before, but have always fancied having a go, and this does look pretty easy, so I think it will be going on my list of things to do!

(Link originally found via this blog).

Do let us know if you give this a try, or if you have found any other repurposing ideas that we could share here.

Rachel x

Thursday 15 July 2010

Ingenious!




This beautiful crocheted flower necklace is the creation of our lovely friend Jane at Hooked Yarn.

What you probably don't realise though is that, in an incredibly inventive bit of repurposing, Jane has used old Morrisons carrier bags to create the yarn to make the flowers!



How clever is that! (And this isn't the first time Jane has done something like this - if you checked out all the Green Swap posts you might have noticed that she also crocheted a little trinket pot using old cassette tape!)


We think this is a brilliant example of how, with a little imagination, even the most dull and uninspiring items can be turned into something special. To read Jane's full post, click here.

Emma & Rachel x










Saturday 10 July 2010

Green Swap Links - part two

Apologies for taking so long to post this! My only excuse is that the heat has made me more lethargic than usual (!) and I still haven't been able to find all the links, so if I've missed you out please do email us asap and let us know where you posted about your swap goodies. In the meantime, do check out these lovely ladies:-

Floss
Daisy
Maria
and A Country Girl

Big thanks again to everyone who took part!

I realise that we've been a bit quiet over the last couple of months, but I've got a couple of ideas brewing so will hopefully have a few more posts for you soon! Watch this space...

Rachel & Emma x

Tuesday 15 June 2010

Green Swap links - part one

Here, as promised, are the first batch of links to our Green Swap participants' posts. Sorry it's taken me a while to sort this - I can't seem to keep up with things at the moment - but I hope you'll take the time to follow the links and see all the wonderful things that people came up with for this swap. There have been some really ingenious ideas!

To see what Emma received from Jane, click here
To see what Lorraine received from me, click here
To see what I received from Lorraine, click here
To see what Annie received from Floss, click here
To see what Jane received from Emma, click here
To see what The French Frog sent her partner, Marigold Jam, click here
and to see what Gemma sent to The Mad House, click here

Obviously, there are still some links to come in, so I will be chasing those up and will hopefully post the rest very soon. Once we've heard from everyone, we'll do a proper round up post.

Rachel x

Saturday 5 June 2010

Green Swap Reminder!

Just a quick reminder that the deadline for sending out your green swap parcel is Monday 7th June. Please do drop us a line and let us know once you have blogged about your swap parcel so that we can all come and see what you sent and, once everyone has received their parcels, we'll do a little round up post.

Thanks again to everyone who is taking part.

Rachel & Emma xx

Sunday 16 May 2010

Green swap inspiration

Hi, Rachel here. Today I thought I'd share a few links with you that you might find useful for the Green swap (or just generally, of course, you don't have to be swapping to use these!)

Betz White of the brilliant Sewing Green book has several tutorials on her blog that use recycled materials. I particularly like the jeans apron and pillowcase apron tutorials.

Mindful Momma also has a very useful page of links for all kinds of earth friendly makes, including green cleaning, bodycare, sewing and other crafts, which you can find here.

And finally, the Repurposeful blog is choc full of ideas for repurposing pretty much anything you can think of! Click on the archives button for links to all the different categories.

Hopefully there will be something here that will give you some ideas and inspiration. If you know of any other great tutorials, please do let us know so that we can share them here with everyone.

Take care
Rachel x

Tuesday 11 May 2010

Swap partner changes

Just a quick update - it came to my attention yesterday that one of our swap pairs have already been partnered with each other for another swap, so there has been a quick re-jig as follows:

Gemma will now be partnered with The Mad House
Lorraine will now be partnered with Contented (me!)

Hope there are no other problems but, if so, please do let us know and we'll do our best to help.

Rachel x

Sunday 9 May 2010

Green Swap Partners

A big thank you to everyone who signed up for our first swap! We have eighteen participants and, to pair people up, I pulled names out of a hat, only making adjustments for those who did not want to post internationally. So, without further ado, here are the partners!

Annie and Floss
Marigold Jam and French Frog
Linny (no blog) and Valerie (Valerie, if you could email us at thatlittlebitgreener@hotmail.co.uk I will pass on Linny's email address)
Emma and Jane
A Country Girl and Maria
Sue and Daisie
The Madhouse and Lorraine
Gemma and Rachel
Mad About Bags and Stuffed Nonsense

Please do let us know if any of the links aren't working properly! Now, click on the link to your partner and leave them a comment to say hello, and start getting to know each other. You have until Monday 7th June to get your parcels together and posted, and it would be great if you could blog about your progress and ideas along the way (without giving too much away, of course, we wouldn't want to spoil any surprises, would we?!)

