one of the patches on my jacket
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, is the maxim, in order of importance, but a lot of people seem to focus on the "recycle" and continue to shop like it's harmless fun. Now I'm not saying that you can't buy anything ever, obviously, but our choices have consequences and both in terms of resource use, and in terms of evil corporations that don't deserve our support, we should try and minimize just how much we consume on a regular basis. We can't shop our way out of climate change and pollution, but we can do less harm as well as the necessary cleanup and repair work that we as a society need to do. That is, we can send out the Ocean Cleanup barges to clean up plastic pollution in the ocean, which is great, but if we're continuing to dump just as much plastic in the oceans, they will never catch up and put a dent in the mess, eh?
This is a big one. I have been writing about my annual clothing audit for years here, where I keep track of how many new items of clothing I buy per year. I started this tradition after I saw an episode of Hasan Minhaj's show where he said that in the 80s, the average American bought a dozen new items of clothing per year, and these days (this was several years ago) the average is 68. You can watch the episode of his show on YouTube.
So the name of the game here is quality over quantity, as well as learning to mend your clothes (check out the #NeedleworkMonday community if you need help with that!).
"But Phoenix," I hear you say, "I can't afford those expensive, sustainable brands."
Yes hello I live below the poverty line in the US, there are ways around this. First of all, if you are a typical US consumer buying 68 items of clothing, you can easily afford a more sustainable option if you just buy fewer items. Simple as. But also: wait for a sale, and shop the clearance section.
Reading articles like this one about the most sustainable jeans, for example, might have you looking at this:
...and shitting your pants. I can't afford $200 jeans. Can you? Well, some of you actually can, but most of us can't. So you shrug your shoulders, give up, and go to Walmart.
Hold up.
that says Levi's, I couldn't get the whole section in one screen
"Well, Phoenix, I can't afford $100 jeans, either," ...yeah me neither. Those prices aren't accounting for sales and clearance. I buy Levi's these days, about one pair a year. And I pay a little less than $40 a pair, because I wait for 40%+ off sales and poke through the clearance section. That $98 figure is for the newest styles, that are not on clearance or any sale. Right now their website looks like this:
So you can find jeans for 50-60% off, and I can get 5% back on my rebate app ibotta (seriously it's my favorite rebate app I get a good chunk back on groceries all the time, I think it's only in North America but my referral code is "ptonkkp" which will get both of us a bonus if you use it). That makes the more-ethical brand almost the same price as strolling into a Target or a Walmart, eh? And they're much better quality than the cheap jeans I used to buy. You just have to look, and have patience until a sale rolls around. Sometimes deals can be had as long as you can bypass your need for instant gratification.
Moving on!
So much in our world is disposable. I know this, and I live in the heart of the consumerist empire, but it still floors me sometimes when I see just how disposable a life some people live. People are regularly eating off disposable plates and out of disposable cups for their everyday meals because they don't want to wash the dishes. Look. I hate washing dishes too, and I struggle with chronic health issues so it can be a struggle. I'm not going to judge a disabled person for doing this because they're struggling to do a lot, okay? But your average, healthy, 2.5 kids family in the suburbs can probably manage to do the dishes at least sometimes? And they're still spending all that money and keeping Solo cups and Dixie plates in business, and filling up the landfill. It boggles my fragile little mind. Wash a plate.
But there are other habits that wasteful people have that don't even save time. I saw some TikTok of this person saying they washed the dishes ...using paper towels? And they thought everyone did that? Whaaaaaaaaaaat?
Let me introduce you to this amazing invention called a washcloth. You just throw it in the laundry with your other towels. Buy a pack of these, and don't use paper towels to wash your damn dishes. Extra bonus! You can also use it to wipe your counters and stove and whatnot instead of plastic wipes in a plastic jar with disinfectant on it. Did you know you can buy or make cleaners without a ton of plastic (coughILikeBluelandcough) and put it on the cloth rag? Strange but true!
Okay, sarcasm aside, I do keep paper towels in house, but I usually only use them for icky things like cleaning up cat barf or something, so a roll lasts me a really long time. And I buy recycled paper ones. The undyed ones if I can. Does it matter if your paper towels are white as you are cleaning up cat barf? No. No it does not.
