Speaker 1: Are you feeling paralyzed by climate anxiety? With countless eco
Speaker 1: choices and contradicting advice, where do you even begin? The
Speaker 1: overwhelming maze of sustainability options leaves most of us stuck
Speaker 1: at square one? But what it? Making a real environmental
Speaker 1: difference was actually simpler than you've been led to believe,
Speaker 1: and could save you some serious money along the way.
Speaker 1: Helping others discover how to do just that is the
Speaker 1: mission of Lotti dl an Australian sustainability advocate, author and
Speaker 1: founder of Banish, a platform helping Australians adopt eco friendly lifestyles.
Speaker 1: Lotty was named the twenty twenty three New South Wales
Speaker 1: Young Australian of the Year and featured on Forbes thirty
Speaker 1: Under thirty list, And to top it off, she has
Speaker 1: made all her knowledge accessible in her book three hundred
Speaker 1: and sixty five plus Ways to Save the Planet and
Speaker 1: your money at the same time. In this episode, Lottie
Speaker 1: reveals the easiest way to drastically cut our energy use
Speaker 1: at work with one simple change, a surprising trick to
Speaker 1: keep your veggies lasting longer in the fridge, and the
Speaker 1: everyday household items that might be leaching microplastics into your
Speaker 1: food and body. Welcome to How I Work, a show
Speaker 1: about habits, rituals, and strategies for optimizing your day. I'm
Speaker 1: your host, doctor Amantha Imber. My first question, Lottie, is
Speaker 1: I want to not like, what is one really small,
Speaker 1: low effort change that people can make at work, either
Speaker 1: in their home office or in their office office that
Speaker 1: will have a surprisingly big impact on the planet.
Speaker 2: That's a really great question. I think for me, it
Speaker 2: would be saying goodbye to stand by mode, so you
Speaker 2: know when you've finished for the day, or you've decided
Speaker 2: that I don't know, you've wrapped up for the week.
Speaker 2: It is not leaving your devices lingering on standby mode
Speaker 2: all weekend. It's actually shutting them down. And I remember
Speaker 2: when I was working full time. This is an email
Speaker 2: that I would get a lot and I would just
Speaker 2: completely ignore because I didn't really understand why. And when
Speaker 2: your devices are setting idle, they are actually consuming energy
Speaker 2: and power. And what we want to do is it
Speaker 2: sort of stop that. So it's just a small thing
Speaker 2: that will add up to make a big difference. I
Speaker 2: love that.
Speaker 1: I never would have thought about that, and I'm a
Speaker 1: massive culprit for just leaving everything on. So I want
Speaker 1: to be quick because I've got a laptop that I
Speaker 1: then plug into the monitors in my home office. If
Speaker 1: I close down my laptop, is it still using power
Speaker 1: or is it more if it's open and not shut down.
Speaker 2: So if you close down your laptop, then that is great,
Speaker 2: But if it's still plugged in to the devices to say,
Speaker 2: for example, or those screens, those screens are still pulling power.
Speaker 2: So you need to switch off the screens if there's
Speaker 2: a button on the screen, or turn them off at
Speaker 2: the wall. It's the same with like if you've got
Speaker 2: you know that like that charge of for your phone
Speaker 2: that's sitting and plugged into the wall, and you don't
Speaker 2: turn it on and off at the wall, but you
Speaker 2: only just kind of unplug and plug your devices in
Speaker 2: when you unplug your devices, but you leave it on
Speaker 2: at the wall. It's called phantom power. It just sits there.
Speaker 2: It's I kind of like the equivalent of a dripping tap,
Speaker 2: just sits there pulling a little bit of power every
Speaker 2: single time. So yes, if you finished for the week
Speaker 2: or the day, shut your laptop down, but make sure
Speaker 2: that your screens are off because often they'll automatically kind
Speaker 2: of look like they're off, but we need to switch
Speaker 2: them off at the wall or using the button too.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, that is gold. Okay, let's get further
Speaker 1: into the home office, because I know a lot of
Speaker 1: listeners are hybrid. They'll probably spend two or three days
Speaker 1: a week in their home office and then the rest
Speaker 1: in an office building. So in the home office, you
Speaker 1: said you work from home every Monday. What are like
Speaker 1: one or two things that you do that it may
Speaker 1: be a little bit unusual but easy to do to
Speaker 1: have a lovely sustainable setup.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a really good question, and I think for
Speaker 2: me it comes down to first and foremost, using what
Speaker 2: you've got. You don't need to get a really fancy
Speaker 2: set up. It doesn't need to look flash or wisbang.
Speaker 2: So if we're not going out there and buying new things,
Speaker 2: that's the best thing for me. I'm using a second
Speaker 2: hand desk that I got on Marketplace. I am using
Speaker 2: one of our beautiful new laptop stands that we've just
Speaker 2: created made from bottle top lids. So that one is
Speaker 2: something that yes I did buy new, but it's made
Speaker 2: from recycled materials. But it's also I think when it
Speaker 2: comes to the home office, it's thinking about things like lighting, Like,
Speaker 2: as I was saying to you, it's a cloudy day today,
Speaker 2: so I've had to switch on the lights. But normally
Speaker 2: I would be near a window, so I wouldn't need that.
