Refillable, Compostable, Zero-Waste Packaging Options
3/22/2022.
I plan to continue adding to this list. Trying to keep a database of reputable companies with zero-waste, low-waste packaging policies. Leave a comment with your discoveries.
Cleaning Products
Blueland – Surface Cleaners (Multi-Surface, Glass + Mirror,
Bathroom, Foaming Hand Soap). No Parabens, No Phthalates, No VOCs. $39 Kit comes with 4 plastic bottles and and cleaning tablets (in paper pouches). Can also purchase individual cleaner bottle kits. Refills are $1.55-$2 per tablet. If you already have your own bottles, you could just purchase the refills.
Cleancult – Products: All Purpose Cleaner, Liquid Dish Soap, Liquid Hand Soap, Dishwasher Tablets, Laundry Tablets. Refillable GLASS bottles. Coconut based cleaning formula, also olive oil & zemea propoanediol is vegan, cruelty free, GMO free and made in USA. Refills come in milk cartons (liquids) or paper mailer (powdered tablets). Paper mailers.
Earth Breeze – Laundry Sheets gets lots of kudos from my NextDoor neighbors.
Grove Collaborative – has moved up on my list. They offered many sustainable products but packaging was so-so. They are now offering refills for their home line of soap and detergent products in aluminum cans rather than plastic bottles and new options such as shampoo bars. Full range of cleaning, personal and cosmetic products.
Sheets Laundry Club – My personal favorite laundrysheet is a dissolvable, biodegradeable sheet of detergent. Also offer dryer sheets and laundry booster. All paper packaging. Vegan, gluten-free. $14 for 50 sheets (1 sheet per regular load) with subscription.
Tru Earth – laundry strips, recommended by Geri K. Free of parabens, phosphates, added dyes, chlorine bleach.
Food Storage
Net Zero Co. – Silicon re-usable zip storage bags, beeswax wrappers, metal & glass food storage containers. Also cloth bags, dental & body care products. Compostable mailers. Available for re-sale to vendors.
Blue Avocado/ (re)zip – Food storage, pack & travel. Re-usable plastic storage. Widely available at WalMart, Amazon, BBBY, Whole Foods, online & many other locations. Made in China, no other sustainability creds except re-usability.
Personal
Etee – Plastic-free dental (toothbrushes with replaceable heads) & body soap products, food wraps & storage, dish soaps and scrubbers. Most items sold in bulk, most $9 – $20, bundles cost more.
I visited the original Package Free Shop in Brooklyn NY a few years ago (has now expanded to 6 NYC stores) and was jazzed that they also have an online shop. This is probably the widest variety of items offered on one site but might feel too upscale & curated for some.
Grove Collaborative – They are now offering refills for soap products in aluminum cans rather than plastic bottles and now has shampoo bars and full range of bar soaps, cosmetic products, essential oils.
Office Supplies
Wisdom Supply – Binders & Office Supplies
Gardening
Down to Earth – Plant supplements and Fertilizers. In compostable paper boxes and bags. Available at some plant nurseries
Returnable, Refillable Containers – Grocery, Health, Beauty
Loop – If you prefer well-advertised brands (including Seventh Generation and Nature’s Path), several manufacturers and retailers (Kroger & Walgreens) are teaming up to offer door-to-door drop of products and pickup of containers. Currently it is only available in pilot programs on the east coast but you can sign-up for the waitlist to be informed when it is available in your community.
ZeroGrocery – If you are fortunate enough to live in the City of Los Angeles, City of San Francisco or these cities in the San Francisco East Bay (Pinole, San Pablo, Richmond, El Cerrito, Albany, Berkeley, Oakland, Alameda, Piedmont, Orinda, Castro Valley) then you can have a true refilable/sustainable packaging grocery experience. Groceries are delivered in thermal bags that you leave on your doorstep, along with refillable containers, to be picked up on the next delivery. Small produce (berries, beans, brussel sprouts) come in cardboard boxes. Meat in wrapped in paper placed in compostable bio-plastic zip bags. I enjoyed their service for over a year but they have recently retrenched and I’m no longer in their service area, for now.
