Zero waste: Homemade laundry soap--Part 2

How homemade laundry soap compares to commercial

My Seventh Generation plastic bottle
sitting atop my bucket of homemade
laundry soap
© L Kathryn Grace

Last week I told you about my grand laundry soap experiment, successful beyond my dreams. I calculated that, in addition to saving on single-use plastic bottles, which may or may not get recycled despite our dropping them into the blue bin, we stand to save 34¢ a load.

How did I get that figure? What does it translate to in $$$ per year? What happens if you factor in fuel and water costs? And what about my time?

We'll take those questions one at a time.

How much does it cost?

I was shocked at the difference in cost per load: 2¢ with my homemade soap, versus 36¢ with my Seventh Generation brand. Here's the breakdown.

Bulk ingredients cost

• Arm and Hammer Super Washing Soda, 55-oz box at $4.29 / 14 batches* (1/2 cup or 4 oz. per batch) = 31¢/batch
• 20 Mule Team Borax, 76-oz box at $5.99 / 19 batches* (1/2 cup or 4 oz. per batch) = 32¢/batch
• Fels Naptha Bar, 5.5-oz at $1.99 / 3 batches = 66¢/batch
• Total materials cost per batch: $1.29

*Batches are rounded to nearest whole.

Cost per load

Cost per load

Seventh Gen: 36 cents
Homemade:  2 cents

Each batch yields two gallons laundry soap. At 1/2 cup per load, we get 64 loads per batch. Cost per load: $1.29 / 64 = 2¢. Two cents per load!

How does it stack up?

The Seventh Generation Natural 2X Concentrated Laundry Detergent bottle claims 66 loads. At $15.99/bottle, cost per load is 24¢. Read the fine print, and it turns out that you get 66 small loads. For the large, full-capacity loads I do, Seventh Gen recommends about half again as much detergent, which means I only get about 44 loads per bottle. That raises my per load cost to 36¢.

By making my own soap, I save 34¢ per load. On average, we wash about 10 loads per week. That's 520 loads per year and a savings of $176.80 a year on laundry detergent. Add that to the $150 I calculated in May 2010, that I would save on paper towels, and in a few years, I may have squirreled away enough to get the super thin, lightweight MacPro I covet. Okay, that's a stretch, but if I keep finding ways to save, it could happen.

What about fuel, water consumption and labor factors?

If I'm to live a more sustainable lifestyle, I need to think of the hidden costs of fuel, water and labor, right? Here's the skinny.

Fuel and water--A wash? Probably much less

The fuel cost is negligible. While I have not calculated the cost of the gas to heat the water, I can tell you my gas bill did not change noticeably the month I made the soap, and I did a lot of holiday cooking and baking that month.

Fuel cost to transport the bulk ingredients? Again, negligible compared to the fuel cost to transport a single-use bottle of the commercial detergent. How do I know this? Because the bottle washes fewer loads than just one batch of my homemade soap, whereas the boxes of washing soda and Borax, along with the bar of Fels Naptha, will give me multiple buckets of homemade, and the three products weigh little more than the single commercial jug.

Then there's the water. Because my rent includes water, I don't have anything to compare my water usage costs. The two gallons of water I use, plus any water I used in cleaning the pot and utensils, which I washed with other dishes, are worth pennies in today's economy. That may not always be true, of course.

I couldn't find easy stats on the laundry detergent polycarbonate bottles, but I did learn that it takes about forty percent more energy to make the polycarbonate detergent jug than a litre of bottled water, and it takes a lot of fuel to manufacture and deliver that one liter of bottled water in a typical PET plastic bottle.

On the surface it appears that I use far less water and energy to make my homemade soap.

Labor costs

As for my time, it took about half an hour to make the soap. It was as pretty to make as lemon curd, smelled lovely, and was a delight to see in its bucket when it was mixed. Forgive me, but I see that as a pleasant gain--time well spent.

Still, let's see how the numbers play. Say my time is worth $40/hour. How would the cost of making homemade laundry soap change?

$40/hour * .5 hours = $20
Ingredients = $1.29 (see above, "Bulk ingredients cost")
Total cost per batch: $21.29

Annual cost, based on 8 batches/year = $170.32
Annual cost of Seventh Generation detergent, based on 36¢/load (see above) = $187.20
Annual cost of Seventh Generation, $187.20, less annual cost homemade, $170.32 = $16.88 saved

So even if we factor in my labor, I've saved $16.88/year. Put another way, divide that $16.88 by the four hours labor I will spend in a year, and I just earned $4.22/hour. That raises my "pay" to $44.22/hour! I like that.

AND! And, I don't have to buy a plastic laundry detergent bottle ever again.

But it's messy!

