Author: Admin

By Polly Barks

Zero waste orders from Amazon: it can (almost) be done. The question is: do we really want to?

Not all of us are living Pinterest-worthy zero waste lives here. And not all of us have the ability to source local, high-quality zero waste goods – basically, all of us outside of a select few major metropolitan areas.

While the internet and ethical online shopping has really leveled the playing field, we also can’t all afford to always support brands with high price points.

Trust me – I get it. I started my zero waste journey almost qualifying for food stamps in a food desert without a car so zero waste on a budget is near and dear.

So what happens when you’re ready to replace an old, used item with a zero waste counterpart? What do these factors lead to? Amazon.

I’m going to be real here: Amazon is inherently unethical. If you have the ability to support anything more ethical (AKA just about anywhere else), you have the ethical duty to do so.

If you’re reading this, think very seriously about whether you can’t spend the extra money, or you simply don’t want to. Amazon is not sustainable. Supporting Amazon when you have other options is not sustainable.

So for those who need it and want an Amazon plastic-free packaging experience, here are 5 tips for the best way to get packages zero waste on Amazon:

make 5 changes to mitigate the climate crisis

The student Climate Strike last September helped to hone our attention on the reality that our planet is changing, and we must take immediate steps in our own lives to help fight and reverse the climate crisis.
Join Green Towson Alliance as we pledge to Be the Green Change.

 

We’re asking you to make five changes in your life – they can be small and simple changes, like packing silverware along with your lunch so that you avoid using throw-away plastic silverware, or giving up plastic bags – or big changes, like swearing off your clothes dryer and installing a laundry line in your yard, or trading in your fossil-fuel guzzling car for an electric or hybrid electric vehicle.

Here is a list of things you can start right away.

Five Easy Changes

Simple actions that won’t be hard to fold into your life. These include picking up plastic trash when you’re walking outside, using a recyclable coffee mug, and adding a plant-based meal to your weekly food plan.

Swear off chemical cleaners

Give up those spray bottles full of cleaning supplies. You’ll be surprised how
simple it is to clean your home naturally!

Check out local thrift stores instead of online shopping

Think carefully about your habits as a consumer. Try shopping at a local thrift store for the ultimate in recycling.

Give up plastic wrap!

You can buy or make your own food wraps that are every bit as good as plastic wrap.

Update laundry day

Do-over your laundry routine. And no, you don’t have to hang up a huge, old-fashioned laundry line (although you can, if you want to!)

Opt to Act

REI, the outdoor adventure store, has a list of simple changes you can make this year.  The Opt To Act program is s a 52- week long plan of simple changes you can make each week. You can download the plan and read all about it here.

Please join Green Towson Alliance and Make the pledge to Be the Green Change.

 

By Anne-Marie Bonneau

(With apologies to Michael Pollan for another riff of his quote, “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly Plants.”)

Why Does She Keep Posting Pictures of Her Underwear?

Every several months, I’ll post a picture on Instagram of my laundry drying outside on my drying rack. I hear two basic reactions.

1. Americans: “OMG where did you get your drying rack? I’d love one like it.”
2. Everyone else: “Why are you posting this?”

In most of the world, hanging up clothes to dry is normal, non-Instagrammable behavior. Here in the US, where many home owners associations (HOAs) ban “unsightly” clotheslines, hanging up your laundry to dry like god intended racks up the likes and confers rebel status. Many of these HOA bans appear to be illegal, however.

Laundry rule #1: Wash only when dirty

You will save time, energy and money by washing clothes only when they actually need it. Unless I spill tea all over myself while sitting at my desk writing and editing all day on my laptop, my clothes stay clean. I’ll wear even my wool or cotton socks for (at least) a couple of days in a row if they pass the sniff test.

Washing

Although I hang my clothes to dry, I have not begun to manually wash them by beating them against rocks except for that one time in the Caribbean while skinny-dipping. I do use a washing machine.

Use cold water

• Heating water for a load of laundry consumes 90 percent of the total energy required to wash that load.
• Hot water breaks down fabric faster than cold water does. Washing synthetic fabrics—polyester, acrylic and blends—in cold may shed fewer plastic microfibers. A typical load can shed 700,000 of these tiny plastic fibers, which enter our waterways and all levels of the ocean food chain, from plankton to marine mammals—and eventually us.
• Clothes washed in cold last longer. You’ll repair and replace them less often and thus buy fewer clothes.

Avoid the delicate cycle

A recent study found that the delicate cycle can release an additional 800,000 plastic microfibers. The study revealed that the more water used, the more plastic microfibers released. The delicate cycle uses up to two times as much water as the regular cycle.

While washing machines cannot capture these microfibers, Guppyfriend bags, which Patagonia sells at cost, reduce the amount of microfibers that washing machines release.