Speaker 2: I'd be using cross ventilation rather than having to turn
Speaker 2: on air conditioning or things like that. So cross ventilation
Speaker 2: is when instead of opening up one window, you open
Speaker 2: up a window and a door that kind of almost
Speaker 2: face each other to create a cross breeze and a flow.
Speaker 2: So that is actually going to continue to let that
Speaker 2: air circulate and push through, which is a great one.
Speaker 2: I actually speak about this in the book a little bit,
Speaker 2: and I'm a bit cheeky, and I feel like if
Speaker 2: anybody's boss is listening, they're probably not going to lie me.
Speaker 2: But I'm my own boss, so I can do what
Speaker 2: I want. My work from home days are when I'm
Speaker 2: making the most of doing all of those odd chores.
Speaker 2: I hate cleaning with a passion, and I don't want
Speaker 2: to be doing washing all weekend. My weekends are for
Speaker 2: enjoying myself. So for me, I'm making the use of
Speaker 2: the hours that I've got to kind of put the
Speaker 2: washing on, to hang it on the line, to do
Speaker 2: those things, so that I'm multitasking because time is money,
Speaker 2: and if you are working from home, you do have
Speaker 2: the time to be able to put on a five
Speaker 2: minute load to take ten minutes to hang it out
Speaker 2: on the line.
Speaker 1: And why doing that? Is that about peekin' off peak
Speaker 1: power usage? Is it for money savings? Does it benefit
Speaker 1: the environment? Like why why would you do that?
Speaker 2: So there's a couple of different reasons, as you mentioned,
Speaker 2: the off peak and the peak timing. So when we
Speaker 2: come home from the office or from school or university,
Speaker 2: that night time period when we're all using energy is
Speaker 2: what we call a peak period. It's going to cost
Speaker 2: us more money. So when you're putting on you're washing
Speaker 2: at six or seven pm at night, that's a really
Speaker 2: expensive time to be washing our clothes, whereas if you
Speaker 2: can be doing it at one or two o'clock in
Speaker 2: the afternoon, it's a lot cheaper. You've also, I would argue,
Speaker 2: you've got time to actually hang your things on the
Speaker 2: line to utilize the most at daytime. If you're coming
Speaker 2: home at six or seven o'clock at night and hanging
Speaker 2: out your clothes at midnight. That's not really going to
Speaker 2: be conducive for letting everything dry in the sun, So
Speaker 2: you'll probably be then going, well, maybe I should be
Speaker 2: using the dryer something that is going to use all
Speaker 2: of that energy, cost a lot of money, and won't
Speaker 2: be good for the planet as well.
Speaker 1: Okay, how about for those those times when we're in
Speaker 1: a shared office space and you know, we probably don't
Speaker 1: have a lot of control over like the lighting and
Speaker 1: the air conditioning and all of the things that are
Speaker 1: using up lots of power. Because I imagine at banish your
Speaker 1: company things, you've probably nailed it. But how about you know,
Speaker 1: for the rest of us that are going into an
Speaker 1: office and what is in our control? What are the
Speaker 1: highest impact things we can do?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I think a really good one when it comes
Speaker 2: to your impact when you're in a shared what work
Speaker 2: environment is single use plastics? So if you're a coffee drinker,
Speaker 2: are you using a reusable cup? Are you bringing your
Speaker 2: own reusable water bottle? For example, if you're somebody who
Speaker 2: gets takeaway for lunch, when you are buying your takeaway
Speaker 2: lunch items, are you buying them in plastic packaging? Can
Speaker 2: you bring your own container. If you can't bring your
Speaker 2: own container, can you bring your own knife and fork?
Speaker 2: Just small things that mean that you're cutting down on
Speaker 2: that plastic usage that little bit more. And also do
Speaker 2: find like when you bring your own coffee cup, you're
Speaker 2: often getting fifty cents off as well. It's great, it's amazing,
Speaker 2: But when you are in a shared workplace as well.
Speaker 2: I think one thing that people underestimate is your role
Speaker 2: is a role model. If you're bringing your reusable cup,
Speaker 2: or you're bringing your own water bottle, you're letting everybody
Speaker 2: else know in that shared office environment that yes, they
Speaker 2: can bring theirs for it too, And maybe they just
Speaker 2: needed a little reminder to oh, yeah, I do have
Speaker 2: a reusable cup at home that I can bring in
Speaker 2: to have my coffee.
Speaker 1: It reminds me of something you write about in your book,
Speaker 1: which I'm going to hold up even though people are
Speaker 1: probably listening three hundred and sixty five plus ways to
Speaker 1: save the planet and your money. At the same time,
Speaker 1: it was such a good book, Lottie. I've discribbled all
Speaker 1: over it. It's oh my gosh, it is a wealth
Speaker 1: of information and just very very practical. So I loved it.
Speaker 1: One of the things you suggest is creating a single
Speaker 1: use quitter kit. Can you explain exactly what that is?