If, for any reason, you have any problems or you feel you are unable to complete the swap, PLEASE do let us know. We fully understand that, sometimes, life just gets in the way, but we would hate for anyone to be left disappointed, (because, unfortunately, this does sometimes happen) but if you let us know then we can at least try to make alternative arrangements. Thanks for your understanding on this matter.

Now it's time to go and get your thinking caps on! Emma and I will try to post a few ideas over the next couple of weeks, but we can't wait to see what you all come up with!

Above all, have fun, and thanks again for taking part!

Emma & Rachel x

Thursday 6 May 2010

Last chance...

... to sign up for the swap! Signups close tomorrow (Friday) so there's still time! Check out the previous post for more info and leave a comment to sign up. We'll be posting details of swap partners on Monday. It'd be fabulous if you could join us!

Emma & Rachel xx

Friday 23 April 2010

TLBG: Green Swap 2010


Hello again Emma here, this time and both Rachel and I are sooo excited to say that we are holding our first ever swap (well, on TLBG). We thought it would be a really fun idea to make it a 'Green' themed swap and thought it quite appropriate seeing as we have just celebrated the 40th Anniversary of Earth day.

It's entirely up to you what you send to your swap partner, it could be something Eco friendly, reusable, tips and ideas, re-purposed, organic, what ever you like. We thought it would be nice if you included at least one handmade item (after all, we are all crafty types, are we not?), so it's time to get your thinking caps on. You could even include a little card with a green tip, it could be for cleaning, recycling, shopping, cooking etc?

So.....

1. Leave a comment on this post telling us that you would like to join the swap, please state if you are willing to post internationally (therefore we can pair the non international people together).
Edited to add: Blogger comments don't give us a return email address, so please either include this in your comment, or ensure that we can contact you via your blog. Thanks!


2. Closing date for participants is Friday 7th May and partners will be drawn at random and announced on Monday 10th May.

3. Swap parcels should be sent by Monday 7th June.

4. We suggest you send 5 or 6 items, at least one of which should be handmade (eg, made from re-purposed material or an item that is reusable), and it would be great if all your items could tie in to the green theme somehow.

5. Last of all have fun and get to know your swap partner.

Don't forget to invite your friends/blog readers and followers over to join in, the more the merrier!


Edit: Signups are now closed. We'll be sorting out partners and posting details here on Monday.

NB. To the person who left the last, anonymous comment, we have no contact info for you! If you still want to take part, please email us with your blog details asap to thatlittlebitgreener@hotmail.co.uk



Emma & Rachel xx

Wednesday 21 April 2010

The paperless kitchen challenge continues!


Hi, Rachel here! Just thought I'd pop in with a quick update of how I'm doing with our paperless kitchen challenge. The good news is that it's going really well and it's actually been really easy too, much easier that I expected, if I'm honest! We have been using our homemade fabric napkins and the muslin "quick-clean-up" cloths on a daily basis. And I have been remembering to use an old sheet of newspaper for veg peelings. I do still occasionally use a sheet of paper towel, and I still need to train the hubby (!) but it's very noticable that a roll is now lasting several weeks instead of one!


I also wanted to mention a couple of other items I have started using in the kitchen. I recently invested in a couple of sets of silicon cupcake cases. I do quite a lot of baking and, with kids in the house, cupcakes get made on quite a regular basis, so I thought I would give these a try. They fit into a standard size bun tin, the cakes cooked exactly the same and they came out of the cases very easily. The only downside is the extra washing they create! Apparently they are dishwasher safe, but I don't have one, so have to wash them by hand and they do need a little bit of attention to make sure all the crumbs are out of the creases. Apart from that though, top marks! No more paper cake cases for me!
I also use a Magic Non-Stick Liner on baking trays when making cookies or meringues instead of greaseproof paper. It's like a specially treated fabric that is washable and re-usable - it's supposed to last up to 5 years and, again, I've been really pleased with how it performs. I've actually just noticed on the Lakeland website that you can also buy this in precut circles for sponge tins too.
Now, I will admit that I have no idea exactly how "green" these products are in terms of the materials used to make them and the manufacturing processes, but they have certainly helped to further reduce the amount of paper going into our rubbish bins, and that has to be a good thing, right?
Do keep a look out for our next post as we have something exciting planned!