Wash full loads

Get your money’s worth and do full loads. Whether you wash two towels or a full load, your machine will use the same amount of energy to wash them.

Skip the fabric softener

When your nose detects a fragrance, your brain should think phthalates. Fabric softeners may contain these endocrine disruptors. Studies have linked phthalates to an array of negative health outcomes, such as “hormone changes, lower sperm count, less mobile sperm, birth defects in the male reproductive system, obesity, diabetes and thyroid irregularities.” The Environmental Working Group (EWG), which rates the safety of household products, gives fabric softeners an abysmal F.

Check out ivy leaves as detergent

Let me start off by saying that I need to experiment with this method more and am by no means an ivy-as-detergent expert. For more adventures in washing with ivy, please read the posts of @cleareasmud on Instagram, who told me about this trick.

I’ve been cutting up large English ivy leaves (otherwise known as common ivy or Hedera helix), putting them in an old sock, tying up the end to keep the ivy from going all over the place and then throwing the sock into the washing machine. For my last load, I used 15 grams of leaves. Never use poison ivy leaves!

Ivy leaves contain saponin, a natural detergent and foaming agent. (“Saponin” comes from the Latin word for soap, “sapo.”) Other sources of saponins include horse chestnuts, soapwort and soap nuts.

I don’t know if the ivy works or the agitation of the machine alone cleans the clothes and we’ve all been duped into buying more products than we need. I do know my clothes come out clean. However, they don’t go in very dirty. Someone on Facebook told me that her family’s very dirty clothes come out of the wash clean with the addition of mere vinegar and no detergent.

On my long to-blog list, I’ve added “make liquid detergent from ivy.” To do this, you simmer the leaves in water and strain. I hope it works well. (Go here for laundry detergent made from horse chestnuts.)

Drying

According to the US Energy Information Association (EIA), clothes dryers account for 5 percent of total household energy consumed in the US, while washing machines account for only 0.5 percent of household energy, not including the energy to heat the water in warm or hot loads.

If you dry laundry in a dryer

Spin it right round, baby right round

Spin your clothes in the washing machine for a longer amount of time than the standard cycle lasts. Your machine may have a high spin cycle or other cycle that you can set it to for a longer spin. This will reduce the amount of time your dryer will have to run to dry your clothes.

Buy a pair

I rarely use the dryer and so haven’t bought a pair of 100 percent wool dryer balls myself but people rave about them online. By absorbing water and increasing the air flow around laundry as it dries, these balls apparently reduce drying time. (As I said, I haven’t tried them myself.)

Look for an efficient model

When you replace your dryer, look for one with the Energy Star label. To earn this label, machines must be pass independent certifications while functioning well. If you can afford it, consider buying a heat pump dryer. These recycle the hot air in the dryer rather than wasting it by venting it outside.

Clean out the lint

Clean out the filter after drying each load. If the lint contains synthetic fibers, I would not add it to the compost pile.

Skip the dryer sheets

These single-use throwaway synthetic (i.e., plastic) sheets can, like fabric softener, contain phthalates. Avoid over-drying your laundry to avoid static electricity shocks.

If you hang laundry to dry

Buy clothes less often

Dryers break down fibers. Hang your laundry up to dry and it will last much longer. Yes, hanging takes more time but I find it meditative.

Send less money to your utility company

Instead of Zero-Waste Chef, I could have named this blog “Zero-Waste by Default for Frugal People.” You’ll save money if you hang up your clothes to dry or if you follow any of the tips I’ve listed in this post.

Does anyone actually like their utility company? Here in Northern California, PG&E sparked outrage in October for cutting off power to hundreds of thousands of residents after weather forecasts predicted high winds and severe fire risk.

A probe into the devastating Camp Fire of 2018, which killed 85 people and razed the town of Paradise, found that PG&E’s power lines ignited the blaze. The company, now in bankruptcy, could face more liability claims if its equipment starts more fires. Hence, the blackouts.

No one wants the state to endure another mega-fire. Outrage over the outages stemmed from the fact that PG&E has not updated its infrastructure and instead, inconvenienced a massive number of residents, some of whom had to evacuate their homes because of medical issues.

Hang up your laundry to dry and stick it to the man.

This article was written by Anne-Marie Bonneau and reprinted here with her permission.  Read more on her website, The Zero Waste Chef.

Why do women buy lots of purses and shoes? One theory is that, when you “try them on” they never make you look fat. Lucky for you, Thrifter, there’s usually a lot to choose from.

Shoes
The beauty of thrift store shoes is that they are likely already broken in. However, shoes that show no wear were likely donated because they’re uncomfortable.  Be sure to walk them around the store before purchasing. The shoes you wear to the store should be easy off/easy on. Also wear or bring the weight of socks you plan to wear with the shoes. Here are some great options found recently in a Towson thrift store.

