Zero Waste Swaps: Update Part 2
The last post got a little lengthy, but I have made so many swaps since moving out so I can't guarantee that this one won't be the same. In this post I'll go over the swaps I've made for cleaning, for the bathroom and all the little miscellaneous ones.
We get our most of our cleaning products from Blueland and they honestly work really well. Since we didn't have any cleaning products to begin with, we got the starter kit that has the three cleaners (Multi-purpose, bathroom, and glass). The only thing I wasn't fond of is the bottles, I thought they were glass and they are not glass. I believe they're made from Tritan, which is just a BPA-free plastic. I really wish they were glass, but it's my own fault for not doing more research on it. Now that I have the bottles I don't see any point on getting rid of them, so even if I don't continue with Blueland products I'll still use the bottles for other cleaners. These particular bottles are supposed to last forever, so we will find out of they actually do. a lot of people who are trying to live more sustainable lifestyles make their own cleaners with vinegar and citrus peels, I'm not there yet. Also I don't know if this can actually happen or if I'm just being paranoid but I don't want to fuck up the ratio and end with with something to acidic that will ruin the counter tops. If we owned our place then I probably would, but were just renting and I want my deposit back eventually. I wasn't able to find the estimated yearly amount of bottles of cleaning products the get thrown away, but I think it's safe to assume that a lot of them do in fact just get thrown away. Left to leach whatever chemical they contain into earth, so at least with these bottles, assuming they do last a lifetime, I'm saving the landfill from how ever many plastic chemical bottles I would have used.
Our laundry routine is completely zero waste, we we use Blueland soap pods that come in paper that you can recycle. We mix in a little bit of vinegar in there just because our washing machine makes clothes smell a little weird. These dryer balls are from Earth hero and they replace disposable dryer sheets. They're also supposed to reduce drying time which then saves electricity so that's cool too. We trying not to use the dryer as much and just hang dry our clothes however there's a couple things that we still throw in the dryer.
For washing dishes by hand we use the Blueland dish soap. It also comes in paper and it has this container that you pour the soap into and then you just put some on your dish scrubby and scrub away. We don't hand wash a lot, but we have some bamboo cutting boards and some wooden salad bowls and stuff like that that doesn't go in the dishwasher. If we're putting things in the dishwasher we use dishwasher pods from a company called drops and they're pretty similar to a normal dishwasher pod they just don't come packaged and plastic. and there's less weird shit in them. They are also cruelty-free which is something I really care about.
Getting into the bathroom essentials now we can start with the nitty gritty details of toilet paper. Before we moved out I wanted to have something for us that wasn't packaged in plastic and so a YouTuber that I watched said she used toilet paper from a company called Who Gives a Crap which is such a glorious name for toilet paper. They have two kinds of toilet paper; the regular kind and a bamboo one. The first batch we got was regular and we finished that up so now were trying the bamboo one. So far they're pretty similar, I don't really notice a difference between regular and bamboo. It comes in a cardboard box and then they're all individually packaged in paper.
This is my safety razor to replace disposable razors and I've had it for a few years now. I got mine from a company called Albatross and they send the razor, a little sack to put it in, and a box of blades. I don't remember if this just came with it or if I ordered it separately (it's been years since this purchase was made) but I got this small container of shaving cream that's packaged in a metal tin. I don't use it that much because I just use my soap when I shave, but every once in awhile I remember that I have it and I'll use it.
I've tried a bunch of different zero waste toothpaste options. I tried those Bites toothpaste things and they weren't a bad option, but they were definitely not my favorite. For how often you need to brush your teeth I felt like it's not cost-effective personally, and I also didn't like having to chew my toothpaste. Another thing was that they didn't lather up as much as I was used and I wasn't a fan of that I did try a couple flavors of the bites toothpaste first to just really give them a chance before I decided I wanted something else. I even tried making my own with the baking soda recipe, but that was so God fucking awful that I did it once and I was like oh hell no never again I can't. I'm not getting on the homemade toothpaste zero waste train okay. So then I found a company called David's toothpaste online and theirs comes in a metal tube instead of plastic so I really liked that and I did really like their toothpaste. However, it didn't have fluoride in it and so then I was like well all toothpastes have fluoride in it so like how important is it to have a toothpaste with fluoride in it. Is it a big deal? Am I going to fuck up my teeth? Just a disclaimer here I am not a dentist, I'm just some bitch with access to google okay. So maybe talk to your dentist first, I don't know. What I did read from the interwebs was a lot of mixed opinions, some people said that fluoride really isn't that important, and other people said that it is really important to protect your teeth and the enamel and all that. I used fluoride-free toothpaste for about a year and I didn't notice any change or difference, however I'm not sure that I would see any big changes in that short of time. That could be something that you would only notice after years and years. I used a couple flavors of the David toothpaste too and I did like that brand, but no one sells it in store in my area so I had to order it online. I did more research to see if there was a zero waste option that had fluoride in it and low and behold I found one! This brand called Hey Humans that they actually sell it like Target so I don't have to order it online. It's perfect. Just like David's it comes in a metal tube. It's by far my favorite option so far it's it's legit guys.
