Win with Lipton’s new Rainforest Alliance tea
We had an awesome response to our Lipton Competition, with over 70 entries being submitted!
Some super tips to be greener around the home, you should check out some of the submissions.
It was very hard to sift through all the great answers here on the blog as well as the emails to pick 2 winners.
Congratulations to Trish and Susan!
We will be in touch to organise your prize delivery.
…….
Right now, 50% of Lipton Black and Lipton Yellow Label in Australia comes from Rainforest Alliance certified farms, they aim to achieve full certification by 2015.
Visit Lipton for the Future to find out more.
What is a Rainforest Alliance Certified farm, and why should you purchase products that feature this symbol?
The Rainforest Alliance is an independent organisation that works with individuals, communities and companies whose livelihoods depend on the land to reduce environmental impacts and increase social and economic benefits. The Rainforest Alliance Certified seal of approval makes it easy for consumers to know they are buying a product that has been grown or made sustainably, where water, soil and wildlife habitat are conserved, workers are treated well, families have access to education and health care and communities benefit.
Lipton Rainforest Alliance Competition
Lipton are looking to collate everyday tips for acting more sustainably at home that are cost-effective, manageable and unique which Australian families can easily follow. They want to hear from real Australians, what works in your life?
We are looking to hear your favourite tips for being a “little greener at home”. What little things do you do at home to be a good global neighbour?
We will pick the top 2 most creative and effective tips to win a great Lipton Tea pack valued at $150!
The packs will include the latest eco-friendly kettles from Tefal, bright and lively tea set and Lipton tea which of course is comes from Rainforest Alliance certified farms.
To win, simply leave a comment below with your tip. You can also submit your answers using our contact form here.
Available only to Australian Residence. Entries close Friday 10th July 6pm 2009.
Good Luck :)
Filed Under: All • Competitions • Environment • Shopping
[...] To Celebrate Lipton Tea being the first tea in Australia to be Rainforest Alliance Certified we have 2 great Lipton Tea pack valued at $150 give away…..Visit All for Women to enter [...]
When making packed lunches, instead of wrapping in plastic wrap which is a huge landfill problem, wrap first in greaseproof paper, then in aluminium foil.
The paper breaks down in landfill really quickly and the clean foil (protected by the paper) can be tossed in the recycling.
A little thing to do…
We have a worm farm at our house. It takes hardly any room at all (could be good on a balcony). We put almost all our food scraps in (up to 80% of our kitchen rubbish) and the worms turn it until great fertiliser. Very easy!
1) Definitely focusing on the bigger appliances at home simply because they do make a bigger impact. We have since replaced all our appliances to energy saving ones. We always think/compare before we do appliance purchases. This includes light bulbs!
2) Water is so precious especially in Melbourne we are currently having a highly restricted water usage. Saving water is the key. Reducing water usage, recycling and changing showerhead/tap helps. Also, use the dishwasher only when it is full.
3) Products. Recycle if you can. Have different bins at home for easy recycling habit. Reduce waste. Make sure to you both side of a paper before throwing. Avoid using plastic bags. Use less toxic pest control products. Choose organic options for skincare/household products.
By the end of the day, going green definitely involves a mindset and lifestyle that is prepared to embrace changes and stick through it.
My home recycles water, with half full glasses of water that people forget about and that no one will drink, we pour it into a bucket placed near the sink and use it to water the plants. My home also recycles the water used for washing fruit and vegetables
1. I always buy products with the least packaging possible. This often means I spend less, and also save on landfill.
2. I like to shower with my husband – as a result, his showers have become shorter because he rushes to get away from his nagging wife!
3. Recycle and reuse wherever possible – I have drummed this mantra into my kids and we follow it daily. It’s surprising how many things we have found to reuse!
1. Use boiled water to kill off weeds, no harsh chemicals needed
2. Only buy bio degradeable washing liquids/powders so you don’t polute the water and you can use the gray water later also.
1~ Use lights only when needed. eg If I can see okay while washing the dishes,I don’t put the light on.Turn lights off straight away when you walk out of the room.
2~ Do your washing late at night/early morning.Off peak electricity will save you money.In Summer stop machine before spin cycle to save on electricity/money.
3~ Don’t throw refundable bottles/cartons away in the bin.I have a spot out the back where I put bags of 10c refundable bottles.Save them for a while and make some money.Less landfill.
