Tag Archives: Trash

How to Fly Without Creating an Ounce of Trash

Air travel and?eco-conscious living are two things not often discussed together. It’s next to impossible to justify the vast amounts of fuel burned when flying and the airline industry is notorious for its wastefulness.

That said, traveling the globe is a part of modern day life. Sometimes, taking an airplane is simply unavoidable. Hopping a flight or two this year? Here are some personal steps you can take to minimize wastefulness.

When you pack

  1. Aim for solid beauty products in zero waste packaging. Think tooth powder, bars of soap, and solid shampoos and conditioners.
  2. Bring multipurpose products. For example, you can use baking soda as a toothpaste, deodorant and laundry detergent!
  3. Avoid buying or bringing disposables like q-tips and plastic razors. There are lots of better zero waste options out there.
  4. Pack a capsule wardrobe built around the essentials. Mix and match, launder frequently-worn items and hang them to dry.

When you arrive at the airport

  1. Bring only a carry-on. Checked bags automatically cause paper waste as they require sticker tags, which cannot be recycled.
  2. Go totally paperless. Download your airline, bus, train and metro line’s travel apps. They’ll allow you to purchase and display tickets from your phone!
  3. Refuse all paper receipts. They’re covered in carcinogenic BPA (gross!) and generate trash you don’t want.
  4. Stash TSA-approved snacks ahead of time so you won’t be tempted to shell it out for a bag of chips in the airport.

When you board

  1. Use your own earbuds to enjoy entertainment so you don’t end up having to purchase or use their plastic disposables.
  2. Say no to straws, napkins and free snacks. Airlines do not recycle! Instead, enjoy your own pre-packed snacks and fill your bottle before you get on the plane.
  3. Bring digital entertainment, rather than buying magazines. Any smartphone should have the capability to download TV shows or books ahead of time.
  4. Set a good example. The more people get used to seeing zero waste behavior around them, the more they’ll be likely to join the movement!

When you land

  1. Choose to carbon offset your flight. It won’t stop global warming, but it’s the best option you have for retroactively reducing your carbon footprint.
  2. Eat at sit-down restaurants rather than fast food joints, and use real plates and silverware.
  3. Carry a lightweight utensil set, to-go container and bottle so that you never have to use plastic disposables for street food while you travel.
  4. Eat and drink local as much as possible. Businesses that strive to source local produce will have a smaller carbon footprint and likely have more sustainable items on offer.
  5. Walk as much as possible. This will help you avoid?unnecessary transport tickets and receipts.
  6. Be mindful of your consumption in hotels. Don’t let your towels and linens be laundered without cause, keep the heat or AC down, and refuse single-use tea bags, water bottles and snacks.

Remember: easy changes like this can make a huge difference in the long run. Be mindful, act intentionally and you’ll be able to fly without creating trash, promise. Have a good flight!

Related Stories:

How to Lead a Nearly Zero Waste Life
How to Keep a Zero Waste Pet
How to Keep Your Holiday Shopping Zero Waste

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

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How to Fly Without Creating an Ounce of Trash

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3 Ways a Zero Waste Lifestyle Can Improve Your Health

When my husband and I first started going zero waste, we did so to lessen our environmental footprint and reduce the trash we were sending to landfill. But over time?the reasons for?our zero waste lifestyle have only increased. Today, we also do it for our health!

Health Threats Associated with Garbage

Trash is?more than just an eyesore. It actually poses a real threat to our bodies. Landfills emit toxic gasses like ammonia and sulfides, causing short-term health effects like headaches,?trouble sleeping, lung irritation, and even chest pain.

Landfills also contaminate our clean groundwater ? the primary water source for more than 50% of the entire population of the United States. And last but not least, landfills emit serious amounts of greenhouse gasses including both methane and carbon dioxide. Those food scraps leftover from dinner will?cause damage long after you toss them in the trash.

And that’s just the health dangers associated with landfills. What about what’s going on at home? Plastic, one of the world’s preferred materials for everything from plastic wrap to kids’ toys, also poses a serious threat to our health:

“Exposure to harmful chemicals during manufacturing, leaching in the stored food items while using plastic packages or chewing of plastic teethers and toys by children are linked with severe adverse health outcomes such as cancers, birth defects, impaired immunity, endocrine disruption, developmental and reproductive effects etc.”

This isn’t just a landfill issue, people. This is about your lungs, your skin, and your cells. Is the convenience of a plastic water bottle really worth that?

A Zero Waste Lifestyle and Health

When I first heard these facts my mind was changed. It was time to ban garbage and?as many plastics as possible from our lives. Just one year later, we are nearly trash-free and our health has never been better. Here are some of the ways that living a zero waste lifestyle has improved our health and can improve yours, too!

