Creative reuses for plastic bags

With all my talk about reducing my use of plastic bags, how do I cope with all of life's messes without a fresh influx of plastic bags? I have found creative ways to reuse plastic bags that are not provided by the grocery store. This may mean more creative thinking later as I try to reduce the total amount of plastic in my life, but for now, these strategies work for me.

I have not purchased plastic bags for my bathroom garbage can for years but still have some garbage liners from that final purchase. To conserve what I have, like most people, I take the plastic bag from my pharmacy and line the rubbish bin with it. With a scarce supply of both plastic and garbage bags, I have found alternatives. The plastic wrapper around my toilet paper now graces the inside of my bathroom garage can. In the basement, I use the plastic bag my softener salt comes in as the liner for that trash can.

The bags that my kitty litter and cocoa bean mulch come in are a nice thick plastic that I reuse to shovel free composted horse manure or free bark mulch into to bring home. The plastic bags that contain potato chips, line cereal boxes or hold bread products end up in the basement for one more use: ferrying cat poop from the basement to the toilet on the main floor. I reuse bags for hot dog and hamburger buns to hold my one pound loaves of homemade bread. Plastic liners from cracker boxes are used to crush crackers. The plastic bags my egg noodles come in are reused for weighing pasta or other items on my food scale. For unmentionable or stinky messes, any of these plastic bags would work well.

All of these items are plastic bags that most people would discard, but I try to get at least one more use out of them before sending them to the landfill. Do you have any creative uses?

How green can you go?

Treading lighter on this singular planet of ours is a personal challenge of mine. While I am doing things that I had never conceived of before (e.g., bringing my own towel to work to dry my hands), I am looking for the next step to take. One of my most problematic areas is petroleum consumption. For me, this is more than just the gasoline in my car and the natural gas heating my home and my water; it includes all the plastic holding and wrapping my food. Learning ways to reduce my consumption is important to me, but this is a difficult thing in our oil-based society. (Challenge: think of one thing not touched by oil or oil-based products. Hint: clothing is not one of them.)

What about if you are just getting started? You would like to live greener, but do not know where to get started. There are many posts out there that give you hints, usually along the lines of:

• Turn off the faucet when brushing your teeth.


• Change your incandescent bulbs to compact fluorescents.


• Wash your laundry in cold water.


• Turn down your water heater to 120 degrees Fahrenheit.


• Take showers rather than baths.


• Insulate your water heater and your exterior electrical outlets.

These are easy things, the low-hanging fruit as many people say. However, I am not sure how many people really do these naughty things like let the water run while brushing teeth. This was never advice I had to take because my mom told me run the water only when I needed to wet the toothbrush, rinse the toothbrush and fill the cup to rinse my mouth.

The greatest advice that few people really emphasize is reduce the amount you use. This may be as simple as using a pea-sized amount of toothpaste on your toothbrush rather than the inch suggested by the toothpaste manufacturer or as large as letting your car sit in the garage at least one day a week. If you usually take the car out every day of the week and sometimes multiple times a day to run errands, driving less has a greater effect than changing light bulbs (but CFLs help too).

Generate less garbage by using handkerchiefs, towels and napkins rather than using the disposable paper equivalents. Start composting rather than throwing away food. Think about not only the food but how it is packaged. Buying food with fewer wrappings and boxes means less to throw away or recycle.

Get at your ick factor. I am sure that the "if it's yellow, let it mellow" philosophy would not go down well in some households. Challenge yourself to try it anyway. How about cloth wipes rather than paper? For some people, that is too much, but urine is not dangerous and in fact, makes a great fertilizer. Just use cloth for urine wiping only and see how you like it. If I have offended your sensibilities, purchase toilet paper with the highest post-consumer recycled paper content you can find. Fewer trees will be cut down to wipe your bum.

Go old fashioned. Whether you use a drying rack or a clothesline, hang out your cold-wash-and-rinse laundry. If you mow your lawn, try a reel mower powered by human rather than gasoline or electric engine. I hear it is great exercise and nearly noiseless. Collect rain water and use it to wash your hair (so says my grandmother) or water the new shade trees you planted around the house. Shade is great for keeping the house cool in the summer. Bonus points for planting trees that produce something edible.

Get dirty. Who says you need a lawn? Go native (the naked part is optional) and use plants adapted to the area you are in. Generally, this means lower maintenance and less demand on water. Put in edibles. Be rebellious and put asparagus, beans and rhubarb on your front lawn. Personally, I think okra plants have gorgeous blossoms. Edible does not have to mean ugly. Put in herbs along the sidewalk and people might come from miles around just to walk past your house (and maybe take a sprig or two of basil, oregano and spearmint).

