Living Greener
A Few of our Plastic Reducing Tips
One of the most important reasons Kiki and I have chosen to attempt self-sufficiency is that we care fervently about the environment, and think that we need to do what we can to keep the planet from burning down.
One day a couple of years ago we paused to consider how much plastic we were using, and we were shocked by it. Plastic never degrades, and we don't think that people (if any survive the current extinction) thousands of years from now should have to deal with, for instance, our discarded shampoo bottles. I won't beleaguer the point, but we all know that generating tons of garbage from toxic fossil fuels for single-use rubbish that then enters the food chain and fills the oceans cannot be helping the environment.
One day a couple of years ago we paused to consider how much plastic we were using, and we were shocked by it. Plastic never degrades, and we don't think that people (if any survive the current extinction) thousands of years from now should have to deal with, for instance, our discarded shampoo bottles. I won't beleaguer the point, but we all know that generating tons of garbage from toxic fossil fuels for single-use rubbish that then enters the food chain and fills the oceans cannot be helping the environment.
So, without sanctimony or further ado, some things that we are doing at our homestead to reduce our environmental footprint:
Starting in the bathroom, toiletries contain a massive amount of plastic and create difficult recycling issues. Our solution is to make as many of our own as possible. Almost all of this, in addition to reducing plastic, saves money.
- Shampoo: We don't use shampoo from plastic bottles. Instead, we use bar soap. Kiki has longer hair, so she uses specialized shampoo-soap. With my hair cut down to an even 1/8" to 1/4", I just use whatever bar soap I happen to have in the shower.
- Deodorant/Antiperspirant: We make our own using a 50/50 mix of baking soda and cornstarch with an optional dash of essential oil to create a mild scent. The cornstarch does a far superior job of controlling perspiration compared to anything I ever found commercially.
- Shaving supplies: We use a metal safety razor and shaving soap. The brush we use is acrylic, but we weren't keen on badger fur, and, compared to the standard can of shaving soap with it's plastic top, it's a huge reduction in plastic. The blades are cheap. The soap is cheap. The metal razor (vs. disposable plastic razors) pays for itself in just a few months.
- Toothpaste: Toothpaste tubes don't recycle. It is easy to make a paste with a roughly 50/50 solution of baking soda and coconut oil and a dash of peppermint essential oil. This actually does a palpably better job of brushing the calc from the teeth, as confirmed by my dentist.
- Toothbrushes: We get bamboo brushes and turn down the plastic ones they offer at the dentist's office. Unfortunately, we haven't found a reasonably priced alternative to floss.
- Soap: At some point liquid soap in plastic dispensers became the standard for hand soap. This creates a plastic bottle (which might be recyclable) and it also creates a plastic and spring loaded pump mechanism that certainly can't be efficiently recycled. A simple bar of soap, ideally wrapped in cardboard or paper (easy to find at any standard pharmacy or grocery store) gets the job done better without any of that plastic.
- Toilet paper: Why anyone would not used recycled paper for this ignominious job is a mystery. Also, why is it almost universally wrapped in plastic? We found a company that delivers recycled bog-roll in cases of 48 paper wrapped rolls to your door (Who Gives a Crap is the company). This stood us in particularly good stead when people made a rush for TP on the stores at the beginning of the COVID lockdowns.
- Cleaners: There is a stunning variety of bath and shower cleaners commercially available. All of them seem to come in plastic bottles. They are expensive. We use a mixture of Dawn dish soap and white vinegar, 1/3 to 2/3. We put it in a reusable spray bottle. This works markedly better for removing soap scum than any other cleaner we've found.
One of my pet peeves is "environmentally friendly" products that don't work. When I'm in conspiracy theory mode, I wonder if they aren't actually made by Proctor and Gamble or some other corporation with an interest in keeping us addicted to toxic chemicals, to prove that that stuff doesn't work and costs more, so why don't we just go back to the environmentally irresponsible stuff? I doubt that there's an evil plan, but I still don't like it.
I mentioned dishwasher pods. As I understand it, a dishwasher is (surprisingly, at least to me) more efficient than washing dishes by hand. Unfortunately, our dishwasher is broken and needs to be replaced. That's expensive, and pretty far down the priority list.
Our garbage typically consists of two or three small bags a week full of the plastic we can't recycle and cat litter. We use biodegradable bags (for what it is worth, given the contents).
For years, after washing up in the kitchen, I would wipe the counters down with a Clorox Wipe. Plastic bottles enclosed in plastic wrap and a disposable sheet that goes in the garbage.
What we do now, instead, is to make a 50/50 rubbing alcohol/water solution (the % of alcohol in bottles commercially available varies - some are 70%, some 90%, so you've got to watch this if you want it to be effective at killing bacteria and viruses). We put cut up old t-shirts in a sealed jar, and use those.
Paper napkins have long been replaced with washable cloth ones. Paper plates and plastic cutlery are right out.
One of the more difficult things to do is to track down condiments that come in glass jars. It must have been greed that drove almost every major manufacturer of, say, ketchup, to use upside-down plastic bottles that make a "blerch" sound when you squeeze them (apologies to Matthew Innman and the Oatmeal comic).
Another thing that gets up my nose [shakes cane] is the little plastic screw-off top that has been affixed to every single carton in the world, thus screwing up the recycling potential of freaking cardboard. The cardboard on its own worked just fine. But apparently someone, somewhere, thought it would be a great idea to add an extra chunk of plastic (which we're probably paying for) where one was not needed.
Anyway, it's an ongoing process to purge plastic, but one that is worth doing.
For years, after washing up in the kitchen, I would wipe the counters down with a Clorox Wipe. Plastic bottles enclosed in plastic wrap and a disposable sheet that goes in the garbage.
What we do now, instead, is to make a 50/50 rubbing alcohol/water solution (the % of alcohol in bottles commercially available varies - some are 70%, some 90%, so you've got to watch this if you want it to be effective at killing bacteria and viruses). We put cut up old t-shirts in a sealed jar, and use those.
Paper napkins have long been replaced with washable cloth ones. Paper plates and plastic cutlery are right out.
One of the more difficult things to do is to track down condiments that come in glass jars. It must have been greed that drove almost every major manufacturer of, say, ketchup, to use upside-down plastic bottles that make a "blerch" sound when you squeeze them (apologies to Matthew Innman and the Oatmeal comic).
Another thing that gets up my nose [shakes cane] is the little plastic screw-off top that has been affixed to every single carton in the world, thus screwing up the recycling potential of freaking cardboard. The cardboard on its own worked just fine. But apparently someone, somewhere, thought it would be a great idea to add an extra chunk of plastic (which we're probably paying for) where one was not needed.
Anyway, it's an ongoing process to purge plastic, but one that is worth doing.
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