1. Less plastic, less exposure.

Of the 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic that has ever been produced, 6.3 billion metric tons has become plastic waste. Of that, only nine percent has been recycled; so, the vast majority is accumulating in landfills. Waste. Trash.?Garbage. When you start making an effort to cut down on plastic use, you also naturally cut down on the amount of plastic you encounter in your daily life. Plastic water bottles? You don’t use them. Plastic forks? You don’t use them. Plastic bags? You don’t need them; you have your own canvas one instead!

When you go zero waste, you encounter plastics less frequently.

2. Processed foods are a no go.

Most zero wasters do their shopping at farmer’s markets, food co-operatives, and bulk stores whenever possible. This means we mostly eat fresh, whole foods, completely free from packaging.

What does this have to do with health? It comes down to processing: fresh, unprocessed foods get eaten?in their natural state before they go bad; processed foods last longer and can be bought packaged, but come with a laundry list of unpronounceable ingredients. When you’re avoiding trash, you avoid?boxed, wrapped, and bagged processed foods as well.

When you go zero waste, you naturally eat a more nutritious diet.

3. Toiletries and cosmetics are made the natural way.

The vast majority of cosmetic products are packaged?in cute, but totally unrecyclable containers. That plastic mascara tube, shrink-wrapped bar of soap, and disposable razor will just end up in the trash when you’re done with them. No new life in sight!

When you go zero waste,?arrowroot powder replaces your aerosol dry shampoo, you invest in a stainless steel razor?that has removable, recyclable blades, and?if you’re brave you start using baking soda as a deodorant. No waste. No clutter. No chemicals.

When you go zero waste, you eliminate chemical products too.


?How do you keep harmful?materials out of your life??

Related at Care2

8 Scary Hidden Ingredients in Processed Food
How Going Zero Waste has Made Me a Better Person
How to Store Vegetables without Plastic

Image credits: Thinkstock, main image from Unsplash

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

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3 Ways a Zero Waste Lifestyle Can Improve Your Health

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How to Build a Pull-Out Trash, Recycling and Compost System

The dilemma of how to deal with three separate avenues for trashrecyclables, compost and everything elsehas vexed me for nearly two years now, ever since we moved in to our new home, which had no built-in system. Then last month we found the perfect solutionone that wouldnt cost us several hundred dollars. We built our own pull-out trash, compost and recycling system under our sink.

This system has completely transformed my kitchen. Not only is it now cleaner, less cluttered and easier to work in, but the system has helped my family compost and recycle more and throw away less.

The inspiration

I had always looked at other peoples ingenious hidden trash systems with envy. Being able to hide the trash away, plus having everything in easy access from the prep/cleaning area seemed like a perfect solution. No more carrying dripping items from the sink across the kitchen to the bin, or sorting trash from compost treasure over the bin, then traipsing back to the sink to deposit in my countertop compost bin.

However, when I investigated buying a purpose built system to install, I balked at the price tag: anywhere from $200 to $800 depending on the type of containers and hardware you used. But I was determined, so I cleared out the area under our sink and assessed how much room we had to create a DIY solution for our needs.

Once we sat down to really think about how to do this, and after researching the more expensive options and how they worked, my husband determined he could build a small drawer in the cupboard to fit the trash can and compost bin, then attach it to the cabinet door so that when we opened the cupboard the drawer with the trash cans in it would pull out too. Simple, inexpensive and truly useful!

Heres how we built our under-the-sink trash/compost/recycling station for under $100.

Supplies

One 4 x 2 x 4 pine plank
One 61 x 6 pine common board
Small pine shelving panel
2 shelf brackets
Soft-close drawer slide
7-gallon trash can
Enviro Handy Bin
Small over the door container

Tools

Kreg jig
Drill
Paint brush
Miter saw (but any saw will do)

Our under-sink area before we built the system

First, we cleared out all the under the sink clutter that had accumulated. A lot of people might think they cant possibly put a trash can under the sink because they have so much stuff under there already. But have a good look through it and ask yourself, how handy does this stuff really need to be? What you use every day will probably fit in a small container that can tuck away at the back and be easily accessible when you pull out the recycle bin. What you dont use regularly can go in an out-of-the-way cabinet, like the one over the fridge.

Because of our garbage disposal, there wasnt enough room to have two pull-out systems as I had originally hoped. So instead, we decided to do a pull-out drawer for trash and compost on one side and put a sturdy container for the recycling in the other spot. After a lot of research and measuring, I found this awesome Enviro Handy Bin. Its lightweight and the perfect size. Plus, the handles make it easy to take out and empty.

