Wood vs. Metal: Which is More Eco-Friendly?

This is just a quick and easy post about MATERIALS! Of the eco-friendly products I see, many tend to be made out of wood and metal. Mason jars, bamboo reusable utensils, metal tiffins, wooden children’s toys, metal straws; the list goes on. Just look at the Life Without Plastic website for some ideas of what I’m talking about. Now, there’s also a lot of eco-plastics that items can be made out of like recycled plastic-based textiles, bio-plastic made from corn and so on, but I will save plastics for another post. In this post I’m talking about the oldies: wood and metal.

A lot of Zero Waste forums online have people asking which materials put more strain on the environment/which are better, and so I have a quick guide to help with that as far as wood and metals go. The basic premise is very simple. Old metal > Old wood > New wood > New Metal. What do I meeeeeeeean??? I’ll tell ya.

Basically the older materials are, the better. Not too old of course, or in too much disrepair; you still want your items to be usable and without too much rust/mold. Every year, roughly 3.5 billion to 7 billion trees are cut down each year, with 37% of those going to timber alone. 40,633 pounds of new minerals must be provided for every person in the United States to make the things we use daily like electronics, plumbing, transport, etc. every year. It’s been well established that the world’s people are consuming more materials than it can sustain, so why in the world would we keep buying products that use these new materials unless absolutely necessary? You know how much frickin wood and metal crap I see at yard sales and thrift stores and at my DUMP? Too much, that’s how much.

The way I see it, the world has certainly already produced plenty of usable wood and metal for me for the rest of my life, and probably a huge chunk of the population as well. I don’t need those adorable bamboo utensils in that little velcro pouch to carry around with me. Every time I go into a thrift store, there is always a big plastic bin full of mismatched METAL utensils and chopsticks that are cheaper than the fancy pack. Another thing that thrift stores always have an abundance of is FABRIC that is absolutely PERFECT for making little adorable pouches out of. See example below.

$12.95

Made from the remnants of the patches for my jeans, a button in my Mom’s old sewing kit, and all thrifted utensils, aside from the metal straw; roughly $6.00

Always try to buy OLD METAL and OLD WOOD before you buy anything new. If you absolutely must buy new, of course do. New wood is better than new metal because its harvesting puts less strain on the environment than mining does, especially when sustainably harvested. I always say to try and find old metal over old wood, though, simply because the metal will last longer, which fits along the Zero Waste lifestyle motto of USE IT UP, WEAR IT OUT, MAKE IT DO, OR DO WITHOUT!

I also say metal is better because metal can be recycled nearly infinitely, whereas wood (much like paper) cannot, as the fibers become too short after a while. On the subject of Recycling, I just fit recycled wood and metal into the categories of Old Wood and Old Metal since they technically are, though if you can try to reuse things rather than use recycled things to avoid the carbon emissions and by-products rendered during the recycling process. It’s still much better than using brand new, as it contributes a bit to moving towards a more Circular Economy.

Basically just thrift, baby, thrift. And Facebook marketplace. And Ebay. And Etsy. and Poshmark. Etc. All those places from whence old products can be found. My favorite Old Metal find is my big metal tiffin. But whaaaaat? It don’t even look old! I KNOW!! I love it. It’s still old because I didn’t buy it new/from a line that supports the mining industry as it stands. Old can mean 2 hours old or 20 years old so long as it was bought by someone else (not for you, obvi), it’s old to them. Y’all come back now!

Second tiffin I found in Goodwill; the first one was one of those stacking ones that was too big

Nice easy graphic to remember it by:

Sources:

https://www.to-goware.com/product-repeat-utensil-set-141?color=agave

Mining & Mineral Statistics

How many trees are cut down every year?

Zero Waste Exams Guide

 

Exams are exhausting, man. Super duper exhausting. Midterms and finals and quarter-terms all seem to suck the life out of you, whether it be a 15 page paper or a three hour exam at 7 PM. This is a little guide for how to stick to Zero Waste during these tiring times, and even make it a bit better. Am I writing this when I should be studying? Of course. Will it affect my grades? Hell no, that’s what not sleeping is for. WOO!

1. Snacks

Oh yeah, babey. When you’ve been at it for three hours straight and it’s not anywhere near a meal time, you want something crunchy and salty or sweet in your body. And while the library cafe or snack counter might seem tempting, I urge resistance! Best ways to bring you a boost of energy during exams are: Stock up on bulk snacks from the grocery store the week before exams. My favorites are dark chocolate covered almonds, baked wild rice sticks, bananas with peanut butter, and apples with peanut butter. If you’re stranded in a cafe without a snack, try to grab an apple or a banana; I have yet to find a cafe that doesn’t have these guys loose in a basket. Another option is very easy: steal dining hall food! While it’s not potato chips, there’s usually some fruit or veggies and peanut butter/hummus that can be put in containers.

