Reduce, Reuse, Recycle series: Part 2, Reuse

This is Part 2, Reuse, in a three-part series on minimizing waste through the Reduce-Reuse-Recycle maxim.  Read Part 1, Reduce, here.

"Reuse" is probably my favorite concept of the Reduce-Reuse-Recycle triumvirate.  I feel that it's the one with the greatest number of possibilities for creativity, especially since there's only so much reducing one can do.  This is also arguably the most radical of the three, since the Standard American Lifestyle is very much centered around convenience, and all too often that means disposable or single-use items when a reusable, much less wasteful option exists (think paper and plastic shopping bags, sugar packets, cardboard coffee cups, and plastic straws).  Opting to reuse an item generally seen as disposable or choosing a different item altogether is a radical act in our single-use, consumption-heavy and trash-heavy society.  It's a form of civil disobedience against the culture of convenience, and it's a way to support the common good one baby step at a time.

Some of these are very easy, and some are more challenging or time-consuming.  I started with reusable shopping bags as my very first step, and gradually built up to the bigger projects like a rag rug, pallet bookshelf, and collecting greywater.  A few of these ideas, including the greywater, are closer to "recapture" what would otherwise be wasted than "reuse" or repurpose an already used or owned item, but I think the spirit is closer to reusing than reducing or recycling, so they're included here as well.    

It's important to note here that just because these work for me does NOT mean they'll necessarily work for everyone.  I encourage people to adopt as many eco-friendly habits as they feel they reasonably can, and happily acknowledge that every little bit counts. This disclaimer applies to my previous post on this topic as well.  Many of these are practical for me because I have more time than money right now, and for someone with very little time, I certainly see the appeal of convenience.  If that's you, I urge you to adopt just a few habits that you feel you can take on--say, reusable bags, keeping and reusing containers from packaged foods, and keeping a spare change jar, which are probably the three least time-consuming items on this list--and don't feel like any contribution is too small to make a difference.  It makes a difference somewhere, even if it's not visibly apparent.  (If you feel the need, you can always add in more later.  No need to do everything at once, as I often have to remind myself.)

Here's the list, in no particular order:

Reusable shopping bags are an easy and painless way to get into reusing.  I've gotten quite a collection (at right) of all kinds of bags over the years, from thrifting or raiding my parents' attic or hand-me-downs from relatives, and all of them are useful.  Most grocery stores sell them now--one of my favorites is a large canvas bag from Trader Joe's.  I also have a fold-up one that I keep in my purse, and several mesh produce bags so I don't have to use those plastic ones which, in my area, are usually non-recyclable.  (The green mesh bag, in a previous life, held "All Blue" seed potatoes fromSeed Savers Exchange, one of my all-time favorite non-profits--check them out if you like heirloom seeds, organic seeds, great stories, or biodiversity.)  As a bonus, many stores give you a $0.05 or $0.10 (yay Whole Foods!) rebate per bag.  It's not a lot, but when I think of it being equivalent to finding a dime on every time I shop, it suddenly seems like a lot more.  At one 2-bag trip per week, that's $0.20/week, which is $10.40/year!  Not bad for not having to do a single thing except remember to bring the darn bags into the store! 

I wash plastic bags and reuse them until they break, start to leak, or something goes moldy inside them.  At that point, I compost the contents and toss the bag, since I'm not convinced I could get it sanitary after that given how thin/melty they can be.

Keeping plastic containers from packaged food, like cheese, yogurt, or sour cream, is an easy way to get free food storage containers.  I also like this because my apartment complex doesn't recycle (in California, of all places!?!?!), so it's one less thing to haul over to B's complex and throw in with their recycling.  

Aluminum foil is so easy to reuse.  I just rinse off any debris and then roll it out flat again, fold it up, and throw it back in the drawer.  When it does finally get too tired to reuse again, I recycle it, as it is just as recyclable as aluminum cans.  Just be sure to wash it first, since many recycling plants won't accept unclean foil.

Whenever I'm prepping food, I set aside the ends of vegetables, which I lovingly refer to as "veggie butts," for making stock.  They go into a gallon bag in the freezer, and when it gets full I make veggie stock, or I throw it in with some similarly saved chicken bones to make chicken stock--without having to buy anything extra.  Carrot butts and peels works just as well as the equivalent weight of whole carrots.  Besides carrots, I also include onions, shallots, garlic, broccoli stems, kale ribs, sweet potato peels, potato peels (I almost never peel potatoes, but when I do they go in here), and even zucchini butts if I'm going to make the stock in the next few days--I just keep those in the fridge, since they don't freeze too well.

