Ahhhh, coffee...

For years now, my husband and I have been pretty sustainable with our coffee drinking. Coffee preparing? Anywhoo, just trying to find the best way not to create waste from making that MUCH needed cup o' joe in the morning.

We also buy organic, fair trade coffee brands.

In the past we've done anything from having a small coffee maker with a mesh, reusable filter, to our current French Press, which creates pretty much no waste.

We've landed on the French press and have pretty much stuck with it.

I wanted to touch on some other methods we've tried, but also give information on some other options.

A lot of people have been using those Keurig style coffee makers which KILL me. Up until now, there was no option put to use those little disposable cups and add to the millions of tonz of those things existing forever on the planet. GOOD NEWS, you can still use your machines but there are a bunch of re-usable, fill-it-yourself pods!! Yay!!!

  https://www.amazon.com

I have an amazon link here, but please feel free to find the items on other sites or in stores as well. Please note, I haven't used these re-fill able ones myself, so this isn't a specific recommendation. I'm just soooooo glad the option is finally here!

There are even biodegradable options for the pods themselves!

https://www.tayst.com/products/pods-for-keurig

Previous to our French Press, we were using the individual cup, pour over funnels with filters.

At first with brown paper filters, but then we discovered reusable fabric filters for them. I'd show you a photo of our actual filters and funnels, but they are packed away. Here is a link to some on-line. I haven't ordered from this company, but I hear good things.

https://www.grove.co

Again, the GREAT news for making that all important cup of coffee is that there are a bunch of sustainable options out there. And not only will your coffee be delicious, it will be better for the planet.

Don't forget to compost those coffee grounds, too!

If you have a comment or other planet friendly ways to make your coffee, please share here!

Thanks!
Joy

To paper towel, or NOT to paper towel...?

I know, I know, most people think, "give up paper towels?!! No. Way." Well, I know it's hard to imagine, but it's possible. Even if you just limit your use, A LOT, it helps. If my husband can do it, so can you! "What does this have to do with plastic, Joy" you ask? Well, it comes wrapped in plastic! Here is some information I found:

(source: WWF - Watch the Amazon go down in paper towels. and fillgood.co)

• Paper towels are not made of plastic: of course, they are mostly made from trees but also from recycled paper. Now even bamboo!
• Paper towels are compostable: true if you have access to home compost or city compost, and if you don’t use them with chemicals like toxic cleaning products. If composting is not an option, they end up in landfills because THEY CAN’T BE RECYCLED.
• Paper towels come wrapped in plastic.
• Printed paper towels are made with nasty inks and dyes, and sometimes even chemicals scents
• People use A LOT of paper towels: 13 billion pounds each year in the US → 40 pounds, the equivalent of 80 rolls, per person, per year
• Environmental impact in the US: producing all that paper consumes a lot of resources, including 110 million trees per year and 130 billion gallons of water. On top of that, you can add the energy to manufacture the paper towels and transport them from the factory to the store to your house and finally to the landfill or the composting facility.

The easiest solution, use cloth towels and napkins, yo!

This post is mostly about how I use towels and napkins in the kitchen and for meals.




For hands

I have a collection of cute hand towels. I have a towel rack hanging from the cabinet by the sink. I wash hands then dry with on of my hand towels hanging there. I know many people already do this, right?


For clean up

Now this is where people usually have the urge to grab for a paper towel! I have another collection of towels that I keep in a bottom drawer of the kitchen. They are towels I've had for years and years. If we need to dry a pot or pan, or dry some fruits or vegetables, I grab one of these. I have some designated towels here for floor spills or messes, too. See the red towel on the floor under the open drawer? That stays on the floor to wipe up any drips of water, in particular. I just drag it over with my foot and wipe it up!

You can use old clothing, like tee-shirts, cut up for rags, too.

Of course there are other options for wiping up spills and cleaning. I really like environmentally friendly products from a company called NORWEX. Here is their website:

https://norwex.biz/en_US/


There are microfiber clothes from them that are amazing, plus other products as well. Check out all the products they carry when you can! I use their microfiber EnviroCloth to clean in my kitchen. You don't need or use cleaning sprays with this product! I'll talk more about them in later posts.

At the table

Again, napkins aren't plastic, but usually they come wrapped in it. Plus, they are just wasteful. If we need napkins, I have some cloth ones available. The husband and I just wash our hands after dinner, as does our son, but during dinner there is bound to be mess. Often for him, I'll have one of his small wash clothes from when he was a baby, at his place. This often helps to avoid having him wipe his hands on his pants or shirt...sometimes, sometimes not (eye roll). If you don't have cloth napkins already, a fun thing to do is look for mismatch, fun patterns in thrift stores or antique stores if you have any around. Or, make your own!

Did I mention, it will save you money!

Ok, to be honest, we do still have paper towels in the house. We are still hung up on being able to use them for gross clean ups like dog pee and other bodily messes. I plan on doing more designated towels or rags for that. Plus I need to try the cooling rack over a backing sheet for our turkey bacon. But, we are limiting our use and I'm trying to find a paper towel supply that doesn't come wrapped in plastic. Unfortunately, it will probably be something online I'll have to have delivered. I'm avoiding Amazon as well. That will be yet another post!

Once I move into the bathroom with my posts (now it's been kitchen) I'll share about a site called Who Gives a Crap where we get our plastic free toilet paper!

If you have any other ideas to replace plastic wrapped paper towels or napkins,  or have a question, please share in the comments!

Thanks!
-Joy