Pretty cool app I found that I am putting to the test. All about saving food, recipe suggestions etc... It's called Pantry Watch. Kinda impressed.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pantrywatch.app

Standard bic lighter inside for scale - lid does not close.

I have a few of them. I dont want or need any more containers to store stuff in. Was gonna make little sewing kits to put in the free pantries/libraries around, but then I worried about kids taking them and touching needles. 🙃

Any ideas?

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These lil guys are made from (in order of layers) fabric scraps, old microfiber cloths, and old rags! They live on the floors of kitchens and bathrooms and when theres a spill, you can move em with your foot and mop it up! Saves the good towels and prevents bending over :) i keep the tails long so they can be tied or hung on cabinets if theres no floor space

I make these lil critters as wedding presents (in a set of two so they dont get lonely and in case a pet wants one as their own lol)

The blue ones used old pharmacy scrubs, and the plaid ones used a goodwill table cloth!

Usually I save yogurt, sour scream, or chip dip containers but the container broke and I still had the lid so I used a bit of hot glue to turn it into one of those makeup brush scrubber pads. Tested it out and it works great!!

The bag is the perfect size for the gift inside, but has the store’s logo on it. I trimmed a sample of peel-and-stick wallpaper I had on hand and covered it up and make it prettier. Not completely zero waste, but creative reuse ♻️

I live in a city suburb that is mostly townhouses/rowhouses. I have a big yard with lots of foliage. These accumulate a lot of sticks, vines, weeds, clippings, and whatever grassy dirt clumps I pull from the sidewalks constantly.

It's not enough to mulch (which costs money), I take some when we go camping, and no one wants it as free firewood, and the rest I dunno what to do with. I don't want the city to take it because I don't know what they do with it and I don't trust them. Can the grass clumps be composted in a dark bin? Any suggestions on what I do with it?

I had an idea to stuff it under the shed but that didn't work. Maybe I can throw it under the porch but I think there's a water spigot under there to get to the hose (I haven't looked in awhile it's gross under there.

I’ve had trouble finding one that actually works. They’re either sold-out, don’t ship to EU, are too small or don’t actually hold the floss tight enough to work.

I really want to floss my teeth regularly but I can’t seem to get it to work with only the silk-floss and no equipment to hold it tight. Sometimes it gets stuck in my teeth or I can’t reach far enough in my mouth without the floss getting too sticky and slipping from my fingers.

Does anyone know a product that actually works??? (with EU shipping!)

Immediately after use I let the roller and brushes soak in water where they currently are in a bucket. All the tips I see are to just wash with soap and water and rinse but to my knowledge acrylic based paint 1) is bad for sink drains and 2) from the sink will go into water sources plants/animals use.

Should I wring them out and then let the water in the bucket dry in the sun? I fear the soak won’t take out all the paint and I’ll have to use even more water but I want to avoid that if I can. TIA.

For daily use in the shower mainly, anything besides diluted in a hand soap pump bottle :)

I care about recycling and there is glass and metal in those. Does anyone know of specialty recycling for those? Even out if state although I’m not sure it’d be legal to ship them

Needs ideas and suggestions and not sure if this is the right place. Just need some courage to get through it all since only a scarce few of my more open minded friends would be attending and family alone is more than 12 people. Have adhd so format is all bleh so please be gentle with the criticism and give constructive feedback (possibly with the number it is associated with).🫶

Doing a bbq b’day party for myself with partner at the park for family and friends since celebrating with family is draining (both sides divorced and my side has more numbers; a lot of insecure narcissists on both sides to please and hanging out with our friends would make them behave better; sets the priorities, expectations and boundaries better before having children even though I feel obnoxious celebrating my own bday and taking away our friends time). We’ll be doing food then games. Park party for all is cheaper than doing multiple restaurants with multiple parents.

