Tag Archives: menstrual cups

Stuff You Should Never Put Down the Drain

Those living in rural areas with their own septic tanks have probably always been pretty conscientious about what they flush down the loo. If only because when something goes wrong, it’s pretty expensive to fix and you’re the sucka who’s gotta pay for it. But those of us in cities and towns whose waste just goes into the sewer system are generally pretty relaxed about what goes down the drain. Wet wipes, nappies, tampons, condoms, cooking fats and oils and coffee grounds.

I’ve always been fairly conscientious about using household cleaning products that won’t harm the water table after being poured down the drain, but lately I have become incredibly aware of other more…tangible problems in our sewers and waterways, as last September (2017) barely a couple of miles from my home there was a huge disgusting fatberg found in the sewers of Whitechapel which weighed over 130 tonnes and was over 250 metres long.

“A fatberg smells like rotting meat mixed with the odour of a smelly toilet.” – Thames Water Sewer Network Manager, Alex Saunders

So it got me thinking about not only what we shouldn’t be putting down the drain, but what can we do to make sure that these items aren’t only not clogging up the sewers, but not impacting landfill either, nor contributing to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. UKDN have produced a list of the Drainage Dirty Dozen – items you shouldn’t be putting down your drain – and there’s a fantastic poster you can download, print and pop into your loo or kitchen. Its particularly handy if you run a cafe, community centre or other business where you can’t personally monitor what is going down your drains. As you’ll see from the list, there are quite a lot of things you really shouldn’t be putting down the drain, but here are my top 5 swaps you can make to reduce the impact you’re having on our environment and on your local sewer system.

1. Wet Wipes

The Problem: Okay, these are the nasties which, combined with grease and fats in the sewers, are mainly responsible for the creation of fatbergs and similar deposits. As a parent, think about how many wet wipes you use with your child. Even the “flushable” ones are bad. I used disposable Water Wipes with my daughter when we were out and about, as they were chemical-free and safe for her skin. But they weren’t any better in terms of environmental impact when it came to their disposal. I’m pretty sure that I always wrapped them up inside the dirty nappy before disposing of them in the bin, but I’ll bet there were at least a couple of times when I wasn’t thinking and tossed them down the loo.

The Solution: When my daughter was a baby, we used only DIY wet wipes at home and if I knew then what I knew now about wipes, I’d have bought a small wet bag and used them on the go as well as they’re so easy. You can make them to fit any budget – if you’re on a tight budget you can make them by ripping up old flannels and following my recipe in the video below. If you have a bigger budget, these Norwex baby body cloths are great and as they’re embedded with antibacterial silver, they limit bacterial growth so you only need to run them under the tap before and after use (then throw them in a 60 degree wash when you get home).

2. Nappies

The Problem: I have to admit it boggles my mind how on earth nappies are getting down the drain. Surely nappies are too big to flush? Nevertheless, they seem to be getting down there, so obviously someone is flushing them. The obvious answer here is…don’t flush your nappies down the loo. But the overall environmental impact of nappies is pretty harsh. Its estimated that in the UK 8 million nappies are being thrown away per day. Each one of those 8 million nappies per day takes around 500 years to degrade in landfill. I’ll let you do the math and think about the environmental consequences of that.

The Solution: One way you can minimise the risk of nappies ending up in landfill or sewers is by swapping to cloth nappy use – full or part time. By using cloth nappies you’ll also make a savings of around £500 per child. Most nurseries I’ve spoken to are really happy to use cloth nappies if you kit them out properly, so even if you’re not a stay at home parent, you can still use cloth nappies easily and benefit from their environmental and cost savings. We used AppleCheeks nappies as we found they worked best and had the best range of sizes, but there are lots of brands out there to fit all budgets and you can try out the different brands before committing to purchasing by visiting a nappy library. There are even brands out there producing hybrid cloth nappies which, while still creating some disposable waste, make travelling with cloth nappies totally possible. You can also do what we did, which is use cloth at home and in the local area, but eco-disposable brands (like Bambo and Naty) when travelling.

apple cheeks cloth nappies

3. Tampons

The Problem: We’ve all done it. (Well, those of us who use tampons, sorry boys!) We’ve all been in a public loo without a sanitary waste bin and just flushed our tampon. Its so easy to do…and they’re soooooo small. What harm can they do? Tampons are designed not to break down when they get wet (that’s how they, urm, do their job so well) and let alone worrying about the sewer, they’re probably going to clog your drain – very quickly. So even in North American and the UK, with our more robust plumbing, its still a big no no.