2. Hydration Nation

Do you know how many hydrate or die-drate stickers I’ve seen on people’s water bottles? Too many, that’s how many. I always keep my reusable water bottle in my backpack and with me. Whenever I go into a new study space, I make sure it’s filled before I sit down. I find that keeping it on my desk/workspace makes me drink more often, and getting up to refill it/go to the bathroom can be a nice break.

3. Caffeination

Ah, yes. The fuel of college. Personally, my body can’t handle coffee, nor have I ever really liked the taste of it, so I stick to tea. I have one cup in the morning when I wake up, and I bring my to-go mug with me when I go to study and some big green tea leaves usually. I have yet to be denied at a cafe when I ask them to fill up my cup with hot water (though one time they filled it up with cold at the BPL and I didn’t realize for like 20 minutes lol), so you can bring it with you to your study space. For coffee, though, I would suggest bringing around some bulk instant coffee and using the hot water previously mentioned, or keeping a big jug of iced coffee in your mini-fridge for later use. If you want hot, fresh coffee, then make sure you bring your to-go mug to the cafe/dining hall!

4. Study Tools

So, the nitty gritty. A lot of study tools can be very wasteful. Notecards, plastic mechanical pencils, handouts, post-it notes, those little post-it note tab markers; I could go on. Here are some tools to help cut down on the trash you produce while studying:

1. Notecards: My favorite zero-waste alternative is Quizlet. It’s a website that basically makes note cards for you, makes you re-type it if you spell it wrong, keeps track of which cards you have trouble with and makes you practice them even more; it’s pretty awesome. If you like writing out notecards and having them in your hands, though, what I do is take old handouts that are one-sided, cut them up into a bunch of squares, and use those as notecards with a pen that is colored differently from the ink, but not so strong that it bleeds through the other side
2. Notes paper/Study Guides: I keep a stash of one-sided handouts in a folder in my room for this purpose. I haven’t needed to buy paper for two years because of it! I also have amassed quite a few old notebooks from people who no longer want them and my schooling days’ past. Whatever pages had old writing on them, I rip out and recycle to reveal the fresh new paper underneath. Also, Google Docs and Microsoft Word are great alternatives!
3. Writing Implements: I mostly use pencils when I write. I have a set of metal mechanical pencils that I ordered from Amazon (I know) that have lasted very well so far. Not sure I’d recommend them, though, as the grip tends to hurt after long periods of writing and I’ve found it very difficult to replace the eraser on top. I can just buy more pencil lead in bulk to replace it when I run out, though they aren’t the only things I use for writing. All of the pens I currently have are pretty much just scavenged. I don’t have any pretty sets of matching markers in a nice neat box, sorry. People leave pens and wooden pencils EVERYWHERE on college campuses. I found my new favorite pen on the steps of a building just two weeks ago! They would almost surely be thrown out anyways, so I give them new life and take them in. When I’ve amassed enough spent pens, I send them to Terracycle. The only thing I’ve bought so far for writing are my highlighter pencils (highly recommend). I also use old colored pencils for more decorative work in my bullet journal, but those are leftover from elementary school. Here are some sustainably made ones. I know most zero-wasters are all for the fountain pens, but that would absolutely get crushed in my backpack so it’s just not practical for me.
4. Miscellaneous: I use old scissors, erasers, and rulers that I found around my parents’ house leftover from my elementary school days. Here are some eco friendly scissors, erasers, and rulers, though. Unfortunately, I have yet to find a replacement for scotch tape, though I’ve been eyeing some paper-based stuff. This stapler is awesome though, and doesn’t use any staples! This is a good thing because the staples often get caught up in the paper recycling process and screw up the machines. Same goes for paperclips (which I also kind just amass from other people). Some people like using markers, so here’s a good refillable one and some hemp-based paper.
5. Organizational: One thing no one ever tells you about the college search process is how many folders everyone gives you. Most college campuses I visited gave out perfectly good folders during tours. I use those still to store my papers in my backpack, and a couple of ones leftover from middle school. I found my current plastic binders at my dump’s swap shop, and I always see them in Goodwill/Savers, so I would recommend getting binders from there before buying new ones, even if they are eco-friendly. Or better yet, use what you have! I know my elementary school days were filled with never-ending binders, so use some of those. Binder dividers are a bit trickier. I have the same plastic ones that I’ve had since middle school that I re-write on by removing the previous writing with an old Expo marker. My friend was also recently getting rid of some very pretty botanically themed paper folder dividers that I took in and put sticky notes on (also leftover from middle school) for new labels.
6. Group Work: This is one tool that people don’t really think of as a tool but it absolutely is. Sharing notes and study guides with your classmates is absolutely the way to go if you want to bump your grade up. Many minds are better than one, and so are many hands working on one massive study guide!