(1) Ryka Faze training shoes – $6 ($60 in DSW.) (2) Ann Taylor booties ($5.50)  (3) Well, maybe not everyone’s taste…

(4)  Rarely, you will find tap shoes, jazz//split sole sneakers, ballet slippers, sports cleats. On occasion these may even be for adults.

 

 

Purses
Lots of pockets/compartments may initially seem like a good idea, but, unless you are consistent with what you put in each, you’ll likely get frustrated fishing around through each one to find what you need.

 

 

(5) Backpacks are also in abundance.

Luggage
Great buys can be found for canvas luggage of all sizes and in good shape.  Choose a size and compartment configuration that suits your purpose. Check for signs of wear, functioning zippers, retractable handles. Make sure stains can be removed by using a wet wipe.

(6) For luggage you plan to check, consider something like this “obnoxious” pink striped one.  Think how easy it would be to spot on the luggage carousel!

 

 

 

(7)   On rare occasions, you might find hardshell/four-wheeled spinner luggage. This one was $15. Check these for cracks, especially near handles.

New to Thrifting?
Here are some tips on shopping at Thrift stores.  Have a special occasion coming up, or looking for that perfect outfit for a holiday? Be sure to check out the local Thrift stores.  And don’t forget that when you are shopping for a gift, you might find something pretty amazing at a Thrift store as well!

By Patty Mochel

Cutting way back on single-use paper products seemed a no-brainer on my Climate Crisis Consumer Diet. I had used cloth table napkins when I had four kids at home, but as fewer people regularly came to the dinner table, I had inexplicably slipped back into using paper napkins. Last year, when I pulled out my stash of cloth napkins, I had lost my relaxed attitude about them. During dinner, I would cringe every time someone used one to wipe a greasy finger. Why was I so neurotic about them? Was I burdened by the thought that they would need constant washing and ironing? I had handled that in the past by keeping several sets of cloth napkins on hand. However, the unhappy decline of retail stores meant there are fewer local shops to find cloth napkins, and I was loathe to go online to find them, or  cut out and sew a set of six napkins.

I realized that 20 years ago, because there were so many available, I had several sets and had discovered that napkins made of a darker colored cloth that was printed with a pattern helped to hide food stains, relieving me of daily napkin washing.  With that in mind, I hit on the idea of using cloth bandanas, and the local Michael’s store had a bunch of really inexpensive ones. I bought six in a dark green. They can be washed frequently, and if I shake them out and hang them, they don’t need to be ironed.  Problem solved.

Next to go: paper towels. A trip to Target’s kitchen department scored two sets of washcloths that conveniently came in a color that matched my kitchen. I stash them in a stack on the counter and use them to wipe off countertops and placemats, and clean out the sink. I inwardly cringed the first time I used them to clean up a mess on the floor – I was screaming inside, “It’s a mess! Use a paper towel and toss the mess away.” What brought me back to reality was the realization that 50 (or 60) years ago, people (like my Mom and grandmother) used cloth “rags” to clean up everything. If they could do it, so could I! Presto. No more paper towels.

My son packs a lunch every day, and I wanted to stop using plastic sandwich and chip bags. In August, I found some reusable silicone sandwich bags at Mom’s Organic Market. I bought two, and they have been working out well.  I missed the before-school sale for chip bags, so my son has been using paper sacks I found at the grocery store for his chips and cookies. I’ll be trading up for reusable chip bags next year.

Finally, I made the switch to 100% recycled toilet paper. I read an article that the plush T.P. I had been purchasing for my family was made from wood pulp taken from virgin forests in Canada. That was pretty shocking, and I’m glad I found out about that.

 

Next to consider on my Climate Crisis Consumer Diet: Kleenex, and skin care “essentials” like cotton swabs, cotton balls. Dare I say shampoo in plastic bottles? Stay tuned.

You can read about the first changes I made a few months ago here.

One way to take a step back from a closet full of plastic bottles filled with cleaning products that may contain harmful substances is to take a look at time-honored methods of cleaning. Just a few generations ago, people who lived in rural areas, who couldn’t readily run to a store to buy cleaning supplies, depended on using everyday products to clean their home. In fact, some old cookbooks included ‘recipes’ for cleaning solutions.

Now more than ever, it makes sense to step back from those disposable floor cleaning pads and use an old-fashioned mop with a cleaning solution you can mix yourself. Need to scrub out the sink? An all-purpose vinegar solution might do the trick. Vinegar is a very helpful ingredient -our grandmothers regularly used vinegar to wash windows

How about killing germs? Daily wipe-downs of kitchen and bathroom countertops are an important step in clearing away messes that may be inviting to bacteria. When there’s sickness in the house, I do what my friend, a nurse-practitioner does: I pour a small amount of rubbing alcohol on a clean cloth and wipe off all of the door handles and faucet handles in the house.

Here’s a great article on other products you can make yourself to clean your home.