Reduce and reuse

[Tradd]

Since recycling locally isn’t available to me (see other thread), I’m trying to reduce and reuse.

Just got back from grocery shopping. All veggies and fruit were bought loose, no plastic packaging, and also didn’t get plastic bags to corral each type together. Just loose.

Milk in a reusable glass container - we have the Oberweis Dairy locally. Milk can be bought at the local grocery chains, as well as Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh. Bottle deposit is $2, going up to $3, I was told at Jewel. Oberweis also had a chain of locations in the area that sell ice cream and their dairy products.

Yoplait Oui yogurt in little glass jars. A hit expensive at $1.79, but I had an app coupon for $1 off four. Cute little pots!

Eggs in cardboard carton. Some cans of chickpeas and tomatoes. I got 4 lemons for $1 instead of buying lemon juice in plastic.

Took reusable bags. Also took my own stainless steel coffee mug to church for coffee hour after instead of using a paper cup (they do make an effort to get paper cups instead of styrofoam). I could have used a real plate and silverware, but I would have had no time to wash after as we had a choir workshop.

[JaneV2.0]

Since recycling locally isn’t available to me (see other thread), I’m trying to reduce and reuse.

Just got back from grocery shopping. All veggies and fruit were bought loose, no plastic packaging, and also didn’t get plastic bags to corral each type together. Just loose.

Milk in a reputable glass container - we have the Oberweis Dairy locally. Milk can be bought at the local grocery chains, as well as Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh. Bottle deposit is $2, going up to $3, I was told at Jewel. Oberweis also had a chain of locations in the area that sell ice cream and their dairy products.

Yoplait Oui yogurt in little glass jars. A hit expensive at $1.79, but I had an app coupon for $1 off four. Cute little pots!

Eggs in cardboard carton. Some cans of chickpeas and tomatoes. I got 4 lemons for $1 instead of buying lemon juice in plastic.

Took reusable bags. Also took my own stainless steel coffee mug to church for coffee hour after instead of using a paper cup (they do make an effort to get paper cups instead of styrofoam). I could have used a real plate and silverware, but I would have had no time to wash after as we had a choir workshop.

Good work, Tradd. I have a set of flatware in a case that can be taken home and washed.

[happystuff]

Wonderful, tradd!


Good work, Tradd. I have a set of flatware in a case that can be taken home and washed.

I also have a set of metal utensils in my lunch bag to use instead of any plastic stuff around the break room.

[Tradd]

Yes, I use real utensils in the office.

[Tradd]

Yes, I use real utensils in the office.

[jp1]

Sounds like good progress. After I asked on here a while back about bags for fruits and veggies at the grocery store I’ve stopped using them for everything except lettuce. Since it’s eaten raw I just can’t get comfortable with putting it in the hand basket or lying it on the conveyor belt at checkout. Although I also eat broccoli raw on my salads and that isn’t an issue for me so maybe I’m not being rational.

[JaneV2.0]

Sounds like good progress. After I asked on here a while back about bags for fruits and veggies at the grocery store I’ve stopped using them for everything except lettuce. Since it’s eaten raw I just can’t get comfortable with putting it in the hand basket or lying it on the conveyor belt at checkout. Although I also eat broccoli raw on my salads and that isn’t an issue for me so maybe I’m not being rational.

You can buy mesh (and other) vegetable bags. Amazon probably has an infinite variety of them.

[ApatheticNoMore]

How do you store the vegetables in the veggie bin etc, just naked? That's fine for tomatoes or potatoes, which shouldn't even be refrigerated, or peppers. But seems kind of odd for say parsley, greens, carrots etc.. Because yea I store that stuff in the plastic bags I bought them in.

[JaneV2.0]

If you're handy, you could sew or crochet muslin or mesh bags.

https://beginnersewingprojects.com/reusable-produce-bags-sewing-pattern-tutorial/

[frugal-one]

How do you store the vegetables in the veggie bin etc, just naked? That's fine for tomatoes or potatoes, which shouldn't even be refrigerated, or peppers. But seems kind of odd for say parsley, greens, carrots etc.. Because yea I store that stuff in the plastic bags I bought them in.

