The Waste Watchers Green Clean Workshop

I may have mentioned, just a few times, that Emma Croft from Wiltshire Wildlife Trust and I are running a couple of workshops for the Rubbish Diet.

Well, Emma is actually running lots of really awesome events, and I have to admit that I wasn’t a huge amount of help with this one (sorry Emma), but I was there, and I helped, a bit.

Anyway, this event was “Green Clean” and took place at the fantastic PopShop Wiltshire in Emery Gate in Wiltshire.

The PopShop is a pop up shop showcasing and selling lots of amazing goodies all handmade by talented artists and producers in and around Wiltshire. They have a space upstairs which is in the process of being turned into a workshop space, and they very kindly let us use it for our event. And the town council very kindly lent us some tables!

The aim of the workshop was to share some information about homemade cleaning products and toiletries, and to give people a chance to have a go at making some themselves. It might seem to be not really that related to Slimming your Bin, but as I am discovering, what you buy affects how much waste you produce. And if you are making your own products, then you will be putting less packaging in the bin, as well as controlling exactly what is going into the products, AND saving some money!

It was a great morning. We had a couple of local students turn up to take some pictures for us, and a great bunch of people turning up to take part, ranging in age from 18 months old to 50+.

BBC Radio Wiltshire, in the guise of the lovely Roo Green (very apt name Roo!) came along to record a little piece, which was very exciting!

And I also got to meet fellow Waste Watcher, fab blogger, and all round thrifty queen, Sarah, from Everyday Life on a Shoestring, who popped in to say hello! If you haven’t yet come across Sarah’s blog, do go and check it out, it is full of thrifty tips!

These area few of the things we made:

Gentle silver polish

Mash a banana skin with a blender, and add some bicarb and a dash of water to make a paste.

Apply it to the silver with a cloth and rub, then buff dry

This actually works!! I tried it on a tarnished spoon that Emma had bought along, and it shined it up a treat!

I foolishly forgot to take a ‘before’ picture, so you will just have to take my word for it that the spoon was pretty tarnished, and is now all nice and shiny!

Washing Balls (from Neal’s Yard Remedies ‘Recipes for Natural Beauty’)

These are made from the following unlikely ingredients:

2 slices of soft brown bread, 125g ground almonds, 125g raisins

You basically just blitz the life out of them-we used a hand blender , but it might be slightly easier in a smoothie maker type mixer, When it is all mushed up, you squidge it into balls.

Several people mentioned that they look slightly more like bird food than washing balls, and one intrepid participant did sample them to see what they tasted like!

I have tried these out. You basically just rub them on your wet face, and then rinse off. I thought they would disintegrate but they held together really well, and did leave my skin leaving nice and soft. I was pleasantly surprised!

Lemon & Ginger Deodorant (based on Neal’s Yard Remedies ‘Recipes for Natural Beauty’ but we didn’t have quite all the right essential oils!)

Mix 90ml witch hazel with 10ml vegetable glycerine, and then add the following essential oils: 2 drops of clove (we used juniper berry), 2 drops coriander (we used ginger), 5 drops grapefruit, 2 drops lavender, 10 drops lemon, 5 drops lime, 5 drops palmrosa (we used rose maroc) and mix well. Shake well before use. Store in a dark glass bottle, preferably with an atomizer spray, for up to 6 monhts.

I am test driving this one as we speak-I will let you know how it fares!

The next workshop Emma and I are running (and I promise to be more help at this one!) is an Upcycling Workshop at Warminster Library on the 2nd March from 10.15-11.30am. We will be making magnetic memo boards, funky magnets to go with them! It is aimed at families, and would be suitable for most children form 6ish upwards (or younger with some supervision). And it’s FREE! If you would like to come, you can book at place by contacting Emma. Would be great to see lots of people there 🙂

And here is a list of all the other fab events that Wiltshire Wildlife are running during the Waste Watchers campaign:

Tuesday 5th February (& then monthly on every first Tuesday), 10am-12pm: The Big Mend at Jumble Jelly, 10 Silver Street, Bradford on Avon www.jumblejelly.com/
Saturday 9th February, 10am-3pm: Love Food Hate Waste practical cooking demonstration and taster roadshow with food waste expert chef, Richard Fox, Guildhall Square, Salisbury
Saturday 16th February, 10am-12pm: Composting Worskhop, Pewsey hosted by Wiltshire Wildlife Trust Compost Ambassadors. Book with Emma on 01380 736074.
Sunday 24th February, 2pm-4pm: Seedy Sunday, Memorial Hall, Downtonhttp://www.seedysunday.org/page_id__223_path__0p2p9p.aspx
Saturday 2nd  March, 10am-12pm: Make your own upcycled magnetic pin board, Warminster Library, Warminster  Book with Emma on 01380 736074
Wednesday 5th March, 10am-2pm: Give & Take Day, Atrium, County Hall, Trowbridge
Saturday 9th March, 10am-12pm: Give & Take Day, Selwyn Hall, Box in partnership with TransCoCo For more information contact Emma on 01380 736074
Sunday 10th March, 10am-12pm: Seedy Sunday, Town Hall, Devizes http://wordpress.sustainabledevizes.org/