The Solution: Tampons are a cocktail of glyphosate, dioxin and chlorine, which is not

which of the following do you flush or pour down your bathroom drains?
really anything you want up your Queen Victoria. There are natural and organic brands of tampons available, but OMG when I made the swap to a menstrual cup, it was awesome! No irritation from constantly changing tampons all day, no worries about leaks and I could just go about my day without actually constantly remembering I was having my period. They’re made from medical grade silicone and so they’re easy to clean and sterilise between uses month to month. There are two sizes – size 1 for those of you who haven’t popped out babies and size 2 for ‘post childbirth’ women or women over 30. If you’re a really heavy bleeder, you can always pop on a pair of period pants which will absorb up to 1.5 tampons worth of blood (and yes, they also work). What I like about menstrual cups and period pants is that they are both better, easier and more comfortable and easier than the conventional solution. And of course cheaper. A good menstrual cup costs about $35/£19 and will last you for 10 years. (The 3rd solution is “mama cloth” which is homemade cloth sanitary pads you can get on Amazon and Etsy. Don’t bother unless you like feeling awkward, uncomfortable, a bit smelly and constantly worrying about leaks. Then go for it.)

4. Medications

The Problem: When we don’t finish medications (prescription or otherwise) we really don’t want them sitting around – especially if we have kids or vulnerable people in the house who could accidentally ingest them. If you flush your unused or expired medication or crush it up and pour it down the drain, those chemicals will leach back into your drinking water and the environment. Rather shockingly, the US FDA actually suggests that you SHOULD flush dangerous medications down the toilet (granted, its better than a child accidentally ingesting it) but really this is shockingly poor advice, as those drugs are going to affect the water table and even relatively safe drugs like the oral contraceptive pill will add hormones to the water which aren’t filtered out when water is prepared for consumption by treatment plants.

The Solution: The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee sensibly advises

UKDN_HYEFAOTF_Infographic_Final
that you should always dispose of unwanted medication at your local pharmacy or police department as they will have access to medical waste disposal units. You should be aware that pharmacies are required by law to take back unwanted medicines from patients and it is their responsibility to arrange for safe disposal. For minor health conditions you may wish to look at more natural alternatives rather than pharmaceutical solutions for every small ache and pain. A great solution to ensure you’re putting your money where it needs to go when looking at natural health solutions is by reading PubMed research papers where there you can find plenty of high quality research providing evidence (or lack thereof) on natural remedies. My one caveat to this is that gold standard research is expensive and in many cases, the people with the money to spend on research (pharmaceutical and chemical companies which sponsor and fund many academic research projects), don’t necessarily wish to investigate low cost or free natural alternatives to their own products. Just because a natural alternative doesn’t have evidence supporting it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t work (although it may not) – it means that the study may have been flawed (the wrong subspecies of botanical used, etc.) or that there hasn’t been any study conducted at all. Don’t worry though, there are usually plenty of natural options with good supporting gold standard evidence in their favour and this is where I would recommend someone puts their focus.