Try a greener item or idea that makes you a bit uncomfortable. You might find you like it. How do you know if you never try it? By extending your reach, you learn what you are capable of accomplishing as well as learning your limits. My colleague may have me beat in petroleum consumption with his constant bicycle usage, but I win in the nondisposable department (go cloth!)

Lest you think I left the frugal part behind--I bet you save money as well. See what trying something new will do for the planet and your bottom line.

What to get done over the winter months

With the change of seasons showing in the falling leaves and few garden harvests, my mind turns to projects. Yes, if I kept myself gainfully employed redoing landscaping, crafting new raised garden beds and hauling compost, I need to find things to occupy my time once the snow begins to fly and I feel like hibernating. There are several projects that have wanted my attention, but of these, only the GFCI outlet in the garage was installed (and that just a week ago). So what are my plans?

Tackle the basement.
In my earlier post, I mentioned installing an indoor clothesline. This is still on my radar, but has been pushed aside in favor of using my solar dryer (or my outdoor umbrella clothesline). With freezing temperatures and snow weeks away, this pushes up the indoor clothesline priority.

I also want to take a few steps toward making the basement more livable since I am considering moving my sewing area there. Right now, I am looking for lamps to plug into the newly installed outlets in the basement. A nice craft table would be useful for quilting and sorting fabric plus I may use my newly won skills in wood construction to fashion some shelving to store said fabric.

In addition, I would like to fix the holes in the drywall that was installed. Oddly enough, the person who installed the drywall also took his or her anger out on the drywall with hammer and foot. The doorways to the storage and mechanicals would look better with doors so I would also like to install those. This would test the limits of my construction abilities since I have never installed a door. Gaining a new skill would make me feel accomplished so I haunt craigslist with hope.

Craft with confidence.
I owe my godson a doll, my niece is due hers in January and technically, I owe my brother and sister-in-law a quilt. Furthermore, I have collected fabric for at least three quilts, several clothing items and three sets of curtains. Now that all my windows have been rescued from beige plastic blinds, I should proudly construct curtains and valances. These will not only make the rooms more decorative, but also help with light and cold infiltration especially with my single-pane windows. Quilts for warmth in the winter are a good thing especially if I happen to have guests.

I intend to use what I have on hand for sewing and crafting. A few green living projects will likely be incorporated, helping me to dump some disposable and plastic items from my life. Plus, being forced to look at my fabric collection will hopefully inspire me to be creative and to finally craft that blue jean rug I have been wanting.

Manage inventory.
As hinted at with the fabric collection, I have excess stuff. Too many clothes, more books that I really use, a well-stocked pantry that needs rotating and boxes in the basement that need to be sorted. All this and more really need sorting, serious contemplation and more than likely, to be either sold or donated. This is not an easy nor straightforward task, but I want to try another no-spending challenge coupled with a decluttering goal. With few things coming in and stuff going out, I hope to decrease my net stuff and be better prepared to resist buying more.

Fix it and forget it.
I have a table top to strip and refinish, some wood trim that needs the same treatment, and some paint spots that need a touch up, especially around the replacement windows. Cold-enforced indoor time is perfect for getting those small, annoying projects out of the way. I have been lax about getting these things done, but they need to be done prior to either window installation or my house being put on the market. The latter is not intended to happen for another few years, but painting now means less to get done when trying to sell my house.

So there you have it--one giant ambitious list. In the next few weeks, I will look at the time I have and create a to-do list of when to accomplish these disparate items. For me, a list of what I need to do helps me get through the items. I am more successful when I know what I need to do on the weekend before Friday. That way, I will not need to run to the hardware store for stripper before I run out in the middle of the project.

Reducing my consumption levels

I have starting keeping up with Sharon Astyk's blog Casaubon's Book. Her topics and ideas are great food for thought regardless if I agree with her perspective or not. Throughout various entries, she kept mentioning something called Riot 4 Austerity, piquing my interest. Once I found a web link, I followed it here. To summarize, people pledge to reduce their consumption in one, some or all of seven different categories by 90%. This means they try to use ten percent of the current levels of consumption of natural gas, consumer goods, gasoline, water and electricity, only throw away 10% of the garbage, and increase the amount of locally grown and purchased food. Being the numbers gal I am, I calculated several numbers to compare my consumption to the average and see how close to 90% I am. To be honest, I did not think I would have made it close, but I had the sense I was running ~50% of average numbers. How did I measure up?

