I gather paper , plastic and fabric scraps and I use paper for art, plastic and scraps for stuffing- i have done it with scraps now I intend to do it with plastic wraps.
My mom and I always pick up trash at the beach. You will find the weirdest things. She started a photo series for my sister who lives abroad with "...... at sea/the beach". But what she started doing recently is picking up certain things to make it in to an art installation in the garden. And i do use the treads of old fishnets that are wash up for gift wrapping if they are long enough.
Instead of getting rid of my Swiffer mop and replacing it with a traditional mop, I bought washable mop pads from a third party small business seller. I have also used a spray bottle to wet the floor rather than buy the Swiffer branded insert (but my husband bought me one without my knowledge, so now I must use it up).
another soap hack (as if we need any more ;) ) when my soap or shampoo bar gets to a point where I can't use it any more, I usually toss the crumbs into the liquid soap container in my bathroom. bit of water with it, few shakes and just let it dissolve. creates a great liquid hand soap (which is nice because not all my guests are equally comfortable with sharing solid soaps)
Nice, I've a nice reusable soap dispenser. I can't get bulk soap anymore. We use bars ourselves. I've been debating how to fill this up a little - it's only for visitors that don't like the bar.
i knew i could do this but idk why this made SO MUCH MORE SENSE NOW now that i've seen your comment. thank you so much. tiny soap pieces drive me CRAZY. yes they are tiny but they pile up after some time every time you use a new bar. being able to use until the last molecule makes me so happy lol thanks again for this tip
I must clearly be getting old 🧑🦳, I turned 47 last week, but when I was a kid there was no liquid hand soap, it was all bar soap and no body minded or got sick from it, what are people afraid of????
@@anaalves3658 This is my question about most everything nowadays. People didn't get sick from these random things and yet so many today seem to think so. For a lot of people, honestly, I think they forget how life used to be.
I live in an area with a liquor store a major littering problem. The liquor store uses black plastic bags, which I don’t think are easily recyclable because of their color. My only trash can is a tiny bathroom model that I keep under my kitchen sink and I collect these black bags from bushes and on the street to use as my trash can liners. I’m sure people would think this is gross but I think it’s a win for everyone.
When one of my older brothers and his wife were planning their wedding , they asked my parents for a guest list of family that should be invited to the wedding. My mom wrote out the guest list on the back side of a supermarket receipt 😂😂. They've been married now for 27 years and still laugh about it
1. bringing my own tumbler and stainless steal cup to the movie theatre for diet coke 2. using handkerchiefs instead tissues (wash regularly) 3. carrying a wash cloth to dry my hands when i'm out & about (instead of paper towels--also more gentle on my old hands then the heat blowers 4. using coffee grinds to change pH in garden soil
From last video I found the perfect hair tie on the street, a brand new canvas bag on the top of our trash can and a HUGE plant that is now taking like half the space in my bedroom. Someone just tossed her out and she is a beauty!
My grandma and I would always give each other gifts in the same metal basket, going back and forth between us. She passed away last year and it’s been really hard not continuing that tradition with her, but I’m excited to start it with my niblings.
At 76 years old, there were no such things as disposable diapers when my children were small. It is just a way of life and anyone can do it. We didn’t even have a remote control on our tv. It was better. I use my iPad now and read digitally so have cut out books almost entirely. When we moved I donated over 200 books to the library and as soon as I got an iPad I was amazed at how much easier it was with no heavy books to lug around nor a stack of books to bring on vacation. Authors still get paid if you buy a digital book. Also when you check a book out of the library either digitally or with a paper copy, so don’t think you are depriving an author of their pay for their work. A friend of mine used to make her own liquid soap out of soap slivers. You can grate them or just chop them up and put them in the bottom of a liquid soap bottle and shake it up. Voila! Homemade liquid soap which you can refill several times before the soap slivers are gone or just add more as you have them. It’s all free at this point. Your paper clothing tags are recyclable with you paper recycling. My grandma used to wash out the straws she got at a fast food place. Cleaned with the dishes in hot soapy water they were perfectly fine to use when the grandkids came over. No reason to discard those. As for the dirty silverware, I wrap mine in a facial tissue until I get home. I have chronic sinus so there is always a small pack in my purse. Never thought 9f myself as much of an environmentalist but I guess I am through my frugal roots.
I'm 47 and I cloth diapered my daughter who is 9 and a half. I just thought of my mom and my granmothers who had 8 and 5 kids each, if they could do it, without a washing machine I could definitely do it 😀. I got some looks and questions at playdates the first time but nothing else. I visited my family overseas when my daughter was 8 months old and the cloth diapers came with. I stayed with my parents so laundry was not a problem 😊. I'm glad that I made the effort 😁
It's not exactly zero waste, but I try to see how far I can get into the year before installing my AC. I end up with all of these habits in the summer--opening the windows at night, putting up curtains for the daytime, taking a cool shower before bed, getting enough water and salt throughout the day--that make me feel way more in touch with the season. Last year I made it to September...and then got covid during a heat wave. It's definitely not for everyone--I'm healthy, live alone and without any animals, and am able to install an AC unit whenever I need. But it's becoming a fun tradition.
I do this too. People think it's weird, but it's become a fun challenge for me at this point to see how far I can push it. (It definitely saves money on my power bill too!)
In 2017 highschool-age me went to an anime convention with a cosplay wig made out of unraveled yarn and an old pantyhose. It was named "the mop" by some people but I don't regret a thing
Handkerchiefs instead of paper tissues. Cloth napkins instead of paper napkins. Cloth diapers. And I, too, have used a dirty spoon from my bag in a pinch, lol. I liked what you said....this has gone beyond dirty... lol. I sometimes think, like with diapers or handkerchiefs--if it doesn't come off the item in the washing machine, it's not going to come off on me! lol. Oh, and as for soap scraps, I save the mesh bags garlic comes in (I know-not zero waste) and put my soap scraps in that and tie it off. It adds a bit of "exfoliation" if you use your imagination. A spa experience, if you will! Love you, girl. Keep encouraging us!
As someone who cloth diapered, it is hard. For my oldest, we did it till he got too big and they could not absorb enough when he was sleeping through the night (could not double stuff or they were REALLY too tight) with my youngest, I think I made it about, five months before I just couldn’t keep up anymore and for my own sanity, I had to switch; my husband worked 12 hour shifts, rotating between days and nights every couple of months and we had no friends/family around and I was beyond burnt out. Sometimes I still feel guilty about it, but I also know that my sanity was hanging on by a thread by that point.
Idk if this will help, but whenever you're feeling guilty about the amount of regular diapers you used, flip it around and think about how many you didn't. According to US averages, you saved around 1470 diapers with your youngest + however many with your oldest. That's amazing! You did what you could, and it's more important for your kids to have a sane mom.
I like the sentence Shelbizzlee ends her videos on: you cannot do all the good the world needs, but the world needs all the good you can do, and that is freaking true. You did what you could. Let's not forget that we need to be in shape to fight against these big issues, so losing your mental well-being is never worth it.
I’m not surprised you gave up on them. Also, having to launder them uses water and electricity for washing and drying, obviously you don’t need to use any of these resources with disposables. There’s a trade off, both have their pros and cons, tbf.
Picking up trash: I pick up at my apartment whenever we walk our cat. Our apartments are odly shaped so we get the trash blown in. Gift wrapping: my family has a few boxes that are used for Christmas and have been around for at least 4 generations. Once you are old enough (aka wont destroy it) you could also get it. I also use the brown shipping paper, then stamp it and use it as wrapping paper. It adds a bit of sentimental value. Along with scarves.
4 generations? that's so cool!! my family also have a few boxes and pieces of paper that get regifted every year. the most precious one is The Family Paper, which is just a normal piece of messy wrapping paper but the label is absolutely covered in names and every time it's used there's another name. it's something we always laugh about. i hope we can get it to last as long as your boxes :D
my clothes goes through this cycle 1 worn in public 2 at homewear bc looks a bit too shabby 3 exerciseclothes 4 clothes for when i paint and make art and work in the garden 5 at this point the fabric is thin, stains everywhere. thats when i cut up the fabric into smaller pieces which i then use when i spill something, paintrags, etc. having a box full of aprox 15x15cm clothpieces is so useful.
My weirdest zero waste habit is probably taking the discarded plants and pots from my local cementery. They are in the compost bin or the trash can next to it anyway, so what. If I have no space in my garden, they go into the traffic island on the parking space near me, the easiest ones to plant are the spring bulbs. I made a little sign so that the towns gardners won't mow the space, and so far it worked. Guerilla gardening is fun, and even better using discarded plants. There is also less trash and more insects in the bed now! And if you like bonsai, there are always little evergreen trees to be found in cementery trash like junipers and thuja.
That made me think I should leave an announcement for after I die to not bring any flowers to my funeral or leave anything on my grave 😂 Although I'm hoping that body composting will become available in the UK at that point so I can become planting soil 🌱
@@agadooska Plenty of people do that. And ask for daonatins to a charity that was near to the heart of the deceased. If you are unfortunate enough to have to plan a loved ones funeral, you can also rent plants for the funerals decoration the chapel or what, like little cut bushes and potted plants (if the florist also has them). And a florist may also take flowers from your garden and work it into wreaths or so.
I used to do that years ago, I had an agreement with the groundskeepers. They had to clear anything left behind on a gravesite before they could mow and would give it to me if it was a plant. I’d imagine smaller cemeteries might be open to a similar deal if the groundskeepers were discretely asked.