Home "made" bread crumbs (really just collected from cutting boards, bread bags, and languishing bread heels) are another way to recapture something that would otherwise go to waste.  When the bag in the freezer fills up, it's time to make chicken or eggplant parm!

Bacon fat is far and away my favorite fat to cook with.  (Sorry, butter and coconut oil!  I do still love you, but...sigh.)  It's been tough to find good-quality lard made from happy animals in my area, but I recently found organic bacon for a fair price, and every time I fry some up, I throw the rendered fat in the fridge to use later, if I'm not using it immediately.  Every time a recipe instructs you to pour bacon fat down the drain, IGNORE THEM.  They know not what they do.

I'm glad I've gotten reasonably competent at sewing in the last few years, because with the clothes buying freeze mentioned in the last post in full swing, I'm not replacing any stained, worn, or torn items.  Instead I'm mending those clothes, patching, reattaching buttons, resewing seams, hemming, darning sock holes, etc.  

Sometimes there are clothes too ruined to mend--the fabric is completely worn through, there's an enormous grease stain I can't get out, or it's too small and I can't let it out (like in the shoulders).  In that case, they go into the scrap bag, to await a resurrection as something else.  Something like...

A rag rug!  (Seen at right with my parents' cat, Stella, modeling)  It's pretty easy but definitely time-consuming.  I braid small scraps of fabric together, sewing each new scrap to the old one so the braid doesn't fall apart, and then wind the braid in a circle and sew it to itself in a spiral.   This one is made almost entirely of old T-shirt scraps, and is currently almost 5 feet in diameter.  Not sure when I'll stop, but I'm nowhere near out of scraps yet!  Another great option with fabric scraps and old clothes is a scrap quilt, and starting one of those is actually on my summer to-do list.  

For the knitters, I also have a yarn stash that's going toward a scrap afghan.  I have way more leftover fabric than yarn, though, so it might take me a couple more decades to round up enough for an afghan.  

I just recently turned my spare change jar into cash via Coinstar, which is not exactly a revolutionary idea, but there is a little trick to it.  I take my jar the Coinstar, but rather than getting cash and a 10% service fee, I opt to get an Amazon gift card for no fee.  There are a LOT of different no-fee gift card options, including iTunes, Home Depot, Starbucks, and Southwest Airlines, but Amazon is my favorite because it feels more liquid--I can get almost anything I want, not just mp3s or coffee.  Most recently, I used it to buy saucers to go under my large pots for the porch. (The joys of adult life, huh?  Whatever, I was excited about it!)  

Where this reusing idea gets pretty weird for many people is menstrual supplies.  IF THIS SOUNDS GROSS TO YOU, SKIP TO WHERE IT SAYS "SKIP TO HERE."  THANK YOU.  Now then, for the intrepid souls--between the plastic packaging, plastic and cardboard tampon applicators, industrially bleached cotton and rayon, the peel-off papers for sticky pad backings, and plastic leak-proof linings for pads, it's pretty clear that these disposable items generate a lot of waste.  When I was about 14, it occurred to me that disposable wasn't always an option, and I wondered what on earth women did before the advent of good ol' polyethylene.  To my teenage horror, I discovered women mostly used rags or cloth pads and then washed and reused them (!!!!).  Earlier this year, looking to switch for an environmental reason, I re-examined that idea.  What I ultimately settled on were reusable sea sponge tampons and reusable cloth panty liners that I made myself.  They're saving me TONS of money--no more buying a $5-7 box of tampons (or maybe 2 boxes, if I need more than one absorbency/size) and a $3-5 box each of panty liners and overnight pads every month.  For $18, I got a 3-pack of the sponges which will last for 6 months to a year, though it's been 6 months already and they're still like new, so it could be much longer.  It cost about $10 in materials to make 5 panty liners that I don't imagine will ever wear out or need to be replaced.  So for the previous cost of 2 months' supplies, I'm now set for at least a year.  Score!   

[SKIP TO HERE] I have a lot of things I'll reuse in crafts: corks, lightbulbs (ornaments or sun catchers)  old CDs (various mirror bit projects), bottle caps (cover an old, cruddy table!), lace doilies.  So far my favorites are the doily shawl and the cork shoe mat.  Pinterest is chock full of ideas for these kinds of crafts!  

Cork shoe mat, shown with optional cat butt

Lace doily shawl

Some things I like to reuse around the house include toothbrushes, broken plates, and onion bags.  Toothbrushes past their useful days for tooth-scrubbing are great for scrubbing hard-to-reach places or, Lord have mercy, dirty grout between tiles.  Broken plates get put to use as spacers for the bottom of houseplant and garden pots, and someday if I end up with enough pieces (and also a yard) maybe I'll make a mosaic patio stone or something.  Onion bags are great for wadding unceremoniously together and making into housecleaning sponges.  Old and ratty towels get turned into cleaning rags, which in turn has helped me cut out paper towels.  I keep a few emergency paper towels around for stuff like cat barf, but mostly it's my trusty rags getting the cleaning jobs done.   