4~ Sometimes my kids like Powerade etc.If I buy them I wash and re-use them for about a week or so.When I can’t use them anymore ,they go into my 10c refundable bottle collection.
It doesn’t take much to use less electricity,save yourself some money and help the enviroment.If we all do our bit it will help a lot.
We gather the single-sided print outs and junk mail letters and put a big bull dog clip on them and use them as a note pad.
When the “note pad” is used, I shred the paper and put it in the worm farm an eventually it becomes mulch for my plants.
use candles…saves energy and money as well as making everyone and everything in the house look good.
Spend a little extra on a powerboard with individual switches at each power point.
We have one within easy reach behind the TV for DVD, Set top box, TV, games console, Stereo, etc and only turn on the appliances we use. Do same for study. If use the computer but not the internet, the router and ADSL modem get turned off. Always turn the computer monitor off and any external hard drives/printers/etc when not using as well.
We save 25% on electricity by following these steps (when compared with others in the area) – see local energy supplier website which will usually have an area to compare your bill with others.
Invest in a Bokashi Bucket, doesn’t take up much room. Can go on a balcony in a flat. All food waste meats, vegies, scraps, fish etc can be put in it. Easier than a worm farm or compost heap.
It’s the little things that help- only boiling enough water for what you need, not using tea bags all the time, but rather tea leaves which can be re-used as fertiliser and don’t have as much packaging as tea-bags. But if you must use tea-bags thinking of the source (rainforest alliance did I hear you say?). Also if you are boiling the kettle, make a cup for someone else too!
My latest bird brained idea is having the fish light on a timer so it is only on for 12 hours/day instead of as soon as I wake up in the morning until when I go to bed at night.
i have the clothes dryer in my bedroom, it doubles as a heater when in use! Far better than any heater ive ever owned!
1) Walk or bike to the supermarket. You will, also buy less as you have to cart the stuff home.
2) Before you buy something ask around, you may find someone nearby that has the item and no further need. This is really green as another item does not need to be produced and transported to you in packaging which is quite wasteful.
3) Chill out, put your feet up and have a Liptons, you deserve it for at least thinking about this huge problem and what YOU can do. It is easy to spout slogans but to actually live green every day is the real challenge.
I save tea bags,open them up & put on indoor plants for fertilizer.I never buy harsh cleansers,only use vinegar & bi-carb for all cleaning.Bi-carb is excellent in softening the clothes instead of bought conditioners.I also make my own face masks from avocado & honey-saves me money & is gentle on the environment.
My partner and I resisted buying a car for 18 months after moving to Melbourne
When it became necessary to buy a car we chose one that was compact, economical and had a good emissions rating.
Our time without a car has led to some really good habits. As a result we commute daily via tram and bus, and try to pick up a bag full of groceries on our way home rather than making a separate trip in the car.
I am very grateful for the lessons learned, and proud of us both for resisting the temptation to use our car whenever we feel like it!
Instead of using harsh fertilisers on our citrus plants, we get our son to wee (urinate) underneath our lemon tree. The urea is great for the fruit, and we have lots of neighbours “borrowing” our delicious lemons!
We installed a rainwater tank, have a vege garden and recycle everything we can into the compost, use newspapers for mulch,save the shower water by placing buckets in the shower and use a greywater hose for the washing machine,Teabags are used for fertiliser and vinegar for killing weeds,Boiled chillis,dishwashing detergent and water are an effective insect repellent for plants. All lightbulbs and appliances have been replaced with energy efficient ones and now we walk or take the bus to go out.
Let rainwater waste? No! Fundamental,
Install a rainwater tank and limit ornamentals.
Plus a tub in the shower, pump in the tub,
Hose from that pump to irrigate yummy shrubs.
From the sink and bath too: beans, salad leaves sweet,
With homemade compost too, another trick neat…
Transport and megalitres saved with a garden rethink complete!!
We avoid using disposable products. We use hankerchiefs not tissues, old rags instead of paper towel, sealed containers instead of glad wrap.
Liptons tea is fantastic and fresh leaves can be used as fertilizer
Always have a bucket in the kitcken sink and shower to collect water that would otherwise be wasted. When the house is a little cold, put on a jacket and make a cup of tea, much better than turning on the heating.
These small measures have apositive impact on the envionment and save us money too,
We do out bit for the world by wearing as little clothes as possible in the warmer season. Great for the environment, fantastic for our love life!