I use “green bags” for produce. It is amazing how long they keep fruits and veggies. There are many varieties. Debbie Meyer is a good brand.

https://www.amazon.com/produce-green-bags/s?k=produce+green+bags

[rosarugosa]

Sounds like good progress. After I asked on here a while back about bags for fruits and veggies at the grocery store I’ve stopped using them for everything except lettuce. Since it’s eaten raw I just can’t get comfortable with putting it in the hand basket or lying it on the conveyor belt at checkout. Although I also eat broccoli raw on my salads and that isn’t an issue for me so maybe I’m not being rational.

JP: What do you use for disposing of kitty litter - or do you not use the scoopable kind? I used to buy plastic bags for that purpose, but now I use plastic produce bags and bread bags.

[catherine]

Three of my favorite tools for reduce and reuse:

--Baggu bags. These are the best. They are easy to squish up and keep in a medium-sized purse, they are super-strong, easy to wash and cute. My daughter gave me my first one and I have gifted several and bought two more for myself. They have broken me of my bad habit of forgetting to bring bags to the store.
https://www.baggu.com/collections/reusable-bags

--Reusable bamboo utensils: I keep this set in my small backpack which is becoming my everyday purse. https://www.grove.co/catalog/product/bamboo-cutlery-set-navy/?v=8386&attrpg=catalog&attrsrc=18&attrpos=9

--Sodastream--I bypass drinks in cans and bottles by using my Sodastream for water. I don't use it exclusively, but my disposal of aluminum cans and plastic bottles has diminished considerably.


Also,
I am now trying to repurpose paper bags into wrapping paper for gifts. I wrap and then use markers and photos to decorate, and then tie a reusable satin or grosgrain ribbon.

[jp1]

JP: What do you use for disposing of kitty litter - or do you not use the scoopable kind? I used to buy plastic bags for that purpose, but now I use plastic produce bags and bread bags.

SO's family accepts plastic bags when they buy stuff and then his mother and sister keep them. Every visit to them we come home with more than a year's supply. And typically I will use one per week rather than a new one every time I scoop, so we don't actually need a huge quantity of them.

[iris lilies]

SO's family accepts plastic bags when they buy stuff and then his mother and sister keep them. Every visit to them we come home with more than a year's supply. And typically I will use one per week rather than a new one every time I scoop, so we don't actually need a huge quantity of them.
The source of bags is the shitty flyover state of Missouri, because the superior state of California has outlawed them.

Living as I do in the “shit hole” as JP has called it, I do take advantage of the plastic bags for cat litter. Of course, we are earth-hating bumpkins here, my apologies to all.

[early morning]

I refuse and reuse all the plastic I can without upping our costs considerably. We recycle what we can - we have curbside with our trash collection- and a local drop-off center to boot. We mostly recycle paper, cardboard, and glass. We do shop at Aldi and I hate the plastic produce waste but that store is the difference for us between eating well and, well, NOT eating well. So I mitigate where I can. Plastic bags are used for small trashcan liners, packing glassware to take to sales, and are donated to the small museum where I volunteer. I take bags when grocery shopping - Aldi trains you well for that! and to the Dollar store, which they don't like, but oh well. Cat litter is wood pellets. It goes into a bucket and gets dumped in the back field. I know most people don't have that option, but we do, so. We use a lot of canning jars for food storage, and we reuse plastic tubs that some foods come in, too. I am not above using food storage bags at times, including the ones especially for produce. All of them -unless they've been used for raw meat- are washed and reused many times. I'd like to do better, and keep looking for ways we can improve within our budget. I would be perfectly happy, if slightly inconvenienced, if Ohio outlawed plastic bags at stores, but that's not likely to happen.

