Annie Leonard has produced another great Story of Stuff animation – this time focusing on cosmetics and the ugly truth of toxics in, toxics out.
I love Annie’s animations because they make a complex issue really easy to understand.

In this animation, Annie talks about the toxic ingredients in our personal care products and their effects on our bodies plus what we, and government bodies, should do to combat the problem.

The Story of Cosmetics is US focused but a lot of the information probably adheres to many other countries’ products too.

Check it out – it’s just over eight minutes so won’t take long.

If you haven’t seen any of Annie’s other Story of Stuff animations you can check them out here - they are well worth it. She also covers stuff (her first animated masterpiece), bottled water, and cap and trade and is working on electronics, which is soon to come.

I spied my lovely bins on this DIY composting blog – actually they did ask permission to use my Flickr image. Glad I, and my bins, can be of service ;-).

Good to know we are helping to spread the composting word.

A lot of the information is based on what the couple learnt while living rubbish-free for most of 2008, what they learnt after that and what they learnt from other people trying to also reduce their rubbish.It’s easy to find what you want because the couple have organised their guide into an A-Z of living rubbish-free. Although, the couple are based in New Zealand, most of the information can be applied globally.

The couple have even added an online shopping site where you can purchase products to help keep you rubbish-free or at least reduce your rubbish.

I really like the sound of 4 My Earth Sandwich Pocket, especially since I have started making school lunches and am forever facing a sea of packaging.

When I interviewed Waveney for a G Magazine story earlier this year, my favourite tip from her was to stick to the outside isles of the supermarket when shopping. This is where all the fresh produce is, and more likely to not be packaged. Sound advice.

Anyway, check out their updated site.

Rain, particularly heavy rain, is just one of the reasons you need to protect your worm farm from the elements. Luckily my worm farms are out by the shed and under some native trees so they don’t get directly rained on and are protected from harsh sunlight (when it isn’t raining).

Since both of my worm farms’ taps are open (they don’t have stoppers) the worm wee flows freely into the collecting containers. When it rains heavily, like it is right now in Sydney, the containers fill up fast.

I have been keeping an eye on the containers and making sure I empty them regularly. However, since my garden is totally saturated from two weeks of rain I have been using the worm wee or watery worm wee on my indoor plants. These are also soaking now so I have taken to filling up containers with worm wee, but don’t plan on keeping it for long because I am not sure how long it stays fresh (as fresh as worm wee really can be).

If the rain keeps up I will just have to keep emptying the containers onto my vegetable gardens and fruit trees.

While I have been tending to my worm farms I thought up a few other tips on how to protect your worm farm from heavy rain.

Cover your worm farm

Covering your farm with a lid is essential. Make sure you puncture the lid with small holes so air can circulate inside the worm farm. A lid also helps to stop your worms from escaping like mine did one day.

When I was first starting out with worm farming, I accidentally left the lid off my newly made worm farm and went out. I returned later that night during very heavy rain to find most of my worms escaping from the farm and squirming across my courtyard. Not sure where they were headed but I spent the next hour in the rain carefully picking them all up and putting them back into the farm.

Cover the worms and scraps with cloth

Covering the top of your worms and food scraps is also vital in keeping your worms happy. An old jumper, t-shirt or hessian sack is ideal. This cover adds another layer under the worm farm’s lid to protect the worms from too much rain.

A cover will also keep the farm dark and moist when it’s hot and sunny, which worms also don’t love.

Darkness also encourages worms to travel to the surface of the farm to eat new food scraps.

Keep the worm juice flowing

Just like you should always keep the wine flowing, make sure you keep your worm juice flowing. Not into your cup though, just out of your farm.

Keep draining the catchment area of your worm farm by removing the stopper or just get rid of the stopper and put a collecting container under the worm farm’s tap. This will ensure liquid is always running off and then your farm will not become waterlogged.

I hope you found these tips useful, and please add any of your own handy tips you think I have missed in the comments below.

More information

• Learn more about how I made my first worm farm from scratch

• Learn everything you need to know with the Worm Farming Secrets guide

The article sited a report by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, which found that a house in the Australian Capital Territory worth around $365,000 could increase its sale price by nearly $4,500 if its eco star rating improved by just half a star.

This is pretty interesting and a valid point considering electricity prices in Australia are rising rapidly. According to the SMH article, prices in New South Wales are expected to increase by 64 per cent during the next three years. And according to NSW’s Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal, the average electricity bill will rise by between $577 and $918 a year by 2013.

Quite a substantial price hike, and probably a good reason to improve the energy efficiency of your house.There are many ways to make your home more energy efficient - from simple actions like turning off unused lights and installing energy efficient light bulbs to the more cost intensive ways of improving your solar power and house energy efficiency - installing solar hot water, skylights, double-glazed windows and solar panels.

Here are a few of my green home tips to get you started

• How to save energy in your home
• Winter proofing your house
• Reduce your stand-by power
• Learn more about green energy
• Reducing your water consumption

Please share any of your ideas for making your home more efficient in the comments below.

Did you know that about 60 per cent of rubbish Australians throw away could be composted? No? Just as well it’s International Compost Awareness week (May 2 – 8 ) then.

Actually, maybe you did know that but I thought I’d share my composting tips with you anyway.

