I was recently sent an Epson EcoTank ET-4500  printer to review. It is an all singing, all dancing faxing, photocopying, scanning and printing machine, which can connected to your home network with a cable or wirelessly! I was offered it for review as it has a tank for the ink instead of cartridges and the ink is meant to be sufficient to last 2 years.

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I recently read Naomi Klein’s, This Changes Everything as part of the Sustainable Book Club (read more about that here). It is a scary book and it is trying to shake us and tell us to wake up – climate change is on our doorstep. It would easy to read the book, pretend I hadn’t and move on because what difference can one person make to this vast issue? Well I think doing even just one thing is a whole lot better than not doing anything. To quote Lao Tzu –  ‘a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step’.

There are 20 ideas below for things each of us could do to help halt climate change! They may not all be for you (they aren’t all for me) – but let’s do what we can

How can we help climate change?

1.Switch to a renewable energy provider

2. Compost garden, food and other biodegradable waste

3. Avoid using paper wherever possible. Take a look here into how to stop unsolicited mail.

4. Conserve energy around the home

5. Walk, cycle and take public transport where possible

6. Don’t buy anything new for a year (read about Jen’s experience of that here)

7. Grow your own fruit, herbs, vegetables

8. Boycott palm oil and anything containing it (read more here and here).

9. Boycott fossil fuels and fossil fuel products (you could switch to a renewable energy supplier).

10. Avoid meat and dairy products or at least reduce your intake of them. Ease yourself into it by having meat free Mondays.

11. Move your money away from banks which fund the fossil fuel industries read more here

More ways you can help climate change

12. Write to your MP – e.g. to ask for a fracking ban.

13. Start up a government petition (or several) here

14. Susie suggests joining your local councils community panel – read more here

15. Take good care of the stuff you do have and make it last

16. Join in with protests and marches over environmental issues

17. Spread the word about climate change and what we can do about it even if it is just sharing stuff on social media sites.

18. Host events in your home – a sustainable book club, clothes swap, a food swap…

19. Give unwanted food to friends, family and neighbours before it goes off. If you don’t know anyone locally to do that with, set up a food sharing group (read more here).

20. Give talks about climate change and what we can do about it – if you have kids do a talk at their school, if not volunteer to do one at a local community centre or library. Talking about climate change in person and what can be done about it brings the subject to life and connects with people who may not want to read about it.

Disclaimer – this blog post contains an affiliate link. All words and views are my own.

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Lavender is in season and I have loads of lovely fragrant lavender growing in my garden right now. There are many uses for lavender, but my current favourite is to make lavender wands. I don’t use them for casting spells – I use them to keep my clothes smelling nice (but if you or your kids want to make one for casting spells, don’t let me stop you :)).

These wands make great gifts and one year, I made a load as going home gifts from my kids birthday party and they went down a storm!

I’ve shared my instructions for how to make a lavender wand below:

How it is zero waste?

I made use of lavender growing in my garden, so it was unpackaged, home grown and used up. I also made sure to leave plenty for the bees, as that was the main reason I decided to grow lavender in the first place!

The ribbon had been sitting in my cupboard for years and needed using up. I also save ribbons from clothing, gifts and more to reuse for this kind of project. I store my ribbons in an old toiletry bag!

It is really simple, doesn’t take long and they make great gifts! 

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Just over a week ago my husband picked some and I displayed them in this vase.  They lasted about a week indoors which is pretty good going…  The ones left outside are just going past their best now, so I have decided not to bring any more indoors.  However there was a weed that had been trampled on near our recycling bins, which seemed to be doing pretty well considering the attempts to squash it, so I decided to cut it and display it in a vase!  I think it looks really pretty!

Here it is looking much more attractive in a vase!

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