What are you doing this Friday, the Friday before Earth Day?  Wherever you are, you’ll need to eat lunch, right?  Why not participate in the Lunchbox Project Day of Action?  The action is centered in San Francisco, but I am extending it to anyone anywhere who wants join in. What’s more, LunchBots has offered to [...]

It’s spring.  Are you starting a garden?  Right now, the plastic-free garden I planted last year with assistance from Organic Gardening’s Eric Hurlock is totally overgrown.  The chard has become a huge bush of pretty white flowers and stalks that are taller than I am.  Most of the rest of the yard and garden are [...]

Six years ago, Michael and I got a notice that a Trader Joe’s grocery store was going to be opening down the street from our house. This was back before I had woken up to the problems with plastic, and the news thrilled me. I had visions of all the fresh salads I was going [...]

Several months ago, blogger EcoCatLady left a comment on this blog about how she had avoided buying new plastic when her kitties needed a climbing tree by figuring out how to build one herself with all secondhand materials. She wrote: My most recent success was that I wanted to get my kids (meaning kids of [...]

As many of you know, I spent most of last year and the first few months of this year researching and writing my book: Plastic-Free: How I Kicked the Plastic Habit and How You Can Too (Skyhorse). The Kindle version of the book is available NOW, and the hardcover edition can be pre-ordered. In this [...]

One obstacle to carrying our own water bottles can be the difficulty finding water fountains or other sources for refilling those bottles when we’re out in the world. Since today is World Water Day, I thought I would give you a rundown of some of the strategies I use, as well as tell you about [...]

It’s frustrating when electronic gadgets break, and not just because you have to go through the hassle of fixing or replacing them but because in doing so, a lot of waste is created. So when the headphone jack on my phone stopped working intermittently, I put off doing anything about it for several months. But [...]

One of the most frequent requests I get is for a list of wines with natural cork stoppers because most of the time it’s impossible to see what kind of cork a bottle has without opening it up.  When I first started this project, I began keeping a list of wines and what kinds of [...]

Mascara. It’s been the downfall of many a plastic-free blogger. For Envirowoman, the very first plastic-free blogger who inspired me back in 2007, mascara was the one thing that made her break her plastic-free pledge. Taina Uitto of Plastic Manners, on the other hand, discovered the joy of going without mascara. Personally, I have never [...]

Hey kids.  Don’t be like the Lorax.  He’s a bad example.  I should know.  I used to be like him, and I still am sometimes.  I’ll explain what I mean, but first, let me back up a bit. A couple of weeks ago, a representative from Universal Pictures invited me to write a compensated* post [...]