I’ve cut my menstrual cup’s ring! And it feels much better now ;) I’ve had an continuous feel of it poking me and it was irritating my vagina, now I can’t feel it at all ;)
I wanted to wait with cutting the stim utill I get comfortable with inserting and pulling out my cup. I adapted to this quickly ;)
I’m also considering buying a bit smaller cup, but for now this one is okay.
Some time ago I decided to obtain a safety razor. For me the easiest way to buy it was online. So I chose a simple one with bamboo handle.
There are many advantages of switching to a safety razor:
It’s traditional and enjoyable.
It’sbetter shaving than while using disposable razor, also safety razor reduces skin irritation and ingrown hairs.
It’sless expensive. Disposable razor cost 1 to even 5$. I bought my safety razor with about 21$ and razors are really chip and fully recyclable. It’s very good way to save money.
I enjoy shaving with safety razor because of the attention I’m paying to it. It demands focus so it helps not to think about anything else. I’m taking careof myself and relaxing at the same time.
I’ve always had a problem with cutting myself while shaving, now while using safety razor I rarely do it.
Furthermoredisposable razors are not recyclable. According to the EPA 2 billions of them end up in landfills every year. Terrible, right?
To be honest I was surprised how easy is the safety razor in use and in fact it’s a lot easier to use that kind of razor. I was also impressed with that feeling after shaving when my skin felt smoother and softer than while using disposable razors!
I highly recommend it to people who don’t want to give up shaving but want to be more eco friendly.
By the way from my point of view it’s also a very good gift idea!
This is the waste I created using a safety razor for 14 months. Eight recyclable blades instead of about 30 disposable razors ;)
And I haven’t change my mind about that topic - I absolutely love my razor ;) Seriously, using it is easier than it seems!
What about you? Do you own a safety razor or look forward to obtain it? ;)
Today I made a tortilla dough for the first time in my life! Until now I have been buying ready flours in supermarkets. By making it at home I avoided unwanted packaging and ingredients :)
If you follow me and read my post since last year you may know that I obtained a menstrual cup some time ago. The truth is I haven’t got an occasion to try it… until now, thanks to quarantine.
I needed some time to prepare the cup and of course also prepare myself for trying it. Living in a dormitory was an obstacle for me to do it, so when I started bleeding on quarantine at home I though it was a appropriate day to insert my menstrual cup.
Quick backstory: I got my first period when I was turning 10, so according to my calculations I have used about 3360 menstrual pads till today (for almost 10 years). So continuing counting I will use at least 10080 more until I stop menstruating.
“Tampons, pads and panty liners along with their packaging and individual wrapping generate more than 200,000 tonnes of waste per year, and they all contain plastic – in fact, pads are around 90% plastic!” - OrganiCup
One pad decompose in about 500 to 800 years! And burning them causes highly toxic emissions. So please consider switching to more sustainable menstrual products as:
Day 1 | Although I tried doing this before, it didn’t work out then. “Take your time” - I said to myself and began putting in right place. The first day of wearing a cup wasn’t the most comfortable and I wore a pad due to the insurance. I found very little blood inside the cup in the evening, which surprised me.
Articles and videos that helped me at the first day:
Also what I found helpful was medical lubricant, but to be honest I used it only at the first day. I didn’t mention it before but if you want to know, my cup is from the brand calledPerfect Cup;)
Day 2 | I felt really comfortable after wearing a cup at night. Also I didn’t notice any leakage. Although I think the ring was irritating me sometimes.
Day 3 | Again I felt very comfortable all day. I think the cup’s size is appropriate for me.
(sanitizing my cup in hot water while taking shower)
Day 4 | My bottom stomach hurt a bit, I think I put my cup a little too deep. But I reinserted it and then it was okay. In the evening I noticed that the amount of blood inside the cup was low so I decided to take a break of it and try on a cloth pad I sew before.
Day 5 | I stopped bleeding and after wearing a cloth pad for a night I felt a lot more pleased then after using a disposable pad.
