Eco friendly solutions in St Maarten / Sint Martin
A lot of our waste can skip the landfill and go straight to the compost. If you find yourself wondering ‘What Can I compost?’ here is a handy list! For more information on balancing greens (nitrogen sources) and browns (carbon sources), please see Composting 101.
Continue reading “What Can I Compost?”
Did you know that your kitchen sink is a warm wet breading ground for bacteria?  An average kitchen sponge can house E. coli, salmonella, and a whole host of bacteria that we don’t really want to keep around in abundance.  Here are a few kitchen sponge alternatives, and some reasons why you may want to consider using them Continue reading “Kitchen Sponge Alternatives”
It was wonderful to finally hear some facts and figures comparing waste management in Saint Martin with that of the South side in a Parliament Meeting. There have been complaints of French trucks bringing French waste over the boarder (The Daily Herald, 21st March 2018) – but few have gone far enough to explain why, until MP Frans Richardson mentioned it in Public Meeting #19.  (Link to the feed here – It starts about 1 hour 12 minutes into the meeting)
Continue reading “Waste Management in Saint Martin”
Anyone who has tried to garden in rocky clay-based soils knows the challenge: you need to add organic matter to encourage both water drainage and retention. We needed an easy way to remove the rocks from the ground, as well as process the large amounts of compost necessary to build healthy soil. We built a DIY rotating compost screen that is robust enough to sift the soil and also doubles as a workbench.
Continue reading “DIY Rotating Compost Screen – Tutorial”
Have you ever heard of a plastic attack? Also known as a shop and drop, it is a demonstration where people protest against excessive supermarket plastic packaging by buying their products and leaving all the packaging behind. They are taking the world by storm, from Ireland to the Netherlands.
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Reduce, Reuse, Recycle is a handy catch phrase that is almost universally known. Teaching it begins in childhood – both at school and at home. However, it leaves out a few more important R’s – Namely Refuse, Re-purpose, and Rot.
Continue reading “Beyond Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!”
One of the areas we can make the biggest zero waste difference is in our bathrooms. On top of helping the environment, zero waste bathrooms can also save us money. A plastic free bathroom is getting easier and easier, thanks to the increasing global awareness over the fate of much of our plastic waste. Plastic is virtually forever. It doesn’t disappear, it just breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces. It is in our bodies, our food, our water, and our oceans.
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Living on an island is wonderful, but sometimes we don’t get to see the innovative products and services offered in other parts of the world. As part of my journey towards zero waste, plastic free compostable dental floss sounded like a dream come true. Here is my unbiased review of Dental Lace’s Silk compostable dental floss.
Continue reading “Review: Compostable Dental Floss”
Composting is the process of turning organic matter into soil. The organic matter in home composting is usually a mix of vegetable trimmings, fruit peels, garden waste, and a small amount of cardboard. In the tropics, we can compost year round, and the warm ambient temperature helps keep the process moving swiftly. Continue reading “Composting 101”
There are many types of composting and various ways to make compost. These range from super easy (a tumbler) to super efficient (forced-air). All types have the same end result – valuable garden soil to help us grow our gardens and help combat soil erosion. Continue reading “Types of Composting”