Of course, there's the fact that the homemade soap is slightly more difficult to use. We have to stir the batch each time we use it, and it's a bit messier to measure the goo. Those plastic bottles, with their dripless pour spouts and their easy-to-use cups beat measuring and pouring out a half cup.

Love that feel-good moment

Each time I open the bucket, I take pleasure. The color, the scent, and the fact I made it myself all contribute to that good feeling, canceling the slight hassle that costs me maybe thirty seconds, including the time to rinse the spoon and measuring cup.

I love that I don't sneeze or get headaches on laundry day, and I love the sense of satisfaction I feel at having found a way to refuse bringing one more plastic container into my home.

Reducing the risk of harm to children and workers overseas

I was unsuccessful discovering where San Francisco's recycled plastics go. I am glad to know that my love of convenience and clean clothing is not putting laborers, including small children, at risk as Britain's plastics did for some time in this Chinese factory. That one got enough bad press that they closed it down. No one seems to be talking about where our plastic bottles and jugs are recycled now, but it is difficult to imagine, with so little transparency, that worker conditions are any safer today.

Knowing I've stopped one small contribution to such suffering is worth the tiny bits of trouble it takes to make and measure the soap, long before I factor in the cost savings, don't you think?

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We make peace in a million small ways every day.

All text and images, unless otherwise noted, copyright L. Kathryn Grace. All rights reserved.

Zero Waste Challenge: Make your own laundry soap in 30 minutes

All you need is a 1/2 cup each Borax and
washing soda, plus 1/3 bar Fels Naptha,
grated finely, and water
© L. Kathryn Grace

Why in heavens name would anyone want to make their own laundry soap? First reason, our commitment to becoming a zero waste household. Second, we're cutting back on plastic.

Blogger Crystal Miller furnished the recipe, which is nearly identical to several others I found around the web. I link to hers because she offers additional information about the ingredients and answers a lot of questions.

It's so easy! In this post, I'll show you how I did it, share the amazing cost savings, and tell you how it it worked.

First, collect the ingredients and utensils

All you need are three low-cost ingredients, a bucket and a lid. We used our old kitty-food bucket, which is a little big, but works fine. No new plastic! Here's the complete list.

• 1/3 bar Fels Naptha*
• 1/2 Cup washing soda*
• 1/2 Cup Borax*
• Grater (To grate the Fels; a food processor is said to work well, but I don't see the need)
• Large sauce pan
• Extra large measuring cup or jug for measuring the hot and cold water
• Wooden spoon
• Two-gallon bucket with lid 

*As with any household cleaners, read the warning labels on the packages and store ingredients and finished product safely, especially if there are children in the home. 

Make the soap

"Egg-noodle-soup" mixture
Isn't it pretty? Smells good too!
© L. Kathryn Grace

It's very easy to make. Took about half an hour, start to finish. Here's what you do.

• Measure the ingredients and assemble your utensils.
• In a large saucepan, melt 1/3 bar finely grated Fels Naptha in six cups water, stirring frequently.
• When the soap is completely melted, add and dissolve the 1/2 cup Borax and 1/2 cup washing soda. Set aside.
• Carefully measure 4 cups (one quart) hot tap water into the bucket and add the hot soap mixture.
• Mix thoroughly, then stir in an additional gallon of tap water (cold is fine), plus 6 more cups.
• Mix again, cover and set aside for 24 hours.
• On laundry day, give a quick stir, scoop out half a cup, and toss in with your clothing as you usually do, according to your machine's instructions.

Most of the recipes mention the pretty "egg-noodle-soup" appearance of the finished goo. Sadly, this image doesn't do it justice.

Tip learned the hard way: To reduce melting time, finely chop any large, ungrated bits. Total grating and chopping time: ~5 minutes.

How well does it work?

The good news: Many stains on our kitchen linens, some of which we use in place of paper towels these days and which get a real workout, were gone. They came out sparkling white without bleaching, a first. Darks and colors? We see no difference from commercial product laundering after several loads.

On the other hand, our most difficult load--stained, sooty, old cleaning rags--came no cleaner with the homemade soap than with any of the commercial brands I've used over the years. No worse. No better. You might say it's a wash.

How much does it cost?

Cost per load

Seventh Gen: 36 cents
Homemade:  2 cents

I was shocked at the difference in cost per load: 2¢ for my homemade soap, versus 36¢ for Seventh Generation, the commercial brand I use.

Miller's costs, at just 1¢ per load, were half mine. You will find a cost breakdown on her recipe page.

Coming up

Next Monday I'll show you how I arrived at those figures, how much we expect to save over a year, and how the cost stacks up when we factor in my labor. You might be surprised. Best news of all, we'll keep an estimated eight 100-ounce plastic bottles from the waste stream over the next year. And we don't have to buy any plastic to do it!

Disclosure: Should you click through on the kitty-food bucket link in this post and purchase something during your visit to Amazon, there is the possibility I might earn a few pennies. Wouldn't that be a thrill.

