I am almost through my 7th month of buying nothing new! Can you believe it? I can. My Grandpa Read once told me that he felt like his life sped up between the ages of 20 and 69. It slowed back down at 70. He turned 89 earlier this week, and while it might seem like the years go a bit slower now, the man is still cramming in all sorts of activities like Mac user club (he would never touch a PC), choir, walking the dog and impressing the ladies with his mad ballroom dance skills. Nice job Gramps!
Knowing that I am over the halfway mark of my project has made me stop and think about the comments I've received from people who've seen the blog. Just last week and old friend from college said she started reading it and was excited to swap stories of reusing and refurbishing, which I LOVE. Since January, many friends and acquaintances (but no enemies....I think) have referred me to books, documentaries, other blogs and websites related to my goal to buy nothing new, reuse and re-think the way I consume. Here's a rundown so far:
Bill Lewis suggested checking out this book to get more information on container gardening (bonus: Rose Marie is a local).
Britt Q. sent me a link to The Story of Stuff Project, which explains the Materials Economy and how stuff is made from things that are extracted, produced, distributed, consumed and finally disposed of. There's a documentary, a blog, a book and a very interactive website featuring clips of the film. The whole thing is BRILLIANT! It was criticized by Glenn Beck for being anti consumer and other groups said it was anti-American since it highlights how much of the world's resources the US uses. If that doesn't make you want to get into it, I don't know what will.
My awesome coworker Renee Stowell directed me to a website for The Reuseum, a surplus store in Idaho that tries to get recycled technology out into the community, and also promotes all sorts of creative projects using surplus items, like using old voting booths to poll people on the street on their likes and dislikes. Hey Facebook, you're not the only one that can ask people funny quizzes! Renee also gets super props for discovering art projects we can do that involve reused items, like making bowls out of old record albums, which we did a few months ago. And no, we did not inhale.
In reference to my blog regarding tooth brushes, Jessica White told me that Trader Joe's sells a recyclable toothbrush. It's made from recycled plastic yogurt containers! The company who makes them sells all sorts of interesting recycled products which were exciting to see, but couldn't compare with my current favorite recycled vessel, my Adams peanut butter jar water glass/travel mug.
Party Jon gave me the book, "Make Your Place: Affordable, Sustainable, Nesting Skills" so I can figure out how to make my own household cleaning supplies, deodorant, toothpaste and all sorts of other great things. I hope he wasn't trying to give me a hint.
Multiple people suggested that I watch the documentary Food Inc. So I finally borrowed it from Sarah G and watched it. You should watch it too and get mad as hell. All I have to say is, "Soylent Green Is People". Let's stop being chumps.
And since I now get my cheap kicks from trying new recipes instead of window shopping, I've got my favorite sites for recipes. Rachel Faber Machacha directed me to http://smittenkitchen.com/ with stories of how she lived off of the Mediterranean Pepper Salad last summer (It IS that good). And then there is the lovely http://www.101cookbooks.com/index.html which I stumbled upon when looking for a quinoa recipe last year. Heidi Swanson has proved to be a great source for flavor inspiration!
Keep the info coming! I love reading/watching/listening/seeing/sharing it!
Friday, July 30, 2010
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Sharp like a razor
It is time for a new toothbrush.
Luckily I have a spare all ready to go in the bathroom and I won't have to debate about which free toothbrush alternative to adopt (stick, dental floss and mouthwash combo or charcoal/cactus spike duo). I've been told to change out my toothbrush every six months for my entire life. If I hadn't received a free toothbrush from the dentist at each visit, I probably would have paid more attention to my toothbrush usage and disposal. But now that I have to contemplate the source to address every potential need, toothbrushes are coming to the forefront!
Up until a few years ago my pattern was: use, receive free replacement and throw away old brush. During some time in China a few years ago, I noticed that the Chinese government was in the middle of a major campaign to promote dental care among citizens. This was apparent when: A) I saw posters of people brushing their teeth in most public areas, B) one of my students gave me a note on a postcard advertising toothpaste, and C) I went hiking in the mountains and on the edges of a stream bed I saw hundreds and hundreds of plastic tooth brushes. The colorful plastic flotsam was striking against the brown mud and green plants of the waterway. It was easy for me to dismiss the scene as just one of the issues plaguing China as it develops. But ever since then I have wondered about the toothbrushes I have disposed of during my lifetime. Are they floating down some Oregon creeks toward the ocean?
