A while back I was flipping through a catalogue that came with a magazine publication that discusses topical issues. Often the products featured in this catalogue are environmentally friendly or fair trade and/or about educating about these types of good things.I find products from such sources interesting because often you find unusual things you would not think existed.
Now, like I said, that was a while back and I actually don't remember off the top of my head the other items in the product range but I do remember seeing one very unusual and also interesting item: It was a notebook made with paper that was created from elephant dung.
I did not think dung or faeces could be used in such a way prior to seeing this, but I believe there was an explanation saying (and this is my paraphrase) that because elephants have a very dry and vegetarian diet their dung is not all that wet, stinky, mushy and gross unlike many other animals. After adding water and probably some other stuff to the dung, flattening it, and drying it, the final product can be used as paper. It is environmentally friendly because it is essentially using something that would not have any other use and is always in 'production' (as long as elephants live) and is an alternative to using paper made from wood, which as we all hopefully know comes from cut down trees. According to the catalogue's description, it also has a smooth texture.
A while later I stumbled across a video on youtube which mentioned other uses for faeces (not just elephants') and that was an eye opener. If I find the video again, which I can't seem to find at present, I'll link it here....but some of the uses I could remember were fuel for fires, and as a building material for walls of buildings and of course as manure or fertiliser.
So, this got me wondering, does anyone know of any other unusual uses for other stuff, and of course not just poo but anything that is not a typical use for that said thing? This can include something you've come up with yourself with everyday household stuff too.
As for elephant poo.... if they started selling it here I would NOT want it advertised as elephant poo paper... I would prefer the ignorance is bliss approach on that one..
caseyur: I've heard of the toothpaste for scratched CDs trick, but I also heard it's only certain toothpastes that are able to be used that way. Listerine for cleaning smoking pipe stains is interesting too. Is club soda the same as bicarbonate soda? If it is, I heard that stuff can also be used for cleaning drain pipes, mix with water and pour down the drain to prevent blockage.
The Wandering Poet: What is Lysol? As for ignorance is bliss, I think it would be weird to assume the paper you use if it feels very different to paper made from wood, then I'd want to know what it actually is made of.
Oh god, I had a gross thought, what if Poet had elephant poo paper, and ignorantly thinking it was made from wood, kissed it after writing a love poem to leave a lipstick mark...or what if your beloved did that...
Thankfully neither me or my partner kisses paper
Cause that would be awkward XD
If I was curious I would still prefer not knowing over knowing that I'm been writing my poems on elephant poo
Lysol is a disinfectant spray. So far it seems that gnats are annoyingly immune to it though... hit one with a direct spray and it didn't even stop flying O.o
Sticking with the environmentally friendly useful things approach, I have in my possession a solar powered lamp, which I had purchased from IKEA way back when...when they were in store I liked the idea of not having to plug it in an outlet, and at the time they also said that for for each one bought they would donate one to a child in a third world country...or something along those lines.
After the purchase I discovered the solar powered battery that provides power for the lamp is removable and can be placed in a sunny spot for maximum benefits. Which is great...I usually put it on the window sill near the west side of the house, since I don't have a good spot in the East. The lamp itself also came in useful once when there was a blackout, I twisted the lamp to point at the ceiling and it provided a pretty decent amount of light...more so than any candles or torches could.
This topic made me think of Liters of Light! If you haven't heard of this before, you really have to check it out, it's such a simple idea that really improves the lives of many AND provides light without electricity
One thing I do is I use empty toilet rolls to stuff power cords in. That way, they never get tangled.
The Wandering Poet, does pointing your lamp at the corner of your wall also have the affect of spreading the light using the space on the wall? Or do you do that for some other reason?
There was another thread that I posted this in on here and I copped a lot of crud for it being fake, but I'll say it again because it works for me.
Wrapping a burn in aluminum foil makes it stop hurting as badly. I think the conclusion in the last thread was that the thin metal disperses the heat from the burn more evenly and quickly.
Oh, this is probably a common one, but I use baby shampoo to clean my expensive makeup brushes, and then I condition them with a tiny drop of olive oil--they come out looking and feeling as good as new.
I think another part of it is that if you go out in to the freezing cold and run to a heater... it's really painful... so odds are that going from hot to cold would do a lot of damage too. So if you allowed it to cool slower it wont react as badly.
Yeah, running my finger under cold water has never done much for me. Sure it stops the pain for the time being, but you waste a lot of water and the burn almost hurts worse for me when I take my finger out of the cold water. Sure, there's ice, but I can actually keep working if I have my finger wrapped in foil as opposed to holding a bag of ice to it for 30 minutes.
Elephant poo paper is actually really soft and has no smell at all. It has an earthier color to it but otherwise looks the sane as similar homemade papers.
We use Chinese take out soup containers to jump start seedlings and use the lids as mini paint pallets.
It's not the smell... it's just the thought that... Hey I'm writing my poem on a piece of crap...
Unless I wrote a poem ABOUT crap... then it would be perfect...
LOL, Poet, I guess you really can't see yourself using the great alternative to paper made of tree wood...
I haven't seen or had a chance to touch elephant poo paper...but I've heard that it is soft like LONGCAT mentioned.
There are many uses for plastic takeaway containers but I think in our family they're pretty much used as an alternative to tupperware...to put foods that need to be frozen or in the fridge...they're small, yet can hold heaps for their size, they're stackable and once they break getting a new one is as easy as buying takeaway or Asian grocery supermarket meals...which come in the same containers.