Summing up: I loved it from the very first day! The feeling of not having a blood flood inside my pants and having any skin irritation caused by the chemicals inside the disposable pads… Absolutely stunning! Now I feel like: everyone who is menstruating should try that!
Also I have a story here: when I got my cup, I showed it to my boyfriend and he loved it and started playing with it, but when I showed it to my (women) roommates they were like “yuuuck!” and the situation was really shocking for me, because before I hadn’t met anyone who would react that way on a cup…
I’ve also asked some other people what they think about menstrual cups.
“They are problematic and embarrassing in public toilets.”
“I’m afraid I can stain something while putting it out.”
“They are cool. Someday I’ll buy one!”
“At least you don’t waste money on tampons and pads.”
“I think it is a good way to reduce your waste.”
“They seem to be more comfortable than tampons.”
“In my point of view they aren’t made for me, but I’m not sure, because it seems to be better and more comfortable solution.”
And what is your opinion about menstrual cups?
I will finish with mentioning that there is nothing to be ashamed with talking about your period or using a menstrual cup! Love your body and accept everything about it! Youare beautiful and worthy!♥ ♥ ♥
I upcycled a wooden crate using paints that I don’t use anymore and old bubble wrap (I couldn’t find another foil). I put some potting soil inside it and planted some seeds… now I’m looking forward to planting lots of herbs inside my house! Okay, I’m joking, for now it is just a basil ;)
My motivation? I got really irritated with buying basil spice in paper bags every month… you know the small bags you can find in (I guees) every shop. I’ve also seen same looking basil being sold in plastic bottles (similar to ketchup bottles), what’s wrong with people? Anyway, I’m a person who uses a lot of basil while cooking and I’ve finally decided I want to grow it myself. But I have a large garden so why did I plant it in a crate? I wanted to check how it is to plant food inside ;)
By the way, I mentioned a bubble wrap. If you obtain it somehow, don’t throw it out! Always try to reuse bubble wrap, I always collect it and if I have to I use it to pack another package ;) Here are some ideas what you can do with bubble wrap:
Use it to cover wooden crate similar to mine and make your own potting crate ;)
You can use it for window isolation (it is useful especially in winter)
Simply use it to secure what you need
Make a frottage! Cover the wrap with paint and make a stamp
Or use it in a collage! (maybe it won’t save the planet but it’s fun…)
Make some beads! I’m absolutely amazed by the idea!
I upcycled a wooden crate using paints that I don’t use anymore and old bubble wrap (I couldn’t find another foil). I put some potting soil inside it and planted some seeds… now I’m looking forward to planting lots of herbs inside my house! Okay, I’m joking, for now it is just a basil ;)
My motivation? I got really irritated with buying basil spice in paper bags every month… you know the small bags you can find in (I guees) every shop. I’ve also seen same looking basil being sold in plastic bottles (similar to ketchup bottles), what’s wrong with people? Anyway, I’m a person who uses a lot of basil while cooking and I’ve finally decided I want to grow it myself. But I have a large garden so why did I plant it in a crate? I wanted to check how it is to plant food inside ;)
By the way, I mentioned a bubble wrap. If you obtain it somehow, don’t throw it out! Always try to reuse bubble wrap, I always collect it and if I have to I use it to pack another package ;) Here are some ideas what you can do with bubble wrap:
Use it to cover wooden crate similar to mine and make your own potting crate ;)
You can use it for window isolation (it is useful especially in winter)
Simply use it to secure what you need
Make a frottage! Cover the wrap with paint and make a stamp
Or use it in a collage! (maybe it won’t save the planet but it’s fun…)
Make some beads! I’m absolutely amazed by the idea!