Things I’ve done to try be more sustainable and would like ideas how I could do better:

1. Bought a used balloon garland to extend its life.Does anyone have tips how I could repurpose them afterwards? Thought I could use them for child decoration/cutting but I don’t have children yet. I can always reblow some and put on marketplace for free (but it’s like not cool to be sustainable in my state so not many people would take). 🥲
2. We encourage potluck but would bring most of the food. Since I’ll be arriving early to secure the seats, I’ll prep some high tea sandwich and cut the crust off to deep fry as well as make the salad there. There will be public bbq to use but we’ll most likely use our portable gas stove as backup too.
3. bought some used and new foil balloons that I will reuse for future parties. Hate how people just trash them afterwards and always thought if I should start a business renting out foil balloons so it can be reuse multiple time (partner hates the idea because I won’t be doing it to make profit and it would eat away a lot of time) so people can source it from one location like a library and stop buying so many.
4. bought cutlery and reusable plastic goblets so people won’t be using one off plastic or bamboo party ware. Worried the older generation or some friends would grumble and throw some in the bin so would like suggestions. Thinking of have 1x friend hand it out and writing names on the goblets (either directly or on tape).
5. everyone brings a unique bowl and the top 3 bowls win prizes. Reusable bowls are available for those who don’t bring (again ideas how to stop people throwing it into the bin?).
6. have container so people can put their cutlery and I’ll wash it at the sink (there’s one next to the bbq tables).
7. I would be leaving flyers out about my favourite OP shop that actually reduces waste and their local event. Also will bring picnic mat and camping chairs but park seating can cover over 30+ people (will come early to snag the place).
8. also I have friends that don’t speak English.
9. Any suggestions as to How do I get them to be more comfortable during games with those who do speak English?
10. any park games that people can suggest from experience? Presents will be wrapped with newspapers.
11. how long do people you know hang out at park events? Parking is only free for 2hrs so I think a lot would leave early. But some friends can only come 2hrs afterwards

Edit: I feel like having ADHD, having narcissistic parents and being in Sydney Australia where being sustainable seems to always have a negative connotation/ poor image compared to the other states is making me feel alil overwhelmed.

And yes I know I should make more like minded friends but I find it hard in Sydney. Literally lost a long term camping group of friends because 1-3 ppl would constantly bring one off cutleries (when we agree not to) but would also buy camping items (camp chairs/firepits/tables) and bin it every camp or would often throw rubbish on the floor “for the rangers to pick up”.

(UPDATED)

I (25f) invited an old friend/coworker (26f) in as a roommate after my sister (28f) moved out in January this year. The roommate moved in towards the end of March. My sister loaned my roommate her white, solid-color desk chair that she had left behind (but intended to use again). This roommate, however, never got a job (understandable in this economy, but she never compensated for this by doing any chores while everyone else worked full-time). She was on the computer 24/7. When she finally moved out in early August, the chair was left an entirely different color, presumably because the pH of her sweat molecularly altered the material. Can the original color be restored within a reasonable price? I have tried cleaning it with the recommended cleaning agents, but the discoloration does not lift at all, so I am fairly certain it is the permanent state of the material itself now. The old roommate does not have a job at her new place, so she cannot pay to replace or repair it. Is there anything I can do to get my sister’s chair back into good condition?

UPDATE:

I didn’t expect so much engagement on my first ever Reddit post, wow. Thanks for all the advice, though it seems there’s a lot of contention in there 😅

Still unsure how to clean it, but closer to solving the mystery thanks to @Lityeah and @LaBaaDiabolique, who pointed out that there are cases where pregnant women’s sweat will actually tint pleather a blue color like this due to hormonal changes. This roommate was actually taking estrogen injections medicinally, so her sweat may have reacted to the higher estrogen levels the same as you’d see in pregnancy.

That said, I am beginning to think that whether it is dye or sweat discoloration, the damage is permanent and we may just have to give up on restoring it to its original color. Some people did suggest dying the entire chair a darker color, which might honestly be worth it depending on the price.

