Phasing Out Plastic

Photo from The Soft Landing

The chemical bishphenol A (BPA) is known to act like a female sex hormone, and is linked to prostate and breast cancer, higher rates of miscarriage, immune system dysfunction, testicular abnormalities in boys and puberty in girls younger than eight years old. ( Source: Environmental Working Group )

Enviroblog states, "It's a hormone disruptor that can be found in almost everybody, and animal studies have linked it to breast and prostate cancer, and infertility."

Why should we care? Because it's in many of the plastics we use every day. Yikes!

It's said that many of the plastics we use, such as water bottles and baby bottles, as well as plastic liners in cans, are leaching this lovely chemical into our food and water, especially when they are heated.

So what can we do?

Well, to start, we can stop heating our food in plastic containers when we stick it in the microwave. We can look for alternative water containers (many suggest Kleen Kanteen and the like, but there are plenty of less expensive alternatives, like Snapple bottles, etc.). As our plastic food containers wear out, we can replace them with glass, like the Mason jar below containing my sugar. I bought a bunch of them at Goodwill (and I think they were brand new) for 99¢.



I'm not suggesting that we throw out all our plastic and restock our entire Tupperware cupboards with non-plastic alternatives.That would be wasteful and expensive. I'm simply suggesting that the next time you need a new container of some sort, look for non-plastic options you already have, or opt to buy something made of glass or other durable material.

There are also companies who are now making BPA-free plastic, like CamelBak and Nalgene, but keep in mind that it's still plastic and will take much more time to break down than other, more natural alternatives.

Basically, as with most of my green tips, just be more aware of what you and your family are using and ingesting.

Unless, of course, you don't mind if your eight-year-old girl or boy starts growing boobs.

Repurposing

Repurpose: transitive verb : to give a new purpose or use to

Today's tip is about reusing what you already have, but in a different way. Instead of running out to Organized Living or Bed Bath & Beyond to buy those pretty new organization boxes, buckets, and whatnot, try using some of the "junk" you already have lying around. We just happen to have a lot of beer cartons that come through the house. They get repurposed into drawers organizers and pen holders.

You've seen my rolling pin:



Instead of buying new Tupperware, try containers that used to house something else. This coffee jar stores rice now.


Instead of buying a pretty new container for my homemade deodorant, I use an old teacup I had lying around.


And instead of buying new plastic bottles for my no 'poo concoctions, I use old dish soap and body wash bottles.

The silver cup is an old toothbrush holder that I keep my baking soda in, and the pump bottle on the middle shelf is an old soap dispenser that I keep my OCM mixture in.

Instead of buying plastic makeup organizers (I already do have a couple) I simply use glasses to keep most of my beauty products in.



My favorite way to repurpose, of course, is to turn plastic bags into purses by "plarning":


You can also just iron plastic bags together (between wax paper) to create a sheet of pliable plastic you could use as a waterproof lining, gift wrap, tablecloth....

Here are some cool repurposing ideas from apartmentherapy.com:





The possibilities are endless!

Of course, I know people repurpose old stuff all the time; these are just a few ideas. I would love to hear how other people use old things in new ways. I'm always looking for new ideas!

Using Less... Soap?

This tip of the day all started at work. Cinnamon Carl always teases me about all the things I'm doing to "go green." He also claims that he is going to counteract everything I do with something un-eco-friendly. (I hope he's joking.) Mrs. Rizzo thought that was hysterical and prompted me to continue telling him all my ways of greening myself. And so, the Green Tip of the Day was born. (Don't worry, I've already offset Carl's determined counteractions by having some of my co-workers switch to the Diva Cup and ask for my homemade deodorant sample!)

Since I was sending my co-workers e-mails with my tips that a lot of times would link to my blog, I figured I'd just start writing the tips on my blog and simply have them come here.

So for today's tip, I am talking about using less (specifically, soap). That's what going green is really about, living sustainably on what we have, and buying less of what we need and re-thinking what we don't. Plus, as was pointed out in this article, many of the chemicals and ingredients that are in our soaps, body washes, and other cleansing products are harming sea life and other species.

I'm not saying that I think people should give up soap, although there are some people who swear by it. I myself have cut down a lot in this area, already going the no 'poo route as well as the oil-cleansing method.

