Let’s talk cotton balls. They’re soft, they’re squishy, they’re incredibly disposable. Disposability is part of their appeal, but with serious questions about how sustainable it is to produce cotton, and ethics around farm labor, I’m trying to transition away from my more consumptive habits and opt to not buy cotton if I only intend to…
Tag: zero waste
Toothpaste (that isn’t paste)
Designers take note! I’ve found a toothpaste that can actually look attractive while sitting on a bathroom shelf. It’s called Bite and I found it when researching alternatives to toothpaste sold in plastic tubes. I grew up using Colgate, so for me, nothing tastes cleaner than a mouthful of fluoride and I’ve been buying toothpaste…
Low waste living mistakes I wish I could take back
Listen. We all make mistakes. And here’s one I made this week. I bought a $15 jar of hummus. Here’s how it happened. I like hummus. I like hummus but I don’t want to make hummus, which poses a problem as I’m on this low waste lifestyle experiment. Ready-made hummus comes in a plastic tub…
Today’s tea: compostable packaging
Today’s Tea: Your compostable packaging is only compostable if you actually… compost it. Sure, we can applaud companies who use compostable plastic cups and compostable paper bowls but the praise is meaningless if we put those compostable items in the trash. When we put compostables in the trash, they go to the landfill where they…
Goodbye, bags. Thanks for the litter.
It’s a big deal: New York state has banned plastic bags. The ban will take effect next March. So, prepare to say goodbye to bags in the trees, bags in the gutter grates, bags in the park, bags on the beach, bags tangled around a pigeon’s leg. We’ve had a good run plastic bags (have…
More bread, less plastic
A while ago I blogged about a less-than-successful attempt at waste-free grocery shopping, and revealed that sometimes I buy gluten-free bread. I didn’t buy gluten-free sandwich bread after that, so guilty did I feel about the plastic bags. But I like bread. So I figured it was time to look into whether or not any…
RIP Recycling
Growing up, sorting the recycling wasn’t a chore; it was something that one did automatically. I don’t remember a time when our household didn’t recycle, so I was horrified when I grew up and found out that I moved among people who put their bottles and cans in the trash along with their spent tissues,…
Recycling the weird stuff: Mascara wands
I’m struggling to cut down on some of the ordinary junk that I’ve been living with for decades. Makeup is one of those things. I don’t have cases upon cases of makeup but I do have a fair amount that I need to work through before I’ll need to go out and find lower-waste alternatives,…
Forget everything I ever said about Package Free.
When I first heard about Package Free, a store that sells household basics and staples without (you guessed it) packaging, I was intrigued. Sure, I already had a large cache of supplies to help me wend my way toward a zero-waste lifestyle—reusable bags, glass jars, travel mug, bar soap, white vinegar, safety razor and gazillion…
This is why I’ll never achieve a zero waste life
Ceci n’est pas une tasse. This is not a cup. I requested a cup at the coffee shop, one of the ceramic cups on the shelf sitting underneath the tea display, but I was given this thing, which is not a cup. And it’s not anyone’s fault (except that it is a lot of someones’…
Climate Conscious 