Another of Alice‘s “Reduce This” questions is about cleaning products:

How to reduce the amount of cleaning fluids I use, especially the ones which damage the environment the most? See my blog for an idea for free limescale remover…

Whenever I talk to anyone about this sort of thing, I always make a joke about how we’re being green (as opposed to just lazy) when we don’t keep our house all shiny and polished but there is some truth in it – a lot of people use a lot of chemicals to keep their house a lot “cleaner” than it really needs to be. (I’ve put cleaner in inverted commas because filling your house with harsh chemicals isn’t really health-clean either.)

My friend Katherine swears by E-Cloths and we use a lot of vinegar, soda crystals and borax here.

What do you use? Got any techniques to help cut down the amount of stuff you do use?

We’ve had an email from Alice with so many ‘Reduce This’ questions that I’m going to have to run them two a week to get through them ;)

First up:

I want to reduce my use of Tesco, which I use because I don’t have transport and it’s the only one-stop place I can walk to with my rucksack for my weekly shop, but I’d be interested to hear any ideas people have for reducing personal dependence on the “Big Four” evil supermarkets.

In an ideal world, we’d all manage our own allotments and shop at local, independent shops, who source good quality items from local farms & producers. In the real world, this isn’t always possible – there are a limited number of allotments available and people have time constraints that don’t exist in the fantasy world – it’s hard to shop at small shops that are only open 9-5 when you have a 9-5 job.

Because of the big supermarkets, there are also obviously a lot less small shops around – right now, we live close to a local high street which is almost completely filled with chain stores and the house we’re (hopefully) moving to is very close to a big supermarket so there are no local shops at all.

So what have you done to reduce your use of the big supermarkets? How have you fitted it around your busy life? What would you recommend? What would you not recommend? And what about non-food items?

We’ve had an email from Sue:

I’d be grateful if you could help me. I am trying to find somewhere to take an old motorbike helmet for recycling – I have googled but the only useful suggestion I could find was to take it to an old ambulance station for them to use to practice taking off dummies! I live in London but am willing to post it somewhere to be put to good use.

I’m presuming the helmet is damaged in some way that it wouldn’t be safe for use on a motorbike any more – if it is ok, just no longer wanted, it could go on Freecycle/eBay for re-use for its intended purpose. UPDATE: Ok, turns out they shouldn’t really be used secondhand (see comments).

What if it is damaged/potentially compromised though? I love the ambulance station idea or using it as an educational aid in other ways – anyone know of any initiatives/organisations that could use it?

Are there any creative reuses for them? I wonder if they could be turned into themed furniture/houseware for a motorbike fan – I have half a memory of seeing one turned into a lamp but can’t find anything about that now. The only thing I can find is a link to an artist who builds on them to make scary alien/fantasy creature heads – which isn’t the same things at all ;)

We’ve had an email from Pam, asking:

How do I construct a garment rack from any materials, that will display my tie dyes openly so they can be seen? It can’t be too heavy to transport, and can’t end up top heavy.

Not picky about materials, just needs to look presentable and not require anything well, like soldering tools, etc. Looking at the ones for sale, it does not look like rocket science.

I saw a great idea for making a display stand out of an old suitcase recently – the creator is using it for showing off dangly earrings but I guess it could work for ties too.

Another idea might be to make a rack out of copper pipes – like the one I featured on Things To Do Today last week – you could maybe salvage and polish up some old ones, and as the how-to explains, it’s a no-solder job because you can buy/salvage the elbows and joints and it’s just a case of clicking it all together.

Any other ideas?

We’ve had an email from Di:

Several brands of tea I buy come in little waxy paper packets with a foil lining. Do you know if this can go straight into the recycling bin?

I think it’ll be a no regarding the recycling bin. Mixed materials – such as paper & plastic, plastic & metal, and paper & foil – tend to be a bit of a nightmare when it comes to recycling — and waxed paper can also be problematic to recycle as well (apparently it can be recycled alongside tetrapak but not regular paper).

It might be worth contacting the manufacturers to see if they have any suggestions or have any method of recycling their offcuts – if they do, they might be able to take back packaging and recycle it at the same time.

Any suggestions for reuses?