The Inspired Shopper

Picture: Enrico Bianda

For many fashionistas, overdosing on cutting-edge fashion at the local shopping mall is the epitome of bliss. Yet for most of the workers who create the edgy designs we adore, the experience is anything but blissful.
But Textile and Fashion Industries of Australia, the body which represents the fashion industry, is critical of the legislation. In a recent submission to a review of the Fair Work Act, it said that there were undoubtedly some vulnerable home based workers in the sector, but ‘most participants in the TCF industry do not fit that category and should not be defined as outworkers or sweatshop owners.

‘The current ... regime has removed the flexibility to employ casuals and contractors working from home and has become so complex [that] aspects are proving to be unworkable and difficult to comprehend.’

An ethical label

Divine is the only Fairtrade chocolate company that’s 45 per cent owned by the farmers. According to its website, ‘While Fairtrade ensures farmers receive a better deal for their cocoa and additional income to invest in their community, company ownership gives farmers a share of Divine’s profits and a stronger voice in the cocoa industry.’ The website has plenty of information and photographs detailing the producer-owned co-op in Ghana, as well as the ingredients used and methods of production - perfect for school projects!

Divine’s Easter range includes dark, milk and white chocolate eggs in gift packaging, as well as bags of mini eggs and mini chocolate bunnies. Unfortunately the products aren’t organic or vegan.

Divine products are available from stockists in the following countries: USA, Canada, Sweden, Norway, 
Holland, Hungary, Denmark, Czech Republic, Japan, Australia, Poland, South Korea. They're also available online in the UK (through the main website) the USA, Scandinavia and the Netherlands.

Have a wonderful Easter, and happy chocolate munching!

This piece was first written in 2009, for an earlier blog of mine. I thought it would be good to give it another airing on the Inspired Shopper blog because it reflects on a shopping dilemma that I deal with to this very day!
I have just bought a new, LCD, digital, HD (not 'complete' HD – there aren't enough pixels) flat-screen TV and had it installed using the combined efforts of the nice aerial man and a long-suffering friend of mine who is electronically advantaged. And I feel slightly traumatised.

I knew this feeling was coming and I was prepared. Every time I acquire an item that significantly alters my domestic environment, such as a new, expensive-ish piece of furniture or anything in the way of brown-, white- or blackgoods, I go through a 'trial period' where I am convinced I have made a huge mistake and should just go back to frittering away my money on clothes.

I know where and how this started. For many years I just didn't know how to shop. I rarely had enough money to buy new household items so acquired my parents' or friends' cast-off fridges, crappy vacuum cleaners and so on. When I was forced to buy something new I just went for the bottom-of-the-range model, and I rarely shopped around for the best price.

Then I started to earn a bit of money. Somehow I found myself with a luxurious wool underlay and top-of-the-range, down-filled doona that conspired to overheat and dry out my entire body so I'd wake at 3 in the morning feeling like a piece of dehydrated meat and screaming for water (that was 2002 and I still haven't got around to selling that underlay on eBay).

My next try was a heater and for this adventure I turned into Goldilocks, returning the first heater because it was too cold and the second because it was too powerful, then skulking to another shop to buy a heater that was 'just right'.

An education in shopping

As I was eating my lunch a few Saturdays ago I had something of a revelation. The lunch I was munching on was hummus with a sliced tomato on rice cracker (bear with me). It struck me what a great food hummus was, and the more I thought about it the more convinced I became of its category-defying uniqueness. Here are just some of the reasons why hummus brings people together (with a recipe at the end):

It’s a vegan food without the stereotypes. Unfortunately, defensive carnivores have negatively stereotyped some foods beloved of vegans, associating them with so-called ‘treehuggers’ – think tofu, lentil burgers and alfalfa sprouts (not that there’s anything wrong with these foods, or ‘treehuggers’ for that matter!) Hummus has escaped this negative labelling despite its iconic status among vegans. On the contrary, it’s seen as a gourmet food and is endlessly being reimagined by the chef-erati; Nigella has an eccentric peanut butter version, for instance. Needless to say, hummus also goes beautifully with that other great vegan (and non-stereotyped) food, falafel.

It’s an allergy-friendly food without being associated with a rigid, limited diet. If you can’t eat dairy- and gluten-containing foods (like yours truly), and you bring hummus to a social gathering, no one assumes you’re on a special diet and gives you sympathetic but uncomprehending looks. If you can’t eat citrus, hummus still tastes great without the lemon juice.

It’s extremely economical. If you make hummus yourself, it’s a very low-cost food. Cook the chickpeas yourself and keep the tahini in the fridge, where it lasts for ages.