Zero waste options that actually work for my hair are apparently really hard to find. I tried so many different shampoo bars that weren't packaged in plastic and all of them made my hair feel so gross and just oily and greasy and it was not enjoyable. I was getting to the point where I was like fuck it I think I'm just going to go back to what used to work for me in plastic. Then the same YouTuber that I mentioned earlier, I get a lot of ideas from her apparently, I'll link her down below but she did a video of her bathroom essentials on YouTube. In it she said that she uses this shampoo from Plaine Products for her hair and I was like oh I haven't heard of that one before. It's actually a really cool company because they just send you the bottle and the pump and then when you run out and need more you, you order a new bottle and send your old one back to them. They refill your old bottle and send to someone else. They'll give you the shipping label and everything it's pretty neat actually and so far it works pretty well for me. I've got a rosemary lavender scent right now and I'm not big on lavender (I actually really hate it) but I really don't mind this shampoo. And then conditioner I still have a plastic bottle of conditioner but I really don't use conditioner on my hair that much, like maybe once a week.
To wash my face I use a face wash from Youth to the People it comes in glass. It did take a really really long time to get here and I don't really know why however it was in the early days of quarantine COVID when I bought it so maybe it was just like a supply and demand thing or I know a lot of places just weren't having any product made so obviously they couldn't ship anything out. I blame COVID it's COVID's fault that I didn't get my face wash in a timely matter. I have a little exfoliating scrubby that I've had forever, that I use when a wash my face. I think it's from Neutrogena which is not a brand that I actively support any more, but I did used to use a lot of their products and this little scrubby seems to work really good for my skin so I don't really see the point on getting rid of it. I feel like that's more wasteful. One good thing that was done for the fight against plastic in the beauty industry, was when they banned microbeads from facewashes in 2015 (in the U.S., I don't know about other countries)
For scrub-a-dub-dubbing in the tub I used to use a typical average loofah that you get from the drugstore, mine was purple. It probably wasn't at the end of its life, but when I moved out I didn't want to bring it with me I wanted to start fresh and have something organic and compostable and not plastic! I said bye-bye to my little drugstore loofah and I ordered this one off of Earth hero. I ordered one for both Jer and myself, and so far so good. They seem to last a while, mine still has a good amount of life. They have a good exfoliating texture and with the exemption of the material being different, they really don't feel any different then my old one. For soap I just use a bar of soap that I get from the drugstore it does come in like wax paper so there is some packaging to it, I haven't found one that I really like yet that doesn't have any packaging. I'm kind of a coconut whore though, that's just like my scent I don't like the way it tastes particularly but I fucking love the way it smells. So finding a good coconut soap with no packaging is next on my list.
I use this rubber thing, I don't even know what to call it, we'll just call it my shower brush because that what I use it for. My hair gets Tangled so bad that if I don't brush it while I'm in the shower there's just no hope to ever get a brush through it again. This isn't a new swap I've actually had it for a really long time, but it didn't come in with any packaging and it's not plastic so it is a zero waste option, so I thought I'd share it. I got it from a men's barber shop actually it's supposed to help men scrub the dandruff out of their hair so do with that what you will.
