Just because there’s a recycle sign on the bottom of your plastic cup doesn’t mean it’s actually recyclable. Plastic is tricky because the stamp that identifies the type of plastic looks exactly like the chasing arrows recycle sign. This sneaky (ahem, greenwashing) has tricked A LOT of people into thinking that all plastic is recyclable...
I want to demystify recycling once and for all. Recycling rules can get pretty complex when we get down to bottle caps and clamshells because what your recycling program accepts can vary depending on the city, county, and state. But, there are some overarching themes that most everyone will share when it comes to waste...
When you look up zero waste, you’re bound to notice tons and tons of pictures of glass jars everywhere. From the trash jar to the jars lining our pantries, glass is pretty popular in the zero waste community. But what’s our obsession with glass? Is it really so much better for the environment than plastic? ...
Ah, recycling the one thing that everyone grabs onto in the hopes that they are a GOOD environmentalist. Did that read too negative coming from this website? You know me, I love positivity and I love talking about small actions that people can take to be more eco-friendly, but I’m tired of hearing people say,...
Have you been bitten by the KonMari bug? I assume you know what the KonMari method is because Marie Kondo took the world by storm AGAIN when her TV show on Netflix, based on her best selling book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, launched this winter. If you’ve been living under a rock and/or...
I know a lot of people say, “Pizza is LIFE.” But, like…. pizza is life. Growing up allergic to dairy, I never got to indulge in that pizza party life. Sure, we’d make our own cheeseless pizzas at home… but then one day… everything changed. I was a senior in high school and a friend...
E-waste is the fastest growing solid waste stream. Each year more and more electronics are bought, used, and discarded. I’m so proud to be typing this blog post on my 10 year old laptop. Which might run pretty slow… which might weigh 15lbs… which might have a teeny tiny memory space… but it’s still working...
Welcome back to this new series on recycling. If you missed it, check out my first post in the series called How to Recycle Metals the Right Way! There is a lot of mystery around recycling. Each municipality accepts different items making it even more difficult to figure out what is and what isn’t recyclable. ...
Recycling should be a last resort. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you’ll know it’s a recurring theme. Before we get to recycling, we should first reduce and reuse. These R’s are often forgotten because they’re not actionable. How can you quantify reducing and reusing? How can you see the fruits of...
I have been getting some amazing questions from readers. This past week Meaghan emailed in with a question about recycled plastic. “Even though I rarely purchase bottled water anymore, there’s a bottled water company that I still find myself purchasing from once in a while. They’re probably the most ethical bottled water company to exist....
Have you heard the news? As of January this year, China ban all imports of paper and plastic for recycling that have over a 1% contamination rate. To put that into perspective, Recology the waste management company for San Francisco, arguably the most advanced recycling facility in the US, has the lowest bale contamination rate...
I have a huge guide for backyard composting, but what if you don’t have a backyard? Can you still compost? Of course you can! If there’s only one thing you take away from this blog, I want you to understand the power of composting. Composting is the most effective tools in the zero waste tool...
Composting is awesome! That might sound a little nerdy, but let’s use an apple as an example. You pick an apple from the tree, you eat the apple down to the core, you put the core in your compost pile which turns into a nutrient rich soil that you can use to grow more apple...
On my way to work this morning. It’s not uncommon to drive past a couple of trash bags tossed out into the fields the night before. The average American generates 4 pounds of waste a day. There are 319,000,000 people in the US. That’s 1,276,000,000 pounds of discarded material a day. At first I was...
