Single Use Products

If you think about it, single use products make no sense at all. That’s part of the problem. In our throwaway society, we don’t think about it. Continuing the theme of my recent post about eliminating aluminum foil and plastic wrap, I’ve listed below other products you can try cutting out (or at least cutting back on).

English: Reusable shopping bag (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

1. Plastic bags – The movement to bring reusable bags food shopping is becoming well established. In fact, some cities and towns have eliminated them all together or charge for plastic bags. Start bringing reusable bags on your other errands as well. Make it a challenge to always bring them with you. Earmark some for food, some for clothes, etc. (Don’t forget to occasionally wash your reusable bags too.)

2. Plastic food baggies – They are hard to live without, but you can wash and reuse them a couple of times. Reusable cloth sandwich and biocompostable baggies are more available now as well.  Rule of thumb:  plastic and food don’t go together.

3. Paper Napkins – Cloth napkins are prettier, more durable, and certainly more eco-friendly than paper ones. Aim to use cloth napkins at most meals and keep recycled paper ones only as backup.

4. Paper Plates and Paper Cups – There is no doubt about their convenience, but they are totally wasteful, and plastic ones aren’t biodegradable.  For outdoor (or indoor) dining, consider dishwasher and oven safe enamelware. Lightweight and unbreakable, enamelware is perfect for camping or picnics too and comes in fun designs.

5. Plastic Water Bottles – There is no reason to buy plastic water bottles. They shouldn’t be reused and they don’t biodegrade. Use glasses at home and stainless steel or BPA-free water bottles for transporting.

6. Facial Tissues – This is one of those single use items you probably just want to cut back on rather than eliminate. I gave my husband some old-fashioned handkerchiefs and he loves them. Use them a few times, throw them in the wash and then reuse!

7. Dryer Sheets – There are lots of alternatives to conventional dryer sheets that aren’t made with chemical fabric softeners and soaked in toxic fragrances. Several natural brands use vegetable derived softening agents and essential oils instead. Reusable dryer balls made with PVC-free plastic or felt make the most sense to me – they soften clothes without chemicals, reduce drying time and save energy.

Cutting back on or eliminating single use products helps not only the earth, but your pocketbook as well. What single use products have you eliminated from your daily life? Email me – I’d love to know.

The Green Garmento

I’ve just discovered the greatest “green” product that I am eager to share with you!  It’s one of those obvious “why didn’t I think of that” products!

I practice eco-conscious dry cleaning.  I go to an environmentally friendly dry cleaner, one that uses a safer alternative to perchloroethylene or perc. (Eighty-five percent of dry cleaners use the solvent perc classified by the EPA as a toxic air contaminant and possible to probable human carcinogen.)  I reuse some of the bags when I travel and wrap nice pants or a dress in them.  Or I return the bags to my cleaners for recycling.  But there are so many!    I’ve always wondered about a better alternative to all that plastic!  Well here it is…

Many dry cleaners place cleaned clothes inside thin clear plastic garment bags. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It’s called the Green Garmento, an eco-friendly, recyclable, breathable laundry bag that can be a hamper, duffel to carry your clothes to the cleaner and a garment bag in which your dry cleaner can return your clothes instead of plastic!  It holds 10 – 14 garments with a full-length side zipper for easy access.  It is machine washable and has a clear window for an ID or a dry cleaning ticket.  What’s more, it’s only $17 for two (or $9.99 for one) so that you can rotate them between home and the dry cleaner.  You can order it online at thegreengarmento.com.

There are an estimated 300 million pounds of single-use dry cleaning bags that unless recycled end up in landfills, leaching chemicals and threatening marine and wildlife, every year.

It’s time to make a change to safer and more eco-friendly dry cleaning , don’t you think?

 

GOING GREEN IS NOTHING NEW

Going green is nothing new – it has just been given a name. Below are excerpts from a cute story circulating on the web that exemplifies what I mean.

Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the older woman that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren’t good for the environment. The woman apologized and explained, “We didn’t have this green thing…or didn’t call it green.” “… we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed, sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over…

We walked up stairs because we didn’t have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn’t climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. ….

… we washed the baby’s diapers because we didn’t have the throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine… — wind and solar power really did dry our clothes….

…We had one TV, or radio, in the house — not a TV in every room. The TV had a small screen … not … the size of the state of Montana.  In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn’t have electric machines to do everything. When we packaged a fragile item to… mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. …we didn’t fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn’t need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. …….

We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of …a plastic bottle … of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen. …people took the streetcar or a bus, and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. We didn’t need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint…..

You get the gist.  Some of it is progress and some of it isn’t.  It all consumes a lot of energy.   In 2012 make it your goal to use less energy and lower your carbon footprint (another new term).  You and the planet will benefit.