I've heard that you really don't need soap, just a good scrub-down with a loofah or washcloth. I do still soap up the pits and the nether regions, but as for the limbs, all they get is a good loofahing. (Here's some info on growing your own loofah!) The feet just get baking soda. (I tried using baking soda on the underarms, but it seemed a little too harsh on delicate skin.)

I found this soap in my local Mexican market, and it contains only neutral soap base, glycerine, and perfume.

Nice and mild, without all the harsh ingredients. And it lasts a long time, since I only use a tiny bit in the shower.

I did go out and purposely buy some hand-washing soap recently, but that was in order to use less in the long run. You see, these are those foaming kind of soap dispensers, which automatically turn your soap and water concoction into a nice foam, therefore using less soap with each pump. And since you only have to fill these dispensers about a fourth of the way with soap, you're using less that way, too.

These were on sale for a dollar at Target, so I got one for each sink.



I figure that not only will we use less soap this way, we'll eventually save more plastic, since we won't have to buy refill soap as often. (I would buy bar soap for the sinks, but with boys, well, the bars would just end up dirty, gloppy messes.)

There are some companies like Lush that use very little packaging, and even have things like solid shampoo bars, which are supposed to last a very long time. They also eliminate the need for plastic bottles.

To answer your question, no, I don't stink. At least no one has told me that I do, and the people I hang out with would definitely say something. (The boys wouldn't even come near me when I hennaed my hair because of the stench.)

Seriously, give it a shot. Try just rinsing with water the next time you're in the shower, except for any bits you can't imagine not coming in contact with soap.

I promise I won't call you a dirty hippy.

"We've bitch-slapped the planet"

That was a quote from the article, "Plastic Ocean" featured in Best Life Magazine last October. The author interviews Captain Charles Moore about how he found a trail of plastic in the ocean that went on for hundreds of miles. It's called the Eastern Garbage Patch, and it's located in the North Pacific subtropical gyre, which is an area of the ocean that is very calm. In it he found everything from plastic bags to traffic cones to motor-oil jugs. And there are similar areas in the South Pacific as well as the Atlantic and Indian oceans. Put together, these areas cover 40 percent of the oceans, which correspond to a quarter of the earth's surface. Therefore, in Moore's words, "25 percent of our planet is a toilet that never flushes." Lovely.

After doing more research in the area, Moore found something even more disturbing: minuscule pieces of plastic that, by weight, were six times more prevalent than plankton. All the easier to ingest...

Another article describing these microplastics is "Scrubbing Out Sea Life" which discusses the exfoliating plastic microbeads in many body washes nowadays. The director of external relations in beauty care at Procter & Gamble (one of the main producers of these body washes), says that the total volume of the microbeads is too small to have an impact. He says that most of them will be removed during sewage treatment. But the article goes on to state that sewage treatment systems are not designed to remove microplastic, meaning they are likely to remain in the water.

The Best Life article goes on to describe how these plastics contain chemicals fount to disrupt the endocrine system by mimicking estrogen. There have been discoveries of male fish and seagulls that have grown female sex organs. The chemicals have been linked to enlarged breasts in men, and prostate cancer in rats. So not only are we screwing ocean life (one animal dissected contained 1,603 pieces of plastic) but we're also screwing ourselves.

Not a nice way to start a Monday morning, I realize, but I thought it was time to put the word out. I thought I was doing so well by recycling all the plastic that I buy, but it turns out only three to five percent of plastics are recycled in any way. The rest, well, they end up all over the place, including around the "waist" of this poor sea turtle. Lots end up in our landfills, of course, and on street corners, trapped by fences, hanging in trees.... The great thing about plastic bags and the like that are left lying around is that they collect rainwater, making them the perfect breeding ground for disease-carrying mosquitos. But don't try burning your old plastics in an effort to remove them from the earth: burning plastic releases extremely toxic fumes.

So what the hell do we do? Make like ostriches and bury our heads? (If it kept me from ingesting plastic from the atmosphere, I just might.) Rather, simply consider trying to buy things that aren't made of plastic, or buying less overall. Considering that each of us throws away around 185 pounds of plastic per year, don't you think it's about time we took a good hard look at what we're buying?

For more info and tips on how to reduce plastic waste, visit Life Less Plastic, Fake Plastic Fish, Avoiding Plastic and PlasticLess.

That concludes my soap-box rant public service announcement for the day. Carry on.

(Unless of course you'd like to enlighten us and comment on how you've reduced your plastic waste.)

