How much do you care about environment?

amother

Fri, Jul 10 2020, 10:38 am

LovesHashem wrote:

I have such hair. Although my hair is not impossible - a bar for shampoo and conditioner sounds....awful. Same for my face. And a pain to store, like you need it to dry out somewhere and not get all icky.

I use liquid/gel detergent - it's much easier on clothing than powder and makes your clothes last longer. So to me that me saving more if my clothing last longer.

My bar containers are plastic that I refill and have holes on the bottom to let in air. I would not use a gooey bar. Eew.

I currently use a liquid laundry detergent. You can buy in concentrate and add water to an existing jug you have. I’ve used powder when I lived elsewhere. Mending clothing or maintain them with a sweater puller is a big money saver.

ETA: Speaking if laundry, I used the dryer balls to cut drying time. It helps.

amother

Fri, Jul 10 2020, 10:40 am

amother [ Hotpink ] wrote:

This. Nobody consumes half a bar of soap washing their body but there are people who will gleefully use half a bottle of body wash. If you drop a bar of soap in the shower, it will never spill down the drain before you manage to pick it up.

Does anyone here use rokeach bar soap for dishes? I'm amazed it's still made but it's not sold everywhere. my supermarket carries it but they charge about $5 a pop. I don't spend that on soap for my face, let alone dishes!

Thanks for posting about the dish bar. https://I.imgur.com/ZiYZ6vG.jpg

amother

Fri, Jul 10 2020, 10:55 am

FranticFrummie wrote:

Wow, are you me? I also compost, and bring reusable mesh produce bags to the grocery store. I can't stand to waste anything.

I grew up frugal, in "granola country" California. We had an extensive garden, fruit trees, berry bushes, and we rarely bought produce from a market. Meat was expensive, so my mom taught me how to stretch it and make a larger meal.

My great grandmother taught me how to sew and do repairs. I even darn my socks when they get holes in the toes!

I always had a fantasy of living off of the grid, raising goats and chickens.

So sweet. Growing up my grandmother taught me how to can and dehydrate produce from the summer either purchased for cheap or grown by her. She recently gave me some snaps for a dress I had and they had a cost of $.39. FWIW she had kah 6 children and worked full time as a hospital nurse.

Veggies are supposed to be more of our meal than meat. It’s a pain to check but many don’t need. I arranged my refrigerator that the top shell was used only for produce so it’s the first thing we see when we open the fridge so we eat more produce and less waste from being tucked in the bins. Another thing, use a refrigerator thermometer and adjust to save money based on temperature of the household air getting in.

amother

Fri, Jul 10 2020, 11:07 am

amother [ Blonde ] wrote:

This seems like a good post to actually raise some questions I've always wondered about.

First: I don't buy disposable plates, cups, or cutlery. We reuse our dishes, but since we also live in an area without much water, I wonder which is worse. Using local water supply that would essentially drain reserves faster, causing potential fossil fuel use to import more water, or use paper plates and paper forks.

Second, I remember reading somewhere that using paper bags is actually worse for the environment than plastic bags. Paper bags tend to be a one-and-done use item, for which trees were cut down for and fossil fuels were used in its production. Plastic bags tend to be reused (especially in today's world, pre-covid) and don't lead to deforestation.

So I agree with everything everyone else said. We're extremely careful about our water usage, we don't use straws, we've purchased reusable shopping bags, and we try to avoid using our car. There's so much need for improvement, obviously. Our computers and devices suck up so much energy.

Based on what I know, it takes a lot of water at the factory to make the disposables. That’s likely not local water but still water. Paper bags do use trees. Trader Joe’s makes them from recycled materials knowing they hold much more weight. They do not cut down new trees. If a paper bag is brought into my house it leaves with something to give away in it.

We use power strips that turn off to save power, timers on the A/C units and lamps and unplug depending on location. I live in the US now but some countries like Australia have outlets that turn off. We invested in light blocking curtains to keep cold drafts out and sunshine out in the summer to decrease energy use. As a bonus naps seem easier. It’s a journey!

LovesHashem

Fri, Jul 10 2020, 11:43 am

amother [ OP ] wrote:

Okay but doesn’t it take forever for the product to get in your hair?

Lets_Eat_Pie

Fri, Jul 10 2020, 12:51 pm

This is such a refreshing thread! Very Happy

Sometimes I feel like DH and I are the only ones in our communities who care about this stuff, it's so lovely to see that others care.

We do many of the things already mentioned here - recycling, composting, no disposable dishes or pans, bars of shampoo and conditioner instead of plastic jars (Lush makes great shampoo and conditioner bars FYI), try to walk instead of drive, minimize our use of AC, etc. Next year IYH we'll be moving to a house with a spot for a small garden. I was definitely raised to reuse, reduce, recycle and my mother had a garden, sewed most of our clothes, and was overall quite thrifty so none of this feels particularly unusual to me.

amother

Hotpink

Fri, Jul 10 2020, 1:53 pm

It's really all a matter of what you get used to. Once upon a time a whole family would bathe in the same tub of water, one after the other. Pity the last one using it! (I wouldn't even like to be the second in line.) The rest of the time they'd make do with a wet sponge on critical areas...kind of like the Nine Days all year round. But when water is scarce or when filling a tub means going out to a well or a river and hauling back bucket after bucket and then heating it on a stove or over a fire...presumably you get used to it.

When towels get threadbare, I cut them into squares, sew up the edges to prevent fraying, and use them as cleaning cloths for wiping down kitchen surfaces. About the only thing I use paper towels for is draining fried foods. Brown kraft paper absorbs grease quite well, but reusing grocery sacks for this purpose is hardly sanitary.

I cut up clean, worn-out white shirts into pieces and put them in food containers to soak up excess moisture from foods like berries and lettuce. Dishtowels work, too, but berries stain like mad. I also use clean white cotton rags to cover containers of hot food while they cool. You don't want to leave a food container open to the air, but using a lid traps the heat. A cloth , the thinner the better, allows heat and steam to escape.