A way to reuse your plastic bottles....

My friend sent me a good idea. 

Guide to Greener Electronics

In Singapore (well anywhere else too), we love our digital gadgets. Who bought an iPad and an iPhone recently?  Actually, my good friend at work bought an iPad but I asked him why he bought it, to which he replied "it's just a smaller version of my home computer" AND he gets to game whereever and whenever he wants to!!! He also has an iPhone :-)   Well, my friend, please read this article "Digital Devices Deprive Brain of Needed Downtime" that appeared in the New York Times on Tuesday.

OK, back to my point. GreenPeace are into their 15th edition of their quarterly Guide to Greener Electronics.  It's a useful gauge on how green electronics manufacturers are:

a) eliminating hazardous substances e.g. Acer has taken out polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) from their laptops.  These substances produce highly toxic dioxins when improprerly disposed of or burned.

b) take and recycle their products responsibly once they become obsolete e.g Apple.  This is important as a lot of electronic waste (or e-waste) is being dumped on developing nations, especially on those that don't have the proper facilities to dispose of them properly.  We may want to export them to be reused so that we can help bridge the digital divide, but they will need to dispose of them. We need responsible manufacturers too!

c) reduce the climate impacts of their operations & products

Everyone shld read this!! Latest edition is May 2010 where Nokia is ranked ahead of the 18 manufacturers in the study.  Lenova, though, needs to get into action as it's ranked last.

Ice-cream cone cupcakes

Here they are!!!

Party preparations!

I don't like buying cakes for birthdays. Filled with cream and colouring, at least with homemade ones we can control what we want!

I decided to make meringue ice-cream cone cupcakes.  Today (on my half day off) I made the meringue bit.  It's my first time and I made the mistake of not oiling my parchment paper, so now they are slightly stuck to the paper! Oops....

OK, need to get some sleep so I can wake up early to make the cakes in the ice-cream cones :-)

Party packs from scrap material

Been to a party and the party packs are in mini plastic bags, or gift wrapped? This time I decided to use my scraps to make my son's party packs.  They are the draw string type.  They're easy to make too.

What I am doing with my scraps

I've got loads of scrap material (I was going to write tonnes, but then would be exaggerating it a bit, although my hubby has labelled me a "hoarder"!).  My last reconstruction didn't go too well. The top was not working out well as it ended too pink and I didn't have any white fabric to balance it out.  Anyway, I cut it up and, with my son's birthday party coming up, I decided to make party packs and cute hair clips for the gals! It's his party this Wed and I'm taking leave Tues afternoon and Wed! :-)

My stack of scrap material

From the top: jeans, T-shirt, freebie from Japan and material from my kid's bedsheet

Now, onto the clips that I made. I bought a hot glue gun for this. I used to use craft glue, but once I discovered the hot glue gun I went crazy!! I bought mine at Art House at Ngee Ann City. The black clips were purchased at the "pasar malam".

The full set! Hope the gals will be happy - sorry boys, couldn't think of any manly items for the party packs :-)

Pakistan Floods

Photographer: Paula Bronstein/Getty Images

I was thinking about how in Singapore we are always complaining about everything.  We are a spoilt lot - subsidised housing, clean streets, all the shopping you can ever get, good food.  And just a 5 hr plane ride away, the people in Pakistan are struggling to cope with the aftermath of the floods.  Millions of people have been affected - lost loved ones, lost homes, affected by flood-related illness.

I think that before we go out and splurge on something, why not donate the money to the Red Cross Singapore.  I'm sure it will be put to good use. The Singapore Red Cross (SRC) has collected S$155,000 from the public as of August 17 2010 towards its target of S$1 million. 

To see the amount of money pledged or committed to the aid, please see here.

Photograph: Matiullah Achakzai/EPA

Chemical BPA Found In Majority of Canadian Population

This is scarey.  According to the Statistics Canada, more than 90% of the Canadian population have Bisphenol A in their bodies! I wonder what the stat is like in Singapore, but we haven't banned BPA bottles yet, although there are BPA -free bottles on the market. Remember to check that the bottle is does not have the # 7 on it, but of course, there is no way to be sure whether it really is, unless there is a certification system that I don't know about.  I've seen bottles in SIngapore with a # 7 on the bottom but they are labelled BPA-free.