Next we cut our pine plank to size and, using pocket holes created with a Kreg jig, 2.5-inch screws and a drill, attached it to the inside of the cabinet to give us supports for the drawer slides. Then we cleaned up the area with a coat of semi-gloss interior paint.

We then measured the distance between our new side supports and used that for the width of the drawer we needed to build to hold the trash can. We used the length of the side supports, minus a few inches due to the plumbing, for the depth of the drawer.

The next step was to build a three-sided drawer (the cabinet door being the fourth side), using 1 in. x 6 in. pine for the sides and back and a pine shelf for the bottom. We joined it together with pocket holes and 1.25-inch screws.

Next, we attached the drawer to the cabinet door, again with pocket holes and 1.25-inch screws. We also attached two shelf brackets for added support for the door, so there was no danger of the cabinet toppling over.

Finally, we took the soft-close drawer assembly and attached the inside drawer slides to the side of our drawer using a drill and screws. The outside rail went into the cabinet. It is crucial to triple-check your measurements and use a level when installing the drawer assembly, as the slightest variation will cause your drawer to bind.

Then all we needed to do was pop the drawer with attached cabinet door into the drawer slide. A little paint touch-up where the original cabinet hardware was, and the bones of the project was complete.

Next we popped in a seven-gallon trash can and hung a small container with a compost bin liner inserted in it on the inside of the cabinet door for our compost. (We dont need a large compost bin, as we have chickens and most of our food scraps go to them.) The Enviro Bin went on the left-hand side for the recycling, and we had a complete under-the-sink system.

Having all three trash avenues in close proximity to one another and, most crucially the sink, has made us much more efficient at trash disposal. Its easy to give recyclables a quick wash before going in the bin, and having the trash and compost bin right next to each other makes it a snap to separate the good from the bad. As a reminder for the family, Ive also put a sign explaining what cant go into the recycle and compost bins on the inside of the cabinet door.

So far it has worked wonderfully, and while we do have to take out the trash a little more frequently than we did when we had a 20-gallon bin in the middle of the kitchen, its not as often as Id thought. The convenience of the system means far less ends up in the bin destined for the landfill!

Written by Jennifer Tuohy

Jennifer Tuohy is an avid recycler and an energy efficiency advocate who lives in Charleston, S.C. Jennifer writes on all her home projects for The Home Depot. To review storage bins which could be utilized in your own home recycling system, you can visitHome Depot.

Photo Credit: Jennifer Tuohy

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

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How to Build a Pull-Out Trash, Recycling and Compost System

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How to Lead a Nearly Zero-Waste Life

Last winter, a video started circling the internet that covered how a young woman, Lauren Singer (blog here), has been able to decrease her trash output to the point that her two years of garbage can be kept in a single mason jar.

That’s impressive. A little shocking, even. How is that even possible?

Lauren is a part of a growing trenddubbed the Zero Waste movement — a slowly growing practice that empowersparticipants to produce no garbage and ultimately preventit from entering landfills where it may do irreparable harm to theplanet.

Exploring Zero Waste

The philosophy of Zero Waste is two-fold. First, it requires people to find alternatives to their transient, wasteful habits by prioritizingcreativity and longevity. Second, it encourages the practice of minimalism: learning to live with less and ultimately want for less.

This isn’t exactly a new concept. Countless religions and philosophies encourage contentedness and urge us away from the greed that clutters our lives with stuff. Stuff gets in the way of real life and a lot of the time harms the living things around us, earth included.

Ryan and Joshua, founders of The Minimalists (a blog centered on minimalism and secondarily zero waste) say on their website, “Minimalism allows us to focus on what’s important in life — health, relationships, passion, growth and contribution — so we can find happiness fulfillment and freedom.”

Lauren Singer says something similar, but from the Zero Waste perspective: “I wanted to lessen my impact, so I started my Zero Waste journey. This is when I really decided that I not only needed to claim to love the environment, but actuallylive like I love the environment.” She calls this value-based living.

Taking Steps Toward Zero Waste

Bea Johnson of Zero Waste Home, could be considered the one who beganit all for modern audiences. Her 5R Guidelines: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Rot (in that order) are the foundation of her approach to Zero Waste.She says:

“Refuse what you do not need; reduce what you do need; reuse what you consume; recycle what you cannot refuse, reduce, or reuse; and rot (compost) the rest.”

Here’s what all of that looks like in practice:

1. Refuse anything that will ultimately end up in the trash. Plastic water bottles? Refuse. Pre-packaged foods? Refuse. Disposable shopping bags? Refuse. Paper towels? Refuse.