After a small decluttering, my current wardrobe contains:
Bottoms
2 pairs of basic black trousers
2 pairs of shalwars
2 pairs of yoga pants
2 pais of shorts
warm leggins
boiler pants
velvet sweatpants
jeans pedal pushers
Tops
13 T-shirts
1 crop top
3 blouses
6 shirts
2 overalls
2 sweaters
3 hoodies
Underwear
27 pairs of socks (yes, I know)
4 bras
1 sports bra
17 pants
tights
5 undervests
3 parts of pyjama
2 onesie
Outdoor clothing
fur coat
2 winter coats
jacket
raincoat
boiler suit
Accessories
1 pair of gloves
2 cups
beanie
winter hat
scarf
rucksack
laptop bag
bag
suitcase
4 tote bags
2 sackpacks
Footwear
2 pairs of winter boots
2 pais of wedges
sneackers
3 pairs of slippers
flip-flops
sandals
I’m still working on reducing my number of clothes. I’ve decluttered some worn out and torn pieces of clothing (turned it to rugs or threw away).
The list doesn’t include things I have decided to sell, so they are stored by me in different place. If I can’t sell them in 2 months - I’ll donate them. There are still clothes on the list that I almost don’t wear. I will decide what to do with them in the future. Now, I’m proud of myself that I let go to so many clothes.
I’m looking forward to making similar list in the future and comparing it ;)
If you want to share with me some tips feel free to do it! Brainstorms are the best!
Creating a zero waste kit is super easy, and is a great way to start reducing your carbon footprint in your every day routine.
Think about all the things you buy regularly. A cup of coffee before work? A bottle of water with your lunch? Below is a list of items that you can use to reduce the amount of plastic you use on a daily basis.
Bamboo cutlery
Completely plastic free, biodegradable, and made from responsibly sourced renewable bamboo.
Travel mug
Single use coffee cups are disposed of at a rate of 22000 per hour in Ireland alone. A reusable travel mug not only saves you money with discounts in most coffeehouses, but saves the environment, one coffee at a time.
Travel bottle
Switching to a resuable water bottle decreases oil used, greenhouse gases emitted, and bottles thrown away, reducing pollution threefold.
Glass or stainless steel straws
One person switching to glass or steel straws could reduce up to 600 plastic staws a year being disposed of in our landfills.
Reusable cloth bag
One million plastic bags per minute are being disposed of and damaging our environment. As people are switching to paper bags, larger quantities of wood is being used. Cloth bags are durable and are made from renewable natural fibers.
“Many small acts make a phenomenal difference.”
- Abigail Forsythe, KeepCup Cofounder and Managing Director
I was searching for a spearmint tea after hearing a tip that spearmint is good for your skin. It was tough to track anything down in my local grocery stores, but this box of Celestial Seasonings tea was one of only a few teas I found with a blend that included spearmint leaves. (Couldn’t even find anything in bulk.)
In the spirit of looking for environmentally-friendly options, I wanted to see if the tea packaging for this brand would be recyclable, but I came across a quote on the back of the box that struck me as odd: “Sustainable Packaging. We use tea bags without strings, tags, or staples, keeping tons of material out of landfills every year.”
Upon first read, that sounds great, right? But it didn’t answer my question: can I recycle the packaging and compost the tea bags? The answer would determine my purchasing the object or not, yet the box made no clear note of it.
That leads me to my ultimate question: Why can’t companies make it more transparent whether or not their products are recyclable? Nowhere on this box could I find out whether or not the packaging or bags could be recycled or composted.
The more I dig into going zero waste, the more I find myself standing in the grocery store study packaging to look for recycling instructions. It’d be nice to see a standardized (and required) line or symbol indicating the recyclability of the packaging and its components — both for my convenience and the sake of the recycling center in town. In my mind, it makes just as much sense as putting the nutrition label on the box.
You’ll see on plastics the number indicating which type of recyclable plastic it is, but often almond milk cartons, produce containers, and box packaging, for example, don’t mention anything and I’m left to guess whether or not the packaging can in fact be recycled.
Shouldn’t companies have an obligation to fully inform their consumers not just what they’re consuming in terms of the food, but the packaging that comes with it?