The school I work at does not have access to a recycling service, so I collect recyclables and put them in my home bin. My coworkers definitely think I’m weird 😅 I also hang on to cardboard boxes and water bottles and shoeboxes for students to use in projects
I started a few years ago using cloth menstrual pads and a menstrual cup, so when the pandemic hit and people were being insane over toilet paper, I decided to give cloth wipes a try (for urination only) and I haven’t looked back! It’s so much nicer wiping with cloth (I repurpose old flannel PJs into squares), in the same way cloth menstrual pads are so much gentler on your body than store bought disposable pads. I also use hankies instead of tissues 🙌 For some reason this really divides people, who see it as gross to carry around a cloth with your snot on it. Funny how quickly tissues (Kleenex) has been normalised in just a couple of generations. One day soon I think it will be seen as WEIRD to wipe with trees, even recycled.
I do the same 😁. I also use paper bags from bakery and pastry products. And if I bring a bag of any kind home from my parents house, I return it. My mom thinks it's weird 🤔 but it just means that we use the same thing over and over again. I also very seldom buy eggs, my parents have chickens and we reuse the same egg cartons for ages 😊, this morning I got a dozen eggs and a lettuce for my parents garden 😁 the bag the lettuce came in is washed and dry and ready to go back 😂
So many of the paper bags that come from fast food are still in perfect condition after the food has been eaten. I use them in their flattened state as liners between my serving plates and stacked frying pans to prevent scratching.
I'm in California and recently went to a Japanese style ramen restaurant with friends. No one told me until we were sitting at our table that the restraunt only had disposable chop sticks for eating utensils. The guy who recommended the place thought it was going to be funny to watch me figure out how to use them. I just shrugged and pulled out my reusable utensils. I was a little nervous a waiter or another customer would look at me weird, because it was my 1st time doing that at a sit down restaurant, but literally no one seemed to even notice except my friends who thought it was funny. I saw it as a win-win scenario because the chopsticks the restaurant had were disposable.
We bring the disposable chopsticks home 😊, they are super handy. They go into the dishwasher like regular cutlery and we use them for keeping plants upright, crafts, stiring small paint pots all sorts of things, in our house they are not single use.
@@anaalves3658I just watched a video a couple weeks ago where a woman was making some paper lamp shades out of takeout chopsticks and rice paper. She made another lamp shade out of a two liter pop bottle so it looked like a flower. The paper ones were dice.
The new ramen place in my town has some really solid nice plastic chopsticks, just a bunch in a can at the table. I still don't know if they're disposable or if they get cleaned & put back at the table, but I took my pair home. 🙈
Cloth diaper mom here! It was a quick jump to doing reusable toilet paper since I had cloth wipes and am doing diaper laundry a couple times a week. If it's good enough for baby butt, it's good enough for me! (of course I have a bidet too). Agree that managing life with little one/s may be harder for zero waste habits - I'm glad I already had SO many good habits in place before adding baby. Another "weird" one...my building was delayed in starting compost collection, so I gathered it in my freezer and walked it to the bin at the park a couple times a week.
👏👏👏 keep going mom 😁 I cloth diapered as well, I was determined to do it and I am glad I stuck to my beliefs, but I only had one kid, if you had more than one I'm sure that it quickly gets overwhelming.
During the American toilet paper shortages in the early weeks of covid quarantine I used reusable toilet paper but only for pee. Couldn't quite bring myself to use it for #2! 😂
I definitely considered "family cloth" for myself - and had a friend who was doing it while we both had babies in cloth diapers - but I just couldn't get into it. (I do have GI issues, TMI.) I do use cloth handkerchiefs all the time (including some of those old cloth wipes), and used a menstrual cup and cloth pantiliners (🤞omg please let's hope this is past-tense!) Even before she got her period last year,, my daughter was definitely into the concept of cloth pads. I will give her my liners, but I want to wait until things settle down before committing. (I did get her the period underwear, but she's super skinny and they never fit tightly enough to avoid leaks.)
Growing up we were really poor, and one thing I remember was the "drawing paper" pile. Basically any sheet of paper with blank space on at least one side went into this pile. It was placed next to the landline phone so we could write notes, but it was uaed for everything. My parents called it "drawing paper" because it was paper i was allowed to draw on since printer paper was expensive At the wake of my nannas funeral which was held in her home, i noticed a stack of scrap paper similarly placed next to the landline. I also remember her plastic bag full of container lids in the drawer. She seemed to save and reuse everything she could. She gardened, and used scraps from her kitchen to make compost in a worm farm. Similarly growing up we had a worm farm and garden. I made my own worm farm a couple of years ago out of a plastic tub, and its still going well. But its really interesting seeing the habits that got passed down.
As a (not small) dog owner, the leaf pickup is a road too far for me. I’ve done it when I discovered I had no poop bags, but it was not something I would want to do regularly. I did use compostable bags, though. They were plenty thick enough, never tore, and I did have the occasion to use one (with no poop) into my kitchen compost bin and saw that it had started to break down when I brought the bin out. I also use compostable trash bags so they will at least break down quickly in the landfill.
I meticulously go through old used paper (old documents, envelopes, junk mail) and cut out any small blank parts and keep them for grocery lists/notes/quick sketches. Recycling paper that's not fully written all over freaks me out. Not super weird, but my process of squatting on the floor surrounded by my menagerie of papers kind of is 😂
My mum had to use terry cloth diapers for me when I was a baby as I had sensitive skin even back then. For my books, there are 2 bookstores close by that I can trade them in for a store credit.
For new parents, if you have easy access to a washing machine, consider cloth diapering at least some of the time. You don't need to be all or nothing about it but I found that more often than not it was easy and relatively painless to cloth diaper. There are many great options for the actual diapers. Plus you will save money and help the environment 🌿
👏👏👏 so true 😁. I think that if you have more than one kid in diapers at the same time it will be tricky, but I agree with you, even if you do it just part time it's still way better than nothing 😊. Apparently it's also healthier for baby boys as disposable diapers keep the testicles too warm which is not good for fertility as adults.
your last tips got me thinking about navigating the social space, by the way. I try, but am very far from perfect in my own private life when it comes to sustainability, but I do try to improve myself. But especially in a social setting, it gets more difficult. How to live your values, without alienating yourself or others, or creating so much opposition that it has an adverse effect? I think it would be very interesting to have a conversation about that. My own view is that I want to bring sustainability into the social setting in a way where it inspires other people, not to a point where people get so annoyed by it that they are even less likely to incorporate it in their own lives. For example; we organized a local running event, and that creates quite a bit of waste. I did try to limit it a little (borrowing starting numbers from other runs for example), but also knew that to make it really sustainable, the measures would be unacceptable for the other organizers. So we did for example use carton cups for handing out water, but I did take the used cupes home, and use them as seedling starters for the next few years. love to hear how other people deal with such situations.
Just a comment on the party situation: I honestly can't even remember the last time I went to a party where the hosts used plastic cups. The last three big parties we hosted, we used the council's party crockery, glasses and cutlery service: anyone can borrow these for free, as long as they are returned clean and dry. You pay a very minimal fee for any broken items. I think it's a great idea and an attemt by the council's waste management to cut down on waste that can easily be avoided. For weddings and very big dos, they even offer a trailer that holds the crockery etc as well as a washing machine We live in Nürnberg, Germany
That's awesome 👍😊. I used to live in South Africa and the bigger chain liquor stores would also hire out glasses at a very cheap price, you would collect them, use them, wash them and return them. Much nicer to drink out of a glass cup than a plastic one 😊
Forgot to post that no plastic bag from the grocery store lives only one life. It is re-used in our wastebasket which means we never buy bin liners. If we have a particular messy situation we contain it in one of those bags so the trash man never gets an unpleasant surprise. So many things take so little effort and time, but the ability to think creatively. I cut my husband’s hair out on the deck and brush it into the grass where birds and animals can use it or it will naturally go back into the soil. He has short hair. Not sure if long hair is good or bad though.
When I was in college in 1979, we would go to the football games and after the game, we would collect all the plastic cups that people had left behind. Then we would reuse them at our house for any parties we had.
3:49 ❤ Well when I go for my walks, I’ll pick up off the landscape bags , shipping packaging, bags and resealable bags to reuse as trash bags at home and on the road. (using what already was available) . Yes I do find unused “pet bags “ too which I give to other dog owners. Reduces new , reuse what’s already made and does save some money buying new. Pick up banana peels and reCoveR the resource to help plants and gardens grow. Take CaRe folks
In Poland there's a company that sells reusable trash bags, they donate some % of every sold one to Wild Animal Treatment and Rehabilitation Center. I know that you could use anything as reusable garbage bag, but this is a nice idea. I used reusable dipers with my child, and our trick was to not start using single use once so we're not making that big of a change 😅It took some time to find the kind that worked best for us (there are so many solutions available, it's great!). I also use reusable feminine higen products and I love it! It took me some time to find best for me, but I wouldn't change it for anything else, there's no comming back 😅 When you talked about gift wrapping heritage I thought about my Grandmother, and her ways of saving water / resources / money, that are normal to me; like reusing gift wraps, saving water from washing wegetables to water plants, not throwing away food etc. And with zero waste it helps if people around you are supportive and share at least some of the same values.
