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Simple Tip: Taking Care of Bar Soaps
Bar soaps are a holy grail product for low-wasters. You can often find them without any packaging and once they are used up, they’re done. No bottles or pumps or lids to recycle or trash. No waste. It’s awesome. However, these wonderful creations do require a little bit of care to get the most use out of them. First up, soap dishes. My view: the best soap dish is one you already have. You don’t have one lying around? This is the perfect time to use unused jewelry dishes, a small fancy plate, empty candle jars, empty jam jars, Altoid tins… any jar/plate/trinket dish that is shallow and wide. I…
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Zero Waste Entertaining
The early part of my year consists of a LOT of birthdays… every member of my family was born in either January or April. This ends up meaning lots of entertaining and gatherings. Party throwing, however, is not the most eco-friendly activity. With all the paper cups and plates, plastic forks and spoons, balloons, and take out boxes — waste can really add up. However, there are some alternatives to making things a bit more eco-friendly and not becoming a party pooper. Dinnerware My favorite way to avoid any waste at all is using real dishes, cutlery, and glasses (and just dishwashing everything at the end). However, this works best…
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My Zero Waste Fails
Zero or low waste is not about perfection. You do not need to fit all your trash in a mason jar or give up everything you love that comes in a non-recyclable wrapper. It is about being mindful. About finding alternatives when you can. Purchasing thoughtfully (good quality, not too much). With that said, I’ve definitely had some zero waste failures on my quest to send less to the landfill. Here are my failed experiments: DIY kefir: My husband drinks kefir every single morning. Sure, the kefir container is a highly recyclable plastic #2 but I do try and minimize plastic use (since plastics are downcycled). So. I decided to…
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Simple Tip: Digital Business Card
The business card. Useful but wasteful. Those tiny cards add up in piles around your home, wallet, car, and office — sometimes used, sometimes forgotten. Why don’t we move on from this somewhat antiquated (and wasteful) form of exchanging information? I know some fancy paid apps exist where you can create/share/collect specialized digital business cards. But I prefer to keep it a bit simpler than that. I used Canva (feel free to use your editor of choice) to create a super basic image with my contact information. Then, I keep the image on my phone and backed up in my email. And that’s it. When anyone asks me for my…
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Simple Tip: Fast Food Waste
While I would love to eat healthy, organic home cooked food every day… that’s not how life goes. I travel, I PMS, I get lazy… so yep, sometimes, I get fast food. Everything in moderation, right? However, fast food isn’t the most zero waste choice around. BUT. There are ways to drastically reduce the amount of trash you produce from your fast food jaunts. Here are my tips: Go inside to get your order instead of going through the drive through. My experience with the drive through is they regularly miss you saying no to straws, napkins, etc. When you go inside, you can better articulate that you don’t need…
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Winter Zero Waste Swaps
Brrrrrr… we’re in the thick of winter and it’s cold even here in Dallas. While you’re cozying up at home and getting your hygge on, here are a few things you can do to make sure you aren’t putting too much of a burden on the environment. Sweaters: This is the time of year when I live in thick, oversized sweaters. And my number one place for finding them? The thrift store. I’ve said it before and will say it again. While secondhand t-shirts can sometimes feel worn out or faded… I’ve had a lot of luck finding excellent quality sweaters for under $5. This past weekend, I picked up…
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Zero Waste + Eco-Friendly New Year’s Resolutions
Last year was a great zero waste/low waste/eco-friendly year for me. I started this blog, reduced our household trash production by A LOT, and became a Recycling Ambassador with my city. But we (I) can always do better so here are some goals/resolutions/whatever you want to call it for the coming year. And, also, comment and tell me what your green goals are for this year! Become a Master Composter. My classes/training starts later this month! Find a facial bar soap I like. Makeup and skincare products are my “luxury items”?– and while I try to buy in glass as much as possible, and recycle everything else with TerraCycle/Origins/L’Occitane… I…