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, thank you so much, and try and say
Speaker 2: single use quitt kit five times. That's really roll off
Speaker 2: the tongue at all. But it is that kind of thing.
Speaker 2: I find organization is one of the biggest things when
Speaker 2: it comes to saving money in the planet. It's often
Speaker 2: when we're caught in a pinch that we're going to
Speaker 2: be consuming the single use plastics, spending more money on things.
Speaker 2: So building this quitter kit, what I like to say,
Speaker 2: is a way to kind of just know that you've
Speaker 2: got things with you that are going to help you.
Speaker 2: So for example, it is a tote bag or some
Speaker 2: kind of bag. It is a water bottle. It's a
Speaker 2: reusable coffee cup. For me, it's a knife and fork.
Speaker 2: It doesn't have to be a fancy bamboo one that
Speaker 2: looks all schmicking perfect and matching. Mine is a knife
Speaker 2: and fork from my kitchen that I just carry around
Speaker 2: with me. If it is somemer min will include a
Speaker 2: straw as well. Also could include a handkerchief. I find
Speaker 2: these are just so handy in case you need a
Speaker 2: napkin or anything like that a bit of a nanner
Speaker 2: at heart, and for me it's also a reasonable project
Speaker 2: bag because this can just be great for those little
Speaker 2: bits and pieces.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about sustainable travel choices because I imagine
Speaker 1: you probably do a lot of travel for work, and
Speaker 1: I think, you know, when I'm traveling, you know, I
Speaker 1: think about offsetting, you know, like buying carbon credits to
Speaker 1: offset my flights. And inventing Him is a B corporation
Speaker 1: as well, So we do try to think about these
Speaker 1: kinds of things. But what are some things that maybe
Speaker 1: people might not have thought of that are just easy
Speaker 1: hacks when we are traveling for work orf for play
Speaker 1: to have less of an impact on the environment.
Speaker 2: No, I definitely agree with you there. It's one of
Speaker 2: these things when you are traveling a lot. For me,
Speaker 2: I'm quite conscious of my consumption. Still. I think there's
Speaker 2: two things you need to think about. First and foremost
Speaker 2: is that, yes, you're out of your routine, it's going
Speaker 2: to be slightly different and coming to terms with the
Speaker 2: fact that you are going to consume a little bit
Speaker 2: more than usual, but also not giving yourself a complete
Speaker 2: get out of jet free card. So for me, that
Speaker 2: single use critic kit is still coming with me. I
Speaker 2: am using my reusable cup when I get a cup
Speaker 2: of tea on the plane. For example, when I have
Speaker 2: a glass of wine on the plane, it goes into
Speaker 2: that reusable cup. But also if I am staying at
Speaker 2: things like hotels and things like that, I'm using only
Speaker 2: what I need. I'm not getting daily laundry service, I
Speaker 2: am not getting I don't know, those mini little shampoos
Speaker 2: and things like that. You just need to think about
Speaker 2: the footprint that you want to leave behind on this planet.
Speaker 2: And also just in general, do you need that item?
Speaker 2: Do you need to be consuming that? And when I
Speaker 2: am traveling, I love utilizing public transport and walking because
Speaker 2: I want to feel a part of the community. I
Speaker 2: want to feel like I am a part of wherever
Speaker 2: I am traveling to, and by walking and catching public transport,
Speaker 2: I think that's a really great part. Cabs they're expensive,
Speaker 2: they're not great for the planet, whereas catching buses, trains.
Speaker 2: It's pretty simple to kind of understand that our impact
Speaker 2: is going to be a lot less when it comes
Speaker 2: to transport as well. And then when I am traveling,
Speaker 2: I am that person that's getting a table for one
Speaker 2: and dining out. Yes, it's easy to sit in your
Speaker 2: hotel room and order takeaway, but for me again, getting
Speaker 2: out there experiencing whatever there is around, meeting the locals.
Speaker 2: But dining in means that I'm going to save on
Speaker 2: those single use plastics, save on however that item was
Speaker 2: going to get to my door, and it just helps me,
Speaker 2: I think as well, feel a little bit more normal
Speaker 2: when I'm traveling.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about one of the I guess
Speaker 1: the biggest culprits that I know I can be quite
Speaker 1: guilty of in terms of my impact on the planet,
Speaker 1: and that is food wastage. And one of the things
Speaker 1: I was I was so interested in. You had a
Speaker 1: little table in the book that the most commonly wasted
Speaker 1: foods that we have, like in the average household.
Speaker 2: Can you share what those are? Yeah, You're not alone.
Speaker 2: Food wasted just one of the biggest issues when it
Speaker 2: comes to saving money and the planet. So the most
Speaker 2: commonly wasted foods in Australia are bananas, bread, your leafy
Speaker 2: greens and your kind of lettuces. Then also you've got
Speaker 2: dairy and then meats. So there's something that I think
Speaker 2: we can all agree that there's probably some city in
Speaker 2: our fridge or our pantry right now that aren't looking
Speaker 2: too pretty. So when it comes to reducing our food waste,
Speaker 2: it's a really great way to reduce our impact on
Speaker 2: the planet, but also to save some money. Because in general,
Speaker 2: it's estimated that one in every five shopping bags that
Speaker 2: an Australian brings into their home goes into the bin.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, that is crazy. Wow.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So it's like looking at your grocery bill and
Speaker 2: taking twenty percent off it and just throwing that quite
Speaker 2: literally in the bin.