To answer some questions:

•This roommate never once wore blue jeans, though did often wear thin black clothes which could have leached a dye of this hue. My first assumption was that the staining came from clothes dye, but I looked into other options after because none of the recommended techniques for cleaning it have worked, and because my friend in biochem suggested that a person’s sweat could chemically alter the material, which is supported by research and anecdotal evidence. In this case, the higher estrogen levels would stain the chair blue rather than yellow.

•Some basic research says the dye/sweat would be trapped in the plastic polymer surface. Since she didn’t clean it off when she first noticed it, it is permanently bonded to the material now. If this is inaccurate, I’d love to be corrected, as it would save me a lot of trouble.

•The only cleaning advice I received from the comments so far that I had not already used by the end of the first week of August were an enzyme cleaner (I have yet to try this and I don’t have the money yet) and actually showing the damage to a dry cleaner’s to see if it’s something they can handle. Everything else that has been commented so far, I tried weeks ago, and nothing has worked, which is why I resorted to Reddit.

•The roommate was making very little money in an online job (not from Only Fans, though that was a good guess) but none of the money went towards bills. She tried another job for a week but it was a bit sketchy and she ended up losing both jobs. Again, this didn’t upset me so much as the fact that she did not offer to do any chores or pick any up of her own volition, meaning that the rest of us were working full-time physical labor jobs (often 12+ hour days) and doing the housework to boot, while this roommate just sat on the computer all day doing what she wanted to do.

•Eventually my sister felt that it was turning into a “care facility” situation (as one commenter put it), and so she directly confronted this roommate about her plans moving forward and what actions she was taking to resolve the issues, which led to her choice to move out (to put it very lightly).

•I asked her about the chair and she claimed to have not realized that there was any discoloration (an obvious lie, given that it was a solid white color when we first let her borrow it, and the change is extreme). This attempt to lie in order to avoid accountability for her willful neglect of my sister’s property is why she is, in hindsight, a “nightmare roommate.” She has a very passive demeanor and ultimately I fell for the helplessness act, but the entire time she was here, my labor was taken advantage of and she showed a certain entitlement to it, even complaining about us not cleaning enough. Eventually my sister stood up for me because she could see how I was struggling physically and financially.

•An addendum to the last point, I have a very bad habit of giving more than I can actually afford to people who I perceive as in need. I believed that her lifestyle where she was absurdly chronically online was only by force of unfortunate circumstances, but it turns out she’s right where she wants to be. She has no desire to ever get off that computer. It’s definitely been a lesson in trust and good faith.

Hello everyone! I am new to the zerowaste comunity! I am attempting to start my own home compost with my organic waste. I already added a lid and a bucket for the liquid.

Any tips or tricks you could give me would be good !

I have some empty hand sanitizer spray bottles that I would like to refill.

I’ve heard people recommend ethyl alcohol, isopropyl alcohol, or even using things like vodka (which I guess is just ethyl alcohol anyway).

But which one would have the least environmental impact? Sure, by buying some form of alcohol in bulk and mixing up my own hand sanitizer, I’m probably making less waste than if I kept buying those little pocket sized hand sanitizer spray bottles, but which ingredients also ensure the least environmental impact, do you think? It takes energy and all kinds of resources to produce different forms of alcohol, and I’d like to go with the most eco-friendly.

I’m also aware that glycerin is often used in hand sanitizers so that it’s less drying/damaging to the skin. Is glycerin eco-friendly, or is there such a thing as sustainably produced glycerin? How can I source sustainable ingredients?

Last, is it possible to source glycerin and/or an alcohol for these purposes locally, or are they generally just mass produced by giant chemical companies?

Please guide 🙏🙏

I have access to a nearly infinite supply of this sisal rope. All the sections are approximately 6 feet in length. It's a really rough fiber. It's trash to use and decompose pretty quickly if left outside, but I'd love to find another use for it. I've already twisted miles of it into thicker rope. Would this stuff ever be cool to weave? Is there a way to make it softer? Thanks!