It’s incredibly simple to make, yet has potential for complexity. Hummus has only four basic ingredients, five if you include olive oil. If you’re not much of a cook you can still make great hummus. The only thing that you need to actually cook is the chickpeas, and you can avoid even this by using canned. On the other hand, if you’re a foodie, you can explore the complexities of hummus ad infinitum, deciding whether to get rid of the chickpea skins, which types of chickpeas and tahini provide optimum flavour and texture, whether or not to roast the garlic etc, etc  – you get my drift.

It can be made in a variety of textures. Like peanut butter, hummus is flexible when it comes to texture. It can be smooth, rich and creamy, or crumbly and runny with pieces of whole chickpea in it. For extra creaminess, add olive oil and the water in which you cooked the chickpeas.

It’s eaten in many parts of the world, so it must be good! Hummus is found in countries along the Mediterranean coastline, such as Israel, Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Turkey, Cyprus and Greece. It’s taken Americans a while to catch on but apparently it’s growing in popularity there. The Brits also love it and Australia’s love affair with Greek and Middle Eastern dips has assured its popularity here for decades.

It has a distinguished but enigmatic history. Chickpeas, the main ingredient of hummus, have been eaten for more than 10 000 years. The chickpea was one of the earliest crops cultivated in Mesopotamia. Chickpeas were eaten in Palestine before 4000 BC and were a common street dish in ancient Rome. A similar recipe to hummus, featuring mashed chickpeas mixed with vinegar and other ingredients, dates back to the thirteenth century. However, the first documented recipe for hummus as we know it comes from the late eighteenth-century modern Syrian capital of Damascus, and the same source suggests that hummus was unknown outside Damascus at the time.

It has the potential to bring different and even warring cultures together. Hummus is much-loved by both Palestinians and Israelis, and the extent of cultural attachments and refinements regarding hummus in Israel puts Melburnians’ attachment to coffee to shame. It’s not just a dish there, but a national obsession; there are hummus restaurants as well as shops. There’s even an Israeli blog dedicated to it. There are accusations by Arabs of cultural appropriation, but hummus also seems to bring Arabs and Israelis together. There’s an intense and more or less friendly rivalry between Israel and Lebanon for the Guinness Book of Records title for world’s largest dish of hummus. In May 2010 the record returned to Lebanon.

It’s extremely nutritious. Hummus is made from cooked and crushed chickpeas, tahini paste, crushed garlic, lemon juice and olive oil. Chickpeas are a good source of zinc, folate, manganese, iron, copper and phosphorous and they’re high in protein and dietary fibre. Tahini, which is made of hulled sesame seeds, is a source of calcium, iron and some B vitamins. The lemon juice in hummus is a good source of vitamin C. Hummus provides complete protein when eaten with bread. It’s also a good source of monsaturated fats, ie healthy fats.

It’s endlessly adaptable. The Vegie Bar in Melbourne makes an incredible hummus with cashews – it’s to die for. I saw a recipe for boiled peanut hummus on my travels but decided to skip that! There’s a commercial variety made with pumpkin at my local supermarket, and hummus is also sometimes made with carrot or beetroot. (While I dislike the idea of reducing the richness of hummus with a watery vegetable, I can see the attraction for commercial purposes – vegetables are cheaper than hummus ingredients.) Hummus can be made with thyme or mint, and sometimes white beans are added to the recipe. For dietary problems with either lemon juice or sesame, you can take out either ingredient and still have a flavoursome dish. Yoghurt is sometimes used in place of tahini.

Hummus is served with different garnishes in different parts of the world. In Israel they serve it with a boiled egg, fava beans, parsley and olive oil. The Palestinians often serve it warm. They place a crater in the middle of the hummus, fill the crater with olive oil and garnish the hummus with paprika, cumin, mint or parsley.

You can make hummus quickly if you’re in a hurry. There’s been much debate about whether or not it is okay to use tinned chickpeas. If you decide to use tinned, you’re better off buying one of the Italian brands that are cooked without added sugar. In Europe you can get jars of cooked chickpeas preserved in water and salt.

If you use tinned chickpeas,  thoroughly drain and rinse the chickpeas. Don’t use the broth to make the paste smoother, and don’t make the hummus without the tahini; I’ve just tried the latter and though it tasted okay, the chickpeas were the wrong colour, giving the hummus a nasty orange tinge.

Recipe for hummus
Here’s a fairly basic recipe for hummus. It doesn’t include cooking the chickpeas; there’s a lot of info on the net about the best way to soak and cook them, and carb soda seems to aid the process. A really good article from the Guardian about creating hummus convinced me that combining the tahini with half the garlic and half the lemon juice before adding them to the chickpeas could produce superior creaminess. Add paprika or cumin to taste.