Fair Trade/ Ethically Traded, Packaging, Plastics, Re-use, Reduce, Zero-Waste | Comment (0)Fair Pay for Restaurant Wait Staff
How much do restaurants pay waiters & waitresses? Minimum tipped wages are currently (4/15/15) $2.13/hr and have been so since 1991. A few states have higher minimum wages (California $7.25/hr). While a few stellar and fortunate folks can make a living wage from tips, your average waitperson cannot. How can you make a difference?
1) Write your representatives and ask that minimum tipped wage rise yearly at the same rate as as other government COLAs (cost of living adjustments0
2) Be aware of how wait staff are paid at the restaurants you frequent – ask them. If they are not paid fairly, stop giving the restaurant your business and tell the manager or owner the reason. They can make the decision to change or go out of business. Find a restaurant with ethical pay and eat there (& tell your friends to do the same).
In the meantime, I’m starting a list here of wages at restaurants. GlassDoor is a good place to start for Base Salary. Recommend that wait staff start entering their data into Glass Door regardless of how big or small your employer. Information helps us all make ethical decisions. Feel free to comment and provide info on restaurants that you know wage and benefits (if any) for:
Name Hourly % Above/ Other Benefits
Belo Natl Avg
Big Boy $2.13 -82% None
BJ’s $7.00 -44%
Cracker Barrel $2.84/hr Avg tips $17,120. Benes only for full time which most servers are not.
Disney Avg ann’l pay $32,951, Health Insurance, Sick Days, wages are union
Hilton $7.49 Bonus, avg tips $18, 852
Hyatt Avg ann’l pay $24K, Health Ins, Vacation & Leave
Economics, Fair Trade/ Ethically Traded, Fair Wages | Comment (0)Sew and Sew: Where to Buy Ethically Made Fabrics
As a sewer, quilter and fabric consumer I’ve always paid close attention to waste and using up scraps is part of why I like quilting. Lately I’ve been choosing many organic fabrics because of the many toxic chemicals that go into the farming and production of cotton that affect not only the consumer but the farmers and manufacturers. Likewise, reading about the slavelike conditions & wages in many low wage overseas factories, I’m reluctant to buy a lot of new fabric and am paying attention to where they are made.
Though, not generally a JoAnns fabric shopper, I happily learned that they have just introduced a new MadeInAmerica fabric line from FabricTraditions. Online chatter indicates they have always carried some Made in USA fabrics but you have had to search for them.
Most of Liberty of London fabric is still woven in England as seen in this video.
By my research Japanese prints are indeed made in Japan, they are even milling high quality denim!
FabricWorm carries a large selection of organics and I just discovered Organic Cotton Plus.
Of course there is always repurposing fabric, buying at thrift shops & yard sales and, of course fabric swaps!
Clothing & Fabrics, Fair Trade/ Ethically Traded, Re-use, Think Globally | Comments (3)Our Clothing Addiction Leads to Cycle of Poverty in Developing World
Clothing contributes to poverty in two ways.
- First, new clothing is sewn predominantly in sweatshops around the world, often by women that are permanently enslaved to pay off a “debt” for the “privilege” of a “well paying” job – NOT.
- Second, the used clothing business has effectively destroyed native garment industries in much of Africa and other developing countries. American cotton is so highly subsidized that our used clothing can be purchased more cheaply by them than those made with native fabrics and sewn by native seamstresses.
“T-Shirt Travels”is a documentary that should make us think twice about the easy fix. If you don’t have time to read the entire article or want to explain it easily to students here is a quick visual. Over time many of the links are disappearing; here is one for the book The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy” The movie Life and Debt tells of the Free Trade Zone in Jamaica where workers who sew for American corporations to earn the legal minimum wage of $30 U.S./week. Sweatshops, with the approval of their governments, offer incentives to foreign clothing designers which are allowed to bring in shiploads of material tax-free and are immediately transported out after sewing. Over 10,000 women currently work under sub-standard work conditions. In order to ensure the employment offered, Jamaica agreed to the stipulation that no unionization is permitted in the Free Trade Zones. When the women attempt to organize they are fired and blacklisted to prevent them from working again. The jobs move on to next developing country desperate for work.