Speaker 1: So what do you do, Lotti, because I feel like
Speaker 1: you would have mastered the art of not wasting food. Like,
Speaker 1: what are things that you potentially do differently to the
Speaker 1: average person.
Speaker 2: I think for me, something that surprises people is I
Speaker 2: shop with a list, but I will only buy the
Speaker 2: quantity that I need. And I know that this kind
Speaker 2: of sounds a little bit counterintuitive because if you've got
Speaker 2: a recipe that's asking for, I don't know, four hundred
Speaker 2: grams of pasta, but then buying a kilo of pasta
Speaker 2: is going to be a lot cheaper per hundred grams.
Speaker 2: You're often upsold to be buying that bigger one. But
Speaker 2: for me, I found that by having buying less and
Speaker 2: buying exactly what I need, I'm not going to have
Speaker 2: any of that wastage. So that wastage, even though the
Speaker 2: price per hundred grams is cheaper, the things that I'm
Speaker 2: throwing out actually kind of makes that counter productive for me.
Speaker 2: It's having a plan. I know my recipes, i know
Speaker 2: what I'm going to be cooking. I'm not browsing a
Speaker 2: supermarket and just picking up anything and everything. And also
Speaker 2: something that I do that makes super laugh is it
Speaker 2: has been scientifically proven that if you go shopping hungry,
Speaker 2: you will buy more. And you know, at the front
Speaker 2: of a supermarket, how they have those little kind of
Speaker 2: like fruit baskets for kids that are like they could
Speaker 2: have an apple or an orange. I don't go into
Speaker 2: those ones, but I will go through the whole supermarket.
Speaker 2: I will buy a banana, I will buy an apple.
Speaker 2: I will stand outside, I will eat it, and then
Speaker 2: we'll go shopping. Because it does actually mean that I
Speaker 2: buy less because so many times I feel like I
Speaker 2: am just pulling everything in anything off the shelf, not
Speaker 2: because I need it, but because I'm really hungry in
Speaker 2: that exact moment.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, okay, so we can see you outside supermarkets
Speaker 1: everywhere just having.
Speaker 2: Yea, a little sack before I have my supermarket shop.
Speaker 2: Another thing when it comes to the supermarket is because
Speaker 2: obviously there's a lot of packaging in those supermarkets, is
Speaker 2: I love to shop the perimeter. That's the easiest way
Speaker 2: to avoid as much packaging as possible. So obviously when
Speaker 2: I'm having a when I'm shopping for produce, I'm buying
Speaker 2: loose produce or I'm using rearsable produce bags for loose
Speaker 2: things like beans or the leafy greens, and then you
Speaker 2: kind of stick to the perimeter. That's so you're going
Speaker 2: to find your dairies, that's where you're near your eggs,
Speaker 2: You're going to get other things like that. Try and
Speaker 2: avoid all of that packaging in those processed foods in
Speaker 2: the middle of the aisles. For me, that really helps
Speaker 2: make a big difference. And when I am shopping and
Speaker 2: choosing my recipes for the week and planning it out,
Speaker 2: I'm eating seasonally because that inevitably is going to be
Speaker 2: better for the planet because you're eating what's available right now,
Speaker 2: but often that's what's in special. And I was talking
Speaker 2: to somebody the other day and they were like, the
Speaker 2: irony of the fact that when we buy produce at
Speaker 2: its cheapest, it tastes its best, And I thought that
Speaker 2: was something that was really interesting. It was like, yes,
Speaker 2: when the berries are two dollars fifty a punnet, that's
Speaker 2: when they taste the most amazing. And I went, oh,
Speaker 2: that's a really interesting conundrum, but something that we get
Speaker 2: to benefit from just by eating seasonally.
Speaker 1: Wow, I've never thought about it that way. Oh, that's
Speaker 1: super interesting. I want to ask about best before versus
Speaker 1: used by dates. I feel like this is I mean,
Speaker 1: I get confused by this, and I feel like I
Speaker 1: am conservative with perhaps throwing things out for fear of
Speaker 1: getting a Tommy ache or seek. But tell me how
Speaker 1: should I be reading in interpreting best before versus used by.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, it's really great that you even understand that
Speaker 2: there is a difference between the two, because not many
Speaker 2: people do realize. They just think that it's like, oh,
Speaker 2: the packaging is just chosen which one they're going to
Speaker 2: use today. But yes, when it comes to best before dates,
Speaker 2: it's more of a recommendation. It's saying this item is
Speaker 2: we think going to be in the best condition if
Speaker 2: you consume it by X, whereas use by date is
Speaker 2: more of a hard and fast rule. This is something
Speaker 2: that we need to take more seriously. So used by
Speaker 2: dates where you found on things like meat and dairy,
Speaker 2: whereas the best before dates you'll find on things like
Speaker 2: long life foods or on vegetables. And it's just kind
Speaker 2: of saying, we think that this will be the optimal
Speaker 2: quality if you consume it before this date. So that
Speaker 2: would be my thing is that you is something that
Speaker 2: you need to remember.