My friend Party Jon and I are equally bugged by the standard toothbrush, yet neither of us has invested in anything like the Eco-dent toothbrush, a German toothbrush that comes with replacement heads. I think it's because I wish there was a complete alternative to using a plastic brush at all. Perhaps a bamboo toothbrush? Well shit. It exists: http://www.environmentaltoothbrush.com.au/ Apparently Australia is all hip to the environmental side of the toothbrush dilemma while New Zealand has taken another route:
Nice job, Te Pahu!
Either way, they've still got us Americans beat. Beyond recyling my toothbrushes and hoping they don't end up in a waterway, or speculating alternatives like chewing on a stick, I haven't come up with a good alternative for that free toothbrush from the dentist office. When I have the option to buy new items again, I just might try the Aussie bamboo brush.
What I have come up with is a great disposable razor alternative! Despite my friend Britt Q sending me the link to an article about how to make your disposable razor last longer, I still reached a point when I needed to find a razor alternative (for free) or just go hairy for the rest of the year. Let's just say that I'm a brunette so it was an easy decision. Thinking about shaving made me remember being a little girl and chattering away to my dad while he shaved his cheeks and neck, accommodating his big beard. I remembered his razor exactly (the end of it looked like a gear shift), and more so, I remembered him just changing the blades instead of throwing the whole thing away. The next time I went home I asked my mom about it, and she not only still had the razor, but tucked in the medicine cabinet were two boxes of Schick injector blades! The whole system is pretty awesome - the old blade is pushed out when you insert the new blade and then you put the used blade back in the case and can recycle it all together. Score. My mom also pulled out an old women's Gillette razor that takes full sized razor blades. It looks way classier than those pink plastic Venus razors at the grocery store. I like shaving with a razor that has some weight to it. It doesn't slip out of my hand and despite dealing with razor blades, I have not cut myself. How did plastic disposable razors become the norm? The don't necessarily make our lives any easier- you still have to shave. If anything, disposing of something on a regular basis seems more complicated than using a product and changing out one part when it gets worn out. I am happy to use my vintage razors and even happier to be reminded of my dad and mom when I do!
Luckily I have a spare all ready to go in the bathroom and I won't have to debate about which free toothbrush alternative to adopt (stick, dental floss and mouthwash combo or charcoal/cactus spike duo). I've been told to change out my toothbrush every six months for my entire life. If I hadn't received a free toothbrush from the dentist at each visit, I probably would have paid more attention to my toothbrush usage and disposal. But now that I have to contemplate the source to address every potential need, toothbrushes are coming to the forefront!
Up until a few years ago my pattern was: use, receive free replacement and throw away old brush. During some time in China a few years ago, I noticed that the Chinese government was in the middle of a major campaign to promote dental care among citizens. This was apparent when: A) I saw posters of people brushing their teeth in most public areas, B) one of my students gave me a note on a postcard advertising toothpaste, and C) I went hiking in the mountains and on the edges of a stream bed I saw hundreds and hundreds of plastic tooth brushes. The colorful plastic flotsam was striking against the brown mud and green plants of the waterway. It was easy for me to dismiss the scene as just one of the issues plaguing China as it develops. But ever since then I have wondered about the toothbrushes I have disposed of during my lifetime. Are they floating down some Oregon creeks toward the ocean?
My friend Party Jon and I are equally bugged by the standard toothbrush, yet neither of us has invested in anything like the Eco-dent toothbrush, a German toothbrush that comes with replacement heads. I think it's because I wish there was a complete alternative to using a plastic brush at all. Perhaps a bamboo toothbrush? Well shit. It exists: http://www.environmentaltoothbrush.com.au/ Apparently Australia is all hip to the environmental side of the toothbrush dilemma while New Zealand has taken another route:
Nice job, Te Pahu!
Either way, they've still got us Americans beat. Beyond recyling my toothbrushes and hoping they don't end up in a waterway, or speculating alternatives like chewing on a stick, I haven't come up with a good alternative for that free toothbrush from the dentist office. When I have the option to buy new items again, I just might try the Aussie bamboo brush.
