Glad wrap and Glad Bags are something we’ve been wanting to get rid of for months! We’ve been reusing our glad bags over and over to get the most use out of them, but we’ve finally used them up and will dispose of them in a Redcycle Bin.
I won’t use this blog to go into all the ins and outs of plastic use, as there are so many wonderful resources that already exist for education purposes. Our main reasons for wanting to reduce plastics in our home is mainly for environmental, health and financial benefits.
Environmental – most plastic is not biodegradable which means it will remain on the earth for hundreds of years. As plastic photodegrades it breaks down into small pieces which can easily travel through air and into water ways endangering marine life. Australia is also quickly running out of landfill space as we use more than 1.3 millions tonnes of plastic each year. There’s also greenhouse gases being released from landfill sites to think about and chemicals that are released into the environment during the processing and recycling of plastics.
Health wise – have a read of the research around the link between exposure to plastics and cancers/hormone disruptions. BPA (bisphenol A) for example is a chemical that is found in many plastics and acts as hormone disrupter by blocking or mimicking the body’s hormones. Use of plastics during pregnancy is particularly interesting to me as a midwife and there’s research to suggest that BPA affects the developing brain in utero, read more about that here. We’ve also found that our diet is immeasurably better now that we’re avoiding plastics – poor food choices are often packaged in plastic, whereas all our fruit and vegies from the markets are plastic free. We are definitely buying far less processed food – except for Maltesers – Tom’s not quite ready to part with these yet… We’re going to check out malt balls from the bulk food store though (thanks for the tip Sarah!).
Financially – reducing plastic is a great way to get out of the ‘disposable’ mindset. Plastic free choices are often more expensive initially, but because they are more sustainable and durable they will last us a far longer than their disposable counterparts. Choosing to buy as plastic free as possible has really curbed my impulse spending, as buying sustainably often takes more preparation and research. I’m now far less likely to see a ‘bargain’ and buy it without thinking.
We mostly used glad bags for packing snacks like cheese, nuts and crackers as we don’t have heaps of smaller containers and glad bags were a cheap and easy solution. We didn’t use glad wrap too much, but when we did it was usually to cover left overs and salads in bowls etc. We have replaced these with beeswax wraps! They are quite expensive to buy in store, so I decided to give making my own a go. I played around with a few ingredients and recipes and I think I’ve worked out the best mix of ingredients and the easiest method along the way. You don’t need huge amounts of ingredients but they are often sold in larger portions – so this is a great project to do with friends or family so you can split the costs and have fun together! I’m planning on making more with my neighbours next weekend so we can share supplies and reduce our waste together.
My recipe is loosely based on this recipe here, using beeswax, pine resin and jojoba oil. I found though that using equal parts beeswax to resin made wraps that were too sticky and flavoured food slightly with a pine scent, yet not using enough resin meant that it wasn’t sticky enough and didn’t adhere to bowls etc. as much as I wanted it too. The website above has far more detailed instructions, however here is a quick run-down of the ratios I think worked best:
- 8″ x 8″ square cotton fabric edged with pinking shears (I had leftover fabric from my wedding)
Re-purposed cotton fabric
Paintbrushes, ruler, pen, pinking shears - 2 tsp grated beeswax (my bee-keeping neighbour shared some with me, it makes the wrap water resistant/wipeable)
- 1 tsp powdered pine resin (I bought mine here, it improves the tackiness of the wrap)
- ½ tsp of jojoba oil (I bought mine here and will use it for many body products/EO roller blends)
Pine resin, jojoba, beeswax
There are two methods you can try – oven or pre-melted.
Oven:
- Heat oven to 150 degrees celsius
- Sprinkle ingredients over cotton cloth on lined baking tray
Fabric square
Grated bees wax
Add pine resin and joboba oil - Melt in the oven for a couple of minutes
- Spread ingredients out with a paintbrush to saturate cloth (keep the paint brush just for beeswax wraps – it will never be the same again…)
Out of the oven
Spreading over evenly - Pop back in the oven to completely melt
- Spread out again with a paintbrush
- Pick up carefully (I just used my fingers but you should probably use tongs)
- Shake gently to cool and hang over something until the wax sets (will only take a few minutes)
Drying on the window
- Heat oven to 150 degrees celsius
- Melt all ingredients in a bowl over a pot of simmering water (this took ages and some of the pine resin didn’t even melt…)
Still getting resin off this bowl… - Spread melted ingredients with a paintbrush over cotton cloth (I found it cooled too quickly and was hard to spread)
- Pop in oven to completely melt and spread again with paintbrush
- Pick up carefully (I just used my fingers but you should probably use tongs)
They dry quickly out of the oven and are ready for use in a few minutes - Shake gently to cool and hang over something until the wax sets (will only take a few minutes)
Caring for your wraps:
- Wash in cool-warm water with a mild detergent and hang out to dry
- Do not wrap meat as it’s not possible to clean adequately
- Wraps should last about 6 months and then they can be re-waxed
- At the end of their life, cotton fabric could be cut up and composted
- Covering cut ends of fruit/vegies
- Covering left-overs in bowls
- Wrapping snacks like nuts/cheese
- Wrap bread loaves
- Wrap soap for travelling
- Wrap herbs to keep fresher for longer
- Sew into a little snack bag with velcro or a button to secure
- Wrap gifts/flowers for the waste conscious friend
#thelittlegreycottage 