A few things don't even need to be repurposed at all to be reused, like wrapping paper, potting soil, and tea leaves.  Some people think this is weird, but I grew up in a family where we gently un-taped wrapping paper instead of shredding it, and then we folded it and saved it for later in a big stash in the basement.  Why throw it away only to buy more for the next gift-giving occasion?  Potting soil should be sterilized before reuse, either in the oven for a few hours (yum, dirt smell!) or under a dark-colored tarp in the sun for a few days, but then it's good to go.  Loose tea leaves, unlike coffee grounds or teabags, are actually meant to be reused.  If you want another pot a couple hours later, just throw the original ones back in.  Some people dry their leaves for reuse, but I confess I am too lazy to do this.  

 
As soon as I heard about the concept of reusing greywater, it made immediate sense, and I wondered why it's not more common, outside of using it to water landscaping next to the freeway here in SoCal.  That's pretty close to what I'm doing with it, only my plants are edible.  (My apartment is indeed close to the freeway.)  My apartment is not fitted for any kind of water reclamation, so I went for the low-tech approach of a 5-gallon bucket on the porch into which I pour hand-collected greywater.  I place a casserole dish in the bottom of the sink to catch rinse water from doing dishes, or the leftover water after cooking pasta.  When I change Oscar's water or find abandoned water glasses, that goes into the bucket.  When I shower, I take the bucket in with me to catch the water from the tap while I'm waiting for it to heat up, and any extra that's not hitting me.  (Since I don't use conventional shower products, I'm not worried about contamination with shampoo or shaving cream.)  I get to water my garden using almost exclusively water I would've wasted if not for this recapture.     

Here are a few ideas I'm still working on implementing, or would like to try in the future:

Fountain pens are the coolest.  They look rad, and they make everyone feel classy, and they don't have to be thrown away every time they run out of ink.  However, I'm still working off my backlog of pens I've found on the sidewalk, and I'll probably still want a few crappy ones for work and such, even if I switch.  Then again, I guess that's why we have pencils...  

I think cloth diapers are a super cool idea for if I ever have kids, not least because I'm already familiar with them from my family.  I was a cloth-diapered baby, and it seemed to work well for my parents.  After my sister and I were out of diapers, my mom designated them as cleaning rags.  Reusability in this case is both eco-friendly and cost-effective, so cloth diapers are filed away in a back drawer in my mind in case I'm ever in charge of what goes on a baby's butt. 

Family cloth is something I just heard about a few months ago.  For those of you not familiar, it's basically washable, reusable cloth toilet paper--much like cloth diapers, you wash them after every use, and supposedly it's not a big deal to throw in the wipes as well if you're already doing a load of diapers.  Some people only use them for #1, some use them for both #1 and #2.  I'm curious, but I think Roomie has put up with so much from me already that I'm going to wait on that little idea.  

There you have it--roughly umpteen (okay, just twenty) ways I reuse or recapture all kinds of little things in my daily life.  There are a bunch more that I haven't listed here, because then this list would TRULY go on forever.  I'm sure there are also a lot out there that I've never thought of--any ideas from the peanut gallery?  How do you reuse, repurpose, recapture, or upcycle things in your life? 

Up next, last in this series, various ways I recycle.  (I'll get a jump on it now by recycling some gin into a gin and tonic and sitting thoughtfully on my porch, contributing to the carbon cycle or something like that.)  Until then, have fun, be safe, and be kind.  Later, alligators! 

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle series: Trash-free living ideas of a hippie and Part 1, Reduce

Sometime last March, I was bored in class and daydreaming (revelation: I'm kind of a fickle student, good grades notwithstanding), when this idea popped into my head: what if I could live trash-free?  I made up a list of lots of ways, big and small, that I could be doing to get there.  My list fell pretty easily into the familiar three categories of reduce, reuse, and recycle.  I was completely consumed.  For as long as I could (about a week), I didn't tell anyone else about my idea, because I was pretty sure it would be seen as a classic Sabina pie-in-the-sky unrealistic hippie idea.  At the lemonade springs where the bluebird sings, as the saying goes.  (And to be sure, some people did see it that way, but they tended to be people who didn't really share many of my environmentalist leanings anyway--no skin off my nose.)