2. Cut down on junk mail.Rather than sorting your mail and instantly dumping the rejects into the recycling bin, make an effort to cancel the mail altogether. Just cancel the mailings! It saves everyone in the long run.

3. Use reusable everything, and less of it!Don’t fall prey to the convenience factor. Make it a habit to always bring a reusable shopping bag to the store. Use cloth bags and glass jars for bulk grocery items. Limit your wardrobe to the items you truly adore and that fit you right now.

4. Don’t give in to future-based hoarding.If you have a tendency to purchase and hold onto things for the sake of preparedness, now is the time to cut it out.Can you purchase the item secondhand to prevent waste and manufacturing? Can you borrow it from a friend? Can you donate your old things to someone else in need? Do you remember the last time you used it?

5. Compost (or r0t) excess food bits.Find a large container appropriate for composting, that is aesthetically pleasing and as convenient as possible. Peel fruits and veggies straight into your bin, discard table scrappings and scrap into the bin before loading your dishwasher. It should be odorless and easy to maintain!

Whatsolutions have you found that help you to create less garbage and waste? What in this article really struck home for you? Let us know in the comments!

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

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How to Lead a Nearly Zero-Waste Life

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7 Brilliant Uses for Leftover Produce Scraps

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7 Brilliant Uses for Leftover Produce Scraps

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Green Legacy Eco-Friendly Tall Kitchen Trash Bags – 60 Bags/Box

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Check Out These Vintage Photos of New York City’s 1970s Punk Playground

Mother Jones

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Two notable recent books from Glitterati Incorporated take readers deep into New York City’s 1970s punk underground. Playground: Growing Up In the New York Underground by Paul Zone, with Jake Austin (of Roctober fame!), features photos and firsthand accounts from a foot soldier in the rock and roll wars waged in the city’s now infamous clubs, including Max’s Kansas City and CBGB. White Trash Uncut, meanwhile, comes out of Andy Warhol’s factory scene and, as you might expect, takes an artier look at the New York scene.

Given that my tastes tend more towards the Ramones/Dead Boys/Dictators and less Warhol/Waters, Playground hits a real sweet spot. Zone’s photos pull back the curtain on that time and place in a way few other books on the ’70s NYC scene have done. Sure, you get plenty of (mediocre) performance photos. But that isn’t why you’re here. Where Playground shines is in its casual photos of friends—famous and not—behind-the-scenes, after hours and off guard, almost 240 pages of them. It also brings John Holstrom’s awesome oral history of the early New York punk scene, “Please Kill Me,” to life. It’s a perfect companion.

With the recent passing of Tommy Elderly/Ramone, Playground is particularly timely. It’s an exciting visual romp through a unique period in the history of rock and roll. Looking through the photos, it’s hard not to notice how many of the people featured have died, many way before their prime: drugs (too many to list), AIDS (which also took Zone’s brother, Miki), cancer (three of the original Ramones) and weird car crashes (Stiv Bators). How the hell are all the Stones still alive and the Ramones all dead? Here are some samples from that book:

Sylvain Sylvain, Johnny Thunders, and Jerry Nolan (New York Dolls) at Max’s. (August 1973)

Tish and Snooky at Manic Panic on St. Marks Place (1978)

Debbie Harry (Blondie) at Max’s. (1975)

Dee Dee Ramone and Connie Gripp in Max’s kitchen. (1975)

Wayne County at the Coventry, in Queens. (1973)

Crayola at Max’s. (1977)

Originally published in 1977, White Trash Uncut, by Andy Warhol Factory devotee and one time Interview staff photographer Christopher Makos, quickly went out of print and became something of a collector’s item. Finally reprinted, the book consists of a mix of artier photos—close-ups of body parts and portraits of players in the art and music scenes, focusing on that point of intersection between the two in venues like Max’s Kansas City. It leans heavy on photos of the well-known, if not outright famous: Richard Hell, Andy Warhol, Mick Jagger, the Dead Boys, Debbie Harry, Grace Jones, David Bowie, Divine, Man Ray, John Waters, Marilyn Chambers and plenty other luminaries of that era. The reprint includes 25 photos not included in the original book. Here’s a sampling:

Punk rock fans, New York City.

David Bowie in Los Angeles.

Divine and John Waters

A hustler, posing. (Jeans by Fiorruci, Milan.)

Earring by Gillette.

The two books go well together, together giving a representative look at the intersection of music, art, scene-making, fashion, hustling, and hanging out that made the early New York City punk scene so indelible.

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Check Out These Vintage Photos of New York City’s 1970s Punk Playground

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