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We make peace in a million small ways every day.

All text and images, unless otherwise noted, copyright L. Kathryn Grace. All rights reserved.

Zero waste challenge: Rappin' plastic

It's extra tough to avoid plastic this time of year. We were in a toy store (Inhale the polyethylene!) shopping for a birthday gift for our granddaughter the other day. What's not made of plastic, wrapped in plastic, or has plastic bits attached? Not one item. Yes, we succumbed. We bought a gift we knew she would enjoy, plastic up the yin yang. It doesn't help much that it was the least offensive of all the items we considered.

In the crush at the checkout counter, I forgot to tell the clerk I had my own bag. He dropped our purchase into a plastic one and grimaced when I gently returned it to him, apologizing for the trouble. Perhaps he would have enjoyed this video with rapper AshEL Eldridge and singer Jenni Perez. I hope you do.



Did you notice they mentioned that even Mother's milk is contaminated? All my grandchildren, as my own children, were breastfed. Of course, what's in the ultra-high-heat-pasteurized milk they drink now is even worse, but that's another story. One small action at a time. Two steps forward, one and a half back. Will we get there in time?

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We make peace in a million small ways every day.

All text and images, unless otherwise noted, copyright L. Kathryn Grace. All rights reserved.

Zero waste challenge: Easy plastic-free crunch, yum and crackle when the game is on

Roasted sweet dumpling squash
© L Kathryn Grace

The game is on. It's Saturday, the day before Halloween. The two year old is coming over, Game 3 of the World Series starts in a couple of hours, and we expect to munch between yelling ourselves hoarse. That means bags of chips and tubs of dips, right? Not exactly.

See that sweet dumpling squash? It's easy game buffet fare--or a supper side dish--that is scrumptious, wholesome, locally grown if you're lucky, in season right now and does not come packaged in plastic. I've included the super simple recipe below.

For crunch, I roasted the squash seeds, baked up some sesame seed crackers, pretty much the same recipe as reported here. This time I rolled them super thin, barely 1/16 inch, brushed the dough lightly with water before scoring, sprinkled liberally with raw sesame seeds, and pressed them in gently.

It took an hour to make the crackers, start to finish, not much longer than a run to the store. Soon as they came out, I upped the oven temp and popped in the squash, saving having to heat the oven twice.

The homemade crackers were downright delicious dipped in fresh guacamole. The middle grandchild was visiting, and she and I had fun mashing the avocados and squeezing the lime. When the game started, we all sat down together and noshed crispy sesame crackers and guac while the Giants got whupped, as we used to say.

Was it worth it? Probably a wash, cost-wise, but times past, we would have bought two kinds of chips and two or three tubs of dip, had none of the fun with the grandbabe getting ready, and those chips and processed dips would have set in our tummies like leaded goo. Instead, we were energized, full and happy.We had fun, despite the loss, snacked finely, and didn't add a single plastic container to our "reusables" collection or a box or a bag to our recycle and trash bins.

Three easy recipes for game-day fun

I'm sorry I didn't take a picture of the guac and crackers. We couldn't wait, but here's our simple, child-easy recipe.

Guacamole

Ingredients:
2 ripe, soft-to-touch, medium avocados
1 ripe lime
Dash salt
Twist fresh ground pepper

Directions:
Adult: Split avocados in half lengthwise. Child: Turn each half upside down over a bowl and squeeze the skin till the pulp and pit fall into the container. (Kids love this part.) Fish out the pit with a spoon and compost or sprout for growing fun (video).

Adult: Cut a lime in half. Child: Squeeze the juice all over the avocados. An old-fashioned squeezer with a pointed, ribbed cone on top, set over the bowl, is easier for little hands than other types.

Child (adult can help, of course): Add a sprinkle of salt and a grind of pepper, mash till its gorgeous, smooth and creamy, lick the forks before you toss them into the sink, and giggle together. Serve with "guackers." (See link above.)

For a yummy, almost as easy hot treat to go with your crunchy snack, roast two sweet dumpling squashes. They're in season now and a make a colorful plate on a chilly autumn day.

Roasted Sweet Dumpling Squash

Ingredients:

Two sweet dumpling squashes
1-1/3 t butter
1 T each raisins and dried cranberries (optional)

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Wash, then carefully cut the squashes in half lengthwise with a sharp knife. This was tricky for me, as I don't have a lot of strength left in my hands and those buggers were tough, so be careful!

Scrape out the seeds and stringy mass with a spoon. Set aside.

Place the squashes cut side up in a pie plate or other shallow pan. Dot the inside of each quarter with 1/3 teaspoon butter. Add a few raisins or dried cranberries if you like a little sweetness with your squash. We didn't this time, but we may next.