5. Sleep

It’s really hard to get enough sleep during college. Really, truly hard. Between classes, clubs, homework, friends, significant others, de-stressing, working out, eating, calling family members and high school friends, and more, it can get really hectic in a day and before you know it, it’s 1:00am. Sleep really is one of the best things you can do to help cement the knowledge you’ve been studying and keep your brain in top shape for when exam day comes and you need to remember what level of sediment coarse-ness can be found on tropical mid-ocean ridges. Try organizing your days during exams week onto an hourly calendar, making sure to leave time for breaks and as consistent of a sleep time as possible.

6. De-stressers

This is really important. For me, it means watching Netflix with my friends, looking at memes, eating meals with friends, doing yoga, working out, or doing a small craft. I find breaks to be doubly effective and refreshing when they’re with friends and other people, even if you’ve been studying with them all day. Get some fresh air and go for a walk (even if it’s freezing). Listen to some music that makes you happy. Maybe even run some errands or clean your room if that’s what does it for you. But absolutely don’t tell yourself that you don’t need a break, that you don’t have time to, or that you’re going to fail if you don’t take a moment to your self. Everyone needs breaks, you do have time, and you won’t fail. You’ll only make yourself more miserable and in a worse mood if you ignore your body and mind, and that for sure does not make for good conditions for information absorbing. Your brain is an organ that lives in your body; take care of them both!!

That’s all I’ve got for today, but let me know if you have any questions or ideas. Wish me luck y’all.

Zero Waste Eating in College

I’m a pretty big fan of my dining halls. I’m lucky in a lot of respects when it comes to them. I’m lucky that the food served tastes good, that my school cares to try and make their regularly served goods (like oatmeal, coffee, and tea) Fair Trade and organic, that they compost their food waste, and that I am in the financial position to be able to use the nice resources my dining hall has to offer. Most days I am able to eat Zero Waste and from bulk goods because my school has a lot of dang people to feed! I realize this advice will not apply to every school, so I’ll try my best to accommodate for that (though please forgive my shortcomings). Here we go

1. Take What you Eat

Though I do try to eat everything on my plate, sometimes dining hall food just be too disgusting. However, I’m lucky that I can live in the comfort that my food waste is being composted. That being said, my first dining hall tip is to only take what you’ll eat. Schools keep track of how much food is taken because they use those numbers to order food/ingredient quantities in the future. They can’t exactly measure what was and was not actually eaten; only how many tubs of the food they used in a particular night. So air on the side of getting less food, even if you’re starving. In my dining hall, we can always go back and get more food, but in ones where you can’t do that, try grabbing an apple or a banana with your meal – that way if you still need more food when you’re done, you don’t have to use another meal swipe, but if you’re not, you can always save it as a snack for later.

2. Dining Hall Trash

I got this vintage tea strainer on Etsy for like $7. The bag is an old Madewell jewelry bag I found in my sister’s stuff

The more difficult pieces of trash that are produced in my dining halls are from sugar packets, tea packets, the occasional sandwich toothpick, chopsticks, and fruit stickers.

I don’t know about you, but I need my tea. The way I avoid making trash through tea is by bringing my own bulk tea in a reusable strainer. It’s a part of my morning routine to fill up my little strainer with tea, bring it to the dining hall, and explaining to the unacquainted what the hell I just pulled out of my backpack. The tea leaves are composted like the rest of the food waste.

I avoid making trash from sugar packets by using the bulk honey provided for things like yogurt or when I want a sweet tea.

Fruit stickers are the bane of my existence as they are the one bit of trash I can’t avoid.

Napkins at my dining hall are made from recycled paper, but I still try not to use them. I carry around my cloth napkin instead.

My dining halls also only use reusable utensils, mugs, plates, bowls, etc., though I know many do not. A way to get around this would be to carry around a tupperware/reusable container with utensils in it and a water bottle. I carry my backpack with me everywhere anyways, so it’s not too much of a problem to have another thing shoved in there. Plus you should be carrying around a water bottle anyways! Hydrate or die-drate!

A lot of dining halls give out food in little plastic or paper cups, baggies, and tubs. Not everything is in these single-use products though, so try and pick out foods that aren’t packaged. When you can’t, try and pick out things that are packaged in paper/cardboard so that they can be composted.

3. Snacks/Meals for Later: Grocery Shopping at your Dining Hall!

It might be easier to grab an Easy Mac or a Ramen and shove it in your dorm’s microwave, but it creates so much wasteeee (plus it’s not the healthiest). What my roommate and I do is known around here as heisting. Basically you bring a bunch of containers/tupperwares in your backpack, you grab your food that you want to save for later on a plate (grapes, granola, desserts, hard boiled eggs, etc.) and bring it back to a slightly concealed table in your dining hall where you won’t get caught ceremoniously shoving a ton of food into your containers and then into your backpack. I can’t think of anything that I couldn’t find a way to heist that my dining hall serves, honestly. My own personal bulk grocery store, basically! Definitely makes those expensive meal plans worth it.