[Tradd]

I don’t shop at Aldi anymore. You can barely get any produce that’s not wrapped in plastic. Plus, I don’t do the multiple store thing anymore. So I shop at Jewel. Can get a lot of produce not wrapped in plastic.

[ApatheticNoMore]

I use “green bags” for produce. It is amazing how long they keep fruits and veggies. There are many varieties. Debbie Meyer is a good brand.

those are plastic too though, perhaps easier to reuse than plastic bags from the store though, so if one continually reused them it's not much plastic use. But I'm not trying to police plastic use, I'm really just trying to envision what a non-plastic alternative I might actually do would look like. I am pretty lazy though, or maybe it's neurodiverse, so if it requires a lot of work I might not do it, so maybe I'm doing what I can. Because I have burned myself out taking too much individual responsibility for all this stuff before, like when I was driving further and further out and waiting in longer and longer lines just to recycle.

This is what I actually do presently:
- don't usually put dry food in ANY bag at all, so individual potatoes, tomatoes, peppers ,onions, garlic, fruits like apples and oranges, avocadoes etc. no bags.
- put wet product in flimsy plastic produce bags (I know)
- get a PAPER bag at checkout to hold my groceries, REUSE this paper bag as a trash bag, therefore I do not buy trash bags. I realize that's potentially a bit messier than plastic, it largely works.
- I do buy some stuff in glass rather than plastic when it's available, of course not everything comes that way.

[happystuff]

I use mesh/gauze bags - some I made and some I purchased for veggies. I keep them in these same bags in the produce drawer as well.

[early morning]

I don’t shop at Aldi anymore. You can barely get any produce that’s not wrapped in plastic. Plus, I don’t do the multiple store thing anymore. So I shop at Jewel. Can get a lot of produce not wrapped in plastic. No Jewel here, and I don't do the multiple store thing either. Pretty much just Aldi, unless we're way south of town, and hit Trader Joe's. not much plastic covered produce, and the produce bags they have compost. Even in the fridge, lol. They are not, however, close enough to shop there routinely. We all do what we can, right? Happystuff, do your gauze bags work for salad fixings? I often have greens left after a salad dinner, and use the Debbie Meyer-type bags (which are pretty old, as they get washed a lot). Mesh does not work, or at least the mesh I have doesn't - it's too large and the greens mash into the mesh and it's a mesh-mess, lol.

[jp1]

The source of bags is the shitty flyover state of Missouri, because the superior state of California has outlawed them.

Living as I do in the “shit hole” as JP has called it, I do take advantage of the plastic bags for cat litter. Of course, we are earth-hating bumpkins here, my apologies to all.

True enough. You don’t even have pollution reducing gas pumps in your state like we do here. (Ours have little hoods on the nozzles to keep gas from evaporating into the air while one fills their car up). Or curbside compost pickup to reduce methane from decomposing waste.

[Alan]

True enough. You don’t even have pollution reducing gas pumps in your state like we do here. (Ours have little hoods on the nozzles to keep gas from evaporating into the air while one fills their car up). Or curbside compost pickup to reduce methane from decomposing waste.
My friends in California refer to those "hoods" as "foreskins", the ones with motorcycles say that they have to pull them back in order to fill their tanks. Requiring them seems kinda kinky to me but please yourself. I've seen them on fuel nozzles all over the country but this is the first time I've ever heard anyone implying their moral superiority by requiring them. Weird!

I'm also a bit confused on the compost thing, is the state discouraging composting or are they just reacting to all the folks who like to compost so they can feel better about themselves and impress their friends but don't actually have a use for the finished result and end up with mountains of it stinking up the environment?

[jp1]

My friends in California refer to those "hoods" as "foreskins", the ones with motorcycles say that they have to pull them back in order to fill their tanks. Requiring them seems kinda kinky to me but please yourself. I've seen them on fuel nozzles all over the country but this is the first time I've ever heard anyone implying their moral superiority by requiring them. Weird!