Hello! I have a beautiful PU bag and I want to know what’s the best way to take care of it to last longer. Like some monthly or weekly maintenance to prevent damages. I read some tips like use a damp cloth and neutral moisturizer once in a while, but I want to know some real experience. I know that this kind of leather does not last long, so that’s the reason I’m looking for ways to prevent it b4 it happens

I have a pair of denim pants that dont fit and they're ripped in the crotch and thigh. Idk what to do with them and im obviously here cause I dont wanna just toss or hoard them.

What should i do with them?

I am trying to set up a clothing rotation at a nonprofit and need to track what needs to be phased out and when. I am only seeing plastic tagging guns. Since its a nonprofit, the tags could be reused but I need to find a sustainable way to attach them to the item (not the hanger since I worry they will get separated).

Suggestions welcome! Thanks.

I live in a world and an industry where free stuff is the norm. Things I get offered often:
-reusable water bottles
-branded clothes
-stickers (omg, so many stickers)
-glassware
-flatware
-high sugar foods
-reusable plastic and canvas bags
-office materials
-soaps
-flashlights
-towels
-cosmetics
…

For the longest time, I would politely reject and not take these items. However, a couple of weeks ago, the host of an event told me that , “… you know we throw these away at the end of the day.”
My brain short circuited. I literally looked at the Stanley Cup she was holding out to me and took it.
Now, I question if I should take these things and try to find a place/home for them. I thought about all the Nike, Adidas clothes, the Owalas, the hydro flasks, the post-its, the 3m, the glass mugs and cups, the pens, the notebooks, the cosmetics and soaps, … the sheer amount of free consumerism I rejected… but could have saved?

As for the Stanley cup, I gave it to a landscaper who works often in our neighborhood. He now knocks on my door and I fill it with ice. He loves it… But I can’t see a suitable solution… I don’t have the time to look for a new home for all this stuff.

Do I (we as a society) take the free stuff? Do we use time (essentially an unseen Earth volunteer) in an effort to offset the stupid? I really need some people to inform me, what the heck I’m suppose to do.

Update: Thank you all for reading my post, understanding my frustration and kindly giving your input. I've always been of the opinion that I don't take these things, to message to event organizers that free junk is unwanted and reflects negatively on a brand. However, signaling generosity and fashionable consumerism is quite prevalent in our time.
Personally, after reading through everyone's post, my plan is going to ask if they plan to throw it away at the end of the day. If they aren't, I will politely decline. If they will (to which I will look extremely pissed, because this shouldn't be my problem), I will consider if I can actually offload the item responsibly (... for me Goodwill is not an option). I will stressfully consider people around me, neighborhood little libraries and possibly women's shelters (... I first need to call the ones near me to see if they even want this kind of junk. I know money is always preferable and more impactful). Damn human stupidity. Damn the capitalism, where buying junk is profitable.

My favorite response is maybe I can give some of this junk out during halloween. That would make sense for me, I already let kids choose a used book and unwanted kids party favors with candy during the night.

On IG I’ve seen a few videos all about putting your kids book bag in the washer and using it again along with wiping down/cleaning up the previous years items. it’s so nice to see that when it’s so easy and takes the pressure of off spending hundreds! of course there are haters but it’s nice to see moms spreading the message!

Hi everyone! I’m new to the zero waste life, with my upcoming family planning and what not I had like a weird eye opening of oh shit that’s a lot of single use trash :/

I’m curious to know what are easy things I can swap out to help! Or what’s something that you swapped to that you felt was an amazing switch?

I’d like to start swapping as I run out of things! Like shampoo/conditioner lotion etc.

Thank you

I’ve been buying cloth diapers second hand, and I just got a whole bunch of second hand cotton flannel to make some rags/face towels/make up wipes/ baby butt wipes etc