A new book Fugitive Denim: a Human and Sensible Approach of Global Textile Trade by Rachel Louise Snyder tells part of the complex story of the textile trade, now & historically, acquired by traveling around the world and talking to workers and professionals in the trade. United Students Against Sweatshops at 25 universities are now boycotting or severing ties with Russell Athletics/Jerzees until the company re-opens the Jerzees de Honduras facility at full capacity, re-hires all union workers and complete the collective bargaining process. Also, individual initiatives such as Ethix Merch attempt to link small manufacturers with buyers.
Americans consider ourselves to be generous people as we assuage our guilt about buying new clothing by giving away our slightly worn or out of date cast offs to charity but the net effect is a global economy turned upside down. What to do?
- Worn thin? Goodwill or Salvation Army will turn into rags.
- Stained? Sew or iron a patch, applique. Tie die the garment – stains get lost in the patterns. Missing buttons, open seams, broken zippers? Fix yourself, or take it to your dry cleaners or find a local seamstress/tailor. Keeps Americans employed at decent wages. If you’re crafty, here are ideas for recycling old Tees .
- Gained/lost weight? Style dated? A good tailor can take in or let out seams and can even re-fashion professional clothing to reflect current fashion trends
- Just itching for a change or something different? Look for clothing swaps online or plan an event with friends
If you must buy new, search out items made of organic or sustainably harvested fabrics by fairly paid and treated workers. This 2013FairTradeDirectory has links to many online ethically traded clothing items. Be willing to pay more for both American /union/Fair Trade made goods.
The fashion industry itself is just discovering Zero Waste and trying to apply it to the cutting room floor. Parsons New School for design will offer a course in zero waste.
Ethical doesn’t have to mean giving up style. Ethical In Style will send you the latest trends daily via FB or Twitter.
Sustaining our Food Chain & Our Sanity
A furtive meandering email forward about Chinese vegetables, Pacific Rim seafood, poop as nutrients & American jobs going overseas got me to doing a lot of research on food chains, food safety, sustainability & food ethics. A lot of territory, and this does not presume to be complete, but here goes.
It’s a lot of work but basically, caveat emptor, read the labels on every food product you buy, their sourcing may change from month to month. Consider writing an email to companies when you decide not to buy a product because the the origin or production values of the product. Buy foods in season. Off season foods come from far away places. Maybe you should be eating pomegranetes not strawberries in December. Processed foods are always a sourcing, and disclosure, nightmare, an example:
In the NutriGrain bar, the list of sources and ingredients is as follows:
• USA: high fructose corn syrup, sugar, wheat flour (produced and milled), whole grain oats, sunflower oil, strawberry puree, cellulose, red dye #40;
• China: vitamin and mineral supplements (B1, B2, iron, folic acid), honey;
• Philippines: carrageenan;
• India: guar gum;
• Europe: citric acid;
• Denmark: lecithin (soy);
• Italy: malic acid; and
• Scotland: sodium alginate.
“The 2002 Farm Bill and the 2008 Farm Bill amended the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946 to require that retailers inform consumers of the country of origin of all perishable agricultural commodities beginning September 30, 2008…” per this excellent full article.
What this really means is re-thinking your budget putting a priority on paying for organic, sustainably raised foods and making as much of your food from scratch as possible. They are better for both your body and the planet’s health. Are you willing to buy fewer clothes (or movie tickets, or tech gadgets) to have more quality & control in your foods?
When choosing imported foods consider the carbon impact from shipping. East Coasters are actually using less carbon when you choose European (wine, olive oil, fruits, seafood ) over California grown because sea shipping is more energy efficient than trucking) , Mexico (even we Californians now get most of our tomatoes from Mexico, the big farms are pretty attuned to US standards), Canada. West Coast folks cause less transportation CO2 by buying from the Pacific Rim countries if we can’t get it from Mexico or western Canada. Though I enjoy the European and South American Wines, I generally buy California wines. If I’m traveling I always look for local fare & wines.
