Spanish Residents - advice please

[hedgewitch]

Sorry to be so selective but this really is a problem I have found living in Spain.
What companies make eco cleaning products, bio degradable bin bags and recycled loo roll?

I'm having a complete mare of a time trying to find anywhere that sells these that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. The only products I have found are from my local health food shop and they only stock Ecover washing detergent which is a hideous price (though this won't be a problem as I've just ordered some soap nuts) and an Ecoline brand of washing-up liquid (which is actually reasonably priced).
I make my own surface cleaner but what I'm really after is floor and toilet cleaner and biodegradable bin bags. At the moment I'm getting relatives and friends who come over to visit to fill their cases with products for me but it would make life so much easier if anyone can point me in the right direction.

And recycled loo roll???
There MUST be a supermarket that sells this in Spain...there just has to be....it's 2008 for gawd's sake.

[Clara]

Carrefour do their own brand washing eco detergent, I´m not sure that it´s as "eco" as ecover, but it´s a start and it´s about 5€ for 3l (40 washes). I´ve not seen a washing-up liquid there but it´s possible.....

Recycled loo paper I gave up on and went cloth.....much more eco-friendly than ANY kind of tp.

Otherwise no, it is just the Brit shops that sell it all.......

Cx

[ina]

And binliners - do you really need them? I think I'd have a problem finding them in Germany, too - because nobody (at least nobody I know) uses them!

[hedgewitch]

Well yes I do need them.....everything that's compostable goes in the compost....the rest is recycled (except polystyrene).
A bin bag will last 3-4 weeks in my house so it's not like we're generating a lot of waste. We have communal bins and all rubbish HAS to be in bags.
Toilet paper isn't flushed down the toilet (the drains can't handle it) so in the bin it goes.

Washing-up liquid I can get at a good price and I'm waiting on my Soap Nuts to be delivered so the washing detergent's taken care of.
I just find it so strange that in this day and age eco friendly products are practically non existent in Spain.

I have a little plan however and I'm going to contact a distributor and get them to call in on my local health food shop and if I carry on persisting that they stock more green products they might just actually give in.

[ina]

Well yes I do need them.....everything that's compostable goes in the compost....the rest is recycled (except polystyrene).
A bin bag will last 3-4 weeks in my house so it's not like we're generating a lot of waste. We have communal bins and all rubbish HAS to be in bags.
Toilet paper isn't flushed down the toilet (the drains can't handle it) so in the bin it goes.

Well, in that case - understandable! I just still don't get my head around the British concept of double wrapping all rubbish...

[MKG]

Old British Concept (actually, probably more English than anything else). The outside world is DIRTY. When bits of the outside world impinge on indoors (food, for instance) then they have to be washed to death, and leftovers are DIRTY. As are peelings, scrapings etc. Children must not play with things from outside because they are DIRTY. Goodness me, it's only fairly recently that we've allowed curries into our homes (in essence, DIRTY, or at least un-English) despite the Raj and its effects. Gypsies have always been DIRTY despite their habit of washing much more thoroughly than any English person ever did. Farmers were almost as DIRTY as gypsies (Great God, they kept PIGS!!!).

Isn't the English psyche a wonderful thing?

So, double-wrapping rubbish is hardly surprising.

[Annpan]

I use mostly vinegar, bicarbonate of soda, borax and EO for cleaning... I make my own prodcts for specific jobs around the house... Is that something you could try?

Loo roll ... you could always use yesterdays newspaper... my family used to.

[ina]

Old British Concept (actually, probably more English than anything else). The outside world is DIRTY. When bits of the outside world impinge on indoors (food, for instance) then they have to be washed to death, and leftovers are DIRTY. As are peelings, scrapings etc. Children must not play with things from outside because they are DIRTY. Goodness me, it's only fairly recently that we've allowed curries into our homes (in essence, DIRTY, or at least un-English) despite the Raj and its effects. Gypsies have always been DIRTY despite their habit of washing much more thoroughly than any English person ever did. Farmers were almost as DIRTY as gypsies (Great God, they kept PIGS!!!).