5. Grease, Oil & Cooking Fat

The Problem: Okay, so back to fatbergs. Its also not the big mega fatbergs you need to

UKDN_DYPTFDTS_Infographic_Final
worry about – you also need to worry about smaller fatbergs forming in the sewer pipes underneath your property…which YOU are liable for (see here for details about which pipes are and aren’t your responsibility). Okay, so we don’t want local domestic fatbergs and we don’t want big urban fatbergs. But what are they? Can’t we just melt them with the hairdryer or something? Well, no, because they’re not just fat and baby wipes stuck together. Here comes the science! Fatbergs are more of a hard soap-like compound. They’re formed when the fats you pour down the drain go into the sewers and break down into their component parts of fatty acids and glycerol and bind to calcium (created from the corrosion of concrete amongst other things – or if you live in London where ISN’T calcium present?) which is found in the sewers. They then form stalactites and have to be ‘mined’ away like the Whitechapel ones have been.

The Solution: I have two solutions for you. The first is to not cook with so much fat. Do you really need to deep fry everything? Honestly despite what the popular media is saying about fat being the new broccoli or whatever, fat in its refined form (oils and other forms where it has been extracted from its whole food state) is not that good for you and is a pro-inflammatory food. I’ll admit that yes a bit of olive oil makes food taste lovely, but if you’re using more than a couple of teaspoons which are absorbed into the food you’re cooking then maybe you need to give pause for thought. But if you insist on making grandma’s deep fried apple fritter recipe and have a load of leftover oil or you’ve cooked a Sunday roast and there’s leftover ooky fat at the base of your roasting tray, you’re going to have to dispose of it in your household garbage and not by pouring it down the sink…or (like I see some London housewives doing) by taking it outside into the street and pouring it straight down into the storm drains!

This post is a collaboration with UKDN, the UK’s market leader in the wastewater industry.

10 Ways to Make Your Holiday Eco-Friendly

Travel is a big part of life in our family and we try to incorporate many of the environmental sustainability principles we use at home when we go on holiday. Here are my top 10 tips for planning an eco friendly holiday.

1) Use a dedicated eco travel agency or holiday provider

There are a number of holiday travel providers which specialise in eco friendly holidays and destinations. Its great that businesses like this exist to help get you to remote or difficult to get to eco-luxury destinations, but to be honest, if you have the time to do a little planning, there’s no absolutely reason that you need to use one of these services, especially if you are travelling on a budget or if you want to travel to a conventional destination or resort. Remember when you get to your destination there will also be small, independent travel/tour providers who can help get you to out of the way locations and you won’t be paying a middleman if you book with them directly. The local tourist bureau can recommend reputable companies – I used to run just such a business myself and the local tourist bureau sent us and the other local eco-tour providers lots of business.

2) Travel Independently if Possible

Its much easier to do eco travel when travelling independently, but I appreciate that resort-based travel can be much easier for some people, especially solo and more mature travellers, people in high stress jobs and those with physical disabilities (though lots of people with physical disabilities are able to enjoy independent travel with a little forward planning). You can apply lots of your sustainability principles from home when you’re staying at a resort, but its never going to be as ‘green’ as travelling independently. For instance, at a resort, there will always be upsetting amounts of food waste and you don’t know whether the items you place in the waste bin are actually being recycled or just sent to landfill (or eventually ending up in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch which is now twice the size of Texas). If you’re travelling with kids its much easier to do independent travel (as opposed to resort travel) and you can read my article on Travelling with Kids to find out more. Whether you choose to travel independently or with a package holiday, you can still use some of the tools below to travel more sustainably.

3) Plan Well with the Right Tools

We find it exciting planning our holidays, and I highly recommend using Lonely Planet guides. Click here to find out more if you’re itching to get planning that next holiday. Lonely Planet guides are all written by authors who have long-term knowledge and experience of living in the areas they’re writing about and I find they are really sensitive in meeting the needs of those who like visiting local markets, hiking nature trails, trying new foods and exploring out of the way beauty spots…as well as all the usual fun and trivial stuff which is all part of the joy of travelling too. You can buy the classic guidebooks, ebooks and even just PDFs of particular chapters you want.

I also find Trip Advisor incredibly helpful too as a free resource to research things to do at destinations. I’m a top contributor, so if you’d like to read some of my reviews, you can check out my profile and explore destinations you’d like to visit by clicking here.