For the record, I found out later from the company’s website that the box and the tea bags are able to be recycled and composted. But because I couldn’t find it on the box while I was staring at a wall of tea options, I made the in-store decision to go with the box of tea that was more expensive, but was up front about the recyclability of the packaging and tea bags.
Considering the tea I went with and the tea pictured had the same recycling/composting ability, this would’ve been an easy win for the less expensive Celestial Seasonings, if only they’d just included a single line with the information I needed. The same rule applies beyond tea boxes — and man, would it save me so much time in the grocery store.
Do any of you have thoughts on a standardized recyclability index for food packaging? Is there something I’ve missed? My ears (and asks) are open!
We have produced about 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic since its invention. Of that, about 79 percent of plastic waste is not recycled or burned — just left to sit in landfills or our oceans.
This is a massive health risk for humans and a deadly hazard for animals who think plastic waste is food, not to mention the broader environmental impacts. And yet, the solution may not be to ban plastic outright — it’s complicated.
Bamboo grows very fast, so it is the perfect material for an item that needs to be replaced every three month. Unlike plastic. A plastic toothbrush is used for a couple of weeks and then stays on this planet for several hundred years, since it will not biodegrade. That makes no sense. Switch to bamboo. Plus: You can just burry the old brushes in the backyard.
Before I reblog, I always do a little fact-checking and research first to make sure I’m not disseminating inaccurate information.
I found the above post to be a bit misleading. It says you can “just burry (sic) the old brushes in the backyard,” seemingly implying that the entire brush is biodegradable.
This isn’t the case. While it’s certainly a good step to buy a bamboo brush rather than a landfill-destined plastic brush, even a bamboo brush isn’t fully biodegradable.
I found that currently, no one has been able to create toothbrushes that are fully biodegradable because the bristles are typically made of some inorganic material like nylon — unless they use boar bristles. This doesn’t necessarily make boar bristle brushes the go-to option: some people who use these types of brushes complain of an odor, in addition to the fact that these brushes may not be considered vegan since they’re made with a hair harvested from an animal.
Within the realm of bamboo brushes, one of the seemingly best options is made by a company called Brush With Bamboo. According to their website, the bristles of their sustainably-made brushes are made with 62% castor bean oil and 38% nylon, rendering them “biobased, but still not biodegradable,” since nylon doesn’t decompose.
So if you bury your bamboo brush, sure, most of it will decompose. But the bristles won’t. In fact, most bamboo brush companies advise you to tweeze out the bristles before attempting to compost.
Sure, the bristles are small and seemingly insignificant, but you should know what you’re getting into before telling all your friends you’ve got a fully biodegradable toothbrush graveyard buried in your garden.
I’d be remiss not to include that there is one option, and it’s been around for centuries: the neem chew stick. It’s the only truly biodegradable option, since it’s made from a neem plant and is a literal stick. It’s exactly what it sounds like. To use it, you chew on the end of the stick until it frays into bristles, then you brush.
The downside? You have to chew your toothbrush down before you can use it. And when it comes to brushing your teeth, the more inconvenient it is, the less likely you are to do it. And one thing I really want to emphasize on my own blog is making more sustainable choices easier, not harder.
Until someone creates the perfect toothbrush — ergonomic, wallet-friendly, biodegradable, and not made from pig hair — it looks like the best option on the market is a bamboo brush. Just make sure to tweeze out those bristles before you toss them in the dirt.
Have you seen any other notable sustainably-made or biodegradable toothbrushes? My ears (and asks) are open.
Can’t help but think about how nice it would be if we all were raised up sustainably, valuing the objects we consume and use from the jump. Growing up then trying to unlearn wasteful habits is hard — and if you think about it, backward.
Before I get too far along in documenting my journey to live sustainably, I’d like to talk a little more about the concept of a “no waste” (or “zero waste”) lifestyle.
The first real exposure I had to the concept was when I heard about an NYU student who could fit all of her trash in a mason jar. I vaguely remember reading news articles about her, but at the time didn’t give her much thought other than thinking how hard it must be to live like that.
