Powerful lemon!

Hand soap. Conditioner. Cleaning products. Cooking. Insect repellents.

Everything is filled with chemicals we don't even know about. What's that "preservatives (200, 201)" in my food? What exactly is "methylchloroisothiazolinone"?

Well there seems to be one (of the many) solution(s) to the widespread use of ingredients we know nothing about: lemon!

Ant deterrent

Pouring lemon juice around areas that ants frequent is said to repel them.

Air freshener

An equal amount of lemon juice and water added to an atomizer will create a wonderful synthetic chemical-free green air freshener for your home.

All purpose cleaner

Again, an equal amount of lemon juice and water added to a spray bottle is an effective kitchen and bathroom cleaner and can also be used on walls (spot test first).

A small amount of lemon juice can also be added to vinegar based cleaning solutions to help neutralize the smell of the vinegar.

Microwave

Heat a bowl of water and lemon slices in your microwave for 30 seconds to a minute; then wipe out the oven. Stains will be easier to remove and old food odors neutralized.

Fridge

Half a lemon stored in your fridge will help control and eliminate unpleasant smells.

Chrome/copper/brass

Rub a lemon juice and baking soda paste onto chrome or copper, rinse and then wipe/buff with a soft cloth or paper towel.

Toilet

Mix 1/2 cup borax and a cup of lemon juice for a powerful toilet cleaner that will leave it smelling extra clean!

Lime scale

Use a half lemon to clean the lime scale off a sink or taps/faucets; rinse well.

Laundry

For bleaching purposes, add 1/2 cup of lemon juice to the rinse cycle and hang clothes outside to dry.

A teaspoon of lemon juice thrown into your wash can also help your clothes to smell fresher.

Dishes

A teaspoon of lemon juice added to your dishwashing detergent can help boost grease cutting power

Drains

Hot lemon juice and baking soda is a good drain cleaner that is safe to use in septic systems.

If you have a garbage disposal unit, throw in some lemon peel from time to time while it's working in order to keep it smelling fresh.

Chopping boards

Rub lemon juice into your wooden chopping board, leave overnight and then rinse. Wood chopping boards appear to have anti-bacterial properties anyway, but the lemon will help kill off any remaining nasties and neutralize odors.

Glass and mirrors

4 tablespoons of lemon juice mixed with half a gallon of water makes an effective window cleaner

Degreaser

Straight lemon juice can be used as a general degreaser

Furniture

2 parts olive oil or cooking oil mixed with 1 part lemon juice makes for an excellent furniture polish!

Hair

To lighten hair, dampen it with lemon juice and sit out in the sun for an hour. This does work, I tried it myself. Hey, it was the 80's!

I've read that the juice of a lemon mixed with one cup warm water makes for a great hair conditioner. It should be allowed to stay in your hair for a few minutes then washed off. Exercise caution if you have a sensitive scalp.

Cuts, stings and itches

A small amount of lemon juice pour onto minor wounds can help stop bleeding and disinfect the injury (it will sting a bit). Lemon juice applied to itches, poison ivy rashes and wasp stings is said to relieve discomfort.

Hands

The smell of fish can linger on your hands, even after scrubbing with soap - rubbing your hands with lemon juice will neutralize the smell and leave your hands smelling wonderful.

Isn't it incredible how we have so many environmentally harsh cleaning chemicals in our homes when nature already offers most of what we need!

Source

Greywater toilets

Who needs clean water to flush down a toilet?

Grey water is "dirty" water - from doing laudry, having a shower, doing the dishes, etc. It is any kind of water except obviously toilet water.

The question is: why use perfectly potable water when we can reuse grey water for discharge purposes?

This is what "Greywater toilets" are designed for.

This video gives you an idea on how it works.



Though probably expensive to install at first (it is still being developed), the idea is fantastic! If you're not the kind of person who would dig a hole in their backyard to go numero two, yet you are concerned about the environment, this concept is great.

The award goes to Miss Alisson Norcott.

Do you want a simple design?



Or are you looking for something a bit more obvious? There are many options.


Your poop won't see the difference.

Rainwater tanks on the Earth's driest inhabited continent

Australia is the first place where I saw rainwater tanks - a big metal tank sitting next to a rest area on a highway towards the Yorke peninsula. Capacity: 20,000 gallons.

Like anything else, once you've seen one, they are all over the place. We went camping at Innes National Park and the toilets were so... self-sufficient! No electricity, no maintenance; yet a big rainwater tank supplied water to flush and wash hands. What more do you need, really?

I was pleasantly surprised to learn about those marvels - they are green, eco-friendly and incredibly cheap in the long run. Keep in mind that Australia has been having water restrictions for ages - after all, it is known as "the Earth's driest inhabited continent", so they had no choice but to be creative. We just don't think about that stuff back home... we have so much water that we use it to produce electricity!!