My roommate, like many, is on a very limited meal plan and needs to get 1-2 meals per day on her own. She heists food from the dining hall in tupperwares and supplements it with a few cheap grocery store items, and that is plenty for her breakfast and lunch most of the time. Here’s an example of what she’ll eat in a day. For breakfast, one or two heisted hard-boiled eggs, some microwaved oatmeal from the grocery store with heisted dried craisins, heisted coconut shavings, some frozen fruit from the grocery store (though this could be heisted) and heisted honey. For lunch she’ll have a bunch of cooked vegetables that she has heisted the previous day or had me heist for her, some heisted rice, and heisted black beans. She snacks throughout the day on heisted apples, peaches/nectarines, and bananas + bulk bought peanut butter (which could technically be heisted as well. Then just a dinner in the dining hall!

Campuses Without Zero Waste Eating Resources

1. Lack of Composting Resources:

Most dining halls do not compost their food waste. It’s a tragedy, but true. I do find, however, that many college campuses do have some kinds of composting services (we also have them in our dorm buildings). What you can do in this case is use your to-go container to transport your food waste out of the dining halls to the composting center/bin.

If all else fails, though, you can always try getting involved in your local garden club or composting center to see if they accept food waste. If you can’t find resources to compost, it’s not the end of the world. See next point.

2. Unsustainable Foods:

I don’t think there’s a college campus on the planet that only has perfectly sustainable foods. If there is, tell me about it!! If you have the monetary resources to buy local/organic/Fair Trade foods outside of your dining halls, go for it! However, most people do not have this option. In this case, you’ve just gotta learn to live with the unsustainable food. Zero Waste is a journey, not a perfect goal to be met once you’ve checked off X number of boxes. Humans, by our nature and by the nature of the world, can’t ever truly have completely zero impact on the environment, so your deviating from the Zero Waste guidelines isn’t a huge tragedy. Just do what you can!

3. Single-Use Food Packaging

Write to your school asking them to improve their food’s sustainability and get rid of single-use products. Ask them to stop using brands that create waste like Nestle and Coke. Join or start an Eco-Club and organize pushes for the changes that will make it easier for you to be Zero Waste in college. YOU CAN DO IT! Civic activism (or in this case, campus activism) is a part of being a good member or your community, and especially important when pushing sustainability reform.

In the end, you try your best, but Zero Waste is usually secondary to things like grades, sleep, and getting a job. You don’t have to be perfect, but try your best! We’re all cheering you on 🙂

 

Zero Waste Halloween Guide (With candy!)

So I always see a lot of Zero Waste Halloween guides. Most of them are fantastic and give great advice on stuff like costumes, using up carved pumpkins, decorations, etc., but there’s one thing I’ve never seen in a Zero Waste Halloween guide that could be bought: candy! I’ve seen suggestions to make your own candy but let’s face it, that is extremely time consuming and expensive and most of us are busy people.

The other alternative given was small non-plastic toys or objects or things like clementines. I don’t know about you, but for me, my favorite thing about Halloween when I was little (other than the costumes, of course) was the damn free candy!! And I think I might’ve found a solution for how to do it Zero Waste, and it’s staring us right in the face, people!

1. Bulk Candy Stores

Yes!! This is it!! So deceivingly simple and accessible! At almost every mall I’ve ever been to, I’ve found a store that only sells candy – and a lot of it. In New York, there’s the famous Dylan’s Candy Bar, and local to me there’s a place called Sweet Treats.

The picture I used above is actually from a local grocery store, so even if you don’t have one of these bulk candy places near you, if there’s a Whole Foods nearby there’s bound to be a couple of bulk bins with candy in them. Usually there is both wrapped and unwrapped candies, though obviously the unwrapped are what we’d go for here. It’s just the same thing you do with your Zero Waste groceries: reusable baggie/jar, tare, fill, pay, and go!

The way you’d give out the candy is just by putting it in a bowl and literally dumping it in kids’ bags/buckets. I remember not caring one bit whether my candy fell out of its little pouches and got lint or whatever on it — it’s candy!!

The one thing about this that I’d be careful with is the distribution process. Children tend to have quite a lot of germs, so when you put the candy in the bowl to give out, make sure YOU’RE the one putting a handful of candy in THEIR bag. Minimize flu season (and get your shot)!

As for the sustainability of the candy itself, I don’t tend to find that this is the priority of the specialized bulk candy stores. If you’re buying from a Whole Foods, they usually have organic and Fair Trade candy, but elsewhere, not so. For many people this is a dealbreaker to giving out candy, and I think that’s perfectly fine. Give me all the erasers and crayons you’ve got! But I think that giving out candy without wrappers is a great first step, if an imperfect one, to reducing our waste and making the world a better place. Now for the rest of the guide!