A few years later, I watched a TED talk by Lauren Singer — the same person I’d read about previously. I considered a no waste lifestyle with a little more interest this time around.
And now, finally, in 2018, the message is finally resonating with me. I rewatched her TED talk this year when I started thinking more about going no waste.
Essentially, the no waste lifestyle just means you aren’t contributing trash to a landfill. The way Lauren practices, and the way I aspire to practice, however, allows for recyclables and compost.
This is an important clause. After all, most of us don’t live directly off the land, so buying the food you need to live a healthy lifestyle will involve some packaged goods. But if you are conscientious about the packaged goods you buy and make sure they are recyclable, you’re still offsetting (albeit not eliminating) your impact on the environment.
Since that TED talk, Lauren’s Instagram shows that her mason jar has gotten a little more full, but all her trash over the past five years still fits in that 16 ounce container.
I’m still a ways away from carrying around a mason jar of my own trash, but I hope to transition to that possibility as quickly as my current lifestyle allows.
If you have a second, I’d highly recommend checking out Lauren’s website at http://trashisfortossers.com/. It’s got a ton of helpful resources, which I plan to consult frequently.
You can also check out the website of Bea Johnson, who Lauren references on her blog. Bea has been in the waste-free lifestyle game since 2008, so you know she’s got the low down on doing the damn thing: https://zerowastehome.com/
Know of any other helpful resources? My ears (and asks) are open.
Hi! I’ve been gone for awhile – I went on a cross-country road trip and got pretty sick after I got home, which led to a tonsillectomy (respect to my fellow adult tonsillectomy survivors out there, I mean YIKES).
But I’ve been thinking about this blog the whole time, and now it’s a Friday night and I have time to queue up some good stuff. It’s good to be back!
Today, I brought a reusable cup to Starbucks instead of using a paper cup. I’ve had this thing for awhile now, but have been lax about using it. It’s the little decisions like this that will add up. I am trying to make a major lifestyle change, and that can be overwhelming when I think of all the things I waste. But if I start with small changes, I’ll get where I want to be in time. Now, this is not to say Starbucks is the most sustainable company to be supporting. I don’t know much about that, but I would like to educate myself, since I think one important part of my journey involves being educated about where my money goes. Small steps.
I didn’t remember ordering anything, so I had no idea what was inside. I went to open it.
Then I remembered: I’d ordered a camera battery for my new Canon M50.
And that’s it. That’s all that was in the box.
A whole big box, for one tiny thing.
I felt real bad. That’s a whole lot of waste for one little battery pack. Especially considering the conversations and discussions I’ve been having recently about waste, I felt like a complete hypocrite.
I aspire to produce no waste. It’s an overwhelming idea: to be someone who creates absolutely no trash in a world of plastic packaging, trendy clothes that are in one day and out the next, and cyclical technology trends that send us running to the Apple store every year.
How do you escape waste? I have no real idea. But I’d like to figure it out.
So this blog is really just accountability for me. It’s a way for me to think more consciously and take the time to write about my efforts and missteps in my quest to go no waste in a town that might make that difficult.
I think waste is inherently illogical. Even if thinking about waste from the standpoint of someone who doesn’t particularly care about the environment, we should question why and how we got to a point where trash is normal, an integral part of modern life. Why wouldn’t we try to minimize instead of accelerate the depletion of finite resources? We were only allotted so much, and we humans have known that for awhile — so why would we entertain a system so irrational, one that blatantly supports the constant production of waste?
Anyway, I’ll try to stay off my soapbox, because truthfully I’m still thinking through the philosophy of it all. But I will continue to question and learn about my own habits, and if you feel like joining in along the way, I’d love to hear about it.
I’m always looking for more educational materials so if you have any, please send them my way! For any of you who might already be on this path or for those just starting, I’d love to use this blog as a space to connect and share inspiration.
It’s going to be tough, and I’m not sure I will ever be able to say I live an entirely no waste lifestyle, but I’m going to try.