I use the soap in the stocking thing attached to the outside tap so I can wash hands when gardening etc. I also use shop paper bags for gift wrapping. I keep gift wrap given to me and cut out shapes to glue to the paper bags to cover logos. People think I’m odd but I don’t care
I really enjoy these videos. In regards to reusables, I usually wrap mine in a cloth napkin/tea towel, that way I have something to wipe things up if I spill something and I don´t just have dirty cutlery floating around in my bag ;). While I am pretty good at remembering to take it out to clean, I often sometimes forget to throw away the trash I collected while out and about. So sometimes I run around with receipts in my pocket for weeks, that aren´t mine or an empty pack of cigarettes I picked up somewhere because I simply forgot it was there 😂😅
I love scrapbooking so I use used gift wrapping in my journals. Also I use some things that are considered “trash” in journaling, like old magazines, clothes tags or even plastic packaging. I also don’t throw any paper away until I write on it on both sides, and by any paper I mean old notebooks + different clutter I get from mail + any paper or cupboard packaging + any scrap paper that enters my home. I’ve been doing this since middle school, not because I was a zero waster but because it hurts to throw out perfectly good materials.
1. We save our zip top bags we get with food, instead of buying zip top bags. We also save the non zip top ones. 2. When having a party, we use our regular plates/glasses/cutlery. We've been using reusable napkins for years, and I had a set made for guests. 3. We use a clothes drying rack in addition to our electric dryer. 4. We save reuseable containers we get from takeout, for guests to use when they're taking leftovers from our house.
I'm disabled so it's not always wise for me to expend the energy, but when I'm able to I actually enjoy picking up the litter that I see. I like to go for a walk with a bag and gloves, and pick up all the litter that I notice. It actually becomes quite a mindful and satisfying activity. Picking up the rubbish that I notice is much less depressing that noticing it and not picking it up.
The thing about reusable toilet paper is you’ve already rinsed off with water so it’s really just drying your butt same as your towel after a shower. I have a wire basket and I throw it in with laundry about every other day. It’s not gross at all.
When I give a gift, I usually use a brown paper bag and tie the ‘tag’ to the handle as a card. But the tag is a part of the invitation. I’m sure in more zero waste friend circles there is no invitation, but I usually get one for baby/bridal showers and such.
Going through peoples skips or trash items on the side of the road 👀 there are so many treasures that people get rid of…. I’ve had bidets installed on all my toilets at home and my husband just washes then let’s it dry naturally, it’s surprising how many guests love them too. ❤
One thing that has always stuck with me is when my mum bought plastic mickey mouse cups for a birthday party. They were the kind that were meant to be only used once, but she washed them up after the party and we used them for several parties! I remember thinking that was strange, but now I would do the exact same thing (but probably with glass jars).
I also use reusable toilet paper. I have a bidet, so usually there's nothing really dirty about it. Also, this reusable toilet paper was once pajamas that I cut into small pieces.
I do a weird zero waste thing. I poop into a bucket and do humanure composting. Our household flushes the toilet like maybe once a month, just to refill the bowl because the water evaporates out if we never use it.
My mum told that she used a lot of cloth dippers when I was little, mainly because disposable dippers weren't very much popular in 90s Poland. But I heard that some people are using cloth dippers mainly at home and using the disposable when they leave, travel etc.
My grandparents used to always give gifts in all kinds of packages that they had accumulated over the years. So every year you would get a different random package but the content was always a pair of lovely, homemade mittens or woollen socks with a few bank notes hidden inside them.
I have the exact same gift bag situation with my cousin. For years now we have been using the same one bag to give each other birthday gifts. It ripped a bit, but we taped it and it’s still going strong. It’s a tradition now! 😅
I have been known to gather party trash for reusing, too. Solo cups are often recommended to start seedlings in for your garden, but I hate to think of people buying them just because they are the right size to start a plant in? What about cottage chees or yogurt tubs? Here in the US, especially out in the country areas, you almost can't avoid waste, but you can figure out reuses. Maybe someday we will have more earth-friendly options......
That chanel bag gift wrap thing with your mom is the cutest. If my mom were still alive i think i would have a tradition like that. Ive cloth diapered both my kids, i will say it desensitized me to the thought of cloth toilet paper. Something weird i do is use a water bottle as my bidet. Ive been using the same bottle for about a year and half now. The cloth toilet paper is usually just used for drying since the water does most of the work
In regards to the poopy bags. You can do it with out having to get “too close”. I collect bread bags and any other bags from my parents who are not quite onboard when it comes to using cloth bags when buying bread. At in one hand and a good size A4 piece of news paper in the other. Scoop it up, wrap it and into the bag it goes. Unless it’s a plastic bag l do not reuse the bag. If plastic possibly/maybe/perhaps. Non-paper-toilet-paper: yes for yellow, noses and tears, no for the unemotional. But that’s just me. Cloth diapers: loved it, but only after we got a couple of woollen diaper pans still containing the natural layer of lanolin. They keep everything warm contrary to ex. plastic or rubber pans, avoid serious leaks and everything can breathe. But it only works if you rinse them when really dirty and wash in a lanolin soap. And yes, they do have to be charged more often than the plastic ones.
We got SO MANY baby shower specific gift bags when we had our 1st kid. Anyone who comes over and takes home leftovers gets free jars that the food is packed in (another thing we just have so much of) and they take it home conveniently packed up in a baby gift bag
During Covid cutlery came in cardboard sleeve, including serviettes, and many cafes still do this. I collect the paper sleeves and decorate. They are perfect size to slip in a handmade bookmark or small chocolate bar as Christmas gift. I also bring home unused serviettes and compost. Sometimes waitresses try and clear them away and look strangely at me when I say no. Friends have gotten to know and pass their paper waste to me. My logic is the restaurant can’t afford to separate/sort their waste, but I can take ownership.
Thank you for your inspiration :) I am also that person who always takes trash from parties and weekends where there is no ability to separate trash...also in my office i have one drawer under the desk for my trash to bring it home and recycle and sometimes I also takes trash from another poeple secretly :D
I used to forget to wash my reusable travel coffee mug all the time, but I made a habit of washing it at the end of my work day so it was always clean in the morning when I didn't have the energy/brain processing to clean it
Just remembered some more: I made a sketchbook/calendar/notebook out of a couple of those metal prong fasteners and paper from the recycling bin (envelopes, unused parts of lined paper, the backs of printed paper, brown paper packaging, etc. and some graph paper I thrifted). Also I reuse my floss picks- I have a retainer that already needs to be sanitized each day, so I just keep the flosser in the sanitizing liquid until it can't be used anymore.
I had a birthday party for a messenger bag I bought when it turned 20! It had glue, duct tape, safety pins and a new strap but why not be proud of making something last? It’s a weird zero waste habit that I hope catches on.
A portable/travel bidet was cheap and really cut down on the TP use. I re-use paper towels, but mostly use old hand towels/rags that I keep in a nice basket on my kitchen counter. I crocheted “sponges” that I can bleach/wash and haven’t bought a sponge in years. Food waste gets composted. I love the video and comments for new sustainability ideas.
I take home all the red soda cups. Wash them very very well and we use them for other get-togethers so they are not just sitting around these plastic cups I am so so inspired. I can't say enough about your channel. I love following you in love seeing all your content I was looking forward to all your videos. Thank you,❤❤❤❤
I've done a few of these. I on and off use family cloth. I on and off use unpaper towels and cleaning rags. I use fabric as gift wrapping. I save disposable gift bags and disposable gift wrap and ribbon and bows. I have recycled the plastic cups and soda cans and red bull/monster cans and glass bottles at a party but also just in my daily life. I have used the old water from my dog's water bowl to water my plants. Just before someone starts their shower, I sometimes fill up a bottle of water or a bowl of water or whatever and I use that water to wash my hands, brush my teeth, wash my face, whatever I need water for that is unavoidable
here's one: my extended family has a tradition of "wedding plastic". once upon a time in the early aughts, somebody bought a bunch of plastic utensils for my eldest cousin's engagement party. not fancy or aesthetic by any means, but clear plastic & sturdier than your average fast food plastic. so when it came time to clean up, one of my aunts decided to put those utensils in the dishwasher & save them for the next big party, rather than throw them away. in the years when so many of my cousins were getting married, it really did become a jokingly-but-real part of the wedding ritual to break out the "good wedding plastic". & tbh it elevates an average family barbecue to know you're eating with the wedding plastic that has blessed so many happy unions, bday parties, etc. yes it's kind of silly, but when i think about how much more trash we would've created over the past 2 decades if my aunt didn't inadvertently start this tradition, considering how much my family likes a celebratory feast...phew!
I don't buy plastic cutlery, glasses or plates but if for some reason some end up in my home, I wash them well with soap and re-use them as many times at they can last. After, I recyle them. I just can't bear that something was made for a single use! Also, if I buy soap, it has to be authentic green olive oil soap, and the leftover pieces are rinced well then dropped into a glass container with water: without any effort (except shaking it once in a while), this eventually turns into liquid, creamy olive oil soap that can be used for so many things!
Years ago I visited Hong Kong a lot and so saw a lot of people use old newspaper to pick up dog waste. Some even trained their dogs to do it on the newspaper…..
In my family we have never used “post-it” or new paper for quick notes. We use the “paper bin”, basically we pick up a piece of paper that was in our home bin like the cereal cardboard package or the paper-package of tea, and we use them to write notes. I even use those paper packaging from products to take quick notes in college
We recycle gift bags. We wash and recycle styrofoam. There is a center that's not too close, but my husband will make the trip when he can. I use reusable sanitary/incontinence pads. I make my own. We have a bidet so I DO use small cotton towels that I've cut and serged. I use them mostly for #1. We recycle aluminum cans. I try to use cloth napkins. Luckily we can recycle plastic bags, but we do try to use cloth bags.