Harsh cleaning products are a disaster for the environment. I substitute more environmentally friendly solutions such as dropping a denture tablet into the toilet…leave for 20 mins then flush! Spotless!
Our home uses no harsh cleaning chemicals. I got my grandmother to come down and teach me cleaning tricks from back in the the 30’s and 40’s. We use a lot of vinegar, bi carb soda and lemon juice. I always get comments on how lemony fresh my house smells :) Not only are being green, but these are in expensive so we are not wasting money on harsh chemicals. We also hand wash – if we only have a couple of things to wash. My daughter thinks this is extremely fun, so while we are saving on water and power, she is having fun aswell!
The worms rely on me, for their daily treat of leaves from Liptons tea.
In the dark, anxiously they wait, wondering if I’ll show.
I’d like to reassure them and to let them know
Where Lipton tea is concerned there really is no doubt
I love Liptons very much, so they’ll never have to go without.
I’m teaching my children to recycle. I have big plastic bins inside that have A4 pictures stuck to the front, one picture is for rubbish, the other for recycling.
Our garden is 1meter square which isn’t enough to use all the compost a family of 4 produces. I’d love to know if there is somewhere we could take our compost for someone else to use (live in Melbourne).
I’m teaching my girls to use hankies instead of tissues as well. Good habits can not start early enough.
Use vinegar in the wash instead of fabric softener.
Bake our own bread whenever we can, using the gas oven means I don’t have to switch the electric heater on.
Buy toys that are not in a million layers of packaging. My fav. gift to give other children is a book, spread the love of reading and there is no packaging. We recycle paintings from PreSchool to use as gift wrap.
I think it is really important to not only practice green habits yourself but teach your children that it is the normal way to do things.
we recycle just about all our kitchen waste between the worm farm, the rabbit and the chooks. The worms provide castings for garden fertiliser, the rabbit cage gets moved around the yard regularly providing patch mowing, weed control and fertilizing and the chooks grab all the grubs in the garden as they forage in the yard providing pest and weed control plus………. yup fertiliser! Oh and free range, grain fed, organic eggs with no transport emissions!
Dealing greenly with dog poop is very important as it’s been found dog poo ‘waste’ significantly raises the bacteria levels in waterways/beaches through incorrect disposal or slack attitudes.
It isn’t just from nuggets on the beaches, but also runoff from stormwater drains after that water has come into contact with the poop on roadways/pavements/parks. Bacteria contained in dog poo includes E. coli, fecal coliform bacteria, salmonella and giardia. Nasty Nasty stuff.
Dog poo is also just plain gross and pollutes our parks,road and foot paths – pram wheels and shoes ‘to boot’.
Although ‘you’ can put dog poop into worm farms, it’s not recommended that you then use the worm castings or liquid from the farm in/on your vegetable garden.
Also with general garden waste composting again, the compost shouldn’t be applied to your veggie patch. So this can exclude your lawn clippings if they are contaminated by chunks.
Best option is to make or buy a doogy loo (if you have a backyard)
They are special buckets with holes in the bottom you place into the ground on a bed of stones,add a special starter enzyme (like used in septic systems) to which will break down the poop.
As soon as the bucket is full, you simply pour water into it and the broken down materials will flush away into sub soil. Best of all there is no risk to your plants, you can have the bucket(or bin) hidden away in your garden.
You can buy them ready to ‘poo’ or see instructions I found here and make your own for a few $ http://homepage.mac.com/cityfarmer/PhotoAlbum22.html
Of course who picks it up and how is another story indeed …though can now buy special biodegradable bags perfect for this job and cardboard skooper boxes.
Just be careful where you position it ;) and have a well fitting lid.
We do all the regular stuff (like reusing grey water, choosing to replace whitegoods and appliances with more eco-friendly ones, composting, buying local produce and handcrafted goods rather than mass produced over packaged brands transported from hundreds of kilometres away and replacing all our lightglobes with energy efficient ones) but two new things for us are:
*Stockpiling various packaging, empty food jars and margarine containers as a resource to use for art and craft projects with my two boys aged 4 and 7.
*Op shopping – I have a lifetime habit of giving my unwanted household items and clothing to charity-run op shops but until now had not seriously considered them an option for my own shopping needs. A friend raised my awareness of the environmental gains of pre-loved clothing due to the amount of energy used to create textiles.
it’s a consumer choice which helps to save the planet as well as money!