Take care
R x

Tuesday 30 March 2010

Earth Hour and a BIG FAT apology


Well hello there, Emma here and its most definitely long time no see. For that I do apologise and I hope that you hadn't given up on me. Are you still out there TLBGreeners?

OK straight to it....the BIG FAT apology goes out to Rachel my TLBG buddy. I'd taken a little bit of a back seat for quite a few months, well it was more like I was sitting in the boot rather than the back seat!! But Rachel has been doing a super job at keeping TLBG going and for that I am eternally grateful to her. You are a star Rach!!! Big Hugs!!

The last time I contributed to a post was way back on 5th January (how shameful is that!!) and thought it was about time I made an appearance. I have to admit, well confess really, that being greener has not been on my list of priorities with too many work commitments etc.
After seeing a segment on the news I jumped at the chance to take part in earth hour, so on 27th March at 8:30pm off went all the lights and we even turned the TV off and sat and chatted for an hour. It wasn't until the next morning that I saw just how many people had taken part. All together there were 88 countries who participated and some of the most famous sights of the world turned off their lights!! Pop over to the official site to take a peek. If you're not from the UK you can select your country, by clicking on earth hour global. Some of the photos are quite spectacular.

Did you take part?
So before I pop off to finish one of my crafty projects, if you have any topics that you would like us to cover (come on guys I need a rocket up my backside) please feel free to send us your ideas/topics.
And I think you'll agree in saying that Rachel is the best TLBG buddy I could ever ask for (have a grovelled enough yet Rach?) :D

See you real soon, Emma xxx

Sunday 28 February 2010

Green beauty bargain

I've just recently started using a new skincare range, but have been so impressed by it so far that I wanted to share with you. Organic Surge is manufactured in the UK, contains organic essential oils, has no animal testing and contains no chemical nasties like parabens, SLS, petroleum or propylene glycol. And the best bit is that it is really cheap! I have very dry, very sensitive skin, prone to flare ups of redness and flakiness and, for the last few years, have been using products from Neals Yard or Liz Earle - products which I love. However, whilst not being hugely expensive, they are a bit more than I really want to spend on skincare at the moment (as we're all trying to watch the pennies, aren't we?) So, when I spotted this new range in Boots last week, I thought I'd give them a go, especially as they had a "buy one get one free" offer on them. I bought the Gentle Cleansing Lotion and the Super-Intensive Daily Moisturiser and, since starting using them a week ago, my skin is now looking better than it has in a long time! The redness has all but gone, there is no sign of flakiness and my skin is feeling really soft and smooth. The products have a lovely, clean scent and feel really nice on my skin. Obviously, everyone's skin is different so what works for me might not work for you but at such reasonable prices I think it's definitely worth trying. I'm certainly converted! The brand also produce hair and body care products, so I shall definitely be giving those a go too. You can find out more about the brand at www.organicsurge.com

Rachel x

Tuesday 2 February 2010

Paperless Kitchen Challenge!

A couple of weeks back, one of our members, Jo, emailed Emma with a link to a great post about the paperless kitchen idea. Now, both Emma and myself will admit that we are not great when it comes to this particular area - we both love our paper towels! So I was very interested to read the post, and we agreed that it was indeed something we ought to blog about here (and hopefully kick our butts into doing something about it!). Then, last week I read this post by Jessica of Turkey Cookies, about the very same thing. This time, it actually inspired me to do something about it straight away, so I dug out some fabric and quickly sewed up a few little napkins for the kids to use. They were so quick and easy to sew up, I don't know why I haven't made any before, so I will definitely by making some more grown up sized ones too.




I also remembered that I still had a stack of muslin squares, from when the kids were babies, and thought that they would be perfect to use as "quick clean up" cloths, instead of always reaching for a paper towel. The squares were quite big but by cutting them into quarters they are now pretty much the same size as a sheet of kitchen roll.



Of course, if you don't have any old muslin squares lying around, I'm sure old t-shirts or other fabric scraps would work just as well. Now I just have to get myself into the habit of using them! I'm also going to try and remember to use a sheet of used newspaper for more solid messes - spilled food or vegetable peelings, which can then be thrown straight into the compost bin.

Please do take the time to read the two posts mentioned above if you can, as they have loads more great ideas for reducing paper use in your kitchen. I shall be keeping you updated with how I'm doing, and we wondered if you might like to join us on this little challenge? Please do let us know how you get along or, if you already have a paperless kitchen, do you have any other tips you could pass on?