All of my family and friends mock me because I take forever opening gifts, but I don't care anymore. I prefer to take my time and unwrap them carefully so I can reuse the paper 🌱 Also shout out to my girlfriend because she doesn't make fun of this and always support my sustainable endeavors
I like to crochet gift bags with my yarn scraps for when I give gifts to my family and friends. And sometimes they'll keep them for either gift bags or as a regular bag. I also love to reuse gift wrapping paper and gift bags.
Ciao!finally first!!!i adore you and your videos!thanx for your contents and thanx for everytime you open my eyes on scams and not-so-zero-waste as people think.I feel less imperfect thanx to you,you let me think"ehy,i can do this,in any case a little is better than nothing".A hug from Sicily
I actually thought about reusable tp and I think I would be ok with using it for n1 and keeping disposable tp for n2. However I might have to move to an apartment without a washing machine this year so I'm not going to try anything until I'm sure of if I will move or not!
Compostable poop bags are great for dog poop. If you are reusing plastic bags from the grocery store, you are getting a second use but it still ends up in a landfill. I don't use bags in my bathroom trash cans for the same reason. I just emply the container into my kitchen trash bag before I take it out.
I am in a situation where I can cloth diaper part time, and I personally find it easier. I hate taking out trash and I hate running errands to Costco, but don't mind laundry. Plus, it's a lot less stressful if my kid pees/poops right after I just changed them, no waste! I don't judge people who do disposable though, everyone is in a different circumstance!
I don't think I'll ever totally give up toilet paper, but have been loving my bidet the past 3 years I've had one, and always thought it was a waste to use TP just to dry off after the bidet, and stumbled across reusable 'bidet towels.' I did quite a bit of research, and just this week ordered a roll of bidet towels. I do quite a bit of sewing, so if I like them, I'll probably just use them as a pattern to make more from thrifted flanels.
I bury food scraps of all kinds and some types of paper products in my flower garden. I bury it about a foot down, cover with soil, and then put a few rocks on top to keep animals out. No smell, makes great compost, and no need to maintain a worm farm or gigantic compost pile.
I'll be honest, when I was a temp for a few years I would have a small bottle of dish soap and small dish scrub in my purse to wash my nesting bento boxes. If all else fails, you could just run into the bathroom and quick wash your silverware or whatnot before coming back to the table.
I thrift silk or cotton scarves (instead of table runners like you do) for gift wrapping. There's always also a slightly bigger chance that the person who receives that gift might also want to keep the scarf, especially if it's vintage. Not that there's ever anything wrong with table runners! 😊
on the dog poop one! my family used to use grocery bags to pick up dog poop, several at a time usually, latley we got a claw scooper and we dump it into a 5 gallon bucket with one larger bag in it. its still a plastic bag, but its much less plastic per poop!
I once took a disposable cup home from a cafe so I could recycle it. Except... When I got home I realised that it had fallen from my bag. I still think about it weekly.
I like to curb dive. I've gotten everything from an expensive rocker snd an office chair and an expensive antique decanter. It amazes me what people throw away when goodwill is a mile away and the vets pick up
I reuse dental floss a few times. If I have to use a paper towel, I keep it in my pocket and reuse it through the day. I use cereal bags instead of zip lock and rubber band it. I use grocery bags for dog poop. And if I don't have any ,I know a million people who have too many. I make cute, house shaped gift boxes out of pretty colored liquor boxes. I use no paper products.
Cereal bags last forever. I made cotton sandwich bags, lined with cereal bags probably 15 years ago. They carry lunch items, wrap my cheese and sandwich meats, etc. And then get handwashed with my dishes or thrown in the laundry. Eventually they may tear at the stitching line but they have been great
I did cloth diapers with my youngest one, and it was a GAME CHANGER. Loved it. Plus they're adooorable. So much cuter than disposable ones. You already have to do laundry everyday with an infant, might as well fill the machine up with diapers and rags! And a few years later we sold them to some other new mom who could reuse them!
I use walnut shell based cat litter and compost it. My two cats make a ridiculous amount of compost each month. Unfortunately it takes a long time to cure so I have 5 compost systems - 1 bokashi, 2 tumblers, 2 electric (1 for food waste and 1 for pet waste). The electric compost for pet waste is so important because you have to heat the waste to 160 degrees for cat waste to be properly composted because of diseases carried in their waste. If you do it in the ground it takes 2 years to compost. This system lets me compost it for 1 week in the electric composter then transfer to a tumbler for a few months just to be safe. Then it can be used on decorative plants. My electric composter is also made of recycled materials. It smells so bad though but I can’t believe how much waste I save going to the landfill from these 2 cats alone. I’d like to try worm composting next to see if I can convince them to eat the waste since this would really help speed things along.
9:00 we do not recycle the cups, we reuse them after collecting. The red beer cups are sturdy enough to be reused and washed with a dot of dishsoap. Most of us have a stack of red and blue cups in their window sill by now😂
In my family I am the one who keep the lower waste going in the house . Cloth diapers , cloth pads , cloth napkins and cloth coffee filters (coffee filters are washed by hand) . Coffee filters ones I figured out my routine it be came so simple.
I reuse synthetic floss. I get a month use out one strand. I carry a bucket and a grabber every walk. I fill it and recycle what is acceptable. I also find unused dog poop bags everyone I walk in a park. I also clean and donate toys, clothing and items I find in parks. I gather a bag a month. I put my daily dish, cup, and cutlery in the fridge to reuse throughout the day. This limits my dishwasher, less water and still safe,
Dumpster diving for sure! Also hitch-hiking when I travel. People usually just assume I have no money. Also I have found an illegal landfill full of clothes. I took some, gave it a good wash (or two) and I always feel so good wearing them, it's like a whole new level of thrifting😅 (the landfill was reported and shut down)
Reusable toilet paper: The ick factor just goes away when you cloth diaper. Like, you're washing poop anyway. That being said, I only use the wipes for pee because adult poop is too far. I will use anything as a bookmark except actual bookmarks. 😂 Favorites are library receipts (I don't print a checkout receipt, but the holds come with receipts) and prayer cards. I have definitely found dirty cutlery in my backpack.
If I have a party or get together, I ask for people to bring a cup of their own, or we use my reusable plastic cups or I recycle at my place and I definitely buy compostable dinnerware.
Useful and mindful habits to practice everyday! I feel for you G. may your phone wash ashore and be retrieved before the battery start to leak 😢😊 I capture rain water, so I need a better storage system 🙂
using pricetags as bookmarks made me think of how i use all kinds of leftover paper (oats that are packed in a paperbag, flatbread-paper(knekkebrød) anything thats is wrapped in paper, i reuse as lists for groceryshopping. i also use letters from the bank (very few, but still getting some) doing braindumping on the backside and also the front, in between all the bank-words;) i also use all foodwrappings that are of paper for braindumping(one specific way of journaling) i use plasticbags the food i buy comes in (no farmers market close to me, and also insanly expensive,waaaay out of my budget to shop at a farmers market ( i live in norway) almost everything is wrapped in plastic, so i tried for a period to only eat food with no plastic. also no zerowasteshops near me, so i ended up only eating potatoes, onions and cabbage, and fruit. and yeah, decided i cant be that zerowaste, so now i use all the plasticbags food comes in. they are often small, which makes me much more aware about the ampunt of trash i make.
I have to wear cloth products as a incontinent adult. Im happy you covered that topic even if it was more for parents with children :) Cloth diapers are really sustainable and i hope to see others use them in the future as well
What are your weirdest zero waste habits? 👀💚🌿
I gather paper , plastic and fabric scraps and I use paper for art, plastic and scraps for stuffing- i have done it with scraps now I intend to do it with plastic wraps.
Getting a buzzcut to put an end to the amount of time, effort, and product it takes to style long curly hair!
My mom and I always pick up trash at the beach. You will find the weirdest things. She started a photo series for my sister who lives abroad with "...... at sea/the beach". But what she started doing recently is picking up certain things to make it in to an art installation in the garden. And i do use the treads of old fishnets that are wash up for gift wrapping if they are long enough.
Instead of getting rid of my Swiffer mop and replacing it with a traditional mop, I bought washable mop pads from a third party small business seller. I have also used a spray bottle to wet the floor rather than buy the Swiffer branded insert (but my husband bought me one without my knowledge, so now I must use it up).
I put towels on my swiffer to clean my walls
another soap hack (as if we need any more ;) ) when my soap or shampoo bar gets to a point where I can't use it any more, I usually toss the crumbs into the liquid soap container in my bathroom. bit of water with it, few shakes and just let it dissolve. creates a great liquid hand soap (which is nice because not all my guests are equally comfortable with sharing solid soaps)
keep the soap saving tips coming - this is so smart!
Nice, I've a nice reusable soap dispenser. I can't get bulk soap anymore. We use bars ourselves. I've been debating how to fill this up a little - it's only for visitors that don't like the bar.
i knew i could do this but idk why this made SO MUCH MORE SENSE NOW now that i've seen your comment. thank you so much. tiny soap pieces drive me CRAZY. yes they are tiny but they pile up after some time every time you use a new bar. being able to use until the last molecule makes me so happy lol thanks again for this tip
I must clearly be getting old 🧑🦳, I turned 47 last week, but when I was a kid there was no liquid hand soap, it was all bar soap and no body minded or got sick from it, what are people afraid of????
