{"id":3040,"date":"2019-12-05T11:52:02","date_gmt":"2019-12-05T11:52:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gardenadvice.co.uk\/blog\/?p=3040"},"modified":"2019-12-05T11:52:02","modified_gmt":"2019-12-05T11:52:02","slug":"alternative-uses-for-soil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenadvice.co.uk\/newsandarticles\/alternative-uses-for-soil\/","title":{"rendered":"Alternative uses for soil"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/gardenadvice.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/green-2551467_1920.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-3041 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/gardenadvice.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/green-2551467_1920.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"650\" height=\"433\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">What comes to mind when you think about soil? Probably mud, flowers, plants, trees, that sort of thing. Maybe you think about your childhood pastime of making mud pies. But soil is more than just a nutrient for plant life. In this article, we\u2019re teaming up with <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.compostdirect.com\/all-products\/barks-mulches\/c45\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">play bark<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> supplier Compost Direct as we examine other uses for soil.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cosmetics<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">There are a number of beauty products that owe their existence to the ground beneath our feet. The first one that springs to mind is mud masks, of course! With all the minerals trapped in the ground, clay is particularly beneficial for the skin thanks to particles called peloids.\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">There are many different types of clay and each of them have many different benefits for the skin. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/stylecaster.com\/beauty\/how-different-types-of-clay-benefit-your-skin\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">StyleCaster<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> outlined a handful of clays to display this wide range of perks from a single source, including:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><b>Fuller\u2019s earth clay <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u2014 this one is a multi-tasking hero of the soil world. Fuller\u2019s earth clay is hyper-absorbent, so in the world of cosmetics, it is used for face masks. It\u2019s also used for cat litter and to mop up oil spills on pavement\u2026<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><b>Bentonite clay <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u2014 this earthy substance is great at soaking up excess oil, impurities, and sebum, making it a go-to ingredient for acne products.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><b>Rhassoul clay <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u2014 this clay is packed full of minerals, so it\u2019s perfect for moisturising skin and hair in equal measure.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">But that\u2019s not all. Elements of soil are also used in the production of make-up, such as blush and foundation. Soil minerals such as <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.omandthecityblog.com\/all\/breaking-down-the-ingredients-bare-minerals-foundation\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">mica, titanium dioxide, and iron oxides<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> are commonly found in powder foundations, where the mineral hematite is used for red pigment.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Medicines<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Did you know that soil is crucial for the development of medicines? In fact, according to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/soilsmatter.wordpress.com\/2015\/08\/15\/is-it-true-that-some-medicines-come-from-the-soil\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Soils Matter<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, many modern medicines owe their creation to discoveries found within the earth.\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">With fungi and bacteria abound within soil, it makes the perfect place to start when discovering new medicines. For example, more than 500 antibiotics and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.voltarol.co.uk\/products\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">pain relief gels<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> have roots in the study of soil microbes, and the bacteria <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">mycobacterium vaccae <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">has potential use as an anti-depressant.\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">There are certainly more discoveries to make as well. Within soil, there are a number of microbes yet to be discovered!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Products made with soil<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Naturally, your mind might hop directly to pottery when discussing items that were created from the earth. Of course, that doesn\u2019t just cover fancy artworks either, as your ceramic kitchen plates and bowls also owe their materials to soil.\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">But what about your windows and your glasses? Glass comes from sand, but <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.soils.org\/files\/sssa\/iys\/october-soils-overview.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">sand is another type of soil<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Even some plastics around the house come from soil, such as silicon that is also drawn from sand.\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Soil is used for so much more than just gardening. Keeping soil healthy will certainly help to grow an array of plants, but please don\u2019t go scooping soil up from the garden to make your own face masks! Better leaving that to the professionals.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sources:\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hunker.com\/12586014\/5-uses-of-soil\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">https:\/\/www.hunker.com\/12586014\/5-uses-of-soil<\/span><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/soilsmatter.wordpress.com\/2015\/12\/15\/how-are-soils-used-in-cosmetics\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">https:\/\/soilsmatter.wordpress.com\/2015\/12\/15\/how-are-soils-used-in-cosmetics\/<\/span><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/soilsmatter.wordpress.com\/2015\/08\/15\/is-it-true-that-some-medicines-come-from-the-soil\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">https:\/\/soilsmatter.wordpress.com\/2015\/08\/15\/is-it-true-that-some-medicines-come-from-the-soil\/<\/span><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/stylecaster.com\/beauty\/how-different-types-of-clay-benefit-your-skin\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">https:\/\/stylecaster.com\/beauty\/how-different-types-of-clay-benefit-your-skin\/<\/span><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.soils.org\/files\/sssa\/iys\/october-soils-overview.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">https:\/\/www.soils.org\/files\/sssa\/iys\/october-soils-overview.pdf<\/span><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.omandthecityblog.com\/all\/breaking-down-the-ingredients-bare-minerals-foundation\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">https:\/\/www.omandthecityblog.com\/all\/breaking-down-the-ingredients-bare-minerals-foundation<\/span><\/a><br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What comes to mind when you think about soil? Probably mud, flowers, plants, trees, that sort of thing. Maybe you think about your childhood pastime of making mud pies. But soil is more than&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-head-gardener"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenadvice.co.uk\/newsandarticles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenadvice.co.uk\/newsandarticles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenadvice.co.uk\/newsandarticles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenadvice.co.uk\/newsandarticles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenadvice.co.uk\/newsandarticles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gardenadvice.co.uk\/newsandarticles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3040\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenadvice.co.uk\/newsandarticles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenadvice.co.uk\/newsandarticles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenadvice.co.uk\/newsandarticles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}