Commercial polish and cleaners for use on leather and wood are things you really want to avoid. They consist mainly of hydrocarbons distilled from crude petroleum oil, such as naphtha, as well as synthetic waxes, solvents, artificial fragrances, preservatives, surfactants, and propellants if they are in an aerosol form. Is this cocktail of hazardous ingredients and likely carcinogens really something we […]
Category: Change
Meditating on the meaning of growing a vegetable
I was recently considering what images to use in a post I wrote about organic food. I thought the point I was making might best be illustrated by contrasting an image of a pre-packaged bag of shop-bought organic salad leaves, with a shot of a lettuce growing in my garden. It really got me thinking. […]
All you need is love
I had a chat with a friend today that really got me thinking more deeply about something that I have been trying to work out for a while. My friend is a thoughtful, caring person who tries hard to do the right thing. She’s also a busy working mother of three. She was saying that while she cares about […]
Toothpaste – Tub vs Tube
Once upon a time, all toothpaste was sold in jars. Nowadays, almost all toothpaste comes in tubes made of plastic laminate, a substance known as a “monstrous hybrid” by environmentalists as it is almost impossible to recycle. The composite parts, made of different types of plastic, are incredibly hard to separate (as they must be […]
Generous abundance
I want to digress from my series on coffee grounds for a moment, to write about a more general idea that has been on my mind lately – abundance. It’s not completely off topic though, as I started thinking about this a lot during my research and experimenting with grounds for the coffee posts. The […]
Birthday cake
It’s a year ago now since spotless first went live, on 10/10/10. One year on and we are all in even greater need of real positive change, but we can also be proud of what has been achieved. At spotless we are glad to be part of that transformation, and proud of you for sharing […]
spotless launches on 10/10/10!
On 10 October 2010 people all over the world will take part in a Global Work Party, initiated by 350.org and supported by a host of other organisations. The day 10/10/10 has been chosen as a moment when people everywhere celebrate concrete climate solutions and send a clear message to “leaders” that we are already […]
Spotless meat
The production and consumption of factory-farmed meat is an issue we should all take seriously. Intensively farmed meat is detrimental to: our health the environment the livelihoods of small farmers the lives of farmed animals Cheap meat does in fact have a hefty price tag, one we are paying for in our deteriorating health, our […]