Bake uncovered thirty minutes. When the timer goes off, pierce with fork. If tender, remove from oven and serve. If not quite tender, return and bake a bit longer. Serve with crunchy roasted squash seeds on the side and a plate of fresh fruits, if you can wait and do it properly.

Roasted squash seeds

Roasted sweet dumpling squash seeds
© L Kathryn Grace

While the squashes are baking, clean the seeds from the stringy stuff. I find this easiest in a small bowl of water. Under water, rub the seeds away from the strings. Compost the stringy stuff and pour the nutrient-rich water, which is now a gorgeous pumpkin orange color, into your frozen vegetable cooking water, if you save yours for making soup. (We pour leftover bits of vegetables and vegetable cooking water, when cool, into a container in the freezer. When it's full, we thaw it and use it for soup stock.)

Rinse the seeds, drain them a bit, pat them dry with a clean tea towel, place them on a small cookie sheet or pie plate and pop into the oven during the last 8-12 minutes with the squash. When the squash timer goes off, the seeds should be well toasted. Remove from oven and sprinkle lightly with salt to taste.

The squash was as delicious as it looks. It didn't make it to the living room with the crackers and guacamole. We ate it standing up in the kitchen right away, blowing on each bite to cool it. Our granddaughter loved it as much as we did, oohing and ahhing and "Yum!"-ing over every bite. We had two cups left, which we'll chop coarsely and add to a stir fry with bean sprouts, and other veggies for dinner tomorrow night. More end-of-summer goodness for our taste buds and bellies, and all easy on the pocketbook.

That's one way we had a lot of family fun and together time while making conscious choices this week. I know Wanda made cold frames last week, and Deb struggled between the pull of nature to go outside and play and the pull inside to create something new. What were you up to?

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We make peace in a million small ways every day.

All text and images, unless otherwise noted, copyright L. Kathryn Grace. All rights reserved.

Zero waste challenge: Yogurt made easy

Homemade yogurt and mother
© L. Kathryn Grace

We're pitching the plastic yogurt tubs at last

Finally! No more plastic yogurt tubs coming into the house. I know, this may seem a little odd after extolling the (relative) virtues of the Stonyfield multipacks made from corn the other day, but it was in researching that post that I found the first easy recipe for delicious (and hopefully no-fail) yogurt.

For months I've experimented with various homemade yogurt schemes, with more and less success. Mostly less. Today, near perfect yogurt, super easy, no mess, no fuss, and no special equipment.

Sure, here in the Bay Area we can buy the very mild St. Benoit yogurt in returnable glass jars--when we can get it. Cost is about the same as a quart of raw milk, but it's not always available. About half the time we have to choose between not having yogurt on hand or buying it in plastic tubs. What's more, St. Benoit is made from pasteurized, albeit local, organic milk. We wanted to take advantage of the raw milk available to us from locally-pastured cows, and I like my yogurt on the tangy side, something St. Benoit doesn't do.

I needed a dependable homemade yogurt alternative, one I could share with others trying to reduce their plastic use as well. So when Beth Terry at Fake Plastic Fish included her homemade yogurt recipe in her post about Stonyfield Farms new PLA cups the other day, I decided to give it a try.

Greek or plain yogurt, it's all good

Beth got her recipe from Melanie Rinner of Bean Sprouts, whose method is for Greek yogurt, but the culturing process is the same either way. Because the yogurt I had on hand was almost a week old, I used a commercial culture I bought a while back as a backup. The brand is Yogourmet. They expect you to use it in their yogurt maker, which I did not want to buy. It's made of plastic.

For a year or two now, I've hunted for an incubator like the one I had when my babies were little--a stainless steel tub that held six pints, or three quart jars, and kept an even temperature perfect for culturing yogurt. Nowhere to be found. All yogurt makers I found on the market are made of plastic, even the versions clad in stainless steel to match your trendy kitchen decor.

Sans easy-to-use maker, I experimented with the cooler-covered-in-blankets method. Every time, the yogurt turned out runny. Fine if you like Kefir-style, drinkable yogurt, but we prefer a creamy, custardy texture. Plus, this is a time-consuming process. I didn't like the bulky mess in my bedroom, which was the only place in the house with room for the container to sit undisturbed.

Cooler with yogurt-filled jars in warm water bath
© L. Kathryn Grace

Cooler covered in three layers of blankets
© L. Kathryn Grace

Yesterday, thanks to Beth and Melanie, I finally found the right combination of culture and method. What's more, it's easy-peasy. Incubate in a thermos, transfer to glass jars when the yogurt is the consistency you like, refrigerate to chill, and enjoy.

Worked like magic. I heated the milk to barely boiling, cooled it to just under 122 degrees F, stirred in the yogurt culture according to instructions, and poured it all into my faithful stainless steel, wide mouth Stanley thermos. Eight hours later, I popped the lid to check, and we had beautiful, creamy yogurt at exactly the texture we like.

