Children of today are the adults of tomorrow

If the children of today are the adults of tomorrow, then the lunchbox is the perfect place to start. For a child, their lunch box is very important. What it looks like, what drink bottle you have and what's inside your lunchbox are great talking points come lunchtime. So, if we are going to see any real change, then it will come from the children. Young children are often faced with a plastic lunchbox, plastic drink bottle, plastic wrapped sandwich and plastic wrapped snacks. That is a lot of plastic in one hit! What if children could understand that the plastic they throw away to day, isn't going to disappear tomorrow. It may even end up in the ocean and possibly risking the life of a turtle. Children love animals and nature. They are naturally aware of their beautiful surroundings and given the chance, would do anything to preserve it. It's the adults that often get in the way. Children should know what plastic is, what it's made from and what happens to it when it leaves their lunchbox. It should be part of the their Early Childhood Years so that they can make informed choices about what goes in their very special lunchbox.

Supermarket shopping/ No plastic

This morning we set off for the supermarket to see if we could do some shopping without buying anything in plastic. We bought 2 glass bottles of milk, Laundry detergent in a cardboard box and soap without packaging. That all went well until I was in the pet food isle and everything was in plastic. Well, the fresh pet food. So we had to buy our dog food in plastic. We took our own bags and left feeling like we had done well. Charlotte even chose a little chocolate that was in cardboard packaging( Smarties) which was hard because she really wanted the Caramel Koala. We finished our morning by buying a Metal Bucket which will become our new bin. We are lining it with newspaper. So, at the end of the day, it may have been a little more expensive to buy alternative products but I think that they are better products so it balances out at the end of the day.

Furoshiki Snack Bag/ Easy Directions

Grab your fruit for the morning and place it on your cloth.

Wrap and tie

Unwrap and enjoy your snack using your cloth as a napkin

Wrap your peel in your cloth to take home. Nice and neat!

Lunch Bags

With four children, preparing lunches can get mad. Especially when you can't find the lids to the lunchbox and there isn't any more glad wrap to wrap that last sandwich. We have tried many different styles of cotton lunch bags from Prairie style pouch bags through to Japanese Bento bags. At the moment, we're all about Furoshiki. I love the way the kids have embraced the practice and want to wrap their own lunches. They can choose a different fabric each day and look forward to coming into the kitchen in the morning. If you use two wraps, you can wrap your sandwich first and then wrap your snacks around it. That way you get 'recess' in the first layer and 'lunch'in the second!

Plastic bags

Plastic bags were first introduced to the supermarket industry in 1977. It is now estimated that the world consumes 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags every year. (Cleanup Australia) I often find myself making a quick trip to the supermarket to grab a few things and end up leaving with 5 plastic bags of shopping. If I had brought my own bag, that would have saved a lot of plastic. So now, I am making an effort to pack not only wrap cloths to wrap my fruit and veg but having my market bags on standby.From little things...big things grow....(Paul Kelly)

Eco Oru

This blog is a place to celebrate the art of Furoshiki, the ancient art of Japanese wrapping with fabric. The words Eco Oru mean environment and folding. Teamed together these words represent the coming together of fabric in a sustainable way. A way that protects that which we love on many levels. It protects the essence of the gift we are wrapping, the celebration of beautiful fabric and the purposeful art of sustainablilty through repurposing. Let me share some images with you in the hope that you too will be inspired to embrace Eco Uro in your home and family.