Let’s get this out of the way, the idea that individuals can save the earth by recycling and buying ‘sustainable’ products is, at least in part, a myth. Without corporations changing their processes and methods our individual efforts will not do enough to make a difference to future generations. That aside, I think it is good if people try and make a difference in their individual impact on the world by thinking through the items they choose to consume and from what companies they purchase those items.

We would never consider ourselves evangelists of sustainable living at my house. But we have been trying to examine our consumption of goods produced in our highly consumptive, industrial, and exploitative goods system. Our examination hit on many points, not all of which were strictly about waste. We started paying attention to ingredient labels on lotions, soaps, and shampoo to reduce the amount of petroleum products we were using and putting on our bodies. This was a natural extension of our long standing attempt to avoid preservative laden food at the supermarket. Of course, we made some changes there as well, like giving up on pre-shredded cheese (self shredded cheese melts and tastes so much better!).

The adoption of these changes was slow. It didn’t make any sense to throw out a bunch of lotion and soap that we already had if we were also trying to reduce the amount of waste we created. The same went for light bulbs that we slowly switched to LED. We did eventually adopt shampoo bars and reverted to bar soap from shower gel in order to reduce the amount of plastic bottles that get ‘thrown-out’ in our recycling bin. Now we are turning our attention to so called single use items, or items that exist only to be used and thrown out. The premier culprits being things like paper plates, plastic utensils, paper towels, napkins, and disinfectant wipes.

I thought I’d do a round of little steps we have taken over time to get to a more natural household that creates a little less waste. Maybe it can be of use, in case you are interested and don’t know where to start.

1. Food: A longstanding order in my house is against any food waste. This means trying our hardest not to overbuy, remaking left-overs, cooking and freezing for later, whatever needs to be done to make the food last until we put it in our mouths and not the garbage. Throwing food out makes me physically ill. My reaction is a bit dramatic, but it has been drummed into me since childhood by my single working mother.
2. Soap: My bathtub re-finisher recommended shower gel instead of bar soap because it rinsed cleaner on the tub surface, thereby not causing build-up that would require scrubbing when it was time to clean. Scrubbing, you see, would shorten the life of the finish. But….it’s harder to find shower gel free of surfectants and petroleum products than it is to find bar soap free of the stuff. And even harder to find shower gel in something other than plastic bottles. The soap and shampoo bars I buy are wrapped in paper, which, even if it were not recyclable, is a tiny amount of packaging compared to a plastic bottle.
3. Clothes: In the internet bubble the I play in, fast fashion is news. The fashion industry consumes massive amounts of raw materials, participates in the exploitation of poor communities, and creates massive amounts of waste. Consumers of fast fashion contribute a little to this waste as well by buying clothes that are not meant to last and disposing of them after a season or two. Even if disposing of clothes for many people means giving the materials to charity to be repurposed by others, there has been a documented imbalance in the amount of clothes cast off to charity or thrift shops compared to the amount of clothes consumed in those shops by other people. I’ve been guilty of this, making up my piles of donation after a yearly clean-out of my house, and then buying something new from a chain store. So now, whenever we need clothes, we go to the thrift store. We also have a rotating mending pile where I try and make our things last as long as possible.
4. Paper: I am a tree lover. I hate driving through what once was forested country to see it leveled for a new town-home development. Watching Aerial America and seeing the scars of the logging industry or mining made me truly sad. Yet, I love paper, books, blank journals, and sketchbooks – which I fill on a regular basis. I sought balance by switching my toilet paper to bamboo from an awesome company that also diverts its profits and interest to building toilets in toilet deprived areas of the world: Who Gives a Crap. I reuse my toilet rolls as seed starter containers for my gardening, and all the paper that comes to my house as packing padding will get re-used as gift wrap or something or other. Yes, I am just like that grandma or aunt you hear of. We have recently also given up paper towels in favor of re-usable cloth toweling that sits on our same old paper towel holder in the kitchen. We do not buy disposal dishes or napkins, but the napkins that come with our takeout do get used before they are thrown out.
5. Plastic: We are lucky enough to have recycling pick-up in our neighborhood, but we can never be too sure that what we sort out to be recycled ever actually gets recycled, so the solution is to minimize the plastic we bring into the house as much as possible, especially disposable plastic like grocery bags, which we have replaced with reusable canvas bags, plastic utensils, and cling wrap.

Readings on the Myths of Sustainability

1. Sullivan, Laura (2020) How Big Oil Misled The Public Into Believing Plastic Would Be Recycled. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2020/09/11/897692090/how-big-oil-misled-the-public-into-believing-plastic-would-be-recycled
2. Dunnaway, Finis (2017) The “Crying Indian” Ad That Fooled the Environmental Movement. Zocalo Public Square. https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2017/11/09/crying-indian-ad-fooled-environmental-movement/ideas/essay/
3. Lerner, Sharon (2019) Waste Only: How the Plastics Industry is Fighting to Keep Polluting the World. The Intercept. https://theintercept.com/2019/07/20/plastics-industry-plastic-recycling/
4. Lemonick, Michael (2009) Top 10 Myths about Sustainability. Scientific American. https://people.chem.ucsb.edu/feldwinn/darby/greenworks/Top%2010%20Myths%20about%20Sustainability.pdf

Readings on Ingredients to Avoid in Skin Care

Admittedly these are less prestigious and scholarly venues for information. There is also a lot of information out there that talks of the benefits of petroleum jelly and mineral oil when used in skin care. I fully internalized the information in these articles because it jived nicely with my pre-existing goals to consume foods that were the most natural and had easy to pronounce ingredients. It made sense that I should do the same with my skin care. It is important to seek out all the information before making a decision on what is right for you, so don’t take my word for it.

1. Bronner, Lisa (2019) 12 Personal Care Ingredients to Avoid. Going Green. October 15, 2019. https://www.lisabronner.com/safety-in-personal-care-products-12-ingredients-to-know-avoid/
2. Villett, Michelle (2019) 5 Reasons to Avoid Petroleum and Mineral Oil in Your Skincare. The Skincare Edit. January 25, 2019. https://theskincareedit.com/2014/10/16/petroleum-mineral-oil-skin-products
3. Group, Edward (2016) 19 Chemicals to Avoid in Skin Care – Organic Skin Care. Global Healing. February 18, 2016. https://explore.globalhealing.com/chemicals-to-avoid-in-skin-care-organic-skin-care/

Readings on Recycling

1. Serratos, Pricila (2020) The Truth Behind Recycling. Office of Sustainability – Student Blog. May 4, 2020. https://usfblogs.usfca.edu/sustainability/2020/05/04/the-truth-behind-recycling/
2. Taddonio, Patrice (2020) Plastics Industry Insiders Reveal the Truth About Recycling. Frontline. March 31, 2020. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/plastics-industry-insiders-reveal-the-truth-about-recycling/
3. Kuhfal, Simone (2021) Truth in Recycling. Sierra Club Angeles Chapter. June 7 2021. https://angeles.sierraclub.org/news_conservation/blog/2021/06/truth_in_recycling