Just as we cannot categorize all US food as good or bad, we must make the same distinctions within other countries. There are honest and unethical people around the world. QVD Aqualculture out of Bellevue WA provides farmed fish from the US, Vietnam & Singapore and you will be impressed by their standards & certifications .
FDA has a lot of seafood inspections but can’t possibly inspect everything. China is the only entire county on their seafood watchlist.
A great seafood guide from the Monterey Bay Aquarium includes guides for different regions of the US see: Print a copy and keep it in your purse or with your coupons.
There is a HUGE difference between Chinese veggies for the US/Canada frozen market & Chinese seafood, meat & products grown for their internal markets.
“ Farmland is communally owned, so a foreign business, often working with a Chinese agent, will approach a village council and propose a farming arrangement. After a community vote, the entire village contracts with the company to supply the agricultural product. The farmers agree to use the seeds and other inputs the foreign company provides… export crops are part of a separate food system. .. vegetables headed abroad are monitored along the food chain: farmers grow the organic vegetables on plots of land that are often less than an acre, then bring the harvest, usually by hand-pulled cart, to a company processing plant, where it is inspected. Plant employees.. wash and prepare the vegetables—all by hand. Before leaving the factory, the vegetables are put through a double metal detector. …“The Chinese are super careful,” echoed Rozelle. The vegetables destined for foreign supermarkets are inspected by government employees before they leave the country. “They know if they get to the port and find residues, it will be rejected.”
Overseas trade is a huge balancing act. Depending on US markets for the wellbeing of the Chinese population certainly keeps them from extreme military measures; slowly their population is becoming consumers who will begin to be their own best customers.
The Cinnamon Challenge – How Much is Healthy, How Much is Safe?
Looking for sustainably & ethically harvested Ceylon cinnamon? Enjoy the photos and stories of La Cannelle plantation.
Cinnamon has several health benefits, a source of manganese, fiber, iron and calcium. It’s believed to help with anti-clotting abilities, help stabilize sugar levels for those with Type 2 diabetes, lower bad cholesterol, and fight infections.
There are two kinds of cinnamon, but product labels do not usually identify the type. Cassia, “common” cinnamon, usually from China, is redder, stronger in flavor, and cheaper. Ceylon (from Sri Lanka, Vietnam) or “true” cinnamon is a pale tan color; it is milder, sweeter, and more expensive than cassia.
Ceylon cinnamon sticks are tight rolls of thin layers; cassia sticks are hollow tubes of thicker, rougher, bark. They are generally ground into powders.
Not sure which type of cinnamon to use for your food? Penzeys offers a helpful guide.
CINNAMON AS ALLERGEN
Cinnamon also contains as essential oil called cinnamal, which can act as an allergen in a fair amount of people. Those who are allergic to cinnamon can suffer from contact dermatitis. According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, cinnamon can also cause a severe allergic reaction that can lead to anaphylactic shock. We can only hope that someone who knows they are allergic to cinnamon would politely decline the challenge; but for someone who wasn’t aware of the existence or severity of an allergy, the results could be … challenging.”
CINNAMON AS NATURAL TOXIN & PESTICIDE.
On the plus side, cinnamon can be used as a natural pesticide known to be unkind to mosquito larvae, moths and ants … and most famously, rats.
Cinnamaldehyde is the organic compound that gives the spice its flavor but, used in concentration, is a pesticide and fungicide that causes internal hemorrhage & death. EPA warns of acute dermal toxicity; acute oral toxicity; eye irritation; dermal irritation and dermal sensitization. When cooking, use recommended portions.
CINNAMON AS MEDICATION.
Cinnamon contain substantial amounts of coumarin (also present in the tonka bean, from which it’s name came, and other plants). Coumarin is better known by its trademarked name, Coumadin, an anti-coagulant used to keep blood from clotting. Although coumarin itself has no anticoagulant properties, it is transformed into the natural anticoagulant dicoumarol by a number of species of fungi. Eating cinnamon, by itself, will not help your heart disease.