Speaker 1: So how lax can we be with best before? I mean,
Speaker 1: could we let it go for a month after or
Speaker 1: does it just really depend on the food And like.
Speaker 2: You exactly, it depends on the food. So if you've
Speaker 2: got I don't know, some spices that have a best
Speaker 2: before date on them, Like I think there's some pretty
Speaker 2: old spices in my spice cupboard that I keep on using.
Speaker 2: But if you've got some spinach that says that it's
Speaker 2: best before Sunday, you can probably get a couple of
Speaker 2: days extra out of it, but you're not going to
Speaker 2: get months after that.
Speaker 1: Okay, So use your brain. Something that my team and
Speaker 1: inventim is doing at the moment so I mentioned we're
Speaker 1: a bee Corp. In March is be Corp Month, and
Speaker 1: for those that haven't heard of bee Corp, basically organizations
Speaker 1: that are accredited I suppose in putting purpose before profit.
Speaker 1: And as a team, we're doing what we've termed corp Olympics,
Speaker 1: where we have a points system and when we do
Speaker 1: certain activities that are good for the planet, good for
Speaker 1: the team, good for all the I guess the criteria
Speaker 1: that b corps are graded on, we get points and
Speaker 1: so we're in two teams, and so last night to
Speaker 1: get points for my team, my husband and I had
Speaker 1: tofu for dinner, and I think we ate too much
Speaker 1: because we both had a tummy acufter which we really
Speaker 1: loaded up on the tofu. But in your book you
Speaker 1: talk about the different environmental impact of different proteins that
Speaker 1: we can have, and it really surprised me. So I'd
Speaker 1: love to know from a sustainability point of view, which
Speaker 1: proteins are having the biggest impact on the planet and
Speaker 1: which ones I guess are having the lightest impact.
Speaker 2: So it is a really difficult one and it's one
Speaker 2: that I do kind of say two people in the book, Look,
Speaker 2: I don't think everybody needs to be vegetarian, but the
Speaker 2: first and best thing that you can do is to
Speaker 2: reduce your meat intake. So beef is the most carbon
Speaker 2: intensive protein that we can have, closely followed by lamb
Speaker 2: and farmed crustaceans. Now, the farmed crustaceans one was a
Speaker 2: bit of an interesting one, and that one kind of
Speaker 2: took me by surprise. But if you think about because
Speaker 2: they are a farmed animal, similar to when there's beef,
Speaker 2: there's a lot more resources that need to go into that.
Speaker 2: You've got the resources in terms of machinery, in terms
Speaker 2: of maintenance, in terms of everything. So that really added
Speaker 2: to the carbon emissions of the crustaceans in comparison to
Speaker 2: when you do have the fish that's a bit lower
Speaker 2: down the chain of the in the protein, juiciness and
Speaker 2: how much carbon emissions they take. But yes, the top
Speaker 2: three if we're thinking about the lowest environmental impact, are
Speaker 2: going to be nuts, tofu and beans. So yes, you
Speaker 2: get a big tick for your dinner last night having
Speaker 2: some tofu in there.
Speaker 1: And if we are not having a vegan or vegetarian meal,
Speaker 1: what proteins should we be choosing to have the lightest
Speaker 1: impact on the planet.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so the lightest impact would be eggs and poultry.
Speaker 2: That's going to be the best ones, followed by fish.
Speaker 2: So that's kind of when we're looking kind of the
Speaker 2: chain of everything. Beef and lamb are the most intensive.
Speaker 1: We will be back with Lotty soon. When we return,
Speaker 1: she'll reveal the common household items, leaching microplastics into your
Speaker 1: food for eco friendly items you can replace almost every
Speaker 1: cleaning product with, and her simple trick for making fresh
Speaker 1: produce last longer. If you're looking for more tips to
Speaker 1: improve the way you work can live, I write a
Speaker 1: short weekly newsletter that contains tactics I've discovered that have
Speaker 1: helped me personally. You can sign up for that at
Speaker 1: Amantha dot com. That's Amantha dot com. Now in your book,
Speaker 1: there's a whole section on food storage and how to
Speaker 1: make food, particularly fresh produce, last longer, which, oh my god. Again,
Speaker 1: like the book is just jam packed with information, but
Speaker 1: what aberhaps some of the most surprising tips or things
Speaker 1: that people should know around how to make food last longer,
Speaker 1: particularly in the fridge.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a really a good one, and I think
Speaker 2: it applies to so many different households, and I get
Speaker 2: a lot of feedback about this section in the book
Speaker 2: that I call hugs and swims. So what a swim
Speaker 2: is is in my fridge, I have a old or
Speaker 2: non mold I have a plastic container filled with water,
Speaker 2: and in that I actually put a lot of vegetables
Speaker 2: and store them in water in the fridge. So things
Speaker 2: like carrots, celery, lemons all go in there and they're
Speaker 2: floating around having a great time. Because what happens in
Speaker 2: our fridge is it's actually dehydrating a lot of our produce.