In the intervening year and change, I've tried to put as many as possible of those little ideas into action.  They seem to be equal parts easy adjustment with few or no social consequences (maybe an occasional eye roll from a stranger or someone especially *ahem* prone to eye rolling), and changes that are seen as unusual, drastic, maybe even crazy.  However, I'm going to go out on a limb and share them with you, both the ones I've implemented and the ones I'm still working on.  Since it's a pretty long list, I'm splitting it into three parts, along the lines of the original list.  Here are some of the ways I reduce my consumption in general, and especially of trash- or waste-producing products and services.  I love that this started out purely as an environmental act on my part, and yet it also saves me money and reduces my exposure to harmful chemicals, in many instances.  Sweet intersections! 

• Turn off the lights whenever I leave a room--if I'm going to be gone for more than 30 seconds, off it goes.  30 seconds of electricity doesn't exactly cost a lot, but I've noticed if I leave it on intending to come back, I often get distracted, do something else, and then suddenly I've been lighting a room for an hour with nobody there.  
• In a similar vein, I try to use the A/C less or not at all.  This isn't always possible in July in SoCal, but I've previously shared some alternative ideas here. 
• Growing veggies on my apartment balcony cuts my grocery bill, is delicious, and is a little way to keep some remnant of organic farming in my life at the moment.  I'm lucky to have a relatively big, uncovered balcony that gets 6-8 hours of direct sun (we're on the northwest side of the building, so that's pretty good!), so I'm growing herbs (mint, basil, chives, rosemary, sage, parsley, oregano, and thyme), beets, bok choy, tomatoes, zucchini, string beans, potatoes (though only one plant made it...), radishes, and sweet potatoes.  I started VERY late, so the herbs are the only thing I'm eating from there right now, but the beets and bok choy have taken off in the last two weeks.
• Home preserving dovetails nicely with growing some of your own food, but even if you don't have a garden  it's still a great money saver to buy large quantities of fresh produce in season and freeze, can, dry, pickle, or ferment for use out of season.  This has really helped me cut down on groceries and buying expensive, out-of-season items--I already have it in my freezer or pantry!
• Homemade body care products are probably my favorite natural living decision of the year.  I love that they're free of harmful synthetic chemicals and they're non-polluting (reducing manufacturing waste counts, too!), I love how cheap and easy they are to make, and I love how well they work for me.  So far, I've made homemade deodorant, shaving cream, dry shampoo, and toothpaste.  I also use baking soda and vinegar to clean my hair.
• Homemade cleaning products are another great way to reduce your chemical exposure, reduce production of manufacturing byproducts and pollutants, and save a buck.  Hey, three of my four favorite things!  (The fourth is wine, of course...) I use vinegar, baking soda (though never with vinegar since they're not effective in combination), ammonia, hydrogen peroxide, castile soap, and Borax for all of my cleaning now, and don't have to shell out for aerosolized foamy bathtub cleaners and such.  Plus, when you go no 'poo, there's a lot less gunk to clean out of the bathtub!
• A freeze on clothes buying since January has really helped my budget--I'd been looking for things to cut, and holy smokes it's amazing how much I'd been spending on aimless shopping during my unemployment.  I was bored to death and waiting to hear back about applications, interviews, and offers, and channeled that into buying clothes and a bunch of less-than-useful junk.  It was pretty wasteful, especially since I already have so.many.clothes.  Nipping that in the bud made a lot of other, more prudent spending possible (ya know, exciting stuff like groceries and apartment deposits and such).  I have broken that rule twice since January, once to buy a pair of cruddy jeans at Salvation Army for work, and once to buy a cute lace top that I didn't technically need but it's SO CUTE and I think I'll keep forever.  I'm still working on self-discipline, clearly.
• Roomie and I decided not to get cable.  Nice way to save money on the monthly subscription fee, and we would've had to buy a TV as well, since neither of us had one already.  We decided against it, especially since most of what we'd want we can get on Netflix or HBOGo anyway. 
• I cut my own hair, and after the initial (tiny) investment of the hair scissors, it's free!  I imagine this'll be my practice for a while, as the hairdresser usually washes your hair with conventional shampoo before the cut.  I don't want that, because that would mean starting a new transition back to no 'poo.  Plus, I can compost the trimmings.  
• I wash my own truck, albeit not as often as it might like.  This saves water compared to an automated wash--I use about 1 1/2 gallons of water per wash--and it saves money, too.  
• When I'm feeling especially squeezed in the grocery budget (or I'm just feeling like a challenge!), I like to do a pantry challenge.  You may remember I did one in May, and despite not really blogging about it, it went pretty well.  This is a combination clean-out-the-pantry and save-some-money-on-groceries proposition, and I've found I actually like depressing adult stuff, like budgets or not spending anything until payday, if I can make them into a game.  Score one for the pantry challenge. 
