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June 09th, 2020

6/9/2020

I wanted to give all of you an update on some very exciting developments here at Green Gifts. I have applied and been approved for a Kiva Loan, they do crowdsourced microloans for small businesses. We just entered the "Public Funding" Phase and are over 40% of the way to our fundraising goal. This loan will be used to procure and outfit a trailer to be able to set up pop up refill stations at various locations throughout Northern California. I am trying to network to find about 15-20 community partners that would be willing to allow me space to set up and return at least monthly.

These pop ups are meant to not only allow community members to be able to fill their own containers with natural home and personal cleaners, eliminating the need for more plastic bottles to be created, but also to test systems and products and conduct research that will make it easier to help other budding zero waste entrepreneurs avoid hurdles and be able to expand their business quickly and serve more customers. I will also be branding the trailer and my vehicle so that they can be used to spread the word about waste free options.

My hope is to also be able to soon purchase a Tesla Model X, an electric vehicle capable or towing a trailer full of product between manufacturers and zero waste retailers. This will eliminate much of the emissions associated with shipping product and cut some of the costs to the retailer. It has been important to me that pre-covid I had been driving out to any West Coast based vendor to pick up my orders directly. This was part to save on cost of shipping, but mostly it was to that I could meet these business owners, see their operation and form a relationship. I also love knowing that driving my EV means I am saving on emissions from shipping. When I have the trailer and longer range EV, I hope to visit manufacturers and shops all over North America.

I want to thank everyone that has contributed to the Kiva loan, it is very very appreciated. I look forward to continuing to grow my business and encouraging others to join in this fast growing industry of helping our communities to become more efficient and less wasteful. Together we can lessen out impact on the environment and evolve retail.

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The New Bar Scene

6/7/2020

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One of the new trends in Zero Waste is actually a very old concept: Bar Soap. In the US, we have gotten very used to buying the majority of our household and personal cleaners in liquid form in plastic bottles. Dish Soap, Laundry Detergent, Shampoo, Hand Soap, Body Wash are probably the first that come to mind.

Here is a list of different kinds of soaps and other products available in bar form:

Personal:

- Soap! Meaning body or hand washing soap. Can be purchases completely package free and you'll often find many local artisans that make a large assortment of varieties.

- Castile Soap- extremely versatile and good for almost all personal and home cleaning, made from natural ingredients. Often is scented or infused with essential oils that can give it some additional benefits like being naturally anti-bacterial. Can sometimes be too harsh for sensitive skin. Usually paper wrapped

- Shampoo Bars- These used to mostly be found at Camping supplies store or Lush, but are becoming very common and wide spread. Can be sold package free, so don't jump on a brand at the big box store that's wrapped in tons of plastic and cardboard! Some are more effective for different types of hair, so you might need to try multiple brands to find your perfect fit.

- Conditioner Bars- A little harder to find than shampoo and definitely more difficult to find one that is effective for your hair type. They also just take a lot of getting used to, your hair may not have the "slick" feeling you are used to after applying liquid conditioner, but once dry, you can usually feel it's effectiveness.

- Facial Bars- Often made with charcoal or clay to help with removing impurities on conditioning. Some have tea tree oil to help with oily or acne prone skin. If you have sensitive skin or other issues, please consult your doctor as to which ingredients are beneficial or harmful for your skin type and ask the seller or manufacturer if its possible to get or buy a sample size to try before committing.

- Lotion Bars- I do not have personal experience with these yet, but it's on my list to try. From what I have read, lotion bars can dry out, so keeping them wrapped or in a jar can help.

- Deodorant Bars- I love these as there is a TON of unnecessary plastic in the typical store bought deodorant stick. Can take some getting used to, and the natural, aluminum free versions are typically good at blocking order but are NOT an antiperspirant. I personally use my natural deodorant puck all winter, but still use my old antiperspirant on particularly hot days. With some natural deodorants there may also be a "Detox" period where you are a little smelly even after putting the deodorant on, this passes within a couple days. There are also lot of other natural deodorants, like special crystals that I do not yet have much experience with, but will report back!

Household

- Dish Washing: A usually white block that is best used by drawing a wet sponge or dish brush across it a few times to create a lather. I've found it works great on vegetable based grease, but can not always work on animal based grease (the bars themselves are usually vegan). I've sometimes had spots left on glasses, but wiping with a damp cloth is usually enough.

- Laundry- I do not know of bar that can go directly in a washing maching, some people do either shave flakes off Castile soap bars or wash using a bar of Castile soap by hand in a tub or sink. There are laundry "sheets" made to dissolve in the washing machine.

- Stain Stick- There are stain stick bars that can be applied right to and worked into a stain, some dish washing blocks can be used for this too.

- Toilet Bombs: Also known as toilet fizzes help to clean the inside of toilet bowls. Not also ways recommend for septic tank systems and houses with older plumbing.

General Rules when using a bar:

- Do not leave in sitting water! This is a sure fire way to melt your bar and shorten its useful life. Every bar should have some sort of soap dish that elevates it out of water or should be dried and stored someplace dry between uses.

-If you are not getting a good lather with your hands, trying using a brush, sponge or cloth. Also know that a lot of natural soaps are not going to lather like their chemical filled counterparts.

The best thing about bars is that they travel well, I often throw my 4-5 personal care bars into a jar when I head out for an overnight excursion and that helps me avoid using those little plastic bottles of product in the hotel. Just be sure to let them sit out to dry for a little while before putting them back in the jar. Bars are terrific at helping minimize waste, they are often package free or some with a small band or wrapped in compostable paper. Using a bar for just shampoo can eliminate 10-20 plastic bottles from the landfill per year!