I scooped the yogurt into two glass jars, one to save the mother culture for the next batch, the other to eat, and popped them into the refrigerator to chill. The transfer from thermos to jar for chilling did change the consistency. Disturbing the yogurt before it is chilled causes it to curdle a bit.

Next morning, we couldn't wait to strain for Greek yogurt. We gobbled nearly the whole pint for breakfast. The taste is marvelous--tangy, with a hint of citrus.This is the first yogurt I have ever enjoyed straight from the jar with no honey, no fruit, no sweetener of any kind. Delicious! Today I'll pick up more raw milk and make another batch. I'll let you know how it goes.

That's my conscious living tip for the day, part of our personal household zero waste challenge. What are you up to this week? Do you make your own yogurt? Have you found an easy recipe you like? I invite you to share it here or post a link to your recipe page.

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  Disclosure:  If you follow the Amazon link above and purchase something, it is possible I will earn a few pennies. What a thrill that would be.

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We make peace in a million small ways every day.

All text and images, unless otherwise noted, copyright L. Kathryn Grace. All rights reserved.

Plastic, plastic, plastic!

A light dish-washing day
© L Kathryn Grace

Aaaaarrrrrggggh! I've spent most of the afternoon trying to solve three problems without bringing more plastic into the house. I'm about to utter a very bad word out loud.

Here's the thing. In my quest to reduce and eventually become a zero waste household, I try to make every purchase count. Rule of thumb before buying (it wasn't always so) is this: Do we really need this item? Can we solve this problem without buying something new? Will our lives be better with this thing? Truly? Can we get it on FreeCycle? Craigslist?

Once I've made up my mind that bringing something new into the house is worth the trouble, the big question is: How can I meet this perceived need ...

• Without buying more plastic;
• Without contributing to unfair labor practices; and 
• With the least possible harm to the planet and its ecosystems?

Here's what I'm up against today. Wait. I'll share the search for just one of the items--similar issues for all three, boiled into one scenario. A little background first.

Racking up change

For the last nine or ten months, I've worked and cooked at home. Where food counts, we've changed our lifestyle drastically. In the past, with both of us working outside the home, it was not uncommon to eat all three meals out. When we did eat in, quite often we ordered delivery. Luckily, we live in a town where local and organic may be difficult, but not impossible to find on a daily basis, so our eating out habit was nourished with good food that met some of our needs to be socially responsible.

Now that I'm cooking most of our meals from scratch, and preserving some foods, I'm spending more and more of my day in the kitchen. I'm constantly looking for efficiencies--big and small. One I would like to achieve is in cleanup. We don't have an automatic dishwasher--not that we wouldn't like one. An efficient dishwasher saves water and energy, but we don't own one, and there's not much room for it if we did. I wash most of the dishes these days. Typically, I let them air dry.

Back in the day, all we needed was a small dish drainer for the occasional cereal bowl, soup pot, utensils. Now that I'm washing dishes one or even several times a day, depending on the cooking projects, the tiny Rubbermaid drainer we've had for years isn't holding enough. Hence, the photograph illustrating this post.

Know this. I. am. not. taking. time. to. dry. every. dish. (I don't iron my sheets either, thank you, Ann Landers.) Nope. Tried it. It's just not happening. I need a bigger dish drainer.

We’re changing, the world’s changing—Catch up manufacturers!

Every few months, a cup falls off the stack, breaks, and I go on line, hoping to find a new rack that will meet my needs at last. The non-plastic options are wood, bamboo, and stainless steel, all small. If there is a large dish drainer on the market without plastic parts, I have not found it.

There are some near misses, but none entirely suits. This Simple Human dish drainer is the one I like best. It's big enough. Has that handy knife rack and a good-sized utensil holder. Downside: It has significant plastic features. Plus, I have no idea where it is made. Their web site doesn't mention that. If they're using Fair Trade practices, they're not bragging about it. What about materials? Where are they sourced? How are they extracted? And did you notice that price tag? Maybe that's what stainless steel and plastic are worth these days. How can I know?

Then there's this Zojila Rohan dish drainer. It's sleek, upscale, designer-looking, all stainless steel except for little plastic feet. I like it too, but it's not going to hold nearly enough. Who knows where and how it was made, and by whom? Plus, there's that astronomical price tag--again. But hey, it's pretty and functional--if you don't have many dishes.

I noodled around a bunch of green sites, hoping to come up with anything else. Nada. Maybe I missed something.

Ideally, I could walk into my local Ace Hardware, or take the train and bus to a big-box store, and find a rack that meets my need. With luck, they would have something on the shelf, not in a box, not wrapped in Styrofoam and shrink-wraped and tied down with five or six plastic ties.