Coumarin is a possibly carcinogenic substance that can cause liver inflammation and can affect blood sugar levels in people with diabetes. In people who are sensitive, coumarin might cause or worsen liver disease.
Ground cinnamon can lead to a bronchial constriction that can be life threatening. For anyone suffering from asthma or COPD, this can be very serious.
Cassia cinnamon contains .5% coumarin. Due to concerns about the possible effects of coumarin, several years ago the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment warned against consuming large amounts of Cassia cinnamon. One teaspoon of cinnamon powder contains may be above the Tolerable Daily Intake for smaller individuals.
Ceylon contains only .0004% coumarin and is unlikely to be problematic. If you enjoy cinnamon but are at risk, consider cooking with Ceylon.
I’m recycling more, Why is my trash bill going up?
Closed 1970’s landfill still pollutes this creek in Angola NY
Unfortunately there are few financial incentives for responsible curbside recycling. ZeroWaste is a complex whorl of economic, social and environmental incentives and penalties involving citizens, governments and businesses.
For profits (and some non-profits) have stripped off many of the profitable ends of the business:
- Waste collection services (WasteManagement, BFI, etc)
- Waste metal management for large pieces and valuable metals (from the jeweler & dentist to the auto junkyard)
- Landfills
- Glass, bottles, cans, cardboard: the reason scavenging in your recycling is discouraged is because your city tries to keep you costs down by selling these. Your city competes with individuals who take them to recycling centers. No easy answers here, many people make ends meet using these strategies.
- E-waste – stripped down for precious and recyclable metals
- Concrete
- Wood and other separable construction waste
What is left in municipal waste landfills is the dregs, that has no market and is expensive to maintain with toxic barriers – sadly, the contents of landfills are the most environmentally destructive:
- Styrofoams, black plastics, non-conforming plastics found predominantly in food containers & wrappings, electronic items shipped from overseas
- Packaging – wrappers from chips, candy
- Toxic items – against the law but people do it anyway
- Mixed material content items, for example:
- metal shovel w/wooden handle
- many toys
- Electronic appliances, tools, toys
- Plant matter that is difficult to compost – cactus & bamboo
- Recyclable/compostable materials that some folks are too lazy or unable to separate – milk cartons with attached plastic caps
Did you know that for every one trash can of non-recyclables that you put in front of your house that 71 have been put out in the manufacture of the contents of your trash?
That being said, in many cities, business trash has been subsidizing residential trash. Business complains, resident rates rise.
Social Costs:
- One stream trash systems and single barrel street recycling are less efficient – we lose things such as high-grade white paper that could be recycled in to copy paper (that’s why it’s become more expensive). Hard-core recyclers are rabid because recycling efforts are dumbed down.
- On the flip side, much more is recycled overall because more residents are compliant
- Legislators are stuck in the middle trying to please both types of constituents, no one is fully happy.
The only “financial” incentive that I can think of is that your garbage costs would be even higher if you did not recycle. You may force your government to try it out but you may not be happy with the results.
How to change things? Find ways to change or legislate disposal/manufacture of items that typically fill up landfill waste. Make noise at town council meetings, join a committee, talk to your family, friends and neighbors.
Practice the 6 Rs of Zero Waste: Refuse, Reduce, Repair, ReUse, Recycle, Regulate.
Composting, Economics, Packaging, Plastics, Polystyrene, Recycle, Regulate Waste, Zero-Waste | Comment (0)Going Solar: How going off-grid can and can’t help
We installed solar electric in July 2007 in Northern California. When you install solar in PG&E territory you change from a residential customer to a commercial producer and receive a monthly accounting. As days become shorter and colder we use more electricity and we’re starting to eat into our summer surplus. Next July will tell if we properly projected our usage and size of our system. Real Goods Solar (then operating as Marin Solar) did our installation and we are extraordinarily pleased with their service and work. We used Sunpower panels which, at the time, were the most efficient panels available.