I'm also a bit confused on the compost thing, is the state discouraging composting or are they just reacting to all the folks who like to compost so they can feel better about themselves and impress their friends but don't actually have a use for the finished result and end up with mountains of it stinking up the environment?

I’m not surprised that you don’t understand any of this. But I do find it weird that you don’t understand the idea that composting food waste reduces methane and making it easy to do will help that happen. I didn’t think you were that stoopid. But maybe I overestimated you. I suppose you also didn’t think that beyond households curbside compost would also mean that businesses like restaurants would now be composting. SO’s employer sends multiple bins daily of food waste into the composite stream that would otherwise be going to a landfill and turning into methane.

[catherine]

One of the speakers at my permaculture class has had a compost pick-up business for years and she collected the compost on her bike, which had a trailer attached with bins strapped to it. There is a real and growingl interest in composting, I've been doing it for 10 years. I agree with jp that encouraging people to do it is absolutely important. In Vermont our transfer station has pit stops for trash, paper, plastics, metals and compost.

Compost businesses are growing and the more people use compost--whether it's business-to-business or personal use, the better our chances of regenerating healthy soil in the landscape. My own compost goes into my gardens. Anyone who has a small home garden or a medium one or a large one would benefit from closing the feedback loop on their own property. Compost businesses wouldn't stay in business if all they are doing is leaving "stinking" piles around.

[Teacher Terry]

45 years ago when we lived on a acre of land my husband had a big garden and composted. Everyone we knew did. I am looking forward to Nevada banning plastic bags which I hope will be in the near future. I only use cloth ones and then take some from friends for my bathroom garbage bags.

[iris lilies]

We compost most everything, and always have. In the city even though JP will not acknowledge it, we had city sponsored giant dumpsters for yard waste/compost. Granted that was not for food scraps but in recent decades we had a compost bin at the community garden for food scraps for anyone in the neighborhood who wanted to dump it.

I loved the big city yard waste bins because I dumped all of my garden debris in there and city would cook it up in big piles and deliver it to our community garden where I could go get loads of it whenever I need it.

here in Hermann, I’ve been purchasing compost, and it is expensive. The city of Hermann does have a dumpsite or they grind up trees, so you can go get wood chips, but they do not have compost. And frankly, their with chips are not very good.


DH has his own compost piles at home, but I do not consider them high-quality compost because they were always kind of slimy.

[frugal-one]

We compost most everything, and always have. In the city even though JP will not acknowledge it, we had city sponsored giant dumpsters for yard waste/compost. Granted that was not for food scraps but in recent decades we had a compost bin at the community garden for food scraps for anyone in the neighborhood who wanted to dump it.

I loved the big city yard waste bins because I dumped all of my garden debris in there and city would cook it up in big piles and deliver it to our community garden where I could go get loads of it whenever I need it.

here in Hermann, I’ve been purchasing compost, and it is expensive. The city of Hermann does have a dumpsite or they grind up trees, so you can go get wood chips, but they do not have compost. And frankly, their with chips are not very good.


DH has his own compost piles at home, but I do not consider them high-quality compost because they were always kind of slimy.

I protest... argumentative. Ha!

[iris lilies]

I protest... argumentative. Ha!
Overruled! Double ha.

[happystuff]

Happystuff, do your gauze bags work for salad fixings? I often have greens left after a salad dinner, and use the Debbie Meyer-type bags (which are pretty old, as they get washed a lot). Mesh does not work, or at least the mesh I have doesn't - it's too large and the greens mash into the mesh and it's a mesh-mess, lol.

To be honest, I've never tried. When I make a salad, it goes into a container and then into the fridge. Salad usually doesn't last too long in the house.

My homemade bags are actually more like tulle material.

[JaneV2.0]

To be honest, I've never tried. When I make a salad, it goes into a container and then into the fridge. Salad usually doesn't last too long in the house.

My homemade bags are actually more like tulle material.

Yeah, those salad spinners hold a lot. :D