It would have been shipped on a pallet with fifty or so others, which would itself, of course, have been triple shrink-wrapped to prevent damage enroute, but at least it would have been shipped on one big truck headed for one destination, or two if the store has a regional distribution center. Oh, geesh, there's just no getting around it. Buying anything requires buying products of indeterminate origin, rarely manufactured under fair trade policies, and shipped hither and yon on one shrink-wrapped pallet after another. Fissel.

A less than ideal solution or no solution at all

What's a world-saving granny to do? Without. That's what. Three or four months down the road, I'll break another dish, drop another pot on the floor for the umpteenth time because I didn't want to take an extra twenty minutes to dry the dishes, and I'll start the search again. Will there be anything new? Something to ease my buyer's angst? Doubtful. Who knows? I'm open to suggestions.

For today, there will be no online orders, no trips to the giant kitchen supply stores, and no shrink-wrap to wad up and throw in the trash.

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  Disclosure:  If you follow one of the Amazon links above and purchase something, it is possible I will earn a few pennies. What a thrill that would be.

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We make peace in a million small ways every day.

All text and images, unless otherwise noted, copyright L. Kathryn Grace. All rights reserved.

Zero waste challenge: Coming clean with trash on Day 2 of No Impact Week

Image courtesy Sierra Club

Can our household reduce our personal carbon footprint to zero in just one week? Doubtful, but we're going to find out. We're participating in the Sierra Club's No Impact Week. This is Day 2, and it's all about trash. I'll tell you more about that in a moment, but first, what is No Impact Week?

Author Colin Beavan, aka No Impact Man, calls No Impact Week a one-week carbon cleanse and says, "It is a chance for you to see what a difference no-impact living can have on your quality of life." Beavan thinks the change will be a good one:

It's not about giving up creature comforts but an opportunity for you to test whether the modern "conveniences" you take for granted are actually making you happier or just eating away at your time and money.
No Impact Man on Join thousands doing the Sierra Club No Impact Week

He should know. For one year, he and his family gradually reduced their carbon impact to zero. In the process, they did a lot of the things we talk about here.  They bought nothing new, except food, for an entire year. They stopped eating meat, bought all their food at their local farmers market, gave up all forms of carbon-emitting transportation, which meant they walked, biked or rode an unmotorized scooter--one of those cute little silver things you see around town. They also gave up television, toilet paper, and electricity.

Beavan, his wife, Michelle Conlin, a reporter for Business Week, and their little girl live in Manhattan. I figure if they can survive a year drastically reducing their carbon footprint, I can manage a week. The bad news is, I only learned about this week-long mass experiment early Sunday morning. We started yesterday with Day 1: Consumption, but I didn't have an opportunity to complete a post about it.

Today, Day 2, is Trash Day

Yesterday, we each—my sweetie and I--saved all the trash we accumulated during the day, including recyclables and food scraps. I have the biggest bunch because I was cooking quite a bit, and I cleared a few past-due items from the refrigerator. I generated two pounds, nine ounces in food scraps alone. Thankfully, they went into the city’s compost program. We were supposed to set the trash we accumulated yesterday aside until the end of the experiment, but I couldn’t hang onto food scraps for eight days. Eeeww! I saved the rest though. Here it is.
The first step today was to separate our trash into two piles:

• Stuff we used for more than ten minutes.
  Stuff we used for less than ten minutes.

The only items used less than ten minutes are inside the brown paper bag: a bunch of used tissues and a couple of what my mother delicately refers to as “unmentionables.” I didn’t have the heart to lay them in plain sight.

With the exception of the toilet paper roll, the other items are packaging. We are gradually phasing out most of them, but it will take a while.

Options we’re exploring—and not

We have a few ideas in the works for eliminating the packaging you see in the picture.

• Ice cream carton. We’re considering several options to replace ice cream in cartons, because we’re not giving up ice cream. Uh uh. Nada. Not gonna happen. I’ll tell you more about that in a post down the road.
  
• Cracker box and liner bag. Crackers are easy to make. I have to get better at planning to have some on hand for snacks and when the grandbabies come to visit.
  
• Compostable compost bags. I’m thinking about building a worm bin like Wanda’s so I don’t have to buy any more compostable bags for the food scraps.
  
• Evert Food Saver Bags. The green plastic produce bags are on their way out. I love how they keep our veggies fresh, but when the last one cannot be reused one more time, no more. When they’re gone, they’re gone for good. We’ll be using organic cotton reusable produce bags, organic cotton reusable mesh bags, and trying out the storage methods Beth Terry outlines on Fake Plastic Fish.
  
• Plastic sausage wrapper. Niman Ranch sausages are one of the few meat items we still enjoy, and we buy them once a month or so. We’re not ready to give them up, but the plastic wrapper screams a little louder each time I stand in front of the case deciding whether this is the time to say no more. That’s coming. I don’t know when.
  