Isn't the English psyche a wonderful thing?

So, double-wrapping rubbish is hardly surprising.

The Scots also double wrap their rubbish!

[hedgewitch]

Well well well...sometimes if you ask the universe you do get what you want (or need - haven't worked this one out yet).
I walked in to my local Lidl to buy some Courgette seeds and lo and behold there right in front of me was the BIGEST mountain of recycled toilet paper you've ever seen.
And it gets better - 12 rolls €1.69!!!!

I don't go to Lidl often but I certainly will from now on!!

Annpan - I make my own surface cleaner from water and EO (I use Tea Tree, Patchouli and Clove) and that's very nice....I guess I was after something with a bit more oomph for the toilet....if you have a recipe I could make I'd really appreciate it.

[Clara]

Old British Concept (actually, probably more English than anything else). The outside world is DIRTY. When bits of the outside world impinge on indoors (food, for instance) then they have to be washed to death, and leftovers are DIRTY. As are peelings, scrapings etc. Children must not play with things from outside because they are DIRTY.

Old British Concept = Modern Spanish Thinking. More than that, being frugal, using anything secondhand (and I suspect this is why recycled loo roll is not commonplace) or working in the campo, is what people had to do when they were poor......and Spain has had enough hard times in living memory to make people want to reject all of this things; to buy new even if it is poorly made, to smash perfectly usuable stuff and put it in the bin because they don´t want it, to get into debt, work in the cities and buy processed food......you get the picture. Even though we all live rurally here, there are people who live in the nearest tiny village who won´t let their children go to play on the farms in case they get their clothes dirty.

[Clara]

Hedgewitch - you can also get ecover and ecolino in bulk, 5kg or 5l depending on what it is, works out much cheaper. The two main distributors for health food shops here are Rincon Del Seguro (actually quite close by you) and Luz de Vida, if you´re local shop uses them then they should be able to get no problems for you.

Also if you have a choice stick with the Herbolarios run by Spaniards, IME anyone English who runs one is an unprincipled profiteer, who´d gladly start selling depleted uranium with an exagerrated mark-up if they had a market for it!

[contadina]

I have a quick clean with the brush around the the toilet basin using no cleaner after most visits and then use a half and half mix of bicarb and vinegar inside and out every couple of weeks to ensure that it's clean all over.

[hedgewitch]

Hedgewitch - you can also get ecover and ecolino in bulk, 5kg or 5l depending on what it is, works out much cheaper. The two main distributors for health food shops here are Rincon Del Seguro (actually quite close by you) and Luz de Vida, if you´re local shop uses them then they should be able to get no problems for you.

Also if you have a choice stick with the Herbolarios run by Spaniards, IME anyone English who runs one is an unprincipled profiteer, who´d gladly start selling depleted uranium with an exagerrated mark-up if they had a market for it!

Rincon del Seguro I've heard of...I'm sure my local herbolario sells their products.

I'm very lucky here in Torrevieja - there's 3 Herbolario's all Spanish...you'd think I'd be able to get one of them to stock more eco products wouldn't you?

Thanks for your help Clara.

[Millymollymandy]

Well yes I do need them.....everything that's compostable goes in the compost....the rest is recycled (except polystyrene).
A bin bag will last 3-4 weeks in my house so it's not like we're generating a lot of waste. We have communal bins and all rubbish HAS to be in bags.
Toilet paper isn't flushed down the toilet (the drains can't handle it) so in the bin it goes.

Well, in that case - understandable! I just still don't get my head around the British concept of double wrapping all rubbish...

But a bin bag is only single wrapping rubbish!

[AXJ]

In the Basque country we have the same communal bins, in which rubbish has to be deposited in in a bag of some sort. This helps keep vermin under control and makes them easier to empty I think, which they are once a day. Less than ten years ago the rubbish was just left in a pile in the street between 7pm and 8pm and then collected.

The up side is that every single communal rubbish bin has glass, plastic, metal, paper, cardboard and cloth recycling bins next to them, and they are placed about every 120 metres.