Eat up your greens |
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You can buy Ecover (including refills), E-cloths and other environmentally friendly household cleaning products in a number of places now, not least online from Arujo, now teamed up with North Aston Organics. They also sell degradable refuse sacks and bin liners, and organic personal hygiene products. Similar household products are available down the road from ECO-St (abbreviation of ECO Street) at Yarnton Nursery. Take your own bags.
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| You could just walk round to the Co-op, Foodies or Eagles. If for some reason you can't, then online ordering and doorstep delivery of household goods is very convenient and cuts the number of vehicles on the road. There may be a charge if your order is below a threshold but set that against your petrol costs and the time that you save. |
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| Arujo, Tesco and Ocado offer this service in the Deddington area but no other supermarket does. Have you considered buying recycled-paper products like loo paper and kitchen roll? | ||
| Reduce food miles. You can buy lots of local, seasonal food. There is of course our very own, prize-winning Deddington Farmers' Market. And there are firms who supply local organic veg to your door f'rinstance from North Aston Organics.
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 | BigBarn helps you find good, safe, accountable food from local sources.Those who have gardens and who are fit enough can grow their own fruit and vegetables. And compost the waste. If you don't have space for a veg garden, then why not apply for an allotment from the Parish Council. Email the Clerk | ||
| There are loads of websites offering advice on composting just by popping the word into a search engine, the Community Composting Network for example. You can buy a purpose-made bin or collect four unwanted builders' pallettes and tie them together to make a very effective bin. Then you can fill it with all your garden and kitchen waste (preferably not meat or fish). |
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Chickens and rabbits of course will eat some kitchen and garden waste while producing food for you in return. Nationally, about 2% of households now keep hens, the most since WW2. Two local firms, Cotswold Chickens in South Newington and Omlet in Wardington can provide all the kit you need to get started. Some argue that not eating meat saves on the energy used and methane produced in growing it and frees up more grain to feed to world – another choice to make.
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| Was there a 'Carry-on-Milkman' movie? Anyway, doorstep milk delivery is proving popular again, with returnable glass bottles saving on plastics and recycling. Dairy Crest deliver to Deddington (0870 600 6616) while from only just down the road and so with minimum food-miles, North Aston Dairy (347702) delivers unhomogenised milk. |
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Nearly three billion disposable nappies are thrown away each year in this country; most end up in landfill. Replacing them costs you money - and so does landfill. There's a firm down the road in Kidlington who can give advice and supply you with the washable version with online ordering and free local delivery. But beware; an article in The Times on a DEFRA report said: "To reduce the impact of cloth nappies on climate change parents would have to hang wet nappies out to dry all year round, keep them for years for use on younger children, and make sure the water in their washing machines does not exceed 60C." Choose your poison.
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| Most plastic carrier bags are made from oil, an increasingly valuable and non-renewable commodity. They take generations to break down in landfill. Turn down the offer of plastic bags in shops and supermarkets; take an old fashioned shopping basket or your own reusable hessian or cotton bag. You get them at lots of outlets, not least the Farmers' Market or at Wykham's Farm Shop near Bodicote. |
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