Not Buyin' It (or My Beef with Kleen Kanteen™)

[For those of you coming over from Frugal Friday, this is more of a rant than a tip, but it does have to do with spending less and being conscious of how and where you spend your money.]

Most of us are consistently on the lookout for ways to keep ourselves and our families healthy while maintaining at least a fairly-frugal lifestyle. And we try to do so with as low an impact to the environment as we can. So when I started hearing about all the dangers of water-bottle plastics, I was about to jump on the stainless-steel bottle bandwagon.

The new alarm is about BPAs (bisphenol A) in plastics. The ideal bite notes "A 2007 study links BPA to enlarged male breasts, earlier puberty in girls, and cancer." And water bottles and other plastics have recently been found to leach this lovely chemical into the water and foods we consume. In response, there are many new products on the market, such as BPA-free plastic baby bottles as well as glass versions. (Of course, many people agree that breastfeeding is the best option is this case.)

The biggest increase in new product consumption I've noticed, though, is in stainless-steel water bottles for kids and adults. Kleen Kanteen™ and Sigg™ are the big names right now, but I'm sure more will soon follow. It's not that I don't like their products, per se, they seem like they are a good alternative to plastic, and the fact that they are reusable is a great way to cut down our use of plastic, since so much of it isn't recycled anyway. Beth, who writes the blog Fake Plastic Fish, (which I love!) quoted from a report by S.F. Mayor Gavin Newsom, saying,

More than one billion plastic water bottles end up in California’s landfills each year, taking 1000 years to biodegrade and leaking toxic additives such as phthalates into the groundwater.

In addition, just the production of plastic has a huge environmental impact. From the same report:

According to the Container Recycling Institute, supplying the plastic water bottles that American consumers purchase in one year requires more than 47 million gallons of oil, the equivalent of one billion pounds of carbon dioxide that is released into the atmosphere.

Additionally, water diverted from local aquifers for the bottled water industry can strain surrounding ecosystems.

Furthermore, transporting bottled water by boat, truck and train involves burning massive quantities of fossil fuels.

So buying these stainless-steel bottles is a good thing, right? Well, technically, yes. But the fact is, they are charging close to $20 for an item that still has plastic in it. The tops of both Kleen Kanteen and Sigg have plastic stoppers. And while it's definitely better than having the entire thing out made out of plastic, why not just make the entire damn thing out of stainless steel?

And the thing that really gets me steamed is this: Kleen Kanteen used to have stainless steel tops that came standard with their bottles, but now you have to buy those for an extra six dollars! So now in order to be completely up-to-date with the most-safe option out there, I have to spend $26 for myself and each member of my family so that I don't endanger their health either. That's $130 just for water bottles.

It just goes to show how our consumerist culture and the companies that power it are taking the "green movement" and exploiting it for their own good.

You can't just rely on vinegar and baking soda for cleaning like your grandmother did, you have to buy the new-and-improved "green" (a.k.a. most expensive) version of brand-named products that include vinegar and baking soda in their ingredients.

You can't just buy unbleached coffee filters (or god forbid make your own) you have to buy the soy-based, triple-pressed, 100% organic ones.

You can't even just bring your own canvas bags you've had for years to the store, you have to buy the cute ones that sell for $20. (Even the ones that sell for a dollar at most supermarkets aren't necessary if you already have some at home. Even reusing the plastic bags you got from the last shopping trip are fine, although admittedly not very cool.)

And don't even get me started on all the "natural" beauty products! (Another reason I'm no-poo.)

There are plenty of other examples of this and how our culture is using fear to goad us into consuming more (remember the run on plastic and duct tape after 9/11?), but I'm too frustrated to write more right now.

I'll end with trying to exemplify what No Impact Man is often saying: "The best thing you can use is something you already have." If we really are trying to be greener and actually implementing the three R's (Reduce, Reuse, Recyle) that have been drilled into us, then I am going to hop off the consumer bandwagon (until I get sucked up into something else to be scared of). How? Simple.



In regards to the plastic water bottle issue: I have a glass jar of Postum I just finished the other day. Glass jar. Metal lid. No plastic. Voila! Problem solved.

