For those of us with a teeny bit of crafty nous, making your own broom millet scrubbing brushes is one way you can limit your plastic use in the kitchen.
The green clean movement is big business these days, with microfibre ‘wonder’ cloths (often made of plastic and biocidal silver) peddled as an eco-solution to harmful cleaning chemicals while requiring virtually no effort.
When looking for sustainable alternatives, rags are a great way to use up old fabric scraps, but these often contain plastic materials (e.g. elastane) that mean their eventual landing spot must be in landfill. But fear not! For those of us with a teeny bit of crafty nous or gardening know-how, there are some very simple alternatives.
Making your own broom millet scrubbing brushes is one way you can limit your plastic use in the kitchen. Broom millet scrubbing brushes are completely biodegradable and are suitable for all compost systems at the end of their lives.
Here’s how to make your own broom millet scrubbing brushes…
Materials you will need
- Broom millet: While this strange and wondrous fibre is not very easy to get your hands on commercially, the exciting news is that it is insanely easy to grow, and a small patch (1m x 1m) will give you enough to last your house- hold many years (with an added side harvest—good grain to mill for yourself or for feeding whole to chooks).
- Hemp twine
- Rubber bands
- Yarn needle
Method
Cut desired lengths of threshed broom millet (about 15cm) and secure bundle with elastic bands at either end. With a long length of twine, make a ‘whip’ and wrap the twine around it tightly.
Continue wrapping twine tightly around the whip.
Keeping twine secure, poke a yarn needle through the bundle, abutting the twine (a second pair of hands could be handy here).
Thread the yarn needle with the end of the twine.
Pull the needle through the bundle, then insert it behind the wrapped twine.
Pull needle underneath the wrapped twine but leave a little loop instead of pulling flush.
Pass the needle through this loop and pull securely. Repeat until bundle is secure and snip off end. Ta da!
Take note…
You can use other materials as your scrubbing fibre, but they may not last as long as Broom Millet. Native grasses and reeds work well or New Zealand flax, but it needs to be teased into smaller threads for use in something like a brush.