"But Phoeniiiiiiiiiiiiix," I hear you cry again, "those are more expensiiiiiiiiiive." Yeah but I'm buying 3-4 rolls a year or so. You're buying a 12 pack every time you go to Walmart or Costco if you're using them for everything everywhere. Again, the idea is "buying less."
While we're on this subject...
This is my box where I keep cloth handkerchiefs (most of them are in the wash at the moment). How old timey! How quaint! I'm using cloth for my snot instead of dead trees!
Yes, yes I am. And if you are an allergic bastard like me, you will appreciate how much softer the cloth is on your fragile little snot spout that gets raw every spring and has you buying lotion-coated Puffs.
I still keep paper tissues in house, in case all my cloths are dirty, or a guest is over and needs a tissue, but, you guessed it:
You can get those in recycled paper, too. And you don't have to go to the health food store to find them; these are from King Soopers (local Kroger chain).
Did you know that virgin pulp paper companies like Kimberly-Clark clearcut the rainforest so you can wipe your ass and blow your nose? They claim that they will do better but we all know how greenwashing goes, so I'll believe it when I see it. This is true for toilet roll as well, so to no one's surprise:
I also buy recycled there as well, and I have a bidet so that I can use less of it in the first place. I wrote a review about eco-friendly toilet paper, so I won't rehash it, but tl;dr recycled paper wins, don't kill a tree to wipe your shit. 😁
Join Buy Nothing app (worldwide), and/or BN groups on Facebook, and/or Freecycle, and/or Nextdoor (ND can be pretty toxic though, you have been warned). You can share with your neighbors for absolutely free and save some money, save things from landfill, and not support discriminatory "charities" like Salvation Army, and thrift stores often get so much they throw most of it out, anyway.
Don't use dryer sheets if you use a dryer, they are not only full of toxic chemicals that literally leave a coating on your clothes, but they are also made with plastic. And they're honking expensive. Buy some dryer balls and/or static eliminator sheets (I've had mine for about 17 years now in conjunction with two dryer balls for the same amount of time, I don't know why it says "500+ loads" as if they'll stop working, they don't) and be done with it for pretty much ever.
there is an adjustment period while that coating works itself out of your clothes (and the dryer lint trap) where they will seem static-y for the first few washes and you'll think the permanent things don't work; they do, that coating just needs to work its way out first, give it time
screencap from Amazon
You also don't need liquid fabric softener. Especially if you're using a dryer. It's true sometimes clothes seem stiff coming off the laundry rack when they're air-dried (that's what I usually use, but sometimes the dryer), but they aren't staying stiff once they're on your body. If you want to, you can use Epsom salts in the wash as fabric softener, but it's really not necessary either. And if you're using a dryer, the dryer balls will soften them.
Don't buy a phone every year just because Apple or Samsung tweaked something and pretends it's a gamechanger. Oh, the camera has a bajillion and a half pixels instead of just a bajillion? No one is looking at your photos in an IMAX theater, we can't tell.
If plastic pollution and the environment won't get you to give up buying plastic water bottles wrapped in plastic wrap by the case, how about this?
found in an eco fb group, it says it's from consciouslyelle but I couldn't find it recently on her Insta
Mmm, yummy plastic.
Anyway. Y'all have probably seen me rant about this topic periodically if you read my ramblings, but I keep doing it in case there's a substitution or something someone hasn't thought of before, so they can make a change for the better if so inclined. Everyone knows about the cloth bags and plastic straws, and some people won't even do that, but often it's just a case of never having thought of that particular thing before, and being stuck in a habit or how you were taught. So I ramble in the hopes that maybe it will inspire someone. I have a neighbor, for instance, who is very much a shopper, but in helping her clean many times I've at least taught her what can and cannot go in the recycling versus the trash, so at least now hopefully her recycling gets recycled and doesn't contaminate everyone else's efforts (because sometimes if a load is too contaminated with non-recyclables, the whole thing gets tossed to landfill). It's now to the point that she'll joke with me about weird shit left in our recycling bins in our building that doesn't belong (see: a live Christmas tree. No. You cannot recycle a Christmas tree. You can compost a Christmas tree. But they cannot chuck it into the paper sort with the cardboard and newspaper and mulch it down into new paper).
Honestly, let me know if you have any better-option questions, I'm a nerd who will research random objects and email companies admonishing them to do better.
Buy less crap! :)
