Plastic Free Toilet Paper

I always thought I was uber crunchy. 

Compared to most folks I know I take it to another level. I only wash my hair once a week and make my own soap for goodness sakes. 

Then my mom got me this book, which lead me to this blog, and I was floored. I had nothing on these ladies. Both the blog and the book really had an impact on me and opened my eyes to how much waste there really is out there, and both offered some great solutions for doing your own little part to reduce it. 

Hint...recycling isn't the answer. 

I now bring my own jars to the grocery store for olives and bulk items and am always on the lookout for minimal and plastic free packaging. 

The wide mouth quart mason jar with plastic cap weighs exactly a pound,
making it super easy for sales clerks to  take off the tare weight. 

The other day we headed to Sams for toilet paper (sometimes frugality wins) and imagine my surprise when I found this. 

Plastic free toilet paper made from 80% recycled material. GOOOOOO Sams. I was impressed, so impressed I felt the need to blog about it. 

What can you do to reduce your impact on the earth? I challenge you to read the book, peruse the blog and take away a few good tips. 

Dumpster Diving

I am a shameless dumpster diver. They just call my name to take a peek inside and see what kinds of treasures lurk within. 

Future Dumpster Diver

Because you know, it really chaps my ass when people throw things away they could easily recycle back into their community. Especially when there are so many great resources like Freecycle, Craigslist, and online Facebook community yard sale pages. Or you could just leave the goods on your porch with a free sign. 

So when my community HOA put out the yearly dumpster for bulk pickup I did a couple of hooray fist pumps. This year I pulled out 3 perfect terra cotta pots and a set of plain pine Ikea bed slats.

 

Robert and Lenora got to work building me a new planter for my back porch container garden with the bed slats. Just look at that team work. Arent they lovely. I can't wait to fill that planter with some good eats next summer. 

The Green Johanna

I would like to introduce the newest member of our family....The Green Johanna.

Isn't she swell. I had been on the hunt for the perfect urban composter and I think I finally found it. Since our entire back yard is deck, she is currently living 4 doors down at my moms, but still close enough that I just walk over once or twice a week to drop off my scraps. She is a hot composter, rodent proof and can eat anything, meat and dairy included.

So far I love her, but since this is my first attempt at composting, I am still working on striking the right balance of greens and browns. I think we are low on browns so I have been stalking my neighbors tree, waiting for those leaves to fall. 

I will admit, it is a little nastier than I anticipated but its working and I was even excited to see some black soldier flies living in it. Apparently they are food garbage eating machines. 

Now if only I had some chickens to eat those fly grubs.......Wonder if my mom would let me keep a few of those in her yard also?