I Can’t Remember

[Part of my series on Non-Disposable Alternatives to Disposable Items]

I said “out of the box.” And this is almost as out there as you can get.

I was going to post on alternative products for dealing with menstruation, but Myscha Theriault over at WiseBread beat me to the punch with Green for Girls: A Feminine Perspective.

A note to men:
1. If you are squeamish about this sort of thing, don’t read it–it’s a frank discussion.
2. Every woman is different, and their bodies are different. That’s why there are different products. While you can suggest these methods, or mention that you would be supportive of them, please do not attempt to dictate the choice of feminine product to your wife, girlfriend, or daughter. (Not that every man is this bossy, but if you’re this type of guy, this is not the time of month to nag about environmental responsibility.)

[Part of my series on Non-Disposable Alternatives to Disposable Items]

Cotton swabs were invented in the 1920s, and the first brand became known as “Q-tips.” You have them in your house, probably in the bathroom, in a drawer or cabinet. Everyone has them.

Why?

We use them to apply medical creams and ointments, put on make-up, and to clean out our ears.
We did all of these things without cotton swaps until the 1920s, and guess what? We can do without them again!

Cotton Swab Alternative for applying medical creams:
Use a wash cloth. You probably will need one to clean the skin, which most likely has a wound or rash, and another to apply the medical cream or ointment.

Cotton Swab Alternatives for applying cosmetics:
Get yourself some reusable make-up brushes and foam applicators. Your cosmetics will go on easier and better. Wash the brushes and applicators often in mild shampoo.

Cotton Swab Alternative for removing ear wax:
It says right on the box not to stick it in your ear, yet that’s why most people buy them!
That’s not safe–cotton swabs are pointy sticks wrapped up in a bit of bleached cotton fuzz. Please don’t stick them in any orifice.
Instead, use a wash cloth, or:
Use an Ear Wax Extractor.
Unlike the fuzz-covered pointy stick otherwise known as a cotton swab, this object was designed to be safe to put in your ear.
And, it’ll save you money. Q-tips cost $4 for a small box, and you keep having to buy boxes (thus, the real reason behind “disposable”!) The Ear Wax Extractor costs less than $3, and will last so long your great-grandkids could inherit it. And, because it’s metal, they could actually sterilize it and use it themselves, if they were so inclined.

Technorati Tags: cotton bud, cotton swab, ear wax, eco, environment, recycle, reduce, reusable

[Part of my series on Non-Disposable Alternatives to Disposable Items]

Happy Earth Day!

Bottled water has gotten a lot of negative attention lately: it costs more than petroleum per ounce, and burns up even more getting to it’s destination! And studies have shown that it isn’t even safer than tap water!

And of course, there’s the matter of the bottles themselves being disposable.

Alternatives to Disposable Water Bottles:
1. Sigg Water Bottles are reusable, easy to clean and stylish.
2. Klean Kanteen, available from Green Home and ReusableBags, are another stainless steel option.
3. If you must use plastic, Nalgene bottles are durable and seem to be the safest plastic bottles. –oops! actually they aren’t safe at all! Check out the BPA-free Water Bottle Showdown at Gardenaut for reviews and suggestions.
4. Fill up your favorite travel coffee mug with water instead of coffee–it’ll keep the water cold as well as it keeps coffee hot!

Technorati Tags: bottled water, reuseable

[Part of my series on Non-Disposable Alternatives to Disposable Items]

OK, there are no real alternatives to brushing your teeth. Not for Americans, anyway. The Toothbrush is the invention most Americans say they cannot live without.

But we throw away a lot of toothbrushes during the course of our lifetime–4 times a year if we follow our dentist’s recommendations! It should come as no surprise to find out that the best-selling toothbrush is sold by Gillette, the company that invented throwing things away.

What are the alternatives to disposable toothbrushes?
1. Recycline makes Preserve toothbrushes. These are made from recycled yogurt cups, and when you send them back to Recycline (they come with a mailer), they are recycled again into plastic lumber. Now they have ones for kids, too!
2. Radius makes the Source toothbrush. It has a reusable handle, and disposable brush head.

Or, you can just go back to cleaning your teeth with a sharp stick.

Technorati Tags: disposable, eco, environment, toothbrush

[Part of my series on Non-Disposable Alternatives to Disposable Items]

Facial Tissues–you know, what you blow your nose on?
What everybody called “Kleenex” until some lawyer at Kleenex decided that decades of brilliant marketing by the ad department was a bad idea.

What did anyone do before those little soft paper, chlorinated, facial tissues came in those oh-so-convenient, awkwardly-shaped boxes with the sharp corners? Or better yet, in those little plastic travel containers that never, ever reseal.

Go buy yourself a stack of handkerchiefs. Right now.
No, not the ones with lace–cotton ones.
Preferably organic and non-chlorine bleached ones. After all, you are going to press them up against your NOSE and MOUTH, and hopefully breathe in at some point. Let’s try to avoid direct inhalation of pesticides and dioxins.
These will be softer on your nose, safer (no toxins), and will not kill trees.

I can hear you all say: “Ewwww…then you have to keep them in your pocket after you wiped your snot on them!”
Yes, and what do you do when you are out and there’s no trash can nearby? A hankie will keep everything better contained.
Assuming that you aren’t at home, and can’t just drop it in the laundry chute.

Besides, I didn’t say “get only one,” I said “get a stack.”

If you really want to make this complicated:
1. Buy a bunch of handkerchiefs. Start with at least a dozen, much more than that if you are prone to colds or seasonal allergies.
2. Get three cloth bags: one for the “clean” hankies, and one for the “used” hankies, and one extra.
3. Carry the bags around with you while you are sick–drop the whole “used” bag in the laundry when it’s full.

