Please report back. I’m curious. Deodorant and toothpaste are my last toiletry hurdles. Toothpaste is about health so I’m less inclined to try something that isn’t backed by the establishment but deodorant, I mostly use the one that I do because I am comfortable with how little I sweat wearing it.
Sard wonder soap from the supermarket is also an excellent and inexpensive stain remover. I don’t know how it works but it works much better the sprays I have tried in the past.
I can’t find a decent water calculator for food yet (I just want a table to quickly compare different foods!) but I have decided that our last electricity bill really is as bad as I think it is (twice the normal use in the suburb) so I’m going to have to check every outlet for its “standby” power usage.
I found what is possibly too much detail in the data.
https://waterfootprint.org/en/resources/waterstat/product-water-footprint-statistics/
There’s spreadsheets on how much water different foods take to make in different countries, and also what quality of water they use (greywater, potable/drinking water etc).
I have always struggled with the usefulness of the water footprint concept - it seems to ignore the water cycle. I found this article which addresses my concerns about it.
I read one of the papers from your link and it’s an interesting impact assessment technique but always ends up with a massive number.
I agree the term footprint is not useful and that technically we can’t run out of water. I also agree that looking at land and carbon emissions first is important.
However, the crop or livestock you choose for an area needs a certain amount of fresh water, and it has to come from the locally available water. Removal of that water is important to maintain local ecosystems, structural stability of the ground (removing too much water from an aquifer can cause ground stability issues), and expenses in treating non-fresh water to be potable, which can be energy intensive.
TLDR: it’s a poor tool but we’re working on better ones, but they tend to have less catchy names.
I’ve been ignoring the water footprint thingy… Because I thought that the idea was to eat things that could mostly grow where they are being grown (I. E. Ontario apples are good, California almonds bad) even though they might water the good stuff too? Also because I can’t handle the extra stress of trying to reform my diet
I’ve started using Dropps laundry detergent. It comes in little plastic-y pods, but allegedly the pods are not made of actual plastic and break down into water and carbon dioxide. So far the clothes appear to be clean (we are still using, and will probably continue to use, liquid detergent for cloth diapers). I also have to say that I’m pleased and impressed by the efficient, convenient design of the box.
My coworker sent me this -
Simple article but good message.
Piccard has quite the family history! And a calm, easy to understand way of talking about these things that would appeal to mainstream audiences who would normally shut out the message. A quote of his from another article on the site: “People don’t want to get out of their habits, and that’s why you either have to give them a personal interest to do it—that they’ll earn money or save money—or you need a better governance and legal framework that pushes people in a good direction.”
I’m trying to figure out if I should partake in a composting program in my new apartment. For $16/month, I get a compost bucket, weekly pickup, and a clean bucket each week. In the spring, I get 6 cubic ft of compost (and I guess you get more the longer you’ve been in the program).
I will be moving into a place with a backyard, but the landlords live upstairs, and I don’t necessarily want to start my own compost collection back there because it’s not really mine. I love the idea of composting but I’m not sure if $16/month is a good price. I will only be gardening in pots come spring so I don’t need a huge amount of compost. Would love any feedback!
That seems expensive to me, but it might be worth going to your local garden center and pricing out a similar amount of compost to compare. Is there any kind of municipal compost program where you live?
Is this a program that has strong support, and can you find a cheaper alternative? If so, I’d probably go with the cheaper option.
But if you suspect the program doesn’t have a lot of participants, it may be worth the cost to support it. In this scenario maybe they can deliver only the amount of compost you expect to use, or you could try offering up your excess on something like the Buy Nothing Project.
The only other option is $15/month, but they don’t pick up the bucket for you. It looks like the city is exploring composting but hasn’t started doing anything yet. I may be able to split a bucket with the landlords upstairs, which would be great. Another cool thing is you can donate your share of compost if you won’t use it and they use it in city parks or at non-profits and things like that. I will probably do it once we have a steady income, even if I mentally just consider it charity.
I took plastic bread bags and gave them to the neighbor for use as doggy poop bags. Here’s to getting a second use out of a single-use bag.
I regularly go to events where it’s impractical to carry a backpack, aka my water bottle holder. If I’m going to be dancing for 3 hours, I need water. I am looking at a collapsible cup like this, that would fit in my small crossbody bag. But maybe get it from a local shop, so Amazon isn’t shipping a whole box out just for this tiny item. Unfortunately, REI only has a version without a lid, so the cup’s gonna get dirtier. I’m fine with paying a few bucks more, but the lid seems useful. Although the lid is itself more waste. Maybe I can keep it in a ziploc?
If you ever get the opportunity to get a small wet bag, they function like a non-disposable ziplock. Typically used for cloth nappies but super useful in all kinds of situations, and I can see one working well for carrying items like that cup.
Unfortunately even the small wet bags look bigger than my bag-bag. I can wash and reuse Ziplocs, which I usually get from my food leftovers source.
I cannot even begin to imagine a world in which I don’t have to carry a load of junk with me wherever I go, such that I could have such a tiny bag 
unless it’s Hermione’s beaded bag.
I have used my mini wetbags to carry my essentials, but yes, generally I am also of the minibag-within-a-backpack group. I’ve never had so few things that I could manage something smaller than a mini wetbag!
I used a plastic bread bag for cat litter!
Turns out my new landlord has a compost pile in the backyard we can use! Free way to reduce environmental impact.