Ingredients
2 cups cooked chickpeas
1/4 cup tahini
1 clove garlic, minced
6–8 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
sea salt to taste

Method
Mash or puree chickpeas with rest of ingredients. Spread on a plate and garnish with parsley and a drizzle of olive oil.

Freebies are everywhere. If you’re trying to live frugally, making freebies a key part of your arsenal can boost your savings as well as adding fun to your life.

Taking advantage of freebies doesn’t mean you never pay for entertainment or luxuries. On the contrary: it can help ‘free up’ the necessary funds to splurge on higher priced events and items that enrich your life: theatre tickets, a ride in a hot air balloon, a gorgeous sustainable garment for a special event.

Below I’ve identified many great sources of regular freebies. Sometimes freebies will be listed on a website, but you’ll need to do some of your own digging to get the most out of free.

Libraries are one of the original homes of free. DVDs, CDs, magazines, books and in some cases ebooks – it’s all there! Many libraries allow you to suggest a purchase, which you can then reserve. Libraries often run free cultural events, such as author talks, that are listed on their websites; some hold free film screenings. And you can always peruse the daily paper in your local library if you don’t want the expense of buying it.

Local area websites. There are a growing number of websites dedicated to listing free events in local areas. For example, Weekend Notes lists free things to do in many Australian and New Zealand cities as well as East London, Edinburgh, New York and Singapore. If you’re in or going to London, there’s Free London events. White Hat lists events in Melbourne, many of them free. A simple Google check of free events in your area should throw up some sites; subscribe to their feeds for regular updates.

Museums. Museums are often free, or provide free admission to concession card holders. Don’t just restrict yourself to your state or regional museums – smaller specialist museums can offer interesting cultural experiences. In Melbourne, for example, the Immigration Museum, the Melbourne Museum and Scienceworks are free for children and concession card holders.

Universities. Become a polymath by attending the many free public lectures that unis hold throughout the academic year, covering a huge range of subjects from theatre in ancient Athens and the impact of the GFC to how to build a sustainable city. Online faculty events-calendars and newsletters are good places to start your search.

Galleries. Large state galleries often have a number of free exhibitions as well as paying ones. They also often hold free floor talks – check websites for details. Small galleries offer challenging and fascinating art that you can view for nothing. Pinpoint a few in one area and go on a gallery crawl.

Local councils may offer many types of free events. They sometimes run free fitness classes. My local council, for example, offers free yoga, chi gong and tai chi classes, in parks during summer and indoors during winter. In 2011 it ran workshops and presentations on how to keep chickens, how to create edible gardens, and gardening in small spaces. Melbourne City Council has just announced it will run free dance classes monthly in the City Square or similar venue. Some councils offer free business networking events.

Many local councils also hold free outdoor concerts and cultural events during the warmer months.

Local festivals often include a host of free entertainment, talks and workshops.

Meet-ups. Meetup is an online bulletin board for events and gatherings of all stripes taking place in dozens of places across the world. Not all of the events are free; some are workshops and classes, and some group outings cost money, but there are cafe meet-ups where you only pay for what you consume. Start your own meet-up!

Informal business networking meet-ups that aren’t organised for profit don’t necessarily cost anything apart from what you buy at the cafe or bar. For example, Flying Solo, a website for Australia’s microbusiness community, provides a forum for its members to organise informal meet-ups in their local area.

Bookstores often hold free author talks and book launches – you might score some cheap wine and munchies if you’re lucky.

Free film websites. Word-of-mouth is a vital means by which film distribution companies advertise their offerings. Preview screenings of films can now be accessed on the web from sites such as GetScreening.com and SeeFilmFirst.

City parks sometimes hold free events in summer such as free guided walks. For example, the Royal Botanical Gardens in Melbourne offers a free Summer Discovery Walk.

Neighbourhood houses sometimes run free or very cheap classes - check the websites of those in your local area.

Until next time!

• Listen to yourself when you want to dive straight into a home  renovation project. Perhaps there are things you need to consider that you’re not aware of yet. Think about what they are, and where you might get the right information.
  
  
• Before you begin, wait until you’ve considered all the factors involved; wait until you have all the information you need. Think about the plan for your project as a puzzle for which you need all the pieces before completing. Ask yourself if you have all the pieces before you begin to carry out your plan.
  