“BUT I use facial tissues to remove make-up!”
Sigh…use a WASH CLOTH! (You should have a bunch of those, too!) It’s kinder and more gentle to your face.

Technorati Tags: alternative, eco, environment, Kleenex, non-disposable, recycle, reduse, tissue

[Part of my series on Non-Disposable Alternatives to Disposable Items]

Ahhhhhh…Coffee.
It’s the #1 addictive drug of Western Civilization.
Cut off the coffee supply and the world just might stop turning–or at least millions might be grumpy enough to wish it would!

All those coffee drinkers…throwing away 2-4 paper coffee cups a day. And coffee filters, too.
The office coffee pot looks a bit more menacing from the environmental standpoint, doesn’t it?
We’ll discuss coffee itself later in this article, but let’s just solve the “little problems” first:

Alternatives to Disposable Coffee Filters:
Get a reusable filter. Yes, it really is that easy!
Reusable Coffee Filters are available in:
1. Cotton, (and here),
2. Gold, and
3. Hemp.
Apparently, they also come in plastic, but I’m not going to suggest it.
I’ve had a gold filter for six (6) years and I love it!
(My previous gold filter lasted only 5 years but had to be replaced when I punched a hole in it while cleaning it. I am a klutz! All you need to do is rinse out the coffee grounds.)

Alternatives to Disposable Coffee Cups:
1. Ceramic. Buy yourself and everyone in the office a dark ceramic coffee cup (one that won’t show rings!) Either take them home and wash them, or spring for personalized ones and encourage everyone to rinse them out at the end of the day and reuse them the next. (How about you stock the sink with environmentally-safe, phosphate-free dish soap?)
2. Reusable To-Go Cup. Many coffee shops even give you a discount if you use your own cup! Most coffee shops actually sell these, so you won’t have to go out of your way if you’re a coffee shop type of caffeine addict.

And speaking of caffeine addiction, let’s talk about the
Environmental Impact of Coffee and Alternatives to Coffee

Traditionally grown and roasted coffee has:
-contributed to deforestation of rain forests (think “slash and burn” agriculture)
-been grown with chemical pesticides and fertilizers
-polluted water with runoff from the processing plant
and
-damaged the soil structure
(according to the NRDC.)
Add to that the fossil fuels used to transport it, and coffee’s “carbon footprint” is King-Kong sized!

But, we’re not ready to give up our coffee just yet!
Even Locavores make exceptions for coffee!

Organic coffee:
-doesn’t use chemical fertilizers or pesticides
But, there are still the problems with: deforestation and habitat destruction, soil structure destruction, pollution from processing, and the environmental costs of transportation!

Shade-grown coffee:
-doesn’t contribute to deforestation
-uses less pesticides and fertilizers
and
-doesn’t destroy the soil structure.
However, there’s still the problems associated with processing and transport!

So, what’s a caffeine addict to do?
Alternatives to Coffee:
1. Tea. There are still the environmental costs of transportation, and, according to the WWF, tea production contributes to loss of habitat, local deforestation, and soil degradation. However, there is not much pollution from processing.
2. Cola. Eco-problems include: the environmental costs of transportation, water use, pollution of waterways from processing, and destruction of habitat/deforestation associated with cocoa production.

So where does that leave us?
1. Wean ourselves off caffeine. (See: 7 Food Hacks to Stay Alert Without Caffeine at Zen Habits.)
2. Drink coffee in the most environmentally responsible manner possible: buy organic, fair-trade, shade-grown coffee, use reusable filters and cups, and compost the coffee grounds.

Technorati Tags: coffee, coffee cups, coffee filters, eco, environment, environmental impact of coffee, environmentle impact of coffee, fair trade, reduce, reusable, shade grown

[Part of my series on Non-Disposable Alternatives to Disposable Items]

Computers were supposed to save trees.

Records were to be kept on computers, instead of in file cabinets. All was well, until someone thought up the idea of “back up hard copies.” Which makes sense for banks and defense contractors…but for email chain letters and jokes?

Epsom, IBM, and Xerox all claim to have invented the personal home computer printer. HP is responsible for the laser printer. Goody for them. Bad for the environment. Sure, you recycle ALL your home office paper, right? Still, wouldn’t it be better if you used LESS?

The solution:
Unplug your printer.

Right now, I’m serious.
Don’t get me wrong–I’m a mom. I print up coloring pages and activities (see: Coloring pages! Free and downloadable.) . But I print them on the backs of other printed pages or advertising flyers. And I use them in lieu of coloring books.
And I THINK about whether I really NEED to print something.
If it’s worth the hassle of restarting the printer, it’s worth printing.
But how many times have you just printed up something because it’s convenient?
Make it inconvenient!

And if you MUST print something, if it’s worth restarting the printer, print wisely!
1. Consider using software that prints 2 or 4 pages per side.
2. Always print on both sides.
3. When you get that almost blank page at the end of a printing job, stick it back in the paper drawer. What’s the worst that could happen? That you won’t be able to read the indecipherable string of numbers on the bottom of the page? Who cares!

If you NEED information off the computer, but it’s not worth printing, write it down on SCRAP NOTE PAPER.
How do you make scrap paper?
1. Take advertising flyers, print jobs that didn’t turn out right, pages you are done with, etc.
2. Cut the paper lengthwise and horizontally.
3. Now you have a stack of scrap note paper.
Use the back of pages that have only been printed on one side, or, if it won’t distract you, use marker over printed words and write on both sides.

And when you’re sure you can’t use a piece of paper anymore, recycle or compost it!

Technorati Tags: disposable, eco, environment, home office, paper, print, recycle, reuse