1. Use string, ribbon or scraps of wool for wrapping gifts instead of tape. Remember that sticky tape does not biodegrade and can only be used once. But string and wool can be used again and again. So can paper which hasn’t been spoilt with sticky-tape marks!

2. Use low phospate washing up liquid and washing powder.

3. Avoid products containing chlorine. Avoid chlorine bleach, chlorinated disinfectant cleaners, mildew removers and toilet bowl cleaners. Find ecological alternatives.

4. Use baking soda instead of abrasive powders to clear your drains. Flushing drains with a solution of boiling water, baking soda and vinegar then using a plunger works just as well as toxic cleaners.

5. Don’t use commercial moth balls. Store your woollens in air-tight boxes or use dry lavender flowers.Lavender is available at the University of Agricultural
Sciences, Herbal Garden.

6. Start a compost heap. It is soil’s fresh free gold. Make your own compost bin with old tyres, scrap timber, bricks or wire mesh. Help your parents to make your own compost heap and make fresh soil for the garden.

7. Use baking soda and water instead of commercial oven cleaners. Why spend money on dangerous chemicals when baking soda does the job just as well?

8. Drink 2.5 litres of water a day. Tell your mom, aunts, grannies to avoid anti-wrinkle creams, they contain scary products known as ‘skin-peelers’ which dissolve the outer layer of dead skin cells, to which the skin reacts by growing back an even thicker, tougher layer!
9. Boycot animal tested beauty products.
10. Pick your own flowers to take to the funeral. Even better than picked flowers that will soon die, why not take a rooted plant which can be planted by the grave?


Go M.A.D.! 365 daily ways to save the planet.