4) Travel Green

Try to think about how you can reduce your carbon footprint with your mode of transport while you’re travelling. Sometimes you do just need to use a car, but often its cheaper, faster and more convenient using public transport like Eurail (which includes Eurostar) which we’ll be using to get to France and Germany this summer. Right now Eurail has 37% off their global passes – their biggest sale ever – so its a great time to think about booking your summer holiday on a budget. Click below if you’d like to find out more.

When flying, it may be cheaper to include stopovers, but its more environmentally friendly to fly nonstop (and less of a hassle generally) because take-offs and landings are what use the most fuel. So you’ll need to balance your budget limitations against how environmentally conscious you would like to be. Some airlines offer carbon offset programmes.

Remember that depending on the type of holiday you’re booking, you can also use cycling as a mode of transport which is good for your health and which will reduce your carbon footprint. It may not work for the whole trip, but even if just for a day or two it can be fun and bicycle rental is generally pretty inexpensive too.

There are also lots of places where you can even travel by ferry boat as a mode of public transportation and this can be really fun. We’ve done this in both Italy and Greece.

If you do need to rent a car, try to rent a hybrid car if its available. City buses, subways and trams are often much quicker than going by car and you won’t have to worry about finding a parking spot.

5) Prep a Travel Kit

I have a little kit of travel gear that I take with me when I travel and this helps me avoid creating too much waste when I’m on holiday. I have a lightweight hooded rainproof coat from LL Bean that folds down to a size not much bigger than a pack of cigarettes and I keep this permanently in the backpack I travel with, along with a lightweight plastic Keep Cup (for coffee and takeaway cold drinks), a stainless steel straw, my eco-lunchbox, a couple of lightweight produce bags, a cloth grocery bag that folds down super tiny, some Norwex travel cloths (which I use for everything from napkins to wiping snotty noses to sanitising surfaces in dubious hotel rooms – they have silver integrated into them so after a good rinse in boiling or hot water and allowing them to dry, they self-clean, as bacteria can’t reproduce on silver), a mini first aid kit and a teeny-tiny Thieves cleaning spray. Your travel kit has stuff that you need to help avoid using too many takeaway coffee cups, plastic bottles, plastic cups, straws, paper napkins, kleenex, plastic rain ponchos, disposable wet wipes, plastic shopping bags and plastic takeaway boxes while you’re on holiday. These are the things that really add up, so by reducing these you can make a difference.

Think about when you go to a conventional resort – every time you order a drink you are presented with a new plastic cup and a couple of new plastic straws and you see stacks and stacks of used plastic cups and straws at every beach chair, every day. Its a bit sickening actually. If you have your own plastic or stainless steel takeaway cup (I recommend plastic or metal in this instance because you won’t be allowed to use glass around poolside areas) you can just hand this to the bar staff and have them refill it, using your own stainless steel straw (or no straw at all). Just this one change alone will make a significant environmental impact, so if you’re new to this whole world of trying to reduce your environmental impact, do this one thing as an easy start.

6) Eat Local

Research the local cuisines and foods and spend your money on those when you go on your holiday. If you’re staying at an apartment like an Airbnb (find out more here) then try to find local shops and farmers markets with locally grown or prepared foods to stock your apartment, or if you’re staying at a hotel, then research some restaurants which prepare traditional dishes made from local ingredients. Again, Lonely Planet guides and Trip Advisor are great at helping to research these types of details in advance. By eating locally grown foods, there will be less food miles, less carbon emissions associated with the foods you’re eating and you’ll be contributing more significantly to the local economy by supporting local farmers and growers and small business owners.

7) Choose Low Impact Activities

Okay, so if Disneyland is your destination, this might be harder to do. And its okay if you want to go to Disneyland – we’re not about judging here. But most places will have some kind of activity to do that won’t be so hard on the environment – like kayak adventures, bike rentals, hiking trails, finding non-touristy beaches (just – obviously – clean up after yourself when you leave) or visiting a local archaeological site. This is going to contribute to local economies more than hanging out at big chain restaurants/bars, spending the day on herbicide-saturated golf courses or going to theme parks (although I understand that all those things might be fun to do from time to time). By the way, that’s me below, back in the day, climbing my favourite route and below that I’m on a canoeing trip with my BFF last summer!