• Tissues, unmentionables and toilet paper rolls These will be with us awhile. Maybe a long while. We just can’t bear the thought of washing and reusing cloth rags that have been used for certain human excretions. You know what I’m talking about.
  

What’s up with trash for the rest of the week

The Sierra Club has posted these suggestions for reducing our trash for the rest of the week. We already do most of them. I bet you do, too.

1. Put together a no-trash travel kit for the week with a reusable drinking receptacle for hot and cold liquids, a handkerchief/old t-shirt, Tupperware® [Or not! Try a stainless steel bot instead.], utensils, and reusable produce bags.
   
2. Stop making trash. Reduce it. Reuse it. Recycle it. Just don’t throw it away. Keep a special bag at home or the office to collect trash you make by mistake or necessity throughout the week.
   
3. At the end of the day, take time to reflect on your discoveries and post on our [Sierra Club’s] blog. Answer these questions: What did you put in your special trash bag? Why was it hard or easy not to make trash? Where was it impossible not to make trash? Comment about it here.
   
4. Be proud of your efforts and a great start to the week! Write down five things for which you are grateful.

Interested? If I’d known about this experiment before midnight Sunday morning, I’d have told you about it, but you haven’t missed out completely. If you’re game and don’t mind being a couple of days behind, sign up now and find out whether you can improve your quality of life while lowering your carbon footprint. It's just one week. Alternatively, you can wait until October, when the Huffington Post is hosting its own Huffington Post No Impact Challenge Week.

Don't feel like it? I get that. Stick around and see what happens with us. I'll be honest about our successes and failures. One thing is certain: If I'm asked to give up TP, it ain't a gonna happen. I'm not there. Wonder if there's anything in the project that could change my mind.

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Disclosure:  If you follow one of the Amazon links above and purchase something, it is possible I will earn a few pennies, and what a thrill that would be, but of course I would rather you source a new product locally and avoid extra packaging and shipping. Better still, maybe someone on FreeCycle has an extra lying about and would love to hand it off to you.

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We make peace in a million small ways every day.

All text and images, unless otherwise noted, copyright L. Kathryn Grace. All rights reserved.

Zero Waste Challenge: No more plastic bread bags!

Crescent Buns
From Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day
© L Kathryn Grace

When we started eliminating plastic from our waste and recycling bins, one of the biggest challenges was the bread sack. Luckily, we have a couple of handy options for handmade, unbagged artisan breads from our local grocer. They're good, but often stale, and we cannot always get the whole grain, organic versions. No one nearby carries the English Muffins we like.

Ever since Mother Earth News offered a deal on Artisan Breads in Five Minutes a Day, I've wanted a copy, but I didn't buy it because it was all about white flour. Now the authors have brought out Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day, using the same tested techniques, and I'm baking up an organic, whole grain storm.

It really is as easy as five minutes a day to keep fresh, wholesome, delicious breads on hand--and NO plastic bags! We're eating healthier because we can choose exactly what goes into our breads. What's more, the book's Master Recipe uses no oil or fat whatsoever, and the breads are eat-more-now scrumptious.

Yum buns for brunch

Of course, there are plenty of ways to add all kinds of calorie hopping goodies--the cinnamon crescent buns above, which I adapted from one of the recipes, are one example--so we're taking it slow and easy, but on the weekend, when we want a goody, watch out! It's not uncommon to spend twenty dollars on pastries of a weekend morning at our local boulangerie. Now I can pull my sponge from the refrigerator, shape a loaf or buns in a few minutes, let them rest for forty to ninety minutes, depending on the recipe, bake for twenty to thirty and voilà! Yum buns for brunch. No waxy paper bags to compost or pitch and almost no fuss. In fact, I who have never considered myself a cook, feel heavenly domestic.

Who knew living consciously could be so much fun?

This eating healthy, living consciously stuff can be a lot of fun. It gives us the opportunity to build so much goodness into our lives, like the joy of teaching a little one to make "guackers" from scratch. Plus, think of the money we save. Why I can buy enough stone ground whole wheat organic flour to make many loaves and buns for little more than the price of a single artisan loaf of dubious freshness at the grocery.

On my personal Zero Waste challenge: No more plastic bread sacks.  ☑

Your turn

Are you considering challenging yourself to achieve zero waste? Have you already begun reducing? What's your latest discovery in the path to using less, wasting less?

Disclosure:  If you follow one of the Amazon book links above and purchase something, it is possible I will earn a few pennies, and what a thrill that would be. Alternatively, you could check out a copy from your local public library and test cook for a couple of weeks.

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We make peace in a million small ways every day.

All text and images, unless otherwise noted, copyright L. Kathryn Grace. All rights reserved.

No more war!