We wrap our sandwiches in ’sandwich pockets’ reusable and washable fabric pouches. The kids love them and they are much easier to open than plastic wrap.
We filter our drinking water (in jug and a refillable filter bottle) and have the purest tasting water we all love..its madness to buy bottled water in the quantities people do – what a plastic jungle we create!
Boil only enough water for your cuppa. Use gas plates instead of electric … In summer months hubby cook all the meat outside on the ‘barbie’. Have some of your lights on timers, if you don’t use them after a while, it goes off by itself. Use light dimmers in the tv room. And teach your children to recycle and reuse and to switch of lights they doesn’t use.
Reduce, Re-use, Recycle every way we can,
Think about conservation on a global span.
The greenest thing we choose to do,
Is educating our kids to be green too!
Have a ‘Pride and Prejudice’ night on a weekly basis where you literally go back to Lizzie’s era. Candles instead of lights, books instead of television, and who knows, your Mr Darcy may focus on you instead of the footy…
instead of giving a bunch of flowers give a potted plant, it gives love for a lot longer and also give mother nature a bit of love!
Reuse the boxes and big envelopes you get in the mail, throwing them out is such a waste
use reusable sandwhich bags in the kids lunches instead of clingwrap, you’ll ba amazed at the money you’ll save and Mummy nature will thank you
When cleaning fishtanks out we don’t waste the water we water the garden with it as plants love fish water it helps them to grow.
WE NEVER DO THE WASHING,DRYING OR DISHWASHER BETWEEN 2P.M.-8PM.AS THE CHARGE IS THE HIGHEST AT 32.4 CENTS KWT.IT DROPS BETWEEN 8 P.M.-10.P.M. TO 12.8 CENTS.DO ALL THAT THEN BUT IF YOU STAY UP LATE AT NIGHT AFTER 10 P.M.YOU CAN SAVE HEAPS AS IT DROPS TO 7.4 CENTS.THIS IS WHEN WE PUT ON THE DISHWASHER OR THE SOLAR HOT WATER SWITCH IT DROPS BACK TO 12.8 CENTS AT 7 A.M.-2P.M.WE CHECKED THE INTERNET FOR THE CHARGES I SUPPOSE DIFFERENT ELECTRICITY MOBS HAVE DIFFERENT CHARGES BUT WE DO OUR BIT TO SAVE.
Meal Planning! I’ve been able to reduce wasted food to virtually nil by meal planning every week and shopping fortnightly. It means less expense at the supermarket, less waste and i’ve even been able to turn off the extra fridge in the garage as it’s no longer needed – reducing electricity costs too.
I use a microfibre cloth to wash my face with instead of expensive beauty products. Less packaging, landfill, transportation and cost!
meal planning! I have been able to reduce wasted food to virtually nil by meal planning every week and shopping fortnightly. This has meant less landfil, less waste, less packaging and I’ve even been able to turn off the extra fridge in the garage as it’s no longer needed – less electricity usage too.
Well, we have a bucket in the shower to catch the warming-up water, and we use that to water the garden.
We compost food scraps, paper – and tea bags, of course!
Recycle everything possible.
I live in a block of units that houses many elderly people. I’m in my twenties so I run monthly gardening weekends where I encourage my friends to come and we maintain the garens, plant trees and establish a compost system for the entire unit complex. In return the other residents bake us a roast and send us home with some homemade jams and bikkies.
When making your first cuppa for the day – fill the kettle, then fill a thermos with the boiling water. You won’t need to reboil the kettle till the thermos is empty, and you’ll have boiling water on hand to make another cuppa later on!
We take the idea of a compost heap/worm farm even further. We actually have three and rotate them around according to what stage they’re at. We add things like the contents of the vacuum cleaner bag and the lint filters from the washing machine and dryer and they love the hair from hairbrushes.
Hubby is paranoid about security and rips the name and address labels from letters, medication labels and documents that don’t need to be filed. It’s OK, the worms don’t divulge your information to anyone!
I use citronella soy melts to keep the bugs away,refuse to use plastic bags and use enviro bags and 4MYEARTH lunch wrap products.
A family that Showers together stays together! Also Recycle Reduce and Reuse it our Motto!
This xmas is also going to be packaging and gift wrap free!
Leave lights off of an evening when tele is on it provides enough light to see what you are doing