@@anaalves3658 This is my question about most everything nowadays. People didn't get sick from these random things and yet so many today seem to think so. For a lot of people, honestly, I think they forget how life used to be.
I live in an area with a liquor store a major littering problem. The liquor store uses black plastic bags, which I don’t think are easily recyclable because of their color. My only trash can is a tiny bathroom model that I keep under my kitchen sink and I collect these black bags from bushes and on the street to use as my trash can liners. I’m sure people would think this is gross but I think it’s a win for everyone.
Cool idea! Not gross really if they're for your trash cans. Most likely clean liquor bottles were sold in them, not food or wet items.
My grandmother cut pieces out of used envelopes. She uses them for shoppinglists or anything you would write on a post-it.
I do that too!
I work at a fabric and craft store and it’s kinda funny what people will write their measurements and supply lists on
When one of my older brothers and his wife were planning their wedding , they asked my parents for a guest list of family that should be invited to the wedding. My mom wrote out the guest list on the back side of a supermarket receipt 😂😂. They've been married now for 27 years and still laugh about it
My mother would reuse envelopes by turning them inside out and gluing them back together.
I do this too and I never thought of it as a zero waste habit... I probably learnt it from home.
1. bringing my own tumbler and stainless steal cup to the movie theatre for diet coke
2. using handkerchiefs instead tissues (wash regularly)
3. carrying a wash cloth to dry my hands when i'm out & about (instead of paper towels--also more gentle on my old hands then the heat blowers
4. using coffee grinds to change pH in garden soil
From last video I found the perfect hair tie on the street, a brand new canvas bag on the top of our trash can and a HUGE plant that is now taking like half the space in my bedroom. Someone just tossed her out and she is a beauty!
Sounds like such a scoop!
My grandma and I would always give each other gifts in the same metal basket, going back and forth between us. She passed away last year and it’s been really hard not continuing that tradition with her, but I’m excited to start it with my niblings.
At 76 years old, there were no such things as disposable diapers when my children were small. It is just a way of life and anyone can do it. We didn’t even have a remote control on our tv. It was better. I use my iPad now and read digitally so have cut out books almost entirely. When we moved I donated over 200 books to the library and as soon as I got an iPad I was amazed at how much easier it was with no heavy books to lug around nor a stack of books to bring on vacation. Authors still get paid if you buy a digital book. Also when you check a book out of the library either digitally or with a paper copy, so don’t think you are depriving an author of their pay for their work. A friend of mine used to make her own liquid soap out of soap slivers. You can grate them or just chop them up and put them in the bottom of a liquid soap bottle and shake it up. Voila! Homemade liquid soap which you can refill several times before the soap slivers are gone or just add more as you have them. It’s all free at this point. Your paper clothing tags are recyclable with you paper recycling. My grandma used to wash out the straws she got at a fast food place. Cleaned with the dishes in hot soapy water they were perfectly fine to use when the grandkids came over. No reason to discard those. As for the dirty silverware, I wrap mine in a facial tissue until I get home. I have chronic sinus so there is always a small pack in my purse. Never thought 9f myself as much of an environmentalist but I guess I am through my frugal roots.
I'm 47 and I cloth diapered my daughter who is 9 and a half. I just thought of my mom and my granmothers who had 8 and 5 kids each, if they could do it, without a washing machine I could definitely do it 😀. I got some looks and questions at playdates the first time but nothing else. I visited my family overseas when my daughter was 8 months old and the cloth diapers came with. I stayed with my parents so laundry was not a problem 😊. I'm glad that I made the effort 😁
Statistics prove kids in cloth diapers potty train sooner..... By as much as 6mos sometimes vs kids wearing disposable diapers.
It's not exactly zero waste, but I try to see how far I can get into the year before installing my AC. I end up with all of these habits in the summer--opening the windows at night, putting up curtains for the daytime, taking a cool shower before bed, getting enough water and salt throughout the day--that make me feel way more in touch with the season. Last year I made it to September...and then got covid during a heat wave. It's definitely not for everyone--I'm healthy, live alone and without any animals, and am able to install an AC unit whenever I need. But it's becoming a fun tradition.
I do this too. People think it's weird, but it's become a fun challenge for me at this point to see how far I can push it. (It definitely saves money on my power bill too!)
In 2017 highschool-age me went to an anime convention with a cosplay wig made out of unraveled yarn and an old pantyhose. It was named "the mop" by some people but I don't regret a thing
I absolutely LOVE that
I did that too on halloween!
Handkerchiefs instead of paper tissues. Cloth napkins instead of paper napkins. Cloth diapers. And I, too, have used a dirty spoon from my bag in a pinch, lol. I liked what you said....this has gone beyond dirty... lol. I sometimes think, like with diapers or handkerchiefs--if it doesn't come off the item in the washing machine, it's not going to come off on me! lol. Oh, and as for soap scraps, I save the mesh bags garlic comes in (I know-not zero waste) and put my soap scraps in that and tie it off. It adds a bit of "exfoliation" if you use your imagination. A spa experience, if you will! Love you, girl. Keep encouraging us!
As someone who cloth diapered, it is hard. For my oldest, we did it till he got too big and they could not absorb enough when he was sleeping through the night (could not double stuff or they were REALLY too tight) with my youngest, I think I made it about, five months before I just couldn’t keep up anymore and for my own sanity, I had to switch; my husband worked 12 hour shifts, rotating between days and nights every couple of months and we had no friends/family around and I was beyond burnt out. Sometimes I still feel guilty about it, but I also know that my sanity was hanging on by a thread by that point.
Idk if this will help, but whenever you're feeling guilty about the amount of regular diapers you used, flip it around and think about how many you didn't. According to US averages, you saved around 1470 diapers with your youngest + however many with your oldest. That's amazing! You did what you could, and it's more important for your kids to have a sane mom.
@@rebeccat715 it actually does help. Thank you. 😊
@@rebeccat715I like how you looked at the positives not the negatives, that is a lovely thing 😊.
I like the sentence Shelbizzlee ends her videos on: you cannot do all the good the world needs, but the world needs all the good you can do, and that is freaking true. You did what you could. Let's not forget that we need to be in shape to fight against these big issues, so losing your mental well-being is never worth it.
I’m not surprised you gave up on them. Also, having to launder them uses water and electricity for washing and drying, obviously you don’t need to use any of these resources with disposables. There’s a trade off, both have their pros and cons, tbf.
Picking up trash: I pick up at my apartment whenever we walk our cat. Our apartments are odly shaped so we get the trash blown in.
Gift wrapping: my family has a few boxes that are used for Christmas and have been around for at least 4 generations. Once you are old enough (aka wont destroy it) you could also get it. I also use the brown shipping paper, then stamp it and use it as wrapping paper. It adds a bit of sentimental value. Along with scarves.
4 generations? that's so cool!! my family also have a few boxes and pieces of paper that get regifted every year. the most precious one is The Family Paper, which is just a normal piece of messy wrapping paper but the label is absolutely covered in names and every time it's used there's another name. it's something we always laugh about. i hope we can get it to last as long as your boxes :D
my clothes goes through this cycle
1 worn in public
2 at homewear bc looks a bit too shabby
3 exerciseclothes
4 clothes for when i paint and make art and work in the garden
5 at this point the fabric is thin, stains everywhere. thats when i cut up the fabric into smaller pieces which i then use when i spill something, paintrags, etc. having a box full of aprox 15x15cm clothpieces is so useful.
i only wear cotton and natural fabrics. dont think this works too well with polyesterfabrics
My weirdest zero waste habit is probably taking the discarded plants and pots from my local cementery. They are in the compost bin or the trash can next to it anyway, so what. If I have no space in my garden, they go into the traffic island on the parking space near me, the easiest ones to plant are the spring bulbs. I made a little sign so that the towns gardners won't mow the space, and so far it worked. Guerilla gardening is fun, and even better using discarded plants. There is also less trash and more insects in the bed now! And if you like bonsai, there are always little evergreen trees to be found in cementery trash like junipers and thuja.
That's so cool!!
That made me think I should leave an announcement for after I die to not bring any flowers to my funeral or leave anything on my grave 😂 Although I'm hoping that body composting will become available in the UK at that point so I can become planting soil 🌱
@@agadooska Plenty of people do that. And ask for daonatins to a charity that was near to the heart of the deceased. If you are unfortunate enough to have to plan a loved ones funeral, you can also rent plants for the funerals decoration the chapel or what, like little cut bushes and potted plants (if the florist also has them). And a florist may also take flowers from your garden and work it into wreaths or so.
I used to do that years ago, I had an agreement with the groundskeepers. They had to clear anything left behind on a gravesite before they could mow and would give it to me if it was a plant. I’d imagine smaller cemeteries might be open to a similar deal if the groundskeepers were discretely asked.
The school I work at does not have access to a recycling service, so I collect recyclables and put them in my home bin. My coworkers definitely think I’m weird 😅 I also hang on to cardboard boxes and water bottles and shoeboxes for students to use in projects
I started a few years ago using cloth menstrual pads and a menstrual cup, so when the pandemic hit and people were being insane over toilet paper, I decided to give cloth wipes a try (for urination only) and I haven’t looked back! It’s so much nicer wiping with cloth (I repurpose old flannel PJs into squares), in the same way cloth menstrual pads are so much gentler on your body than store bought disposable pads. I also use hankies instead of tissues 🙌 For some reason this really divides people, who see it as gross to carry around a cloth with your snot on it. Funny how quickly tissues (Kleenex) has been normalised in just a couple of generations. One day soon I think it will be seen as WEIRD to wipe with trees, even recycled.