A driver who stands for peace
© L Kathryn Grace

I can't take it anymore. Back in April, I began waging a war on garbage in our household. That moniker has bothered me from the get-go. I stand for peace. How in heaven's name are we going to build an Ordinary world if we keep using the language of violence? So no more war! From today forward, like the Greens, we are working toward becoming a zero waste household.

Right now, it's a daunting task. No garbage whatsoever? I'm reminded that back in 1991, when I first read Frances Moore Lappe's Diet for a Small Planet, I realized we would not win the climate change race, or eliminate poverty from the earth unless we Americans, individuals all, changed our ways. That meant me. I set two seemingly impossible goals for myself:

• Give up my car
• Give up meat

Twelve years later, still inching toward a more sustainable lifestyle, we sold my car--our only car by that time--and we have not owned a car since. Yes, we occasionally rent a City CarShare vehicle, and yes, I accept rides with others or take a taxi two or three times a month. So does my sweetie. We have not completely eliminated the need for fossil-fueled vehicles from our lives.

More, nineteen years later, we still eat meat, not as often as back then, when we might indulge our carnivore taste buds two meals every day. On average we eat meat about twice a week now, and usually more as a condiment than a main dish. Local cage-free chicken bits, for example, come on the pollo verde pizza I nosh with unabashed relish two or three times a month. On the other hand, we use so little meat that the pound of grass-fed ground beef sitting in our freezer is in danger of freezer burn. I can't remember the last time we had bacon in the house--our favorite and most difficult-to-give-up meat.

It is possible that I will never give up eating flesh (yuk!) entirely, but I care for it less and less. In fact, neither of us wants to handle raw meat any longer, so when we are standing at the butcher counter, deciding what to buy, we almost always walk away.

If it took me twelve years to give up my car, and after nineteen years I'm still working on meat, it may take ten or twenty years to reduce to a zero waste household. I hope not. I'll be in my eighties by then. I'll continue working on it, one item at a time, but with peace in my heart, not war.

This week, I'm almost out of toothpaste. My zero waste objective the next few days is to come up with a homemade toothpaste because I'm determined not to buy another plastic tube if I can help it.

Got any good toothpaste recipes?

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We make peace in a million small ways every day.

All text and images, unless otherwise noted, copyright L. Kathryn Grace. All rights reserved.

War on Garbage: Shooting for zero waste

The Greens
Image courtesy The Greens of My Zero Waste

Zero what? On Earth Day 2010, when I declared a War on Garbage, my objective was to minimize our household contributions to the waste stream by the same date 2011. Shooting for zero waste hadn't occurred to me.

Guess what! Around the globe, ordinary people like you and me are working toward that very goal: Zero waste in their households. They're way ahead of me and offer dozens of tips and plenty of community support for living consciously and reducing the junk and trash in our lives.

Read what one family, the Greens in the United Kingdom, have to say about their zero waste adventure.

There were four key things that started us on our zero waste journey.

1. Having a child raises your awareness of the fragility of the planet. You realise that long after you have gone, your children and their children still need somewhere safe and clean to live.
   
2. We have been inspired by other people walking their talk on the internet such as Mrs Average from the Rubbish Diet, Tracey Smith from the Book of Rubbish ideas, Beth from Fake plastic fish, Jen from the clean bin project and a host of other people making real changes.
   
3. Reading stories about the devastating effects of plastic on marine life and wildlife touched us beyond words. After seeing the impact of our lifestyle on innocent creatures we were compelled to take action.
   
4. We were in Boscastle on the day of the flooding. Watching people’s cars and possessions being washed out to sea makes you realise that the impact of climate change is real and its happening right now.

All about My Zero Waste

Rethink your 'insignificance'

Responding to the oft-asked question, "How can my individual action make a difference," the Greens, have this to say.

We urge you to rethink your ‘insignificance’ and get on and make a change anyway. Once your friends and family see you making changes they might be inspired to join in. Before you know it you will be making a real difference.

All about My Zero Waste

There's nothing like good company on a long journey, and I am grateful for the Greens. There are many more individuals and families like them. I'll introduce you to them along the way. Perhaps you know a few yourself. I invite you to post a link to their web site and tell us what intrigues you about them.


Zero waste household--Not even close

Here in our little San Francisco apartment, we're taking our journey one piece of trash, one decision, one success, one failure, and one day at a time. Zero waste is a ways off, but we're learning from the Greens, from you, who show us what you're doing on your blogs and in comments here, and from so many others.

Building an Ordinary world is possible because of people like the Greens, who are doing it now, and because the Ladakh show us it's already been done. Tomorrow, we'll explore ways the Ladakh managed their waste for centuries--surprisingly simple.

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We make peace in a million small ways every day.

All text and images, unless otherwise noted, copyright L. Kathryn Grace. All rights reserved.