  
• Consult with someone who can see the whole picture. Individual tradespeople quoting on their own jobs won’t necessarily consider every factor; they may be concerned only with their piece of the puzzle. Even if they are aware of other considerations, some (not all) may fail to inform you of the ultimate requirements and costs because they want to provide a cheap quote.
  
  
• Develop ‘negative capability’. The poet John Keats coined this term to describe the state of uncertainty and unknowing in which creativity manifests itself. When it comes to making big changes to our homes, being open to uncertainty can help us determine the type and extent of research we have to do and all the factors we need to take into account.
  
  
• By all means be organised and use your rational mind. But also let your inner self guide you, when it comes to both the changes you decide to make and the people you contract to help you carry them out.
  
  
• Above all, keep your mind (and your ears) open!

The other day I found the plastic top of a takeaway coffee that had blown into my front yard.

As I picked it up I thought of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which I’d just been reading about. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a floating soup of 100 million tons of garbage, 90 per cent of which is plastic, in the North Pacific. It’s impossible to estimate the area accurately; one study found it to be twice the size of Hawaii. In 2010, similar patches of decomposed plastic debris were found in the North Atlantic and in the Indian Ocean.

While navies and commercial shopping are partly responsible, it’s estimated that perhaps 80 per cent of marine plastic originated on land as litter and industrial waste. Some of it has been dumped on the beach and in rivers or streams, and some has been blown away from landfill, or while being transported to landfill. Water bottles and plastic bags are the most familiar part of the problem – for example, US citizens consume an estimated 50 billion bottles of water per annum, and the annual figure for the globe is around 200 billion bottles – but the plastics in the garbage patches range from pocket combs, tampon applicators and toothbrushes to fishing nets, detergent bottles and toys.

Bits of this waterlogged mass of rubbish end up in the stomachs or around the necks of birds, turtles, whales, seals and other sea creatures, many of which die slow and horrible deaths from starvation, strangulation or suffocation. It’s likely that over 100,000 marine mammals and turtles and hundreds of thousands of sea birds die each year due to marine debris, including plastic. Scientific American describes some of the effects on sea life of coming into contact with plastic: ‘fur seals entangled by nylon nets, sea otters choking on polyethylene six-pack rings, and plastic bags or toys stuck in the guts of sea turtles’. More information about marine debris and what’s being done to clean it up can be found on the NOAA website.

Large pieces of plastic debris are just one aspect of the problem. Estimates for the time it takes various kinds of plastics to decompose range from 20 to 1000 years. They don’t biodegrade – get broken down by microbes – in any reasonable amount of time, but they do photodegrade, breaking down into smaller and smaller pieces. Much of the plastic in the ocean consists of tiny fragments that are less than 1 cm in size, some of them microscopic. These fragments release toxic chemicals into the ocean and into the food chain. Tiny marine organisms ingest the particles and these organisms are then eaten by fish, which in turn are eaten by humans.

A problem like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch can seem overwhelming; individual actions aren’t ever going to solve it on their own. It would take government action and regulation on a global scale to simply stop the situation getting worse, by legislating for less use and greater recycling of plastics, for example. In the meantime, though, it’s surprisingly easy to cut down on your own consumption of plastic, and there are plenty of resources if you want to advocate for tougher regulations.

Below are some simple ways to reduce the use of plastic in your life, reuse it where possible, and recycle the plastic you can’t reuse. (There are also some more ‘hard core’ suggestions.)

* Put plastic containers in your recycling bin. There are many different types of plastics, and not all can be recycled. In the US, UK and Australia, local authorities usually allow some kinds of hard plastic such as drink bottles in their curbside recycling services, but the types of plastics they recycle will vary – check the website of your local authority. A Plastics Identification Code (used internationally) is stamped on plastic containers to indicate their type. According to Clean Up Australia, most local councils here recycle plastics labelled 1, 2, and 3, but many are now extending their recycling programs to include plastics labelled 4 to 7. Clean the containers before you put them in the bin.

* Recycle your plastic bags at recycling drop-off points in your area. Plastic bag recycling stations are now increasingly common. As well as supermarket plastic bags and the heavier store bags, packaging film is normally recyclable at these stations (eg plastic packaging for paper towels, toilet paper and junk mail), as well as drycleaning plastic. Cling wrap, compostable bags and prepackaged food bags, including frozen food bags and prewashed salad bags, normally can’t be included. It’s important that you only put in clean bags.

If you’re in the USA you can locate plastic bag recycling stations in your area at plasticbagrecycling.org or www.earth911.com. In the UK, some supermarkets offer plastic bag recycling; find a station near you at RecycleNow. In Australia you can drop your plastic bags off at your local supermarket.

