News — Tips for reducing waste

Are you feeling a bit overwhelmed with your Zero Waste journey?  The good news is there is a lot of advice out there.  However that can also be the bad news- it can be a bit overwhelming.  

In my opinion the most essential tool you need to begin, continue or refine your Zero Waste journey is your brain.  Yes- your brain.  Any advice you get needs to be filtered to fit your lifestyle.  Not the lifestyle you imagine or are striving towards but how you actually live.  The nitty gritty day to day life with home, work, family, pets, etc.  Big ideas and goals need to be tailored and adjusted into achievable steps.  When we are successful, we feel positive, motivated and more open to examining and refining life changes.

Your brain is also the most powerful tool in educating yourself in order to make informed choices.  In our blog 19 for 2019- Tips for Going Zero, Tip #1 was-

1. Educate yourself.  The more you know, the more motivated and committed you will be to keep your resolutions to be plastic free and zero waste.

I wrote my first eco-conscious blog back in 2016.  At the time, I was working on not using plastic grocery bags.  I know!  Now it seems quite ridiculous but back then if I remembered my reusable bags it was all well and good but if I forgot I would take plastic bags and feel guilty.  Now I never use plastic grocery bags and my town has banned them.  The most important change for me was making a conscious choice and then tweaking to make my choice a reality. 

We all have a responsibility to do our own small bit to help reduce the amount of trash and plastic waste we create.  The journey is an awakening if you open your heart and use your brain. 

Halloween is coming.  I actually love this holiday especially when I was teaching.  It's an opportunity to celebrate the season, indulge in goodies and a chance to dress up and pretend. 

The problem with all holidays is our enjoyment creates mountains of trash- bags of candy, plastic decorations and tiny toys make a lot of trash.

Here are some ideas to help you put the green into trick or treat bags.  

Plastic free candy is a challenge, look for candy wrapped in foil or paper or cardboard boxes.  They will be bulk packed in plastic but it is better than handing out plastic wrapped candy.

It's easier to skip the candy and pass out other sorts of treats.  My favorite idea is a bowl of nature items including shells, sea glass, acorns and stones.  If you live in the city this would be a real novelty for some kids.

Paper straws are a great treat to help raise awareness about the problems of plastic.  Amazon sells boxes of 150-300 and depending on your street a single box could last a few years.  

Sidewalk chalk, tiny cookie cutters, pencils, erasers, bandages, magnets, coloring books or printed coloring sheets, remelted crayons all are lower waste treats and last quite a bit longer than candy.

You can also buy an activity card set and hand out one card per child.  Your local bookstore or toy shop will have a selection.  Expect to pay around $10-12 for a deck of 50 cards.

The website Teachers Pay Teachers has some different printables including Halloween Yoga cards and Halloween PE.   Download to make cute books, printable bookmarks are another option.  The downloads cost between $3-5 making these a fun and cheap treat.

The materials to make a craft are also nice treats.  Friendship bracelets made from embroidery thread are a calming way to end the Halloween frenzy.  You can make a kit for each trick or treater and include directions.  Here is a link-DIY Printable Friendship Bracelet .

I hope this blogs helps you think about ways to celebrate without making lots of extra trash.  Handing out an eco item can help raise awareness about our planet.  Let's all work to make Halloween more green.

The winter solstice is fast approaching, many of us have had our first snowfall and with all the cheerful twinkle lights it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. We have lots of sustainable gifts and stocking stuffers for family and friends.  Our holiday gift guide has suggestions for all the unique personalities in your life.

The Mermaid-  Always be yourself unless you can be a mermaid
Keep your locks looking their best with our Seaweed Shampoo Bar, Herbal Hair Vinegar and a nourishing hair oil.

The Sailor- I need Vitamin Sea
a Cruising Bar with a rust proof tin will let your sailor travel the seas plastic free.

The Bearded Guy-a beard is a gift you give your face
Give some beard love this holiday season with our Beard and Scalp Oil.

The Comedian- laugh and the world laughs with you
Give the power of seaweed with a bar of Weed n' Shrooms soap or Seaweed it’s Legal Canva Bag

The Bathing Beauty- happiness is taking a long bath 
Make every bath extra special with our Hot Island Bath Tea or Bath Effervescents. 

The Stressed Mom- stressed is dessert spelt backwards
When mom has had too much it's our botanical perfumes to the rescue.

The Tattoo Artist- it's always a good day for a tattoo
Keep skin art looking good with our all natural, chemical free soothing Tattoo Butter.

The Vegan- be kind to every kind
Pure and natural vegan butter.

The Gardner- to plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow
Give the gift of flowers and soft skin with our gentle Gardeners Scrub.

Sleeping Beauty-  prioritizing good sleep is good self love
Bring on the Zzzz's with our balm or roll on. 

And finally the stockings were hung by the fire with care
Place our shower shots on the floor of your shower and let the fun begin.  Aromatherapy for every mood.  

My daughter Carly and I were talking about "garden guilt" recently.  That's when you have more produce than you can eat and not a lot of time to can or freeze all your garden goodies.  If you have a crock pot here is an easy technique for turning an abundance of garden produce into a tasty yummy stock that you can freeze and enjoy summer's bounty on a cold winter day.