2. Costumes

Make like a college kid and go thrifting!! Goodwill always puts out a special rack with just Halloween costumes, and I find many thrift stores do this too. Reuse those babies! Even if your local thrift store doesn’t have a costumes section, I find that there’s plenty of gold in them perfect for costume-making. And most of these things can be made from clothes people already have anyways. Here are some ideas:

1. 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s-themed outfit: Thrift shop = Older clothes!
2. Doll: All you need is a frilly dress, some flats, pigtails, and doll-like makeup and you’re set.
3. Animals: I always find cheetah and zebra print in thrift stores, along with the occasional cat ears. Some painted-on whiskers and voilá.
4. Angel/Devil: Oldie but a goodie. Red punk clothes, white frilly clothes. DIY halo made of some twine painted white, some wire lying around and a headband and then just in red and the different shape plus some aluminum foil for the devil horns.
5. Athletes: There are so, SO many sports t-shirts and jerseys in thrift stores. SO. MANY.
6. Candy: My sister did this one year with her friends where they got plain, different colored tight-fitting dresses (could be done with t-shirts too) and drew M&M in sharpie on them. Think of the possibilities! The cheesy pickup lines about being sweet! Oh my!
7. TV/Movie Characters: The possibilities are endless here. Cher from Clueless, Jules from Pulp Fiction, Moana – the list goes on.
8. Scarecrow/Cowboy: Just jeans, boots, a plaid shirt, and a straw hat. Maybe some makeup if you’re feeling wild for the scarecrow or a gold star on your chest for a cowboy
9. Rosie the Riveter: Grab some jeans, a button-up shirt in a pattern of your choosing, a red bandana and some red lipstick!

3. Fall Activities

Most Fall activities are already pretty dang Zero Waste it turns out! Here are my faves:

1. Scary/Fall-Themed Movies Night: I recommend A Nightmare on Elm Street, Hocus Pocus, The Addams Family, Practical Magic, Over the Garden Wall, and The Nightmare Before Christmas.
2. Apple-Picking: Support your local orchard and bring your own bag!
3. Pumpkin Carving: Snag a pump from your local farm and get carving! I like to trace my patterns out with a pen (or poke it into the pumpkin with an old pen) and get carving with an old kitchen knife. Scoop out the innards, save and roast the seeds, and compost the rest. Use a beeswax candle for your jack-o-lantern.
4. Leaf-Viewing: If you live near deciduous trees like I do, go to your local park or forest and admire the leaves! Take some pics! Roll around with friends and loved ones in said leaves!
5. Make Caramel Apples: Grab some bulk sugar and apples, some sustainably-sourced cream, and Fair-Trade vanilla, hippies! Here’s my favorite caramel recipe. Use forks instead of wooden sticks and eat up!

Decorations:

From this cool post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Frugal/comments/9kc9tz/money_is_a_bit_tight_right_now_so_i_made_some/

1. Paper Bats, Ghosts, and Ghouls: I like to use up old scrap papers and handouts for decorations. Just draw on/cut out two eyes and a mouth (or a lack thereof) for the ghosts and ghouls and hang them up, or put them up on your window (makes a spooky outline at night when seen from the outside)! For bats cut out the shape and color it black. Recycle or compost when done.
2. Jack-O-Lanters/Squash/Pumpkins: Little ones! Big ones! Warty ones! Green ones! Leave them out for the squirrels to eat, then compost when they start to rot. If you live near a farm with pigs, ask if they’d like a donation (pigs love to eat pumpkins!). I especially recommend buying edible squashes like butternut and acorn to decorate with indoors. That way, you can eat them right after. My mom likes to make a big batch of winter squash soup at the end of the holiday and freeze it all for use throughout the winter.
3. Thrifted Decorations: I find thrift stores that don’t just have clothes always have a ton of holiday decorations. Just this week I found an old costume cauldron and used it as a holder to give a gift in. There were also witchy things and funny candles and garlands with ghouls and pumpkins on them too.
4. Foraged Decor: My previous post about pressing flowers works just as well for leaves. Collect some of the fallen colorful beauties, press them so they won’t curl up, and plaster them everywhere you can with some natural adhesive or glue (I use a tiny bit of honey). Even if the leaves don’t fall in your area, any red or orange leaves will do. You can even tie them together by the stem with some twine and make a garland. Other Fall foraging faves are acorns, dried grass florets that look like wheat, hay, and dried corn/corn husks. You can keep the dried stuff for reuse next year, and/or compost the rest. I would recommend using the hay as a nice winter bedding for any gardens you might have.