Being an accountant, a cost-benefit analysis was a must. Being house rich and cash poor we took out a HELOC loan to pay for the system but our monthly payments are equal to our previous average electric bill. The previous 3 years electric bills increased annually an average of 12% so, just keeping the monthly payment the same for the next 20 years will protect us from energy inflation.
Many of the Federal & State tax credits which allowed us an affordable system are no longer be offered but at least one utility CEO has gone on record as projecting that your own solar will be cheaper than the grid between 2014 and 2016 due to decreasing PV costs
I’ve been considering a solar battery charger to keep those pesky batteries on cell phones, iPods & cameras on ready call. Some research though is making me reconsider. The jury is still out on this decision.
Update, July 2011: PG&E, calculated our year-end discrepancy and we owed the equivalent of one to 1-1/2 month’s bill to them at year-end. This is mainly because much of the family decided that “since we have solar, it doesn’t matter how much electricity we use” – NOT! All being said, I think we calculated our optimal usage and number of panels appropriately. As the children move out of the house we should be able to run a surplus and sell back to PG&E under California Public Utilities Commission ruling on Net Energy Metering (NEM) .
We’re looking into solar thermal (hot water). I understand it, there is great variation on recommended systems depending on what part of the country that you live in so read this \”Homeowners Perspective\”, based in the San Francisco Bay area, with that in mind. Search out solar hot water information based in your local area for the best info for you.
Economics, Electricity, Energy Wise, mortgage, Renewable, Solar, Solar Thermal (hot water) | Comments (2)Sustainable Shoes
I’ve been pondering how my shoe shopping decisions can be both kind to the environment and to the people that make them. Though buying quality second-hand shoes is suggested as being most sustainable, the original shoe may not have been made sustainably. I depend on comfortable, well made shoes and wear them til they won’t stay on my feet or the soles are worn through.
On the human rights front, most shoes seem to be made in China, South Korea Indonesia other countries with a history of poor worker rights. Sadly, even those made in more developed countries are often made by exploited recent immigrants such as in Italy. If yo
Employee dismissal for asking for better wages & working conditions is occurring in Adidas, Nike contract plants and those of their suppliers such as Freetrend. Sadly they have a history of moving their contracted manufacturing to another country, with poorer labor rights enforcement, when profits are challenged. Oliberté offers ethical & locally sourced leather sneaks which may be my next purchases. New Balance seems to be the only major brand that effectively monitors to human rights at the manufacturing level.
Smaller companies, including those that make vegan shoes are under even more financial pressure to keep manufacturing costs down and often do not even know who their manufacturers actually are. Verite,Workers\’ Rights Consortium (WRC) WRC (Workers’ Rights Consortium created by United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) formed independently of corporations and plans to focus exclusively on the part of the industry producing college apparel. FLA (Fair Labor Association) does factory monitoring though it is funded by Nike & other manufacturers with less than stellar sweatshop reputations.
The second piece are the materials and chemicals used in manufacturing. Leather is my material of choice because I have very sweaty feet and it breathes well and is very strong. Sadly the human and environmental by-products of tanning are well documented. I do favor a simple shape with few individual leather pieces on the presumption that less leather must be used to make it and fewer seams to break down.
Tom\’s Shoes has young, causal offerings and donates a pair for each pair sold; each factory is periodically audited by a third-party inspector.
I’m going to post this unfinished but hope to get back when I’ve done more research. In the meantime, don’t shop before thinking about options. I look for those that might be made in the USA or EU on the presumption that there are stronger worker rights. There are many Fair Trade choices online. Campaigns for ethical treatment of workers include the Not For Sale fighting the global slave trade which includes economic slavery in company plants.
Clothing & Fabrics, Fair Trade/ Ethically Traded, Think Globally | Comment (0)Life & Debt
This is the title of a movie which traces how the agricultural industry of Jamaica has been subsumed by NAFTA and the IMF. Local rice and potatoes have been replaced with imports from the US. Workers are paid substandard wages because the factories are on the shore in a special “trade zone” that benefits only the manufacturers and local government officials. Order it on Netflix
Debt, Free Trade, Think Globally | Comment (0)