Plarners Anonymous

I've been at it again. Plarning. (That's crocheting with plastic-bag yarn, y'all.) This time I made a granny-square crocheted plarn purse for a co-worker. She's the one who gives me the most plastic bags, or "plarn in the raw form," as Ralph likes to call them. This one was made from Ralph's bags:

I experimented with making two handles this time, and I think I like them better than a single strap.

I lined it with three Target bags that I had ironed together to make a nice little lining. I purchased a glue gun to seal it in, which has worked much better than Super Glue.




I've also been experimenting with making hair sticks. They are like chopsticks that women stick in their hair to keep it in a bun, etc. I bought some stiff wire and beads with holes large enough to fit through the wire. I then took pliers and, folding the wire in half, twisted it until the two ends were about an inch long. I then slipped the beads on and closed the wire ends with the pliers. I'll probably have to glue gun them closed. I can't remember which blog I found this idea on, but I think they came out pretty well:






Next I'm going to try crocheting a "felted" project. This is where you crochet or knit (there are other ways, too) with wool yarn and then put it in the washing machine to agitate and shrink it so it looks like one piece of fabric. I found a great example on this site.

Here's how it looks when it's first been knitted/crocheted:


Then it goes through the wash and voila! Look how cool it turns out!



Here are some other cool felted projects:










I can't wait to start this new craft!

Newest Plarn Creation

Target Bag Plarn Purse

Looks pretty much like the blue one, but I used just bags this time, even for the stripe. I have to finish it by putting a lining inside, which I'm going to make out of more Target bags. Next I'm going to make a granny square purse with the leftover red plarn and Ralph's bags. People have been more than happy to donate their bags to the cause.

Plarning!

How to turn a bag full of these:

Into this!

"Plarn" is actually a word I found on this amazing site called myrecycledbags.com. (Cindy is so crafty I am simply in awe of her. Please check out her site; it's been the source of all my inspiration.) Plarn is short for "plastic-bag yarn," yarn that has been made by tying together cut-up pieces of plastic bags. I've turned it into a verb, as in, "I'm going to watch TV and do some plarning." Even Ralph is using it now: "Are you plarning again?" But I digress...

This is the coolest idea I've found on craft sites, and it's free! And for those of you thinking, "But I'm not that good at crocheting," (if you don't crochet at all I still have different free ideas for you below, keep reading!), don't worry, I'm pretty awful myself. The great thing about using plarn is that it's not supposed to look perfect.

So how do you make plarn? I learned the step-by-step process on Cindy's site here. First, take a plastic bag and lay it flat:


Then, fold it in half, and then in half again:




Cut off the handles and the bottom of the bag where it is sealed. You can recycle these or find some other art project to use them in. Helle of gooseflesh used the tops and bottoms of her bags to add some dimension to her crocheted Cunjevoi Garden:

So creative!

Then cut the rest of the bag into strips about an inch or two wide:


When you open the strips, they will be circles of plastic:


Overlap these circles:


And then pull one through the other (like you would do with rubber bands to make one long string), and then pull until it makes a knot:

Don't pull too tightly or it will break (I learned this the hard way of course). Keep chaining these together until you have a good-sized ball. It took about 30 bags for me to make the purse, so I figure that will be my starting point each time. Cindy is kind enough to list all her patterns for purses, etc. for free, so check it out!


And here's another amazing idea I found on etsy.com on amlowi's page:

(She is currently selling this bag if you're interested)

Since we save up our cans to take to a recycling center, we have about 500 cans that are just waiting for me to pull the tabs off them!

Okay, for those of you who are saying, "That's great and all, but I don't crochet," here's are some ideas that I found on yet another amazing craft site called craftzine.com. I found the coolest ideas for plastic bag crafts on their site here. If you sew, you could make something like this:


Or these:




And if you don't sew (and I don't) you can easily use Super Glue like I did, (or you may have a better way of connecting everything, I'm just lazy). I found a tutorial by Amanda at Etsy labs on how to iron plastic bags to make them cloth-like. It was actually very easy! Here's the plastic I used to line my plarn bag:

It's a cereal bag with a clear plastic bag on top and a couple of Stater Bros. grocery bags underneath.

And here it is in the bag:

I just cut the sides and glued it in.

You could quickly make place mats, tablecloths, or any number of things using this idea.

I am amazed at what people can do with recycled materials. And while it can be time-consuming, it's also fun and a great way to make gifts. The recipients will be so pleased that you are helping them "go green!"

For more great and frugal ideas, go on over to Biblical Womanhood!