Gasoline
Riot 4 Austerity: The average American uses 500 gallons PER PERSON, PER YEAR. Ten percent levels means 50 gallons per person, per year.
In keeping track of my miles per gallon, I had a handy-dandy notebook that could tell me how much gasoline I have consumed in the past year. From July 7, 2007 to July 8, 2008, I consumed 377.35 gallons of gasoline, just over 75% of average usage. This number was achieved with minimal carpooling, combining trips, driving to and from work five days a week as well as at least monthly visits to see family. When I did carpool twice a week, eliminating one trip to work per week, I used 366.87 gallons of gasoline (July 6, 2006 to July 7, 2007). With similar consumptions rates for the last two years, I can see that I have not really reduced my gasoline usage. I have started working from home once every two weeks, occasionally carpool to work and am conscious of how much driving I do. I hope I reduce my consumption, but anticipate it will not drop below 300 gallons unless the mpg suddenly skyrockets. In fact, since I have started keeping track of my consumption, I have reached and passed the 90% reduction goal of 50 gallons in two months. However, this number may look promising, but my gas mileage decreases in the winter compared to the summer. I would love to achieve 300 gallons in one year, but I could reach 350 gallons for one year.

Electricity
Riot 4 Austerity: The average American uses 11,000 kwh PER HOUSEHOLD, PER YEAR, or about 900 kwh PER HOUSEHOLD PER MONTH. A 90% reduction would mean using 1,100 PER HOUSEHOLD, PER YEAR or 90 kwh PER HOUSEHOLD PER MONTH.
I like my modern life equipped with my iBook, TV, dehumidifier, lights, oven and refrigerator. However, some of these, Energy-Star certified or no, suck down the kilowatts like price is no object. I used 4,705 kW of electricity from July 2007 to June 2008. While this is 42% of the average consumption, I know my electricity usage spikes during the warmer months. Between central air and dehumidifiers (and adding in a chest freezer), my consumption dramatically spikes compared to the cooler months. I average ~400kW per month, four times the goal. While I buy 300kW worth of renewable energy, I have not completely offset my usage. I want to reduce my usage to an average of 300kW per month so I am solely buying renewable power. With the cooling season almost over, reducing my AC use is easy. In fact, I have already seen a drop in my most recent bill compared to the month before. I am slowly replacing my incandescent bulbs with CFLs as the incandescents break. The clothes dryer is convenient especially in winter, but I will try a few days in the winter to hang out my clothing. I am still looking for other ways to reduce my electric consumption without giving up all my electric-powered toys.

Natural gas
Riot 4 Austerity: US average Natural Gas usage is 1000 therms PER HOUSEHOLD, PER YEAR. A 90% reduction would mean a reduction to 100 therms PER HOUSEHOLD PER YEAR.
According to my calculations, I used half the average amount in 2007--500 therms, but this is still above the 90% reduction suggested. While it is easy to keep the consumption low during the summer since only my water heater is pulling natural gas (last bill, I used 6 therms), winter is my highest usage. I already set my thermostat as low as I can handle it, but I plan on setting it lower during the nightime hours. Last winter, I set it to 55 when away from home, 64 when home and 58 when sleeping. I will have my daytime and nighttime temperatures agree this winter and see if I can decrease my usage further. I have a down comforter and an electric blanket. With the electric blanket to take the edge off the cold bed just before I climb in and the down comforter, I should stay warm overnight. Blankets, slippers, robe and sweaters are my usual winter wear. I have supplementary heating based off electricity, but I will try not to use it much to keep my kilowatts down as well.

Water
Riot 4 Austerity: The Average American uses 100 Gallons of water PER PERSON, PER DAY. A 90% reduction would mean 10 gallons PER PERSON, PER DAY.
This is a tough number to hit. If I cannot reduce my natural gas, gasoline and electricity usage to 10% levels, how could I get water down to 10 gallons a day? According to my water meter, I use about 1,100 gallons per month. This comes out to ~36 gallons/day. Guesstimating what I use when at work, I believe I use ~45 gallons per day. This is pretty good, about half of the average daily consumption. My biggest water waster is the shower followed by the dishes. I could halve the amount of water I use in the shower if I shut it off when lathering, but in my current setup, this is a hassle. I am working on minimizing the water I use to rinse dishes and hoping I can further reduce the water used. My goal is to get to 1,000 gallons a month.

Waste
Riot 4 Austerity: The average American generates about 4.5 lbs of garbage PER PERSON, PER DAY. A 90% reduction would mean .45 lbs of garbage PER PERSON, PER DAY.
I mentioned in an earlier post about how surprised I was to find out how people could throw away 4.5 pounds of garbage a day. Between recycling and composting, I have reduced the amount of waste coming from my household. The fewer packaged items (especially plastic) I use, the emptier my garbage bin is. I put out my garbage can less frequently than my neighbors including the person who occupies the other half of the duplex and is there less than 50% of the time. I estimated that I throw out about half the average person, but have started keeping track of the garbage I discard. Based on the last nine weeks, I have discarded approximately 2.75 pounds of garbage per week. This is based on the weight of the garbage in from house plus ~1lb/week allowance for work and eating out. Since I eat out approximately once a week and up until September, used paper towels in the bathroom, I thought this was adequate. I am thrilled I can meet at least one of the 90% reduction goals. This calculation excludes the weight of my old windows. The installers said they did go to the landfill (minus one pane I kept). If I take that weight on myself (and I am unsure of the total), I would exceed the 90% reduction, bringing my total closer to 5 pounds/week. This is less than the typical household, but I will keep working on this number. Being so conscious of what I discard, I feel guilty when I throw away plastic I cannot recycle or reuse (e.g., CD-ROM for an old printer).