I use all my plastic food bags (bread loaves, carrots/celery/potatoes, etc) to clean the litter box :)
I do the same 😁. I also use paper bags from bakery and pastry products. And if I bring a bag of any kind home from my parents house, I return it. My mom thinks it's weird 🤔 but it just means that we use the same thing over and over again. I also very seldom buy eggs, my parents have chickens and we reuse the same egg cartons for ages 😊, this morning I got a dozen eggs and a lettuce for my parents garden 😁 the bag the lettuce came in is washed and dry and ready to go back 😂
I use them as my bin for non-recyclables. Also holds us accountable for reducing our waste by using the container method!
So many of the paper bags that come from fast food are still in perfect condition after the food has been eaten. I use them in their flattened state as liners between my serving plates and stacked frying pans to prevent scratching.
I'm in California and recently went to a Japanese style ramen restaurant with friends. No one told me until we were sitting at our table that the restraunt only had disposable chop sticks for eating utensils. The guy who recommended the place thought it was going to be funny to watch me figure out how to use them. I just shrugged and pulled out my reusable utensils. I was a little nervous a waiter or another customer would look at me weird, because it was my 1st time doing that at a sit down restaurant, but literally no one seemed to even notice except my friends who thought it was funny. I saw it as a win-win scenario because the chopsticks the restaurant had were disposable.
We bring the disposable chopsticks home 😊, they are super handy. They go into the dishwasher like regular cutlery and we use them for keeping plants upright, crafts, stiring small paint pots all sorts of things, in our house they are not single use.
@@anaalves3658I just watched a video a couple weeks ago where a woman was making some paper lamp shades out of takeout chopsticks and rice paper. She made another lamp shade out of a two liter pop bottle so it looked like a flower. The paper ones were dice.
Disposable chopsticks are the best, for so many things.
i use disposable chopsticks as plant supports for small but weak plants
The new ramen place in my town has some really solid nice plastic chopsticks, just a bunch in a can at the table. I still don't know if they're disposable or if they get cleaned & put back at the table, but I took my pair home. 🙈
Cloth diaper mom here! It was a quick jump to doing reusable toilet paper since I had cloth wipes and am doing diaper laundry a couple times a week. If it's good enough for baby butt, it's good enough for me! (of course I have a bidet too). Agree that managing life with little one/s may be harder for zero waste habits - I'm glad I already had SO many good habits in place before adding baby. Another "weird" one...my building was delayed in starting compost collection, so I gathered it in my freezer and walked it to the bin at the park a couple times a week.
👏👏👏 keep going mom 😁 I cloth diapered as well, I was determined to do it and I am glad I stuck to my beliefs, but I only had one kid, if you had more than one I'm sure that it quickly gets overwhelming.
I also cloth diapered but somehow for me my baby’s poop is just way less gross to me than my own 😆
During the American toilet paper shortages in the early weeks of covid quarantine I used reusable toilet paper but only for pee. Couldn't quite bring myself to use it for #2! 😂
I definitely considered "family cloth" for myself - and had a friend who was doing it while we both had babies in cloth diapers - but I just couldn't get into it. (I do have GI issues, TMI.) I do use cloth handkerchiefs all the time (including some of those old cloth wipes), and used a menstrual cup and cloth pantiliners (🤞omg please let's hope this is past-tense!)
Even before she got her period last year,, my daughter was definitely into the concept of cloth pads. I will give her my liners, but I want to wait until things settle down before committing. (I did get her the period underwear, but she's super skinny and they never fit tightly enough to avoid leaks.)
Growing up we were really poor, and one thing I remember was the "drawing paper" pile.
Basically any sheet of paper with blank space on at least one side went into this pile.
It was placed next to the landline phone so we could write notes, but it was uaed for everything.
My parents called it "drawing paper" because it was paper i was allowed to draw on since printer paper was expensive
At the wake of my nannas funeral which was held in her home, i noticed a stack of scrap paper similarly placed next to the landline.
I also remember her plastic bag full of container lids in the drawer. She seemed to save and reuse everything she could.
She gardened, and used scraps from her kitchen to make compost in a worm farm.
Similarly growing up we had a worm farm and garden.
I made my own worm farm a couple of years ago out of a plastic tub, and its still going well.
But its really interesting seeing the habits that got passed down.
As a (not small) dog owner, the leaf pickup is a road too far for me. I’ve done it when I discovered I had no poop bags, but it was not something I would want to do regularly. I did use compostable bags, though. They were plenty thick enough, never tore, and I did have the occasion to use one (with no poop) into my kitchen compost bin and saw that it had started to break down when I brought the bin out.
I also use compostable trash bags so they will at least break down quickly in the landfill.
I meticulously go through old used paper (old documents, envelopes, junk mail) and cut out any small blank parts and keep them for grocery lists/notes/quick sketches. Recycling paper that's not fully written all over freaks me out. Not super weird, but my process of squatting on the floor surrounded by my menagerie of papers kind of is 😂
My mum had to use terry cloth diapers for me when I was a baby as I had sensitive skin even back then. For my books, there are 2 bookstores close by that I can trade them in for a store credit.
I reuse clear plastic cups for my plants. They grow my plant cuttings beautifully and can be used for seedlings in the spring.
For new parents, if you have easy access to a washing machine, consider cloth diapering at least some of the time. You don't need to be all or nothing about it but I found that more often than not it was easy and relatively painless to cloth diaper. There are many great options for the actual diapers. Plus you will save money and help the environment 🌿
👏👏👏 so true 😁. I think that if you have more than one kid in diapers at the same time it will be tricky, but I agree with you, even if you do it just part time it's still way better than nothing 😊. Apparently it's also healthier for baby boys as disposable diapers keep the testicles too warm which is not good for fertility as adults.
Zero waste is utopia, but it's cool to get as close to it as possible.
100% zero waste is impossible in a society not designed for it, but imagine if everyone was just a little more mindful?
your last tips got me thinking about navigating the social space, by the way. I try, but am very far from perfect in my own private life when it comes to sustainability, but I do try to improve myself. But especially in a social setting, it gets more difficult. How to live your values, without alienating yourself or others, or creating so much opposition that it has an adverse effect?
I think it would be very interesting to have a conversation about that. My own view is that I want to bring sustainability into the social setting in a way where it inspires other people, not to a point where people get so annoyed by it that they are even less likely to incorporate it in their own lives.
For example; we organized a local running event, and that creates quite a bit of waste. I did try to limit it a little (borrowing starting numbers from other runs for example), but also knew that to make it really sustainable, the measures would be unacceptable for the other organizers. So we did for example use carton cups for handing out water, but I did take the used cupes home, and use them as seedling starters for the next few years. love to hear how other people deal with such situations.
Just a comment on the party situation: I honestly can't even remember the last time I went to a party where the hosts used plastic cups.
The last three big parties we hosted, we used the council's party crockery, glasses and cutlery service: anyone can borrow these for free, as long as they are returned clean and dry. You pay a very minimal fee for any broken items. I think it's a great idea and an attemt by the council's waste management to cut down on waste that can easily be avoided.
For weddings and very big dos, they even offer a trailer that holds the crockery etc as well as a washing machine
We live in Nürnberg, Germany
That's awesome 👍😊. I used to live in South Africa and the bigger chain liquor stores would also hire out glasses at a very cheap price, you would collect them, use them, wash them and return them. Much nicer to drink out of a glass cup than a plastic one 😊
never heard of it. also from Nuremberg.
Forgot to post that no plastic bag from the grocery store lives only one life. It is re-used in our wastebasket which means we never buy bin liners. If we have a particular messy situation we contain it in one of those bags so the trash man never gets an unpleasant surprise. So many things take so little effort and time, but the ability to think creatively. I cut my husband’s hair out on the deck and brush it into the grass where birds and animals can use it or it will naturally go back into the soil. He has short hair. Not sure if long hair is good or bad though.
When I was in college in 1979, we would go to the football games and after the game, we would collect all the plastic cups that people had left behind. Then we would reuse them at our house for any parties we had.
3:49 ❤ Well when I go for my walks, I’ll pick up off the landscape bags , shipping packaging, bags and resealable bags to reuse as trash bags at home and on the road. (using what already was available) . Yes I do find unused “pet bags “ too which I give to other dog owners. Reduces new , reuse what’s already made and does save some money buying new. Pick up banana peels and reCoveR the resource to help plants and gardens grow. Take CaRe folks
In Poland there's a company that sells reusable trash bags, they donate some % of every sold one to Wild Animal Treatment and Rehabilitation Center. I know that you could use anything as reusable garbage bag, but this is a nice idea.
I used reusable dipers with my child, and our trick was to not start using single use once so we're not making that big of a change 😅It took some time to find the kind that worked best for us (there are so many solutions available, it's great!).
I also use reusable feminine higen products and I love it! It took me some time to find best for me, but I wouldn't change it for anything else, there's no comming back 😅
When you talked about gift wrapping heritage I thought about my Grandmother, and her ways of saving water / resources / money, that are normal to me; like reusing gift wraps, saving water from washing wegetables to water plants, not throwing away food etc.
And with zero waste it helps if people around you are supportive and share at least some of the same values.