On our site you will find No Tox Life Shampoo, Conditioner, Deodorant and the new Facial Cleaning Bar as well as their Dish Washing Block (TM). We also carry Soap and Shampoo Bars from Sappo Hill Soapworks. Try them out and let us know what you think! If you are ever not happy with a bar, we can offer a replacement style for free.

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Minimal Waste Basics

6/1/2020

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Know where you are starting from

There is a great number of people that if you were to ask them why they don’t practice trash reduction (sometimes known as Zero Waste), they will say because the idea is daunting. Having a goal, even a small one can really help, but to do that you have to know where you are starting. You can do a trash audit, which can mean anything from carefully recording and cataloging the waste that leaves your house to just noting in your head how many trash bags were in your curbside bin before pick up this week.

If you do go the more detailed and data driven route, I suggest putting a piece of paper or white board in the vicinity of your house’s main trash bin, mark every time you throw something in. You can even use symbols for different types of trash. Example: a circle for food packaging, a check for junk mail, an X for broken items. This gives you an idea to the areas that are creating the most waste in your house and what you can tackle first to make the biggest impact. Our house was awful about tissues during allergy season. I now keep a few handkerchiefs around and barely ever have to empty the bathroom trash can anymore.

- Use what you have.

Whether is using that old past jar to store black beans, turning your old shirts into cloth “un-paper towels” or converting the leftover plastic strawberry clamshell into a mini greenhouse for seedlings, trash is not trash if you give it continuous life. Does this means you go buy all the pasta sauce? No. Don’t buy what you don’t need. Shop your house, or ask for what you need from a neighbor, friend or local buy-nothing group. When you do need to purchase something to make a sustainable swap, consider buying used, or get something of high quality that is reusable over and over again.

Bars: The new face of consumable products

Almost everything that can be classified as Soap, comes in a bar form now. For your personal cleanliness there are body bars, face bars, shampoo bars, conditioner bars and even lotion bars. For house hold use there are Dishwashing bars and Castile soap bars which are multipurpose for home and self. The dishwashing bar also makes a great stain stick for laundry.

Food for thought: Be thoughtfully when shopping for food

Food related waste accounts for between 50-75% of most household’s waste output (trash and recycling). By slowing swapping pre-packaged and processed food for bulk food items and fresh produce, you can reduce the contents of your trash can by a lot. I know this one is particularly difficultly in the time of Covid as many bulk food sections are not open or not allowing personal containers, so you need to give yourself some grace here. Do just want you can.

Some tricks are to try to get ingredients in larger, paper or burlap packages, at least those are compostable, which is a step in the right direction. If you are someone that enjoys meal planning, pick a couple more recipes for the week where you know you can get the ingredients package free or in low waste packaging.

- Take along culture

If you were to track your trash of a typical day, you’d find a lot of it to be trash of convenience. The cup and straw, plastic fork, chip bag and candy wrapper add up, and they won’t be caught by a home trash audit if you are tossing them while you are still out and about. Get used to throwing reusables into your car or travel bag (purse). You don’t have to go out and buy a fancy bamboo utensil set if you can grab a fork from home on your way to the food truck festival. If you are bad about remembering to grab on your way out, designate a bag, a fork, a cup and a plastic(or glass) food storage container as your “to-go” set and keep it in your car, travel bag or next to your keys. Make that the designated spot for it. I don't have a place to put my reusable grocery bags but back in my purse as soon as I’ve folded them.

It can feel weird to ask a cashier, if you can just use your own of something, or you might get smacked with guilt when the server brings you your cheese fries with a plastic fork already sticking out the top because you didn’t let them know you brought your own. Take a breath, reset and try again the next time.

If you figure out how to incorporate even some of these waste reducing basics into your life, you will see a difference and it will feel encouraging.

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Why I went Minimal Waste

5/24/2020

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Minimal waste, waste reduction and zero waste all pretty much mean the same thing, lessen your trash. We’ve all heard of the 3 Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, but how many of us actually practice it? And how effective are these steps on their own?

And then there’s the BIG question, WHY? Why even bother? What difference can I make? Why should I change when others don’t? Shouldn’t it be up to the manufacturers and the governments to deal with this? We didn’t build this system, they did.

Here are my top four reasons WHY I am practicing waste reduction and why I built this company to help families in my community to do the same.

1. My kids. All of our kids and the future generations. Sure, we’ve inherited a mess, but it is not fair for us to continue to make it worse. I fully believe we have the ability to change the course of mass environmental destruction, we should be doing everything we can

2. Love of nature. I don’t get out to the woods or waterways as often as I would like, but even on my daily commutes, seeing creeks lined with trash really hurts my heart. Telling people not to litter, and having avenues to dispose of or recycle our single use items is not going to stop litter and it actually encourages over consumption and destruction of resources. The solution needs to be far less packaging, smarter more biodegradable packaging and packaging able to be reused many many times before needing to be disposed of or recycled.

3. Accessibility. We need early adopters to explore, create and test new solutions, then work to make them cost effective and convenient enough so mass adoption can happen. I bought a 50-mile range EV in early 2015 in part because I personally wanted to not buy gas, but also so I could help the electric car market develop and flourish.

4. It just feel better. I take so much pride in only putting out my trash cans once every other month, in watching my garden grow and my kids eating peas right from the pods, in using local made, natural products.

There are dozens of other reasons and benefits to living low-waste. Like with many things, the getting started is the hardest part. Let’s take this journey together.

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June 09th, 2020

The New Bar Scene

Minimal Waste Basics

Why I went Minimal Waste

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