New Year and New Beginnings

January is a great month to take stock and start switching to reusables. When I started to make some great changes to get rid of the plastic in common things we were buying, I started with going thru our recycling and seeing what plastic we were recycling the most. For us, it was soap and shampoo/conditioner.

I found Blueland tabs for foaming hand soap (not affliated, I just like thier product). This switched us to a glass container for our soap. We use the tab and add water. One thing I learned was a lot of products that we use for cleaning, actually have a large amount of water added. it is more cost effective to buy concentrates and it helps with the environmental impact. Less weight to these products means less fuel used to transport them.

For shampoo and conditioner we switched to shampoo bars. Shampoo bars can be challenging as they are not all created equal. We had to find one that worked on our hair. I suggest trying several before settling on the one that works best for your hair type and preferences.

Instead of bottles of body wash, we switched to bar soap. Again, I would suggest trying different ones to find ones you like. I tend to buy soaps from local soap artisans that I find while vending my own products. Small batch artisan soaps have much better quality than store bought, in my opinion. They are typically made with quality ingredients and if you have any allergies they can possibily customize a soap for you.

So the first step, is to replace one product that uses plastic with one reusable option. Go thru your recycling or pay attention to what one-time plastic you are using a lot. Is there a replacement you can use? if you use plastic/saran wrap can you replace that with beeswax wraps? if you use body wash can you replace it with bar soap? I firmly believe in starting small and slowly create low waste habits. It can easily become too much if you try to replace everything at once. Build your habits slowly and take one step that will make your house more sustainable. Happy New Year’s!