I have to admit I am a bit of composting junkie – I just love making and using the stuff so this week is right up my alley. I have two traditional compost bins, a tumbler bin and two lovely worm farms.

Here are my handy composting hints:

• Learn how to make great compost
• Learn how to build a worm farm from scratch
• Create a worm farm in your garden
• Looking after compost worms

Maybe you have some great composting tips too? If so, please share them in the comments section below.

And why not? Chickens eat your food scraps, fertilize your garden, eliminate bugs, keep your kids entertained and best of all produce tasty, fresh eggs.

You don’t really need a huge backyard either and can start with as little as two chooks. You can even try before you buy through chook renting schemes popping up around the country.

I recently looked into how to choose and keep chickens for G Magazine.

You can download the full story – Part one and Part two.

Want to take it a step further? Build a chook dome.

Sydney’s autumn weather is great at the moment and I have managed to plant out my vegetable patches. I’ve also (with the help of hubby) emptied out all my compost bins, which cooked nicely over the summer, over the patches.

There’s nothing better than the smell of fresh, new, crumbly compost. A symbol of life really.

This is what I’ve planted:

Garlic – since my first planting a few years ago (thanks to some home grown bulbs from a friend) I’ve become addicted to my garden grown garlic. My bulbs end up smaller than the supermarket bought ones, but the potent, juicy little cloves are just awesome. Garlic is also incredibly easy to grow over winter. So far I haven’t experienced any pests so I just plant and then water and feed with worm juice every now and then. They take a good three to four months to grow but the taste and low maintenance is certainly worth it.

Loads of lettuce – this includes rocket. Growing a variety of lettuce and leafy greens is the best because no matter what, fresh salad greens are just a garden bed away. Also, whenever we buy a lettuce most of it seems to go off in the fridge before we get to it so growing it also saves food waste.

Beetroot – is so delicious fresh but I also love to toss the tender young leaves in with a fresh garden salad. You can pick the leaves as they grow, but be careful not to over pick them.

Broccoli – is just a great all time green vegetable. I love it steamed with a bit of salt and virgin olive oil drizzled over the top. Sometimes I add freshly shaved parmesan for that extra yum experience. I also read somewhere that commercially grown broccoli uses loads of pesticides – eek! Plus I haven’t grown broccoli before and I always like to try growing something new.

I still have loads of sweet basil scattered around the garden plus a few beans and shallots, which are coming to the end of their usefulness. Although the guinea pigs we are looking after sure love bean leaves.

Today, we made seedling pots out of toilet rolls and egg cartons – not only cheap but a great way to reuse packaging. All you need are the toilet rolls, egg cartons, soil, seeds and water.

Here’s how

1.    Stand the toilet rolls up in a tray, plate or box – anything that water will not seep through. Leave room for the egg carton. It’s best to pack them tightly next to each other to minimise them falling over.

2.    Carefully tear the bottom off an egg carton - where the eggs sit – and place that in the tray.

3.    Fill the rolls and the cartons with soil – seedling soil is best. You can buy this at a nursery.

4.    Make a hole with your finger about 1cm deep, or up to your first finger joint, in the middle of the soil in the rolls and each egg space in the carton. The hole can be a little shallower in the egg cartons.

5.    Place a seed in each hole. Depending on what seeds you have you may want to add more. For example lettuce, rocket and tomato seeds. Later you can weed out the weaker seedlings later.

6.    Cover the holes back up with soil.

7.    Gently water all of the soil. A small watering can is ideal - a kids one is great!

8.    Because these pots are made of cardboard the soil inside dries out quite quickly so keep watering them regularly to keep the soil moist. Keep the tray out of direct sunlight.

Encourage your kids to regularly water the pots and watch their delight as the seeds sprout and turn into seedlings.

Once you have sturdy seedlings, show your kids how to plant them in the garden – a lesson for another day, and another great way to keep your kids outside. Read more gardening adventures.

Anyone else got any great ideas for keeping kids entertained by making things out of packaging or unused items? Please share your idea in the comment below.

Besides the impressive music, relaxed vibe and child friendly feel the festival’s waste management practices are really inspiring. Red wine aside, these practices are enough to leave anyone with a happy, warm, nicely wasted glow.

My family and I were lucky enough to go this year (March 5-8). Everything we ate or drank from was on, or contained in recyclable or fully biodegradable packaging – meaning it breaks down so it can be returned to the earth.

According to the festival’s website, this year all biodegradable waste will be treated for composting. How awesome is that! Last year’s festival collected over four tonnes of waste that became compost. Over half of the festival’s waste was diverted from landfill. After previous festivals the compost produced was returned to and used by the Botanic Gardens, where the festival is held every year.

This year Womadelaide used a three bin system to sort most of the waste before it was taken away. This system collected biodegradables, recyclables and general waste. Festival goers were regularly reminded to use this system via signs and stage MCs.

These days it seems more festivals are following this greener path, which is great considering the huge amounts of disposable rubbish they generate. So far I know of two others on a similar green path – Peats Ridge festival in the Glenworth Valley (just outside Sydney) and the Blues festival in Byron Bay, NSW. I have not been to either yet but would love to hear if anyone has and what they think of the festivals’ green aspects. In fact, I would love to hear about any festivals out there doing good green things, I am sure there are many. Please leave a comment below.