Zero Waste

[tortoise]

For grease stains that won't come out, spray with WD-40 and let set a few minutes. Then treat as a normal fresh grease stain. Usually makes it come right out. Works well on aircraft hydrolic fluid and various aircraft greases. The silicone ones are a pain in the rear to get out.

Not a Zero Waste or green solution, but Super Clean engine degreaser in the purple bottle works great on laundry. just sayin'

 

[Cecilia's-life]

I wonder if there are any unscented laundry bars? Or if regular bar soap would work?

Probably!

 

[Trying2keepitReal]

This is a great thread, we need to work much harder at our house. We have recycling that gets picked up bi-weekly but DH told me that he works with someone that used to work at the garbage company and they dump the recycling in with the normal trash so stupid....

I reuse lots of plastic food containers for leftovers, chicken feeding/scrap collecting, gathering food from the garden and the kids use for paint containers.

I haven't used cardboard in the garden, but I should look into that--I didn't realize that you could. We don't get the paper so no waste there. We do use some paper towels but not a ton.

Lots of scrapes to the chickens as well as their shells. Coffee grounds into the garden as well as banana peels. I want to really get going on composting, that is my goal for spring to get set up.

 

[Hinotori]

OMG thank you most helpful thing I've read all day.

Yeah, something all girls might need. Regular soap makes it stain.

 

[Hinotori]

Not a Zero Waste or green solution, but Super Clean engine degreaser in the purple bottle works great on laundry. just sayin'

Sometimes green just doesn't work for things.

I use Tide because it get most stains out of the clothes and I don't react to it. I react to almost everything else, including all the green laundry detergents.

 

[tortoise]

Sometimes green just doesn't work for things.

I use Tide because it get most stains out of the clothes and I don't react to it. I react to almost everything else, including all the green laundry detergents.

Heck, Tide has free/clean powder in a box. That's zero waste enough for me. I'm assuming the box has a plastic pull tab.

 

[flowerbug]

This is a great thread, we need to work much harder at our house. We have recycling that gets picked up bi-weekly but DH told me that he works with someone that used to work at the garbage company and they dump the recycling in with the normal trash so stupid....

there are a lot of stories like this being passed around and some of them are even true, but it doesn't stop me from recycling because as long as there is a chance that some of what i put in the bins will get reused then it helps for the longer haul.

what is very important is to follow your local trash hauler's descriptions of what they will and won't take.

if temporary conditions come about that they cannot recycle a material they may not have storage space for it so they are forced to dump it in the landfill instead. this isn't what they would want normally as if they could get a good enough price for the materials they'd rather make money than waste it.

what you have to do is evaluate the agenda of people who are spreading the stories and why (much as i do for any topic). often for recycling it comes down to the simple fact that the people don't want to do it, they don't want to change or keep up with how the rules can change, etc. it's often an added expense but they don't want to pay more, etc.

I reuse lots of plastic food containers for leftovers, chicken feeding/scrap collecting, gathering food from the garden and the kids use for paint containers.

I haven't used cardboard in the garden, but I should look into that--I didn't realize that you could. We don't get the paper so no waste there. We do use some paper towels but not a ton.

some cardboards are best to not be used so i recommend to keep it simple and only use the plainest cardboards (unpainted and not coated with plastic or shiny stuff) the less on them the better (for tape and other stuff used to hold them together like those big staples). in the past when i was using a shredder to chop up cardboard some of the stuff i shredded had plastic coatings or even a thin plastic layer between the layers of cardboard and i still have to pick bits of plastic out of the gardens years later. now i don't do that and i don't use those kinds of cardboards so i don't keep adding to the problem. a simple test is to tear a bit of the cardboard to make sure if you think it might be different and if it tears easily then it doesn't have plastic in the middle. it's pretty rarely done on the plainest cardboards so it is only a worry when you're trying to break down the odd boxes that show up around the holidays and such.

for composting paper scraps the same kind of approach works. anything fancy is best avoided, some color or shiny print stocks are better left to the trash or recycling that is going to the waste haulers. simple things like craft papers, thin box cardstock and office papers are usually ok, but the less bleached or processed the better. i mix all my paper shreddings into the worm buckets and eventually the worms will break it all down, but i mix it with food scraps and other things like bean pods and anything else that is actually more plant derived and unprocessed to make sure there is some diversity in the food source. fungi, bacteria and the soil community can cope with it. they don't cope well with plastics.

Lots of scrapes to the chickens as well as their shells. Coffee grounds into the garden as well as banana peels. I want to really get going on composting, that is my goal for spring to get set up.

it's fun to figure things out.

 

[flowerbug]

i reuse only certain plastic containers as the more of those we keep around the less that is getting recycled. i try to limit them to the kinds that will stack together (to save on space) and those we'll use for sure. otherwise off to the recycling place they go.

my main response to plastic is to avoid it as much as possible or to recycle it. because naturally plastics are not edible to worms or the soil community. so if it is in the soil it's taking up space but not contributing much at all to the nutrient cycling. if plastics are left out in the sun they'll often start getting brittle and breaking into smaller pieces but it will still take quite a long time before they're broken down completely. better instead to recycle it.

 

[Marie2020]

As for soap...

I've been buying a soap called friendly,

I have everything in this. Soap shampoo even my washing powder is made from their soaps and its it's fine I add a little bicarbonate soda in for tougher stains.

The good thing is it's not bad for the environment at times I will add essential oils too my washing machine.
Previously I used organic liquid soap and still do for my animal's

 

[Cecilia's-life]

Anyone have a way to tell people you only want sustainable baby toys, such as wood and cotton toys? I just can't stand the plastic.