I use the soap in the stocking thing attached to the outside tap so I can wash hands when gardening etc. I also use shop paper bags for gift wrapping. I keep gift wrap given to me and cut out shapes to glue to the paper bags to cover logos. People think I’m odd but I don’t care
I really enjoy these videos. In regards to reusables, I usually wrap mine in a cloth napkin/tea towel, that way I have something to wipe things up if I spill something and I don´t just have dirty cutlery floating around in my bag ;). While I am pretty good at remembering to take it out to clean, I often sometimes forget to throw away the trash I collected while out and about. So sometimes I run around with receipts in my pocket for weeks, that aren´t mine or an empty pack of cigarettes I picked up somewhere because I simply forgot it was there 😂😅
I love scrapbooking so I use used gift wrapping in my journals. Also I use some things that are considered “trash” in journaling, like old magazines, clothes tags or even plastic packaging.
I also don’t throw any paper away until I write on it on both sides, and by any paper I mean old notebooks + different clutter I get from mail + any paper or cupboard packaging + any scrap paper that enters my home. I’ve been doing this since middle school, not because I was a zero waster but because it hurts to throw out perfectly good materials.
1. We save our zip top bags we get with food, instead of buying zip top bags. We also save the non zip top ones.
2. When having a party, we use our regular plates/glasses/cutlery. We've been using reusable napkins for years, and I had a set made for guests.
3. We use a clothes drying rack in addition to our electric dryer.
4. We save reuseable containers we get from takeout, for guests to use when they're taking leftovers from our house.
I'm disabled so it's not always wise for me to expend the energy, but when I'm able to I actually enjoy picking up the litter that I see. I like to go for a walk with a bag and gloves, and pick up all the litter that I notice. It actually becomes quite a mindful and satisfying activity. Picking up the rubbish that I notice is much less depressing that noticing it and not picking it up.
The thing about reusable toilet paper is you’ve already rinsed off with water so it’s really just drying your butt same as your towel after a shower. I have a wire basket and I throw it in with laundry about every other day. It’s not gross at all.
When I give a gift, I usually use a brown paper bag and tie the ‘tag’ to the handle as a card. But the tag is a part of the invitation. I’m sure in more zero waste friend circles there is no invitation, but I usually get one for baby/bridal showers and such.
Going through peoples skips or trash items on the side of the road 👀 there are so many treasures that people get rid of…. I’ve had bidets installed on all my toilets at home and my husband just washes then let’s it dry naturally, it’s surprising how many guests love them too. ❤
One thing that has always stuck with me is when my mum bought plastic mickey mouse cups for a birthday party. They were the kind that were meant to be only used once, but she washed them up after the party and we used them for several parties! I remember thinking that was strange, but now I would do the exact same thing (but probably with glass jars).
I also use reusable toilet paper. I have a bidet, so usually there's nothing really dirty about it. Also, this reusable toilet paper was once pajamas that I cut into small pieces.
I do a weird zero waste thing. I poop into a bucket and do humanure composting. Our household flushes the toilet like maybe once a month, just to refill the bowl because the water evaporates out if we never use it.
My mum told that she used a lot of cloth dippers when I was little, mainly because disposable dippers weren't very much popular in 90s Poland. But I heard that some people are using cloth dippers mainly at home and using the disposable when they leave, travel etc.
My grandparents used to always give gifts in all kinds of packages that they had accumulated over the years. So every year you would get a different random package but the content was always a pair of lovely, homemade mittens or woollen socks with a few bank notes hidden inside them.
I have the exact same gift bag situation with my cousin. For years now we have been using the same one bag to give each other birthday gifts. It ripped a bit, but we taped it and it’s still going strong. It’s a tradition now! 😅
I''ll be upcycling my 50th Anniversary Hello Kitty clothes tag for a bookmark!
I always carry a little potty bag to pick up trash while I'm walking, and I dump it and I always try to reuse the potty bag after! Love it!
I have been known to gather party trash for reusing, too. Solo cups are often recommended to start seedlings in for your garden, but I hate to think of people buying them just because they are the right size to start a plant in? What about cottage chees or yogurt tubs? Here in the US, especially out in the country areas, you almost can't avoid waste, but you can figure out reuses. Maybe someday we will have more earth-friendly options......
I reuse large yogurt tubs as pots for plants and they work better than regular ceramic pots.
That chanel bag gift wrap thing with your mom is the cutest. If my mom were still alive i think i would have a tradition like that. Ive cloth diapered both my kids, i will say it desensitized me to the thought of cloth toilet paper. Something weird i do is use a water bottle as my bidet. Ive been using the same bottle for about a year and half now. The cloth toilet paper is usually just used for drying since the water does most of the work
In regards to the poopy bags. You can do it with out having to get “too close”.
I collect bread bags and any other bags from my parents who are not quite onboard when it comes to using cloth bags when buying bread.
At in one hand and a good size A4 piece of news paper in the other. Scoop it up, wrap it and into the bag it goes. Unless it’s a plastic bag l do not reuse the bag. If plastic possibly/maybe/perhaps.
Non-paper-toilet-paper: yes for yellow, noses and tears, no for the unemotional. But that’s just me.
Cloth diapers: loved it, but only after we got a couple of woollen diaper pans still containing the natural layer of lanolin. They keep everything warm contrary to ex. plastic or rubber pans, avoid serious leaks and everything can breathe. But it only works if you rinse them when really dirty and wash in a lanolin soap. And yes, they do have to be charged more often than the plastic ones.
We got SO MANY baby shower specific gift bags when we had our 1st kid. Anyone who comes over and takes home leftovers gets free jars that the food is packed in (another thing we just have so much of) and they take it home conveniently packed up in a baby gift bag
Great idea - I still have bags from my showers in 2011!!
During Covid cutlery came in cardboard sleeve, including serviettes, and many cafes still do this. I collect the paper sleeves and decorate. They are perfect size to slip in a handmade bookmark or small chocolate bar as Christmas gift. I also bring home unused serviettes and compost. Sometimes waitresses try and clear them away and look strangely at me when I say no. Friends have gotten to know and pass their paper waste to me. My logic is the restaurant can’t afford to separate/sort their waste, but I can take ownership.
Thank you for your inspiration :) I am also that person who always takes trash from parties and weekends where there is no ability to separate trash...also in my office i have one drawer under the desk for my trash to bring it home and recycle and sometimes I also takes trash from another poeple secretly :D
We put a composting toilet in our new build and it freaks adults out. Kids, on the other hand, love it!
I have one, too, because I’m completely off grid. I think it’s lovely, but I miss having a bidet.
@@Shetooktothewoods yes that is one thing you can't use with a composting toilet. I love it, wouldn't go back now!
Our family has a gift box from a store that no longer exists but it has become the family game to see who gets it on Christmas!
I LOVE that 😍
I used to forget to wash my reusable travel coffee mug all the time, but I made a habit of washing it at the end of my work day so it was always clean in the morning when I didn't have the energy/brain processing to clean it
Just remembered some more: I made a sketchbook/calendar/notebook out of a couple of those metal prong fasteners and paper from the recycling bin (envelopes, unused parts of lined paper, the backs of printed paper, brown paper packaging, etc. and some graph paper I thrifted). Also I reuse my floss picks- I have a retainer that already needs to be sanitized each day, so I just keep the flosser in the sanitizing liquid until it can't be used anymore.
I had a birthday party for a messenger bag I bought when it turned 20! It had glue, duct tape, safety pins and a new strap but why not be proud of making something last? It’s a weird zero waste habit that I hope catches on.
These are great! I loved the gift bag story. My mum and I have a gift bag that we've been passing back and forth for over a decade!
think number #1 is a pretty accurate predictor for households w/out IBS/Crohn's 😀
Totally agree !! I have Ulcerative Colitis and need to use toilet paper
Yeah.... 🙁 It's all about picking your battles, and I'm taking the L on that one!
A portable/travel bidet was cheap and really cut down on the TP use. I re-use paper towels, but mostly use old hand towels/rags that I keep in a nice basket on my kitchen counter. I crocheted “sponges” that I can bleach/wash and haven’t bought a sponge in years. Food waste gets composted. I love the video and comments for new sustainability ideas.
I take home all the red soda cups. Wash them very very well and we use them for other get-togethers so they are not just sitting around these plastic cups I am so so inspired. I can't say enough about your channel. I love following you in love seeing all your content I was looking forward to all your videos. Thank you,❤❤❤❤
I've done a few of these.
I on and off use family cloth.
I on and off use unpaper towels and cleaning rags.
I use fabric as gift wrapping. I save disposable gift bags and disposable gift wrap and ribbon and bows.
I have recycled the plastic cups and soda cans and red bull/monster cans and glass bottles at a party but also just in my daily life.
I have used the old water from my dog's water bowl to water my plants.
Just before someone starts their shower, I sometimes fill up a bottle of water or a bowl of water or whatever and I use that water to wash my hands, brush my teeth, wash my face, whatever I need water for that is unavoidable
here's one: my extended family has a tradition of "wedding plastic". once upon a time in the early aughts, somebody bought a bunch of plastic utensils for my eldest cousin's engagement party. not fancy or aesthetic by any means, but clear plastic & sturdier than your average fast food plastic. so when it came time to clean up, one of my aunts decided to put those utensils in the dishwasher & save them for the next big party, rather than throw them away. in the years when so many of my cousins were getting married, it really did become a jokingly-but-real part of the wedding ritual to break out the "good wedding plastic". & tbh it elevates an average family barbecue to know you're eating with the wedding plastic that has blessed so many happy unions, bday parties, etc. yes it's kind of silly, but when i think about how much more trash we would've created over the past 2 decades if my aunt didn't inadvertently start this tradition, considering how much my family likes a celebratory feast...phew!