Pressing Flowers: The Ultimate Zero Waste Hobby

When I was about eleven years old, I was going through some of the old books on my parents’ shelves. I opened up one very heavy and old book about Greek mythology, as this was the height of my Percy Jackson craze. When I flipped through some of the pages, I stumbled upon a pressed flower. It was paper-thin, yet still had all of its colors, leaves, petals, and stamen. I had never seen one before and thought it was amazing! When I asked my mom about it she explained that all you really need to do to get this result is put a flower in a book, put it under something heavy, and wait a week. And so my flower-pressing adventures began.

I’ve pressed flowers ever since then (still using the same book, for the most part!). I’ve found it to be extremely rewarding for how ridiculously little effort is put into the process. It can capture memories of a particular walk in the woods or in a field where you saw these particular flowers or memories of a lovely bouquet of flowers that were gifted to you. It doesn’t work for all flower types necessarily but it works on most I’ve found.

But why is it the ultimate Zero Waste hobby? 

Well I’ll tell ya. Pressed flowers make incredible gifts, decor, and much more. They’ve saved me more than once when I’ve forgotten to get someone a card for their birthday or a present that I knew they’d enjoy and would be unique. It’s the ultimate Zero Waste hobby because not only is the process of making them Zero Waste but what you can make with them almost always is as well. In this post, I’ll explain how to make these beauties and make several suggestions for how you can use them. Let’s begin!

How to Press Flowers

Found on my walk back from the train station

First, you’ll need some flowers. SHOCKER! As I said, pressing flowers works on most, but not all flowers. Try to avoid using very watery, large, or thick flowers like roses or peonies unless you have a HUGE book and an enormous amount of pressure. These types of flowers tend to mold instead of pressing properly. Drier flowers like Dogwood blossoms, wildflowers, daisies, periwinkle, and the like work well. Flowers that can be flattened easily (i.e., not trumpet-shaped flowers like foxglove or rhododendron) look prettiest in the end as well.

Next you’ll need a book! Even though this one isn’t very big, I use it because it’s unusually heavy. Plus it’s already old and got stains in it, so it doesn’t mind getting a couple more stains from the flowers. The next step is very simple, really. You just open up to a page (best for it to be at the end of the book for more weight), place your flower carefully in the middle of the page, and close the book on the flower so that it’s in a position that will make it pretty when it’s done. Just leave it for a week or so under some heavy books until it’s dry. Don’t check on them too often or it will let moisture in. If you’re really worried about staining your book pages, you can use some extra loose paper in-between the flower and the book pages or parchment paper (though that’s not very Zero Waste).

The tin is my current piggy bank

The end result will look like this:

    

You’ll need to be especially careful opening the pages on delicate flowers like the blue one pictured here. The petals can stick to the pages even after they’ve dried, and you don’t want to rip them.

Once they’re done drying, you need a place to keep them. I found an old photo album in my parent’s house that works great. Just get something very skinny and thin (I use one of my makeup brushes) to help you push the flowers into the pockets. You can even label them with a marker! This keeps them dry and away from moisture, ready to be admired or used.

      

Uses for Pressed Flowers

There are quite literally a million beautiful things you can do with pressed flowers. Just check out Pinterest! Here are some of my favorites, though

1. Cards
2. Wall Decor
3. Candles
4. Phone Cases
5. Beauty DIYs
6. Nails
7. Jewelry

Hope you’ve enjoyed!

DIYs I’ve Done

Over the years, I’ve done many different DIYs. I didn’t document each one carefully as I did not have a blog back then, but I can still share the finished products, my reviews of them, and the links where I found the DIYs from. Here we go!

Sashiko Jeans

First and favorite are my jeans. My favorite jeans were boyfriend jeans that had rips in the knees. After about a year, though, the strings over the rips gradually fell off until there were just two gaping holes at my knees that made ripping sounds every time I sat down. It wouldn’t do. So, I found this lovely DIY on Honestly WTF’s blog (very fun, check it out) for sashiko denim repair. I followed it pretty much exactly to the T which resulted in my favorite jeans! I made the patch material from a skirt I found at Goodwill.

Driftwood Hanger

The next DIY I got off of Pinterest after seeing many different versions of it. It holds my long necklaces with a piece of driftwood I found on a beach while I was on vacation plus some thumbtacks, string, and a command hook (more on my love/hate relationship with THOSE later). I actually have two, the other I just use to hold hats and my umbrella. It’s great, though I would recommend using actual nails or hooks like I usually see.