My students find this previous statement quite funny; "but... water... ocean..." as they say, pointing out the irony that Australia is surrounded by water, yet many regions suffer from severe drought and bushfires every year. They mean "How come Australians don't desalinate some of that water they are surrounded with?"

Desalination plants are extremely expensive and scarce here - the first one opened in Perth in 2006 for the modest sum of over 600 million$, with a daily capacity of 144 megalitres. There are only 3 of them around Australia. 3 other desalination plants are in progress, and the government is talking about opening a 15 megalitre one in South Australia.

What's interesting here is that many of these plants have included green energy, such as windfarms, in their overall costs. They operate with the use of reverse osmosis.

However, the reason why there aren't more desalination plants around here is that rainwater tanks are much more economical as well as energy-efficient. Indeed, one of those babies is capable of supplying 95% of domestic water use in a typical Melbourne house. A desalination plant would consume 15 times more energy than a rainwater tank to function, and even more to transport that water to the nearest city.

According to a 2007 ACF study:

• Rainwater tanks are 5 times more efficient than desalination plants;
• Rainwater tanks collect and store water far more efficiently than dams;
• If governments deployed rainwater tanks to 5% of households each year in Sydney and South-East Queensland, the need for a desalination plant could be delayed by as much as 16 years.

That being said, rainwater tanks have always been important to supply drinking water in rural and remote parts of Australia, yet only 17% of Australian households own one of them. The number rises to 37% in Adelaide (SA). Nevertheless, it is plenty more than in Canada (it would freeze in winter...) and a great step towards a greener future.

So.

What are they used for? How do they look? How do they work?

Here's a little video of a bloke who has just purchased a 15,000-litre one.

Rainwater tanks are simply connected to the gutter to collect rainwater. Different tanks are used for different purposes. For example, some are just fat containers with a tap on them while others are connected to household pipes (with the use of a pump) for more efficiency. The latter is obviously more expensive to maintain and definitely consumes energy whereas the first type is simple and cheap.

Therefore with one that is connected to the house (like in the video), you can use rainwater to flush the toilet, have a shower, wash the dishes, and so on. Both types of tanks can be used to fill your swimming pool (how much water do they consume!), water your garden, wash your car, even wash your driveway... if you are that kind of person...

Note that people can drink water from the tank but it should be treated or simply boiled first as insects and other particles might have made their way into the gutter.

Rainwater tanks come in different shapes (concrete, plastic, stainless steel, etc.) and size, as well as at different costs. A simple 500-litre tank costs about 450$ while a 15,000-litre one sells for 2000$. I was happy to learn that the Australian government gives rebates to people who purchase one of them in an effort to get the public to take some responsibility for their own water usage.

Do note that this is the price for BASIC water tanks - i.e. with a simple tap. More sophisticated ones, as well as "designer" rainwater tanks (outdoor, underground or even inside the house) with the full installation (pipes, running electrical cables outside, pumps, etc.) can cost you tens of thousands of dollars. My brother-in-law Dave calls this modern "green brainwashing". I'd be happy with a simple stainless steal one.

Welcome!

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."
- Edmund Burke

When kissing children goodnight, we try to steer clear of sentences such as:

"Goodbye sweetie, hopefully when we wake up tomorrow your daddy won't be diagnosed with stomach cancer and that BP oil leak won't have reached the shores of Gaspé."

Kids are spontaneous, innocent and carefree, and we intend to keep them this way for as long as possible.

Yet this track subconsciously plays in the back of our minds - us, adults, are painfully aware of every single thing that is wrong with this world.

And we worry. But what's the point in wasting energy thinking and planning for things that may never even happen and that we have no control over?

For as Buddha said, “The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, nor to worry about the future, but to live the present moment wisely and earnestly.”

Though it is a difficult task, we should accept life as it is while being fully awake and aware in order to help break the cycle of conditioning that we were sucked into as kids – where are those vegetables coming from? Are plastic bottles safe? Does dad really need to water the driveway? What about glass Tupperware?

I suggest that we just be, now, and appreciate life for what it is. In my opinion, fear and expectations are the dark beasts of modern society, and people lose sight of this fact: once we've done our best, once we've given it a 100%, it is out of our hands. Que sera, sera. And that's OK.

So I'm starting this humble blog, (modestly) hoping to share a few tips on how to be Zen and how to be eco-friendly. It's about raising awareness - thus I will certainly post links to interesting websites, quotes, books, movies/documentaries, and I invite people to give their insight on any given topic.

We’re all watching the news, shaking our heads and thinking that something must be done – well once again, to quote Buddha, “An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea.” Even if it just means not leaving the water running while brushing your teeth.

I wish to keep it simple yet extensive - from how to grow a garden to, say, information about photovoltaic. Feel free to me email me any interesting topics you might have. I really hope that we can make the world a better, greener and more peaceful place - that is, to the best of our abilities.