What I have come up with is a great disposable razor alternative! Despite my friend Britt Q sending me the link to an article about how to make your disposable razor last longer, I still reached a point when I needed to find a razor alternative (for free) or just go hairy for the rest of the year. Let's just say that I'm a brunette so it was an easy decision. Thinking about shaving made me remember being a little girl and chattering away to my dad while he shaved his cheeks and neck, accommodating his big beard. I remembered his razor exactly (the end of it looked like a gear shift), and more so, I remembered him just changing the blades instead of throwing the whole thing away. The next time I went home I asked my mom about it, and she not only still had the razor, but tucked in the medicine cabinet were two boxes of Schick injector blades! The whole system is pretty awesome - the old blade is pushed out when you insert the new blade and then you put the used blade back in the case and can recycle it all together. Score. My mom also pulled out an old women's Gillette razor that takes full sized razor blades. It looks way classier than those pink plastic Venus razors at the grocery store. I like shaving with a razor that has some weight to it. It doesn't slip out of my hand and despite dealing with razor blades, I have not cut myself. How did plastic disposable razors become the norm? The don't necessarily make our lives any easier- you still have to shave. If anything, disposing of something on a regular basis seems more complicated than using a product and changing out one part when it gets worn out. I am happy to use my vintage razors and even happier to be reminded of my dad and mom when I do!
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Stitch and Bitch, but be sure to recycle!
When I graduated high school (TEN YEARS AGO!), I had a plethora of school related t-shirts from marching band, musicals, tennis, orchestra and other assorted activities. Like pretty much every other teenage girl, I had the brilliant plan of saving those shirts to make into a t-shirt quilt. Well, I got busy with college and the quilt didn't happen. But I did manage to keep a paper bag consisting of the shirts in my closet, parceled away from my Goodwill offerings, and there they sat in confinement until after college.
When my post college plan of finding a super awesome job didn't really happen, I re-discovered my t-shirt bag when rooting around for something to entertain myself. This time I decided to trim the shirts so that I would only have the portion of the shirt with what ever assorted graphic made it really cool. Who needs sleeves or necklines? So I proceeded to cut the shirts into pieces, and I also managed to secure the cheapest baseline model (i.e all plastic) Singer sewing machine I could find. Score! I should at this time mention that my t-shirt pieces were not cut with any sort of measurement or straight edge, or even design plan for all that matters -I just went at the shirts with a pair of scissors, which resulted in some not exactly rectangular or square patches. I then proceeded to use my supposedly awesome sewing machine to attach some polyester quilt batting, but that ended up being extremely difficult given that the sewing machine was a piece of shit in disguise. Needless to say, everything got put away until a few weeks ago when I re-discovered the t-shirt pieces and thought, "If I have to move these effing t-shirt pieces again, I am going to lose it." Sometimes you just need the right motivation to complete a project!
My one challenge with finishing the quilt was the fact that I had no big spools of thread, and I couldn't just wander into town to buy some. You would think that it would be easy to find thread at a thrift store since so many people have sewing boxes with tons of partially used spools. Unfortunately, for months I could only find used thread packaged with a bunch of crap I didn't need, like buttons, lace and googly eyes (who is making hooker dolls?) This week, however, I hit pay dirt at the OSU Folk Thrift Store and secured a zip lock bag with four spools of thread (white, pink, green and brown) and ten mini spools all for the hot price of $1.50. I got home, slapped the spool of white thread on my housemates legitimately awesome 1960s Singer sewing machine (all the parts are metal and I can fill and thread the bobbin in two minutes) and started to sew. It took me half a day spread over an evening and morning, given that the patches were inconsistent sizes and crooked, but I managed to get them together in a way that didn't look half bad! When the front was complete, I cycled over to Goodwill bought a cute little twin bed sheet with butterflies on it to use as the backing and sewed it on. Voila! A quilt that is too small for a bed, but just perfect for curling up on the couch with a good book or laying on to watch Fourth of July fireworks.
When my post college plan of finding a super awesome job didn't really happen, I re-discovered my t-shirt bag when rooting around for something to entertain myself. This time I decided to trim the shirts so that I would only have the portion of the shirt with what ever assorted graphic made it really cool. Who needs sleeves or necklines? So I proceeded to cut the shirts into pieces, and I also managed to secure the cheapest baseline model (i.e all plastic) Singer sewing machine I could find. Score! I should at this time mention that my t-shirt pieces were not cut with any sort of measurement or straight edge, or even design plan for all that matters -I just went at the shirts with a pair of scissors, which resulted in some not exactly rectangular or square patches. I then proceeded to use my supposedly awesome sewing machine to attach some polyester quilt batting, but that ended up being extremely difficult given that the sewing machine was a piece of shit in disguise. Needless to say, everything got put away until a few weeks ago when I re-discovered the t-shirt pieces and thought, "If I have to move these effing t-shirt pieces again, I am going to lose it." Sometimes you just need the right motivation to complete a project!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