BPA is a harmful chemical found to cause cancer, heart disease and diabetes. It is found in plastic bottles, baby bottles, the lining of food cans, and even as a coating for shopping receipts.  Canada has banned the chemical in baby bottles.
Quoting the article : "Cash register receipts are slathered in this stuff...and you absorb it through your skin," said Dr. Rick Smith, author of "Slow Death By Rubber Duck" and executive director of advocacy group Environmental Defense. "The average BPA molecule is flushed from the human body in less than six hours. If we can just get BPA out of a few key areas in our lives, levels in our bodies will come down very, very quickly."

CASE - nearly 1/2 toys tested are toxic!

CASE purchased 50 toys randomly from shops in Singapore and tested them for pthalates and lead. The toys selected for the test included the following:

 

1. Bright and/or colourful paint on the toy (indication of possible presence of excessive lead contents)
2. Plastic toys that are soft and pliable in texture (indication of possible presence of excessive phthalates)

 

Note to self:  Think we had better be aware of these 2 points when we buy toys for our kids.

 

According to CASE, out of the 23 toys that failed chemical tests, 16 exceeded the limit for phthalates, 3 exceeded the limit for lead, while 4 exceeded the limit for both phthalates and lead.

Here are the toys (photos from CASE):

The Ultimate DIY Competition

Found this via Outsapop!  I don't have any free time on my hands, but if you do, give it a go :-)

Food waste

We all love food.  I bet a lot of us have enjoyed sumptuous meals and buffets and are guilty of gluttony. And, of course, have you ever ordered one dish too many? Chinese traditionally order A LOT of dishes to impress their guests with the wealth they have, and the guest, out of politeness always finishes everything in his rice bowl and will agree to seconds (btw, I don't know where on earth HSBC got the idea that its rude for guests to finish everything at a Chinese meal. I was definitely not taught that by my family). Anyway, you can imagine how much would go to waste.  Usually, we would "da bau" or "lik jau" ie. doggy bag it, but if you're not with family, it's difficult to do that unless you're thick skinned.

In Singapore, we produced about 0.6 tonnes of food waste in 2008 (source: zerowaste) and we also have our share of volunteers who distribute unsold food to the needy.  Food from the Heart, and Food for All are two of the most active ones. This is very meaningful.

IKEA Singapore does food waste recycling. Apparently, it sends its food waste to one of Singapore's food waste recycling facility IUT. The waste cooking oil is recycled at Alpha Biofuels into biofuel. I wonder what our supermarkets do? I know Cold Storage will always have a clear out section of food that's nearing it's sell by or use by dates.  Hmmm.... do you get confused by these dates?  In the UK, they are going to scrap them as they think that they mislead us folks into think that the food is not edible.

Are you musical?

Deadline for eco song submission is 29 Aug 2010.

Trash-free for a year!

Via USA Today

Henna

Well, I'm still in search of a natural hair solution.  I've tried the baking soda and vinegar.  After awhile my hair gets brittle, and even the organic/natural shampoos only work for a while and then my oily scalp comes back.

Soak a Pu'er teabag in 9 oz of boiling water and seep for 30 mins 
Update: I added the 1tsp coffee granules to the Pu'er

Take 100 g of henna powder and add the Pu'er to it (sans tea bag!)

Mix in juice of half a lemon

Add 1 tsp of coffee granules (not the ones from the 3-in-1 mixes!) and 1 egg.

Update: Oops! Sorry, actually, I added the 1 tsp coffee granules to the Pu'er tea.

After mixing you shld get this gooey and smelly mud-like mixture.  Then let it sit for at least 3 hours for the ingredients to react with one another.  I just put mine in the fridge.  I have shoulder length hair and it gave me up to 3 applications.

Then when it's done, here's what you do with your hair:

a) wash your hair to get rid of any residue

b) let your hair dry for a while so that it's slightly damp and not dripping with water

c) remember to wear an old T-shirt or have an old towel draped over your shoulders. Oh, and wear gloves as well. 

d) massage in lots of the henna mixture into your hair (don't go over your hair line!) and then put everything under a hair cap.  Add another towel if you want to try and "steam" it.

e) Leave in hair for 3 hours (at least!)

f) Wash out thoroughly!!

OK, my hair's black, so the result I got was shiney and easily manageable black hair with hints of dark brown in the sunlight.  I'm not really sure what would happen to other hair colours but it would be good to test it out on a few strands first!   Although the smell was unbearable during the application, my hair ended up smelling okay after washing out everything. :-)