Rachel x

Saturday 16 January 2010

Book Review - Practically Green




Practically Green is written by Micaela Preston, who is also the author of the popular blog Mindful Momma (www.mindfulmomma.com) The book is subtitled "Your Guide to Ecofriendly Decision-Making" and promises to offer "simple steps for sustainable living".

I love Micaela's attitude to green living which is, in essence, be green when you can, but don't beat yourself up about it when you can't, and she writes in a very down to earth and accessible way. It's very easy to dip in and out of this book and all the information is set out in a very simple and concise format, that helps to make all her suggestions feel totally realistic and achievable.

The book is divided into six chapters, Eating, Living, Cleaning, Caring, Wearing and Conserving and each chapter is subdivided into Buy It Green and Do It Green. There are "Copy and clip" guides on such topics as Eco-friendly Food Certifications, Top cleaning ingredients to avoid and Where can I recycle that? Each chapter has plenty of practical advice - tasty recipes, sewing projects & instructions for making all-natural body care products for example. And the pages are liberally sprinkled with additional notes and tips such as Even Greener, Health Alerts and Adventures in Green Living, Micaela's own personal anecdotes.

The only minor point that I would mention (although this is by no means a critisism) is to be aware that the book is very US based - most of the companies and products mentioned in the book are from the US so it may not always be possible to source those exact products in the UK (or any other country), but with the internet at your disposable I am sure it would not be hard to locate suitable alternatives.

I love this book. It may be small but it is jam packed with useful advice and information and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in making some green changes to their lives. In the introduction Micaela writes, "my goal was to keep the information simple, the process creative and the outlook fun." And I think she has done that brilliantly.

Rachel x

Tuesday 5 January 2010

Happy New Year!



Happy New Year! Rachel here. We really hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with your loved ones and are now looking forward to what the new year will bring. Both Emma and I have had a lovely break and are now trying to get back into our everyday routines! During our break, we've been thinking about That Little Bit Greener and how we can take it forward into this new year - we are both really keen to continue to try and make the world a better place and we really want to make this blog a useful resource for others who also want to make changes. So, although this may sound counter-productive, we've decided that from now on we will be committing to posting once a month instead of every other week. Also, instead of picking a topic for discussion each time, we are going to mix things up a little bit and bring a mixture of things - useful links, news, tips, tutorials, In The Spotlight features, recipes, book reviews - in fact anything that we think is of interest and on subject. Some months there may well be several posts, but we're going to be aiming for quality, not quantity! We shall still occassionally offer up topics for discussion and we still want you guys to be involved in this blog too. We really, really appreciate all the support you've given us in this venture - in fact I would go so far as to say we are relying on you to help us spread the word! In the near future, we hope to be running our first giveaway, as a small way to say thanks for all your support, so keep an eye out for that too.

In the meantime, have you all recycled Christmas? After taking down all our Christmas cards, I reused many of ours by cutting out shapes with pinking shears to be used as gift tags next year. In fact, if I do this every year I don't think I shall ever need to buy gift tags again! All the other left-over cards have also been recycled - most supermarkets have special bins for Christmas cards, also WH Smiths and M&S, so there's no excuse!

(Emma here) That is such a fantastic idea Rachel, I'm off to get my cards and pinking shears now!! I will post some photos of my efforts....we hope that you also tried to recycle as much of your wrapping paper as possible. As not all wrapping paper can be recycled I did try not to buy any foil based wrapping. So the majority could go in the normal recycling bin, good pieces of the foil paper I gave to a friend who makes greetings cards so hopefully next Christmas it will get a new lease of life. We also kept all the gift bags so that they can be reused next year, this is where some of the recycled tags will come in handy. Dont forget to check out where in your local area you can take your tree to be recycled, some schemes are allowing you to dedicate a tree by taking in your used Christmas tree. Important: Never burn your Christmas tree in a fireplace or wood stove. Pines, firs and other evergreens have a high content of flammable turpentine oils. Burning the tree may contribute to creosote buildup and risk a chimney fire.

We would love to hear any tips and tricks for Christmas recycling you have, even if its a great recipe for Turkey curry, it'll always come in handy for next year ;) so don't forget to post a comment below so that we can all share. And if you would like to become a member its easy, either send us an email or say hello in a comment that you would like to join and we will add you to our list, there's no commitment when you join, we just want to pass on the word and get more people in our little community together.

On that note, may we both wish you all a very happy, healthy and green New Year!

Rachel & Emma xx