I don't buy plastic cutlery, glasses or plates but if for some reason some end up in my home, I wash them well with soap and re-use them as many times at they can last. After, I recyle them. I just can't bear that something was made for a single use!
Also, if I buy soap, it has to be authentic green olive oil soap, and the leftover pieces are rinced well then dropped into a glass container with water: without any effort (except shaking it once in a while), this eventually turns into liquid, creamy olive oil soap that can be used for so many things!
Years ago I visited Hong Kong a lot and so saw a lot of people use old newspaper to pick up dog waste. Some even trained their dogs to do it on the newspaper…..
In my family we have never used “post-it” or new paper for quick notes. We use the “paper bin”, basically we pick up a piece of paper that was in our home bin like the cereal cardboard package or the paper-package of tea, and we use them to write notes.
I even use those paper packaging from products to take quick notes in college
We recycle gift bags. We wash and recycle styrofoam. There is a center that's not too close, but my husband will make the trip when he can. I use reusable sanitary/incontinence pads. I make my own. We have a bidet so I DO use small cotton towels that I've cut and serged. I use them mostly for #1. We recycle aluminum cans. I try to use cloth napkins. Luckily we can recycle plastic bags, but we do try to use cloth bags.
All of my family and friends mock me because I take forever opening gifts, but I don't care anymore. I prefer to take my time and unwrap them carefully so I can reuse the paper 🌱
Also shout out to my girlfriend because she doesn't make fun of this and always support my sustainable endeavors
I also use like an individual canfy wrapper as bookmark. Any piece of paper will work to be fair.
I like to crochet gift bags with my yarn scraps for when I give gifts to my family and friends. And sometimes they'll keep them for either gift bags or as a regular bag. I also love to reuse gift wrapping paper and gift bags.
I love it to see your videos and realize: we are not alone - we are a group off people around the world which have some special habbits :D
Ciao!finally first!!!i adore you and your videos!thanx for your contents and thanx for everytime you open my eyes on scams and not-so-zero-waste as people think.I feel less imperfect thanx to you,you let me think"ehy,i can do this,in any case a little is better than nothing".A hug from Sicily
Thank you for being here!💕
I actually thought about reusable tp and I think I would be ok with using it for n1 and keeping disposable tp for n2. However I might have to move to an apartment without a washing machine this year so I'm not going to try anything until I'm sure of if I will move or not!
Compostable poop bags are great for dog poop. If you are reusing plastic bags from the grocery store, you are getting a second use but it still ends up in a landfill. I don't use bags in my bathroom trash cans for the same reason. I just emply the container into my kitchen trash bag before I take it out.
I am in a situation where I can cloth diaper part time, and I personally find it easier. I hate taking out trash and I hate running errands to Costco, but don't mind laundry. Plus, it's a lot less stressful if my kid pees/poops right after I just changed them, no waste! I don't judge people who do disposable though, everyone is in a different circumstance!
that last one would also be helpful to the party host as well. its a win win
I don't think I'll ever totally give up toilet paper, but have been loving my bidet the past 3 years I've had one, and always thought it was a waste to use TP just to dry off after the bidet, and stumbled across reusable 'bidet towels.' I did quite a bit of research, and just this week ordered a roll of bidet towels. I do quite a bit of sewing, so if I like them, I'll probably just use them as a pattern to make more from thrifted flanels.
I bury food scraps of all kinds and some types of paper products in my flower garden. I bury it about a foot down, cover with soil, and then put a few rocks on top to keep animals out. No smell, makes great compost, and no need to maintain a worm farm or gigantic compost pile.
I'll be honest, when I was a temp for a few years I would have a small bottle of dish soap and small dish scrub in my purse to wash my nesting bento boxes. If all else fails, you could just run into the bathroom and quick wash your silverware or whatnot before coming back to the table.
I thrift silk or cotton scarves (instead of table runners like you do) for gift wrapping. There's always also a slightly bigger chance that the person who receives that gift might also want to keep the scarf, especially if it's vintage. Not that there's ever anything wrong with table runners! 😊
on the dog poop one!
my family used to use grocery bags to pick up dog poop, several at a time usually, latley we got a claw scooper and we dump it into a 5 gallon bucket with one larger bag in it. its still a plastic bag, but its much less plastic per poop!
I once took a disposable cup home from a cafe so I could recycle it. Except... When I got home I realised that it had fallen from my bag. I still think about it weekly.
I like to curb dive. I've gotten everything from an expensive rocker snd an office chair and an expensive antique decanter. It amazes me what people throw away when goodwill is a mile away and the vets pick up
I reuse dental floss a few times.
If I have to use a paper towel, I keep it in my pocket and reuse it through the day.
I use cereal bags instead of zip lock and rubber band it.
I use grocery bags for dog poop. And if I don't have any ,I know a million people who have too many.
I make cute, house shaped gift boxes out of pretty colored liquor boxes.
I use no paper products.
Cereal bags last forever. I made cotton sandwich bags, lined with cereal bags probably 15 years ago. They carry lunch items, wrap my cheese and sandwich meats, etc. And then get handwashed with my dishes or thrown in the laundry. Eventually they may tear at the stitching line but they have been great
@@evelynincanada that's brilliant!!
I did cloth diapers with my youngest one, and it was a GAME CHANGER. Loved it. Plus they're adooorable. So much cuter than disposable ones. You already have to do laundry everyday with an infant, might as well fill the machine up with diapers and rags!
And a few years later we sold them to some other new mom who could reuse them!
I use walnut shell based cat litter and compost it. My two cats make a ridiculous amount of compost each month. Unfortunately it takes a long time to cure so I have 5 compost systems - 1 bokashi, 2 tumblers, 2 electric (1 for food waste and 1 for pet waste). The electric compost for pet waste is so important because you have to heat the waste to 160 degrees for cat waste to be properly composted because of diseases carried in their waste. If you do it in the ground it takes 2 years to compost. This system lets me compost it for 1 week in the electric composter then transfer to a tumbler for a few months just to be safe. Then it can be used on decorative plants. My electric composter is also made of recycled materials. It smells so bad though but I can’t believe how much waste I save going to the landfill from these 2 cats alone. I’d like to try worm composting next to see if I can convince them to eat the waste since this would really help speed things along.
I've read that you shouldn't use compost that has fecal matter in it because it can contaminate food grown in it.
9:00 we do not recycle the cups, we reuse them after collecting. The red beer cups are sturdy enough to be reused and washed with a dot of dishsoap. Most of us have a stack of red and blue cups in their window sill by now😂
In my family I am the one who keep the lower waste going in the house . Cloth diapers , cloth pads , cloth napkins and cloth coffee filters (coffee filters are washed by hand) . Coffee filters ones I figured out my routine it be came so simple.
Im using old soaps for washing clothes unstead of washing gel to the washing machine. I cut it, add warm water, wait, and in an hour its a gel 👌
The dividers in boxes of tea bags make good bookmarks to
I reuse synthetic floss. I get a month use out one strand. I carry a bucket and a grabber every walk. I fill it and recycle what is acceptable. I also find unused dog poop bags everyone I walk in a park. I also clean and donate toys, clothing and items I find in parks. I gather a bag a month. I put my daily dish, cup, and cutlery in the fridge to reuse throughout the day. This limits my dishwasher, less water and still safe,
Dumpster diving for sure! Also hitch-hiking when I travel. People usually just assume I have no money. Also I have found an illegal landfill full of clothes. I took some, gave it a good wash (or two) and I always feel so good wearing them, it's like a whole new level of thrifting😅 (the landfill was reported and shut down)
Reusable toilet paper: The ick factor just goes away when you cloth diaper. Like, you're washing poop anyway. That being said, I only use the wipes for pee because adult poop is too far.
I will use anything as a bookmark except actual bookmarks. 😂 Favorites are library receipts (I don't print a checkout receipt, but the holds come with receipts) and prayer cards.
I have definitely found dirty cutlery in my backpack.
Agree - I started reusable toilet paper after cloth diapering. I have a bidet and don't have any issue using for adult #2 either - it's just drying!
@@courtneyparks5157 Yeah, I wouldn't have any issues either if we had a bidet!
If I have a party or get together, I ask for people to bring a cup of their own, or we use my reusable plastic cups or I recycle at my place and I definitely buy compostable dinnerware.
Useful and mindful habits to practice everyday! I feel for you G. may your phone wash ashore and be retrieved before the battery start to leak 😢😊 I capture rain water, so I need a better storage system 🙂
using pricetags as bookmarks made me think of how i use all kinds of leftover paper (oats that are packed in a paperbag, flatbread-paper(knekkebrød) anything thats is wrapped in paper, i reuse as lists for groceryshopping. i also use letters from the bank (very few, but still getting some) doing braindumping on the backside and also the front, in between all the bank-words;) i also use all foodwrappings that are of paper for braindumping(one specific way of journaling)
i use plasticbags the food i buy comes in (no farmers market close to me, and also insanly expensive,waaaay out of my budget to shop at a farmers market ( i live in norway) almost everything is wrapped in plastic, so i tried for a period to only eat food with no plastic. also no zerowasteshops near me, so i ended up only eating potatoes, onions and cabbage, and fruit. and yeah, decided i cant be that zerowaste, so now i use all the plasticbags food comes in. they are often small, which makes me much more aware about the ampunt of trash i make.
I have to wear cloth products as a incontinent adult.
Im happy you covered that topic even if it was more for parents with children :)
Cloth diapers are really sustainable and i hope to see others use them in the future as well