T-shirt Rug

Up next is my slightly failed t-shirt rug. It lives in my closet where only I really see it. I had some old yarn and t-shirts lying around that I cut up into yarn, and then followed this tutorial for how to make a t-shirt rug since the braided one seemed like a pain to sew into a circle. Needless to say I underestimated two things: how much yarn would be needed, and how much tension is put on a loom when braiding a rug. Granted, my rudimentary loom was made out of some old pieces of wood I found in the basement, some thin nails, and duct tape, but still! I’ll be making a second attempt sometime soon with my newfound wisdom…

T-shirt Produce Bags

Next up we have my produce bags. These were also made from old t-shirt inspired by this and this. An advisory if you plan on doing something like this: use t-shirts that aren’t stretchy. The fabric needs to be pretty still and strong, otherwise you’ll be carrying produce bags with fruit in them that hang almost to the floor. Not fun.

Drawstring Bags

My bulk shopping bags/all-purpose drawstring bags I made out of an old pillowcase I found at Goodwill and some twine. I liked the pattern and thought they would look pretty. I didn’t actually follow a tutorial for this, I just went off of what I knew. I cut it up into squares and then sewed them back together in bag-form. Sometimes I didn’t need to sew a space for the drawstring since hem was pretty generous, but other times I did.

On-the-go Utensil Holder

And now for my ugly child: my to-go utensil holder. Recognize the fabric? It’s a bit of a Frankenstein’s DIY monster, but it still gets the job done. I wasn’t really following a tutorial for this either (hence the UGLY). I just roughly measured out how long the roll would need to be to fit utensils, cut it out, folded it in half, and hand-sewed pockets (ain’t no room for a sewing machine in a college dorm). I cut holes out in the middle too at first because I didn’t think through how the string would hold it together, and then realized it would only need one hole on one side. Later on as I used this more, I found that the utensils kept falling out. Hence the odd beige part on top from an old t-shirt. It folds down BEFORE the roll is rolled, keeping the utensils in. Also, if you’re going to be carrying around chopsticks and metal straws, please either use a sewing machine or sew over your lines like five times. Hand-sewing makes for large holes that skinny things easily slip through.

Purse Planter

And last but not least, my bag planter. I have many relatives that come to visit from Peru and they usually bring back presents that are nice, but that I often don’t have a use for. This is one such example where I didn’t want to donate it because the fabric was so pretty, but I wasn’t using it either. Then I had the idea to make a hanging planter for my oldest plant baby! I took a plastic bag from the recycling, cut it out to roughly the shape of the bag, and cut a small hole in the bottom for drainage. It then stuffed it and the plant into the bag and voilá! Instant decor!

There are many other small things I’ve done that either aren’t very significant or are just too dang ugly and are temporary. Hope this inspires some of you to get crafting!

My Shower/Skincare Routine

From left to right, top to bottom: J.R. Liggett Bar Shampoo in Coconut and Argan Oil, Lush Conditioner Bar, Sea Sponge, Bar soap, washcloth, Chagrin Valley Bamboo Charcoal facial soap, The Contents Co. Rosa Botanic Mist, Merkur Safety Razor, Chagrin Valley Whipped Squalane Face and Eye Mousse, DIY body butter

PRODUCTS:

Are four bars of soap excessive? Maybe. I’m still transitioning here, so in the future this will probably not be the same/be less. I’ve been using bar soap for a very long time as I’ve just always liked how it suds (sudses?) better. Bar shampoo was one of my first switches and was quite nice (and cheap!). My hair seems to still be adjusting to it, as I get some grey buildup in my hairbrush when I use solid shampoo, but I’m working on that as well.

The solid conditioner was a recent switch and I’m still not sure how I feel about it. It doesn’t seem to give the same silky feel that liquid conditioners do, so I may be switching once this is used up.

The sponge I got when I was first getting into zero waste. It was bought in recycled cardboard packaging (even though packaging really wasn’t necessary), and I cannot remember the producer so I’m not sure how ethically produced it was. It has lasted me for several years now though with no sign of wear and tear. I clean it every couple of months and squeeze (not twist!) it dry right after using it and let it dry before each use. I only use it for my body.

The bar soap I only use for my body and is one I found in my parent’s house being unused. It smells plenty nice even if it was in plastic packaging and wasn’t ethically produced. If I hadn’t used it, it would have been thrown out. In the future, I’m getting package-free, ethically-made soap.

My washcloth is an old one that I’ve had for forever. Once this starts to wear down, I’ll probably switch to a hand-knit hemp cloth or something of the like.

I love my giant, weird black face soap. I tried the sample and my face loved it. I still get some zits every now and again, but not as many as I did using Neutrogena products before. It smells great and just the sample bar lasted me like five months (you can see the remains of it sticking out on the top still!), so this giant will probably be good for over a year. Chagrin Valley produces everything in Ohio and its products are USDA certified organic, sustainably produced, cruelty-free and ethically traded. They even used recycled material and no plastic in their packaging or shipping materials.

The “botanic mist” (whatever that means) was a gift that I’ve been using as a toner. It smells alright, if a bit strong, and to be honest I haven’t really noticed a difference since I’ve started using it. I’ll use it up and then reuse the nice glass bottle for something else.