• Homemade bread, yogurt, beer, and sauerkraut are all semi-staples in my home.  The bread is largely replacing store bought (but it's hard to give up that Ezekiel stuff!), homemade yogurt has entirely replaced its commercial counterpart, the beer is purely supplementary (but every little bit counts, deosn't it?), and I don't think I've ever bought sauerkraut from a store.  It's a small thing, but it cuts down on plastic packaging for sure, and I'm inclined to think it would also reduce emissions from preparing and shipping that food.  This is another that feels less like subsistence and more like a game or a science experiment.  A delicious science experiment, mmmmmmmmm...
• Say no to disposable straws.  If you have the option when you're eating out, ask your server not to give you a straw, or don't choose one for yourself (for example, at a fast food place).  The best bet is probably to bring a reusable water bottle or one of those trendy reusable cups with a straw if you're planning on getting a drink at a fast food restaurant.  I don't make fast food a habit, but I still keep a water bottle in my truck for the once per quarter I might find myself at Five Guys (ok, it's actually for all of my life that happens in BETWEEN those visits, but it's useful then, too).
• Bring a lunch (and utensils!) to work or on day trips.  If you have leftovers, just sling them into a bag with a fork and you're good to go.  This is a double whammy, because you're not only avoiding the food waste involved in eating lunch out every day (and potentially packaging waste too, if you pick up a sandwich or sushi to go from the grocery store or something), you're also avoiding wasting your own homemade food that's already a sunk cost.  
• Put food away after dinner instead of picking at it just to finish it.  This one is hard for me, since B and I eat dinner together almost every night, and our favorite thing to do is sit around and chat over/after dinner.  With the food sitting there looking yummy, I find myself grazing, which is silly--if I'm not hungry, it's wasted on fattening me up for winter rather than nourishing me.  I'm also robbing myself of my own leftovers for work the next day.  Best bet?  Ten second tidy to put the food away, and then linger over wine and chit-chat.  
• I don't own any plastic wrap.  I have a lot of tupperwares and approximately 98 million Ball jars for my leftovers, plus some plastic bags (which I wash and reuse--coming up in the next crazy episode!) and aluminum foil.  One thing I've seen that I think I could get behind is using shower caps to cover bowls or plates.  In my dream world, all my tupperware would be glass instead of plastic, but for now I'll go for the much cheaper store brand BPA-free plastic.
• Get your book fix from the library.  Buying books, even at the dollar bookstore, was another big and unnecessary drain on my budget.  I love to own books, but I love to read them even more, and if that's my choice, the to the library it is!  The library is more than just books, too--my sister and I borrowed every season of True Blood from our small town library, a great find since neither of us has HBO.   
• Make razors last by making sure they're always completely clean and dry after use, and sharpening them on a pair of jeans.  I've successfully used the same cartridge for 6 months this way.  
• Cover pots when bringing water (or anything else) to a boil--why pay to heat up the kitchen AND have it take longer to reach a boil?  I cannot believe it took me 22 1/2 years to figure that one out, but there you have it. 
• Only run the dishwasher when full.  This is sort of a no-brainer, but it can be especially important in apartment complexes with older, less efficient appliances that use a lot of water and electricity, like, ya know, my apartment.  
• Though I don't use a lot of it, I buy milk at least occasionally.  Mostly I keep it around for cooking and baking, rather than drinking.  I was getting very frustrated with my inability to use a half gallon before it went bad, and I refused to pay the even higher markup for a quart.  Then I learned YOU CAN FREEZE MILK.  It's still perfect for all of my recipes, though I haven't tried drinking it or making yogurt with the defrosted stuff.  This way I can buy a gallon at a great unit price (with my employee discount, even organic grass-fed milk is within reach at Whole Foods), and I no longer have to use it within the next week or two.  This is, no joke, revolutionizing my kitchen.   
• The last reducing idea is a little silly, but it's always worked for me.  I have never once in my life bought paper clips, and have only bought pens a few times.  That's because I'm always finding them on the ground!  I've long had a habit of looking for interesting things on the ground when I'm out and about--mostly you see trash, but sometimes it's change, earrings, notes, paper clips, pens, a couple times even a $5, $10, or $20 bill.  I suppose this might technically count as reusing, or at best foraging.  But still.  I've never bought paper clips.  I have a rainbow of colors and a wide variety of sizes, courtesy of the sidewalk. 

Whew, this has been long.  Thanks for sticking with me, Gentle Reader, and I'd love to hear your ideas for or stories of reducing, whatever that means in your life.