In news that will surprise no-one, the Guardian reported this week that only 16% of recyclable plastic waste is actually recycled in Australia. Call me cynical, but I’m fairly confident that most of what I diligently place into my recycling bin ends up in landfill.

Of course they mean not very much in the grand scheme of things, but I’m continuing with my small sustainability efforts.

I have A Lot of feelings about how companies absolve themselves of all responsibility for sustainable practices and push this onto the consumer with variations of “but it’s your fault you keep buying things packaged in plastic, what can we possibly do in the face of this demand?”.

We can only but try.

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So, how are those minimal packaging skin and haircare samplers?

There are so many ethique hearts of similar colour that it is quite difficult to tell what product is what. But tiny hearts! Adorable!

Summary of what I’ve tried so far. Note that my skin is horrendously dry. Horrendously. Your own mileage may vary.

The Ethique: the perfector face cream is fantastic and I’ve already ordered the full size. It did take a while to become accustomed to and soften up, and the first few attempts left wee dried up “bits” all over my face – similar to the little plug that gets stuck in a pump dispenser, if you get what I mean.

Ethique: saving face serum does not want to soften, dried bits persist well into use – not really vibing it.

Ethique jasmine and ylang ylang body butter block – quite good, very moisturising on my sandpaper-like skin. Will likely get the full size.

Shampoo with a purpose: dry or damaged left my hair extremely silky, but very flat – which isn’t really the look I’m going for.

Ethique: frizz wrangler shampoo – quite like this, leaves the scalp feeling clean and hair bouncy and not weighed down with stuff. Don’t know that it is really wrangling frizz.

Ethique: the guardian conditioner – my hair is kind of feeling like straw at the ends, so probably not a product I’ll persist with. I may have to return to the brilliant L’Occitane conditioner – despite my extreme disapproval of their choice of influencers.

Ethique: bliss bar cleanser – used twice so far and seems quite decent.

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I’ve started using these Tru Earth unscented eco laundry strips to pretty decent success.

You definitely need to pre-treat stains when using this. I use dishwashing liquid for oily stains (this is quite genius) and occasionally pre-soak whites in nappy(diaper)-soak stuff. I’d most likely have done this pre-treating anyway. I use a white vinegar rinse instead of fabric softener and air dry most everything, though some things get a final boost in the dryer.

After a ton of research on the InformationSuperHighway, I assumed my washing woes of large random greasy spots appearing on otherwise clean clothes after washing were detergent related. Alas this doesn’t seem to be entirely the case.

We have very hard water, which is just all-round awful. When this machine dies I’m definitely going for a top-loader, which random internet people claim is superior for hard water washing.

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And I’ve found one more use for all the glass jars I’ve been accumulating (reuse being better than recycle).

They make excellent receptacles for freezing stock and wine for cooking!

playing about with the ancient lumix!

Thus saving us from buying more plastic containers when the old ones give out, which they do – despite our careful attentions. We don’t microwave plastic, nor do we have a dishwasher – but they eventually crack, or stop sealing well, or shatter when dropped while frozen.

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