Speaker 2: So that's why your carrots go bendy, That's why your
Speaker 2: spinach goes limp. So by keeping them nice and hydrated,
Speaker 2: we're able to keep them crunchy, keep them fresh for longer.
Speaker 2: The other section is hugs. So what I recommend is,
Speaker 2: in order to again stop things from dehydrating, you wet
Speaker 2: a teatowel and then you wrap up things like you're
Speaker 2: a leafy greens and then that is going to help
Speaker 2: keep your produce fresher for longer.
Speaker 1: Oh God, so you've literally got a swimming pool in
Speaker 1: your fridge. Lighting I do.
Speaker 2: It's so fun. Just can't open up the fridge too
Speaker 2: aggressively and then it's all good. But the thing is,
Speaker 2: when you've got these items that last so long, people
Speaker 2: can look at me like I've got two heads, but
Speaker 2: I go, well, I've got fresher produce in you, and
Speaker 2: it's fine.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh. Now microplastics, I feel like microplastics are
Speaker 1: getting more and more attention. Can you just put for
Speaker 1: those that I guess have been living under a microplastic rock, like,
Speaker 1: what are microplastics? Why should we care?
Speaker 2: Yes? So, microplastics are defined as a piece of plastics
Speaker 2: smaller than five millimeters in size, So some of them,
Speaker 2: they could be a tiny little shred that you can
Speaker 2: actually see. Some of them are so small that not
Speaker 2: even we can see them with our eye. And there's
Speaker 2: been a lot of news articles, headlines things like that lately,
Speaker 2: because microplastics have been found in human brains, in fetuses,
Speaker 2: in testes, in everything, so pretty much research has shown
Speaker 2: that it's microplastics are in the air we breathe, the
Speaker 2: water we drink, the food we eat. The thing is
Speaker 2: that we're not entirely sure what the impact that they're
Speaker 2: having on us is. We can kind of put two
Speaker 2: and two together and say that they're not going to
Speaker 2: be as nutritious as chomping on some kale. But there
Speaker 2: are microplastics that are just becoming a part of our
Speaker 2: lives and quite literally our diets. So there's a lot
Speaker 2: of talk and chatter at the moment about how we
Speaker 2: reduce these microplastics. And there's definitely a lot of things
Speaker 2: that you can do. Like when you, I don't know,
Speaker 2: have a coffee in a single use coffee cup that's
Speaker 2: lined with plastic, you're drinking plastics. When you drink from
Speaker 2: a single use plastic water bottle, you're also drinking plastic.
Speaker 2: When you have a cup of tea with a tea
Speaker 2: bag in it, most tea bag brands contain plastics, so
Speaker 2: you're consuming plastics.
Speaker 1: That blew my mind? Can I say when I read
Speaker 1: that about tea bags.
Speaker 2: So these are all ways that we can control our
Speaker 2: microplastic consumption and reduce our microplastic consumption. But the issue
Speaker 2: is we can't control everything. So when you're walking around
Speaker 2: your office, when you're walking outside, when you are just
Speaker 2: doing life, you're consuming microplastics. And I think that's probably
Speaker 2: the scariest thing for people, is it's going even if
Speaker 2: I try and do everything and anything I can they're
Speaker 2: still coming, I'm still consuming them. What does this do
Speaker 2: for me? And I think that's why there is this
Speaker 2: really scary time that we're in at the moment, because
Speaker 2: it's kind of going we're just chomping away at them unknowingly.
Speaker 2: So what's going to happen to us in the future.
Speaker 1: What are some of the most surprising sources of microplastics?
Speaker 1: Because like for me, tea bags it was a complete surprise.
Speaker 1: But what else surprises people most from your experience?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so the tea bags is a huge one that
Speaker 2: kind of people's jaw hits the floor. Another one is
Speaker 2: plastic chopping boards. So when you're cutting your vegetables, dicing
Speaker 2: your chicken, doing whatever you're doing, you're slicing into that
Speaker 2: plastic chopping board. And not only are you eating the
Speaker 2: chicken or the carrots, you're eating microplastics too. The other
Speaker 2: one is chewing gum. That's another one. What other item
Speaker 2: can you chew on for five to six hours it
Speaker 2: doesn't disintegrate, it's plastics. And the next one would be
Speaker 2: paper towel, So often a lot of brands have a
Speaker 2: lot of paper towel. Brands have a plastic weave in them.
Speaker 2: So even if you're wiping down your benches, if you're
Speaker 2: doing whatever, you're leaving a microplastic residue behind that you're
Speaker 2: inadvertedly going to be consuming. And I think the last
Speaker 2: one would be in our clothing. So if you have
Speaker 2: any man made fibers, things like polyesters, las stanes, they
Speaker 2: are plastic, so as you wear them, as you wash them,
Speaker 2: tiny little fragments are breaking off and are entering our
Speaker 2: oceans or entering the air we breathe. So just by
Speaker 2: wearing a garment that is made from polyester, you're breeding
Speaker 2: that into.