8) Buy Reef-Friendly Sunscreen

Not only is most sunscreen bad for your skin (remember all those chemicals you slather on your skin are absorbed and have to be processed by your liver), but they’re bad for the environment too. Sunscreen is responsible for damaging coral reefs. Thankfully, as a starting point, Hawaii has made the forward step of becoming the first US state to ban sunscreens which are harmful to coral reefs. Hawaiian Airlines has even partnered with RAW Elements sunscreen company to hand out complimentary samples of their products to passengers. That is cool.

I’m not a proponent of the no-sunscreen approach (because cancer, right) and am wary of homemade sunscreens as you can’t be certain of how old the products you’re using are and how much of the SPF is still active, but there’s no reason to slather harmful and toxic SPF products on yourself and your kids unless you are really faced with no other alternative (and yes, I’ve run out of sunscreen on holiday and had to do this). I haven’t tried RAW Elements yet, but they’re a good, clean brand with a plastic packaging free option and I intend to try them out this summer so I can report back to you.

Its not just sunscreen either – try to pack toiletries which have less environmental impact when they enter the water table. Natural soaps like Dr Bronners 18-in-1 or Moroccan Beldi soap and natural face oils, body lotions and deodorants are a good idea too.

9) This One is For the Girls

Yeah, this is a weird one for a travel blog to write about and it doesn’t apply to you guys, but read on, because frankly, this matters. Girls, your tampons are going to clog up the incredibly delicate plumbing systems in most countries that aren’t the US, Canada or UK. Okay? And your pads are going to take literally hundreds of years to break down in local landfill – or worse, the ocean. So make sure you have a menstrual cup and/or some period pants (both on heavy days) so you’re not causing any unnecessary environmental damage to the place you’re visiting. Make sure you use clean or freshly boiled water to clean your menstrual cup – at home I wash mine in the sink, but am a bit more conscientious when travelling somewhere where there may be more microbes in the water system. Period pants are an easy option too. I have a pair by Modibodi available in UK, NZ and Australia but my readers in the US and Canada can get theirs from Thinx.

10) Take a Water Bottle

Water bottle plastic waste is a serious issue and I don’t really trust that many places will recycle the bottles after we place them in the bin. Recycle bins can be difficult to find when travelling in remote locations. And if you don’t think that plastic water bottles are a problem…check out this lovely river in Guatemala (the beautiful country where I honeymooned, by the way).

Okay, so clearly we’re not going to drink from the taps in Guatemala or a lot of other places in the world where our stomachs could be affected by pathogenic microbes, so what can we do? Clearly safety is the ultimate priority and the answer is NOT just to bring your water bottle from home and cross your fingers you’ll be fine. There are companies which have developed non-chemical built in micro-filters which eliminates 99.9999% of waterborne bacteria (such as Salmonella, Cholera and E. coli) and 99.9% of protozoa (including Cryptosporidium and Giardia). They can weigh as little as just 2.7 ounces and the filter can purify up to 500 litres of safe drinking water from lakes, rivers, streams and tap water before they need changing. I’m currently doing research on which one I like best and will make a specific brand recommendation once I’ve tried them all out.

Thanks for reading what I have to say about eco travel. I’ve included two affiliate links in this post – to Lonely Planet publications and to Trip Advisor, both of which I’ve loved and used for years, long before becoming an affiliate. If you’ve enjoyed my content, please use these links to have a look at the products and make any purchases you’d like to. You’ll be able to take advantage of special rates you can get through my affiliate links and I’ll receive a small commission to help me pay for my blog. Thanks so much for your support!

Photo Credit: Lonely Planet Guides by Valerie and Valise