* Wash and recycle dirty plastic bags rather than throwing them out. The thought of washing a plastic bag is a put-off for some. It’s not hard – turn the bag inside out and give it a quick rinse under the tap, wiping it as you go. Dry your bags on the line or on a clothes rack, using pegs to attach them. Plastic bags with meaty or fishy residue can be washed in hot, soapy water.

* Use your spare plastic bags around the house. Here are some great ideas for making use of spare plastic bags.

* Compost your unused food scraps. You’ll generate less rubbish and therefore need to use fewer plastic bags for household waste. Many options for outdoor and indoor compost bins are now available.

* Don’t assume that so-called ‘biodegradable’ and ‘degradable’ plastic bags are the answer. These bags may cause more problems than they solve. Oxo-degradable bags, for example, contain toxic metals that may not biodegrade at all. Even fully compostable bags require light and heat in order to biodegrade efficiently, which they won’t get if they end up in landfill or the ocean. They can also cause harm if they are included in plastic bag recycling systems.

* Buy fewer plastic toys. Consider reducing the number of plastic toys you buy for your children. Join a toy library, and buy eco-friendly toys where possible. Here’s a good article on eco-friendly dolls.

* Don’t buy exfoliants that include plastic. Unbelievably, minute granules of plastic are now used in some exfoliants! These can end up in the water supply and make their way to the oceans. Don’t buy exfoliants that include ‘micro-fine’ polyethylene granules, polyethylene ‘micro-spheres’, polyethylene ‘beads’, or just plain polyethylene.

* Stop buying plastic water bottles. Plastic water bottles can be reused several times as long as they haven’t been heated and you wash them with soap and water and allow them to dry before refilling. Better still, buy an aluminium drink container. It’s worth paying more for a good-quality bottle – a couple of years ago I bought a cheap aluminium water bottle that leaked water into my bag from the get-go.

* Buy a reusable takeaway coffee container. Look forward to your daily hit of takeaway coffee? Bring your own reusable takeaway coffee cup to the cafe.

* Reuse bubble wrap. If you receive something in the mail packed with bubble wrap, store it and reuse it as packaging in your own parcels.

* Reuse straws. Wash straws or better still, buy a non-throwaway straw. Alternatives include aluminium and glass straws.

* Stop using plastic film for keeping food fresh. Other options for covering food in the fridge include silicon lids, or simply putting a dinner or bread plate over a container of food. Use wax paper for wrapping sandwiches.

* Reuse plastic food containers. Buy your dips from delis and market stalls that serve the dip from bulk containers, and bring your own containers. (You can also buy slices of unwrapped cheese from deli counters.) When you buy takeaway food, bring your own used takeaway container. Used dip and takeaway containers are great for storing food in the freezer. There are dozens of uses for margarine and yoghurt containers; here’s a good list.

Extreme plastic reduction

* Recycle your toothbrush. Once you start becoming aware of how much plastic is needlessly thrown away, even tossing a toothbrush in the bin may start to feel wrong. Alternatives include a company that turns your used toothbrush into picnic tables, one that offers a toothbrush with replaceable heads, and sustainable toothbrushes made from bamboo, wood and cellulose. Some of these ideas can be found here.

* Use your own plastic containers for liquid goods. Buy your liquid goods such as shampoo and conditioner in bulk at food co-ops, health food stores, or speciality bulk stores, and bring your own used shampoo bottles to store them in.

* Buy your dry goods loose, and bring your own plastic bags to carry them. You can find grains, flours, nuts, seeds and pulses at produce and farmers markets, as well as food co-ops and health food stores.

* Bring your own plastic bag when buying meat and fish. Wash your used plastic bags and take them with you for wrapping meat and fish when you go to the butchers, fishmonger or supermarket.

* Use newspaper to wrap wet or smelly rubbish that you can’t compost. I remember my parents doing this when I was young, before plastic bags were widely used for rubbish in Australia.

Suggestions for taking action

* Pressure your local authority to widen the scope of its plastics recycling, eg by recycling plastic food containers if it doesn't already.

* Organise for your town or city to become plastic bag free.

* Pressure your state or federal environment minister to create stronger regulations for the use and recycling of plastic in manufacturing and packaging.

Organisations

These organisations and websites aim to decrease the use of plastics and stop them polluting our environment.

USA

Plastic Pollution Coalition Berkeley California

Australia

Planet Ark

Clean Up Australia

UK

Waste Watch

WRAP

RecycleNow

Help with a plastic-free lifestyle

Life without Plastic

Ethically sourced alternatives to plastic products

Plastic Manners

The blog of a woman who decided to try to live without plastic

Until next time!