Speaker 1: Can I ask about cleaning cloths? So the paper towels
Speaker 1: thing I found very surprising, and microfiber cloths have microplastics
Speaker 1: in them as well. That is pretty much what we
Speaker 1: use to clean things in my household. Like what should
Speaker 1: we be buying instead?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so it's a really good question. So for me,
Speaker 2: I love using Swedish dishcloths. They're made from a plant
Speaker 2: based cell you and they will wipe down my benches,
Speaker 2: they will do everything that a paper towel does, and
Speaker 2: then I just wash them with my tea towels as well.
Speaker 2: When I did move away from using paper towels and
Speaker 2: using things like wetexes and chuses that also have plastics.
Speaker 2: I noticed that my teatowel consumption went up, but my
Speaker 2: teatowels are made from linen or cotton, so that's fine,
Speaker 2: and I'm just washing them and reusing them more. And
Speaker 2: then when it comes to cleaning my dishes, I have
Speaker 2: a it's almost looks like chain mesh. It's a stainless
Speaker 2: steel scrubber. So that's to clean all of my kind
Speaker 2: of cast iron pots, and then to clean everything else,
Speaker 2: I use this funky spaghetti scrubber that's actually made from
Speaker 2: peach pits. And what it does is it's got an
Speaker 2: abrasive surface to it, and then it cleans all of
Speaker 2: my dishes.
Speaker 1: Wow, oh my gosh. Okay, if I'm going shopping after this,
Speaker 1: I feel like another area that I found really interesting
Speaker 1: in the book. And you talk about like cleaning products
Speaker 1: and the chemicals that we're using to clean, and you
Speaker 1: have a section called the Mighty for cleaners. Can you
Speaker 1: talk about what they are and just some simple swaps
Speaker 1: that we can do for how we clean our clothes,
Speaker 1: how we clean our dishes, and how we clean ourselves.
Speaker 2: So it's a great one because I feel like, as
Speaker 2: I mentioned before, I do not love cleaning, but I
Speaker 2: do clean, of course. And it's estimated that in Australia
Speaker 2: we have thirty different cleaning products in our cleaning cupboard
Speaker 2: and I don't even know what that is to clean.
Speaker 2: There are so obviously with a lot of things to
Speaker 2: clean in our house, but we don't need thirty different
Speaker 2: cleaning products. Not only are a lot of cleaning products
Speaker 2: like a bathroom cleaner and a kitchen cleaner often made
Speaker 2: with the same ingredients, but there's often a lot of
Speaker 2: chemicals that are unnecessary in this And when we clean
Speaker 2: our shower screen or when we wash our dishes with
Speaker 2: a dish washing liquid, we're inadvertedly going to be breathing
Speaker 2: in that steam from the shower screen. We're going to
Speaker 2: be eating off those dishes, so we're going to be
Speaker 2: eating and consuming those chemicals, and for me, that's something
Speaker 2: that I don't want to be doing. Also, the cost
Speaker 2: of all of these items, and if you look at
Speaker 2: the back of the pack of a lot of the
Speaker 2: cleaning products, you'll actually see that the number one ingredient
Speaker 2: is water. So we are shipping around the world and
Speaker 2: around Australia a whole lot of water in bottles. So
Speaker 2: for me, the Mighty four or the Powerful four is
Speaker 2: for ingredients that I think that ninety percent of households
Speaker 2: will already have in their cupboard, their low cost and
Speaker 2: the best thing is their multi use because so many
Speaker 2: of the different things that I talk about in the book,
Speaker 2: it's all about coming back to not buying so much stuff.
Speaker 2: So in the four are lemons is to any kind
Speaker 2: of citrus, so it could be orange as lemons, limes,
Speaker 2: it is, bicarb, soda, white vinegar, and castile soap. And
Speaker 2: using these items, either individually or in combos, I think
Speaker 2: can clean pretty much your whole entire house. I did
Speaker 2: a video the other day showing three different ways to
Speaker 2: use lemons. One of my favorite things to do when
Speaker 2: I've kind of squeezed every last ounce of a lemon
Speaker 2: up is I put it in the kettle and I
Speaker 2: boil it. And what this does is it actually descales
Speaker 2: your kettle completely literally by just boiling it and leaving
Speaker 2: it in there. The same with if you wanted to
Speaker 2: get all of that grease out of a oven or
Speaker 2: a microwave, you just put a glass bowl with a
Speaker 2: lemon in it and water and you cook in the
Speaker 2: microwave or cook in the oven, and that actual citrus
Speaker 2: that comes out of there then acts as a natural degreas,
Speaker 2: So then you don't need to use any elbow grease
Speaker 2: and you can just wipe away your microwave or your oven.
Speaker 2: The other one with lemons is it's really great to
Speaker 2: kind of clean and sanitize all of your wooden chopping boards.
Speaker 2: And also you can pop it in the a squeezed
Speaker 2: half lemon in the top rack of your dishwasher and
Speaker 2: it acts as a natural rinse. Aid.