If the garden gives you tough green beans make a stock.  You can use basically anything to make your stock.  I like to start with a nice chunk of kelp.  Kelp is a wonderful seaweed that adds depth and flavor to cooked dishes especially stocks, soups and beans.  The rich flavor that seaweeds add to foods is known as umami.  It's the Japanese word for the fifth taste sensation. Umami is a great substitute for meats in your stock.  Another way to boost the umami flavor is to use dried mushrooms.  There's no hard and fast rule for making this broth and it will be different each time you make it- it all depends on what's available in your garden and farm market.  For more information about cooking and enjoying sea vegetables check out the cookbook Sea Vegetable Celebration.

The next step is to load your crockpot up with vegetables, onions, beans, tomatoes, squash, carrots, greens, whatever you have an abundance of including bunches of herbs.  This is a perfect opportunity to use older and tough vegetables including clean skins.  Turn the crock pot on and let it simmer away for hours.  I like to cook mine over night, the house is cooler and you wake up to a lovely savory smell.

When everything is cooked, strain the stock.  You can stop here and freeze a soup base or you can use gorgeous, lovely vegetables and make a soup.  For this step I like to use the best veggies I can.  Tender and sweet.  I'll put onions and carrots in to simmer until tender and will lightly simmer other veggies including corn, beans, peas, chopped greens and herbs.  I freeze my vegetable soup without any grains, pasta or rice.  It takes up less room and I can quickly cook up my choice of starch to add to my soup before serving.

It's not a lot of actual work making the stock, it takes awhile for the broth to simmer and then simply pop into your choice of containers and freeze.

Every month or so, once I've mastered my current zero waste/plastic free goal I start on a new one.  Usually it's a goal that's been on my mind for awhile but takes a bit to actually get into action.  Compostable dog poop bags have been on my list for awhile.  Tuffy, my girl poops at least twice a day and since we visit our local dog park almost daily that's a lot of plastic poop bags.

READ THE LABELS

I first decided to try and buy compostable dog bags locally and visited our local pet store.  I asked the clerk for compostable bags and she looked at me blankly.  She did walk me over to the dog waste section and recommended a product that had "eco-friendly" on the label.  Well, the container the bags came in was packed in cardboard made from recycled paper but the bags were your ordinary plastic bags.  The product was more expensive than others because it was geared to a dog owner who was environmentally conscious and who most likely had forgotten their reading glasses.  You have to read the labels when shopping for eco-friendly products.  There is a tern called "green washing", it's labeling cleverly designed to make products look as environmentally responsible as possible.  If I hadn't carefully read the label I would have assumed that the bags- the item I wanted to purchase were eco-friendly.

IT'S COMPLICATED

My next stop was the internet. There are quite a few choices on the market I wanted a smaller company, a plant based bag and one that could be composted at home.  bioDOGradable Dog Poop Bags fit the bill.  As I learned more I realized how complicated biodegradable bags are (not a big surprise).  On their FAQ page the question "Are these bags degradable/biodegradable?" was answered yes and no.  The bags are made from a material called "bioplastic" which is plant based- corn not fossil fuel based-plastic and when it breaks down it produces non-toxic byproducts such as humus.  The FTC has guidelines as well as California which has laws about the claims and marketing of what exactly is biodegradable.  The take away from this is consumers should be wary of products that claim to be 100% biodegradable.

THE FINE ART OF COMPOSTING 

There are two ways to dispose of your poop bags.  The best is home composting.  I'm lucky to have a large backyard so I'm adding my poop bags to my large pile of slow composting.  I'm not filling my food/garden waste compost bin with bags of poop.  The next choice to to find a facility with a biosolid composter, compost made from sewage sludge.  I would guess biosolids composter are few and far between.  Finally, simply putting you poo bags in the dog waste receptacles is an option- because at least the corn based bags will decompose.

WHAT ABOUT EXPENSE?

So, with all the complications is it still worth using compostable poo bags?  In my opinion, yes.  Even when added to traditional landfills the bags will compost at the same rate as food waste, paper or lawn clippings.  It's not perfect but it is better than traditional plastic bags because in the end they will turn back into a natural material unlike plastic which simply hangs around forever.  Another benefit is the manufacturing process and lack of chemicals.  These particular bags are manufactured in India and I don't have any info about the actual factory.  Finally they are free from chemical dyes and additives.  

The bags are more expensive.  One consumer change I've made is to buy better and buy less.  I'm definitely spending more on poo bags but the feeling of satisfaction I get from not adding plastic pollution to our planet is worth it.

AND FINALLY

My only complaint was the mailer my package arrived in.  I would have preferred a mailer without any plastic.  There was some extra packaging inside the package, everything was in one of their dog bags, it was wrapped in brown paper and I got a info card (which I turned into a sign) as well as a few free samples.

Dulse & Rugosa has a bundle package right now, with every purchase of our Dog Shampoo Bar will include a sample biodogradable dog poo bag.

And for the foreseeable future purchase of our Mama Earth Shower Shots will go directly to support Houston and possibly FLA SPCA.