This is my toothbrush, I've definitely talked about it before. This isn't a new swap I made this swap a couple years ago and honestly I don't think I would ever go back to just normal plastic toothbrushes. I like these ones too much. This one's from a company called Brush with Bamboo, theirs is the only brand I've ever used because it the only one I really trust. A lot of organic toothbrushes will still use plastic bristles, or they will use animals hair which is so disgusting in so many ways. I know you can find bamboo toothbrushes in stores, but every time I see one that's packaged in plastic I literally just want to punch the closest person to me because it's like what's the fucking point? Why? That's so dumb! That's probably my biggest zero waste pet peeve. When companies are like "Oh my God let's capitalize off of this organic, zero waste trend by packaging this questionably organic material, that is probably soaked in random chemicals, but also let's package it and least sustainable material because we'll obviously make money off of this trend without actually having to follow the trend." Fucking douche canoes! Anyway, thank you for coming to my TED talk. This company Brush with Bamboo though, their packaging is actually sustainable. I'm not sure if any stores sell them, I just order a pack of them online, one pack lasts me a year. Also, I did see an Ad earlier for a bamboo electric toothbrush, which sounds awesome and I think Jer would be all over that shit. However, I haven't researched it yet and I don't know the brand. I'm curious though.
I'm really happy to say that Jeremy is also making sustainable swaps, he's hopped on my little hippie train with me. He switched his soap to a company called Dr. Squatch and their packaging is just cardboard They do make vegan soaps as well which is really cool, also they're cruelty free so shout out to that. So this is his current soap, this one does have goat's milk in it so this one isn't vegan and the only reason we have this one is because he got like a starter pack and it was in there. It does smell good, we just prefer the vegan options.
I got him a comb because he is used to having short hair and so when his hair gets longer he forgets that he has to brush it. So sometimes his hair gets pretty wild. I don't actually remember where I got it, I know I got it online though. I'm sure if you just type in 'bamboo/wood comb' something will pop up. Just please don't buy from Amazon, fuck Bezos and his Blue Origin penis spaceship.
I think that's it for the bathroom stuff. There are a couple new swaps from the kitchen. The first one's going to be veggie bags which are a freaking godsend my dudes! They work so incredibly well that I'm like why does every person ever not fucking have these. I swear by them. Anyway, veggie bags, you just buy your veggies, you bring them home, you wash them, you run the bag under some water, and you stick the bag with the veggies inside of them in your crisper. I shit you not they last for fucking weeks. We don't use the plastic produce bags, for what I feel like are obvious reasons at this point, so we didn't have anything to store our produce in in the fridge. We were losing produce so fast, everything was wilting within a couple days. The Veggie bags are a bit pricey and even we we're like is it worth it? But guys it's worth it. Our produce lasts so much longer and we cut down our food waste by a lot by using them.
Another thing that we've started to do to reduce reduce food waste is creating a list that we put on the fridge of the best ways to store food to help them last longer and just stay more fresh. Following what it says on there we really don't have that much food waste, there's still more waste than I would like to have so obviously there's always progress to be made. For my birthday Jeremy got me these magnetic spice jars that are shaped like honeycombs, I saw them online a couple months ago and I just fell in love with them. We're buying spices in bulk and putting them right in these little jars, which is super cool they're just so aesthetically pleasing and I'm living for them.
The last swap is another birthday present, silicone baking sheets to replace parchment paper and tin foil in the oven when you're baking and cooking and I haven't tried them yet so I don't know personally how well they work, but from the YouTubers and bloggers that I follow online they all seem to love them. I am really excited to give them a shot.
That's about it for my zero waste swaps there are a few more things that I'd like to swap over and more zero waste behaviors that I'd like to adopt. For example, I'm really bad at shutting off the water while I'm brushing my teeth and just wasting like a shit ton of it so I really need to get better about that.
We got curious about how much garbage we actually throw away and so not too long ago we averaged out the last few times that we've taken out the garbage and if we keep the average for the whole year we are throwing away about 96 pounds of garbage per year which really sounds like a lot until you realize that the average American throws away 1,600 lbs. of garbage per year which is absolutely insane. Personally I think we can do better than 96 lbs. and I'm going to continue to work on it. I might never get to the completely zero waste goal where I have my whole trash for a year and a mason jar because I don't think that completely attainable for everybody, but I do want to get close I'd like to cut it in half at least, like if I could only be throwing away 50 lbs. of garbage per year I think that would be doable. Then we could go from there and see if we can cut down even less.
As always thanks for reading let me know in the comments if you've made any zero waste swabs or what your favorite one is or if maybe you saw one that I listed that you wanted to try I would love to hear all about it.
- Courtney