Consumer goods
Riot 4 Austerity: The average American spends 10K PER HOUSEHOLD, PER YEAR on consumer goods, on things like gifts, toys, music, books, tools, household goods, cosmetics, toiletries, paper goods, etc… A 90% cut would be 1,000 dollars PER HOUSEHOLD, PER YEAR.
So how is this one calculated? The site states: Used goods are deemed to have an energy cost of 10% of their actual purchase price. That is, if you buy a used sofa for $50, you just spent $5 of your allotment. The reason for this is that used goods bought from previous owners put money back into circulation that is then spent on new goods. This would apply to Craigslist, Yardsales, etc… but not goodwill and other charities, as noted below. This rule does not apply if you know that the item would otherwise be thrown out - that is, if someone says, “If you don’t buy it, I’m going to toss it.” Those items are unlimited as well, because they keep crap out of landfills. Goods that were donated are deemed to be unlimited, with no carbon cost.

With that in mind, I am attempting to keep track of my spending on consumer goods. According to my totals, I have spent $128.58 since July 12. I cannot exclude I have missed a few entries, but most of my purchases are for secondhand goods, many of which have no dollar charged to them since I purchased the items at a charity thrift shop. The remainder are trips to the hardware store and one excursion to Bath and Body Works. I rarely purchase music since I have $5.11 left from my $25 iTunes gift card from Christmas 2007 and have only purchased a used book this year. I hope I can hit the $1,000 mark, but know that garden purchases and any electronics will bring me closer a lot quicker than I anticipate. I would like to keep it under $2,000 and will report on my progress here.

There is one other category (food), but I have chosen to work on these six. How do you think you measure up to the "average" American consumer?

A little dab will do ya!

I have a notebook of blog ideas to help me when the reading finance web sites and blogs or my experiences that day do not prompt a post. However, the idea to talk about squeezing less toothpaste seemed a bit spartan for one post. Upon further reflection, I thought "this idea still has potential for more applications than just toothpaste". I will give some suggestions that I implement in my life that you may find useful as well.

Those toothpaste commercials tend to show toothpaste squeezed from the tube and taking up the entire length of the toothbrush bristles. This is an awful lot of toothpaste, which foams quickly and necessitates spitting (sending the product down the drain) so brushing can continue. This also encourages the consumer to buy more often because more toothpaste on the brush means fewer applications per tube of toothpaste. It takes me well over a year, ~18 months, before I buy another tube of toothpaste. My usage is once daily with occasional twice daily application. I usually brush twice a session with toothpaste applied for each session.

How do I get away with buying toothpaste so rarely? I found just a dab will clean my teeth. I barely squeeze the tube and get just enough to cover the end of my pinky on the bristles and brush my teeth. I consume less of a disposable product. I throw away less plastic in the garbage and I save money by not constantly purchasing toothpaste for my overloaded brush. In addition, I only run the water to wet my brush and rinse it between uses. Water conservation is beneficial as well.

I have a front-loading washer that came with my house purchase. It was only two years old according to the manufacturing sticker on the appliance. The owner's manual said to use high-efficiency detergent. Instead, I use my regular liquid laundry detergent and use less than a quarter cup for each load of laundry. My clothes are clean, there are little to no suds left at the end of the rinse cycle and I go through 64 ounces of detergent about every nine months. Less functions well and I save a bit of money in the process.

I used to have a top-loading washer and I was quite happy to add lots of detergent. Therefore, I have no specific advice for cutting back other than recommending the empirical method. Frankly, I thought more was better but with a front-loading washer, this philosophy does not work.

I also use less hand soap than the pump will give me. Again, I find I can effectively wash my hands in half the liquid soap the dispenser will allow you. I have diluted the soap (somewhat effective), but found the rubberband trick works the best. This involves winding a moderately wide rubberband around the stem of the pump part, thus preventing it from going all the way down when pressed. I have noticed I fill the dispenser less often with the rubberband in place.

Other frugal people have suggested this idea and I have found this to be true: using half or three quarters of a pound of ground beef in recipes that call for a pound does not affect flavor at all. Using less will cut costs immediately and still satisfy the carnivore in your family. (I certainly like my meat.)

These are a few suggestions that reduce consumption (and waste) while leaving a few more dollars in your pocket. What other items do you use less of and still get results with use? I would love to read your comments!