Speaker 1: Oh, that is nuts. How about for clothes washing, like,
Speaker 1: which of those four ingredients or a combination should I
Speaker 1: be putting in the clothes washup? And I do wash
Speaker 1: with cold water, not hot, because I know that has
Speaker 1: a massive impact on the planet and the power bill
Speaker 1: as well. So what should I be putting in?
Speaker 2: Big tick for you then for doing that. So white
Speaker 2: vinegar is something that is going to soften your laundry load.
Speaker 2: So if I'm washing towels or sheets or anything like that,
Speaker 2: white vinegar is what I'm going to do. You can
Speaker 2: also again add lemons because that's going to help get
Speaker 2: rid of those yellow stains. But when it comes to
Speaker 2: washing my clothes, I actually use a thing called soap
Speaker 2: nuts or soap berries, and what they are is they
Speaker 2: are quite literally what they sound like, a little berry
Speaker 2: or nut. You put four in a bag into your
Speaker 2: laundry and what happens is when they touch water, they
Speaker 2: release a natural soapnin that cleans your clothes. So there's
Speaker 2: no chemicals, no nasties, They're completely natural. And then you
Speaker 2: just let the soaps or the berries dry in between
Speaker 2: each use, and then you use them four times, so
Speaker 2: four berries four times, and then you just compost them
Speaker 2: when you're done.
Speaker 1: Okay, how about the dishwasher, because I know you're actually
Speaker 1: an advocate of the dishwasher over hand washing lots of
Speaker 1: things like filling that you sink to do. So like
Speaker 1: what do you put in the dish washer? Because right
Speaker 1: now I use those little dish washing pods and I
Speaker 1: now know after reading your book that is a nightmare
Speaker 1: for the environment.
Speaker 2: Yes, because of that little dissolvable layer around your dishwashing
Speaker 2: at tablets is one that is actually going to be
Speaker 2: made with plastics probably, So when it comes to actually
Speaker 2: cleaning and using the dishwasher. You're right, less water is
Speaker 2: used if you use the dishwasher than actually hand washing
Speaker 2: each of our dishes and plates. So for me, I
Speaker 2: use a dish washing powder that's mostly made of a
Speaker 2: bicub soda. I use a brand called Kinkin, which is
Speaker 2: just a natural brand that you can buy online, and
Speaker 2: that's the dish washing powder that I use, and then
Speaker 2: it's just happy days. But again, I'm only washing full
Speaker 2: loads in the dishwasher, And the only time where the
Speaker 2: stat doesn't work about its saving water by using the
Speaker 2: dishwasher is when you pre rinse every item before you
Speaker 2: put it in, so no rinsing.
Speaker 1: Now, I would love to know, out of everything we've
Speaker 1: discussed today on maybe something that we haven't like, what
Speaker 1: is just one change that you would recommend that people
Speaker 1: make today that will have a really big impact.
Speaker 2: So it's really difficult because I hate being prescriptive because
Speaker 2: everyone's leading different lives, everyone's at different stages in their
Speaker 2: sustainability journey. So I think one thing would be to
Speaker 2: go and do that thing that you've been meaning to do,
Speaker 2: because I believe that everybody's got that thing that's kind
Speaker 2: of on their bucket list or they've been thinking about.
Speaker 2: I don't know, getting a more energy efficient appliance, or
Speaker 2: walking to work more or doing something like that. But
Speaker 2: if I was going to tell everybody a second thing,
Speaker 2: it would be to eat what you've got left in
Speaker 2: your fridge. For me, I don't go to the shops
Speaker 2: once a month, one week every month, and I just
Speaker 2: eat whatever is in my fridge, my freezer and my pantry,
Speaker 2: and I've never gone hungry. There is always something that
Speaker 2: I can create there. So for me, that would probably
Speaker 2: be the biggest one. It's going to save you a
Speaker 2: ton of money and the planet at the same time.
Speaker 1: Lottie, thank you so much for all these tips. I
Speaker 1: feel like you make like having a better impact on
Speaker 1: the planet and also just on saving money, like you
Speaker 1: make it so easy and so practical. So thank you
Speaker 1: for writing a brilliant book and for your time today.
Speaker 2: No, thank you so much for having me, and I
Speaker 2: really appreciate it because it is that thing. I'm just
Speaker 2: trying to make living sustainably something that we can all do.
Speaker 2: I don't think it's up to a handful of individuals.
Speaker 2: I just think that every person can be doing just
Speaker 2: a little bit more than they currently are.
Speaker 1: I hope you loved this chat with Lottie as much
Speaker 1: as I did. I know that I will be making
Speaker 1: sure not to leave my computer on standby mode at
Speaker 1: the end of the day anymore. If you want to
Speaker 1: learn more about Lotty, I highly recommend her book three
Speaker 1: hundred and sixty five plus Ways to Save the Planet
Speaker 1: and your money at the same time, and also check
Speaker 1: her out on Instagram.
Speaker 2: The links to both are in the show notes.
Speaker 1: If you like today's show, make sure you git follow
Speaker 1: on your podcast app to be alerted when new episodes drop.
Speaker 2: How I Work was recorded
Speaker 1: On the traditional land of the Warringery people, part of
Speaker 1: the Cooler Nation