BLOGS

Here are some suggestions for creative ways to reuse single-use plastics. As we come across other single-use plastics I will post how we were able to reuse.

Bubble Wrap Bags-This suggestion was from my children’s school, they sent home artwork in these, and it was such a great idea! Kids love to pop the bubbles and we love to reuse them, they fold up neatly and take up no room on a shelf or in “catch all” drawer.

Bread Bags-These bags are one of the most difficult replacements. My most convenient food stores do not carry bread in paper wrapping. Though I can find specialty breads wrapped in paper, standard sandwich bread is more difficult. We have been shaking out the crumbs and folding these up to reuse for cat litter.

Milk Jugs-These are easy to find in glass options, but there are simple ways to reuse the plastic versions. If we end up with plastic milk jugs, I simply rinse them out and store them in a cabinet in the basement. I most commonly reuse them for sowing seeds outside in winter, but I have also been able to send them into school when the room moms request supplies for art and craft projects. I soon plan to post my process of winter sowing from the start, likely the first couple weeks of January, to finish, when I transplant in May. In the past I have grown sweat peas, artichokes and wildflower mixes in reused milk jugs, which helps to avoid the hardening off process in Spring. I will also take the steps to finding sustainable tape, rather than the gorilla or electrical tape I have used in the past.

Here is a collection of interesting gardening books and historical references and information that I have discovered and read.

Founding Gardeners by Andrea Wulf. This is a fun, quick read which details our country’s dependence on agriculture and the founding father’s devotion to their greatest joy, their gardens. Click on the author’s name to view other titles including The Brother Gardeners which I have just started reading.

Horticulture – Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia (philadelphiaencyclopedia.org)

A Short History of the Seed and Nursery Catalogue in Europe and the U.S. – Special Collections & Archives Research Center (oregonstate.edu)

Nursery and Seed Trade Catalogs · (usda.gov)

Now that the last of the spinach and lettuce under cloches have been used, here is my first Winter project post. Getting this page together helped me to finally figure out how to use this little greenhouse that lives on our deck. What I hope to use the greenhouse for: 1. We do have space to start some seeds indoors, but I don’t like taking up that space for easy to grow seeds like coleus, which need little care and 2. We have stopped purchasing spinach and lettuce from food stores due to plastic packaging and food practices. Greens, spinach and lettuce are super easy to grow year-round and take up little space. (They can also be grown indoors as microgreens and there are soil free systems available for this.) The greenhouse is conveniently located right outside the backdoor, so it is in an easy to access location, with electricity nearby. We grew a pot of spinach in it last year, with no heating pads, we planted the seeds in January but due to not getting enough sun, it never made it past baby spinach. We just moved the greenhouse to a sunnier location on the deck and now I am ready to clean it out and use it to get some seeds started. Hardening-off young plants in the Spring is a chore and it’s very disappointing to lose plants after so much work over the Winter so I’m hoping this goes as planned!

Included are some lettuce and spinach varieties that I found grow well in containers, had easy/good germination and were good for salads and sandwiches. All are great for ornamental use also.

I purchased heating pads for the shelves, the next steps are cleaning the greenhouse out and putting those in. Updates to come!

There is so much to learn on this topic in order to make the best sustainable decision for yourself. Is it better to place a large online order every once in a while, or find a store that carries the product? The later has a lot of advantages, mostly, you can see packaging and it avoids shipping. Making the choice to drive to the store, or if you can walk, is certainty less of a carbon footprint then big packaging and shipping on a truck. The disadvantage is it is difficult to find sustainable products in brick-and-mortar stores, in addition, the brick-and-mortar store is a problem in itself, with an overabundance of construction and a lack of using pre-existing structures.

• Reuse bread plastic bags (empty the crumbs) for car or travel garbage bags or cat litter.
• Review your county or township recycling guidelines so you know what packaging fits into your life best. For example, in this township, we can recycle plastic products 1,2, and 5 and paper and cardboard, but not “frozen dinner” packaging.
• Research how an item is packaged, you don’t want to purchase something seeming sustainable to have to arrive in plastic packaging.
• Rechargeable battery recycling-this is where big box stores come in handy. You can recycle batteries at well-known stores, links below.

Metal and bamboo/plant-based straws are the 2 best alternatives to traditional straws. This is an easy change to make, the metal straws give you a long-term supply while the bamboo are price efficient. However, I can’t say that either are great and both options have cons. Also, I don’t find I use straws at home often, and I have never managed to remember to bring metal straws along with me. I also live in an area where stores and restaurants do not provide plastic shopping bags and there has been a shift to restaurants providing plant-based straws, napkins and utensils. The simplest change to make away from plastic straws is probably to just avoid using them.

Tips

• A supply of metal straws is good to have for home.
• Plant-based are great for parities and events.

These are the best replacement for sponges and paper towels. They are tough and durable, machine washable. and come in a huge variety of designs. Anywhere you travel you are likely to find Swedish Dishcloth souvenirs decorated with local attractions. I use these all over the house for general cleaning, including glass shower doors and mirrors (which I follow with a squeegee and a soft, cotton cloth.) I have a pack of grey Swedish Dishcloths for dishes and an older pack in yellow, blue and purple that I use for house cleaning. The only con is that they do not dry quickly. This is such a simple, inexpensive change to make in housekeeping products that this would be a great sustainable first for anyone looking for where to start.

This is a great idea, but it takes some practice. Luckily, there are a lot of tutorials available. The picture below is my first try, I didn’t use tape, just fabric. A definite plus was that this was totally free, I inherited a container of fabric and that fabric is what I used for this project. That helped add a touch of personalization and some sentiment to the gift. I also cut strips from interesting fabrics to create the ribbons. This project was about reusing, not buying new wrapping paper, and remaining open to all types of fabric was fun, denim looked great and the lace was very pretty as a ribbon. The only con I found was that it is difficult to get the clean lines and edges that you may be accustomed to with paper wrapping.

1. Iron the fabric.
2. An extra pair of hands to hold things in place helps to avoid using tape.
3. When wrapping for kids try using wood clothespins to clothes the gift. The knots in fabric may not be easy for kids to open.