The safety razor I ordered online and has been AMAZING. I have enough blades to last me a lifetime, it hasn’t rusted at all (probably because I towel-dry it after every use), and it works just as well as plastic ones. My one complaint isn’t even with the razor itself, it’s with TSA and the fact that I can’t bring the blade it holds in my carry-on. Sad sad, but oh well. The bag I keep it in was an old Urban Outfitters jewelry bag.

The facial mousse I use for my face moisturizer and it’s great. I don’t need that much to get good coverage and it doesn’t cause breakouts at all. It’s in a glass pot with a metal lid. It’s a bit expensive, but I think it’s worth it.

And finally my body butter. I don’t think I really understood what a body butter was when I first made this. I thought it would apply just like lotion and feel just like lotion since it looked similar enough in its whipped form. IT. WAS. NOT.  My god I was alarmed when I put the nice white cream on my legs and it immediately turned into oil. It literally felt like I was rubbing melted butter on my legs. It took some getting used to, but eventually I did and it’s normal now. It moisturizes VERY well, though it takes a long time to soak in/dry. Smells delicious too (didn’t add any essential oils). Here’s the recipe I used: https://liagriffith.com/homemade-whipped-body-butter/. The jar is an old mason jar I found in my parents’ house.

MY ROUTINE:

I wash my hair (use shampoo and conditioner) every other night. I still get it wet on the nights I don’t wash it. I shampoo, rinse, then condition and leave it in while I clean my body. I then get a little corner of my washcloth wet and swipe it on the facial soap a couple times, sudsing it up. I then rinse everything. I have absolutely no shaving routine and shave as needed (for beach days or nice events or when I feel like it). I just use whatever body soap I have as a shaving cream and it works fine. Once I get out of the shower I use my botanic mist (sometimes), moisturize my face, then moisturize my legs (sometimes).

And voilá! Squeaky clean!

My (Kinda) Zero Waste Makeup Routine

From left to right, top to bottom: Lip balm, DIY mascara, vintage blush pot, makeup remover, concealer, blush brush, eyeliner/brow brush, concealer brush, mascara wand, solid perfume, eyeliner/brow powder

Old thrifted chocolate tin where my makeup lives

So this is the makeup I use daily. I have more than this, but I only really use it for special occasions and that makeup is not very zero waste. This isn’t perfect, but I’m making my way there. The lip balm is the only thing out of these that I take with me everywhere and I love it. Unfortunately, when I purchased it, I did not realize it was packaged in plastic wrap, but the tin is still metal and I plan to reuse it once I run out of this lovely plain stuff.

The mascara pot is from a recipe that I used here: http://ablossominglife.com/2013/07/homemade-natural-mascara.html

I will likely change that recipe once I use up the rest of this. The mascara wand is from an old mascara I used before I was zero waste. When that runs low, I use the wand to scoop more mascara out of the bigger pot and into the little one where the wand lives. I cleaned it thoroughly before using. The pot may or may not have been stolen from a party where it was sitting on a table hosting some M&Ms.

The vintage blush compact is one that I actually found in my grandma’s house. It had a very old blush and pouf in it that I cleaned out and sanitized. I then crushed up an old blush I had lying around in a boring pot, mixed it with some vodka until it was a paste, and then pressed it into the vintage applicator, waiting until it dried. Was quite fun. The blush itself is not zero waste, but I still am going to use it up and then switch to my own recipe.

The makeup remover I also made, but I can’t find the recipe anymore. I do remember that it had coconut oil and a gentle soap, but I can’t remember what else (though really, you don’t need much more than that). The bottle was from an old diffuser kit from middle school.

My concealer is RMS Beauty’s #22 “‘un’ cover-up”. It comes in a glass container with a metal screw top. Their makeup is Non-GMO, Gluten free, Soy free, and they don’t test on animals. Many of their products are organic.

The first two makeup brushes used to be my aunt’s. She never used them so I gave them a new home. The third I’ve used and taken care of since middle school.

The solid Pacifica perfume I’ve had since middle school. Unlike liquid ones, solid ones don’t end up smelling like alcohol after a year and seem to keep forever. It’s in a metal tin, and Pacifica is all vegan and cruelty-free. They also have a great recycling program where you send in your old containers and they recycle them.

The last makeup piece is also my most irritating. I bought it before I went zero waste, so not only is it a cheap Sephora brand makeup, but it comes in plastic. Despite there being god-knows-what in the makeup, I still intend to use it for my eyeliner and brow powder until I run out of it. After that I’ll find a better, more sustainable powder or just make my own.

Zero Waste Quick Guide to Cleaning

A guide I made for where to use what in Zero Waste Cleaning around the house. I referenced http://www.paris-to-go.com/2014/05/zero-waste-cleaning-paris.html and https://labient.com/zero-waste-cleaning-guide/