Comments on: Plastic Challenge: Emily, Week 1

By: EcoCatLady (AKA Rebecca)

EcoCatLady (AKA Rebecca) — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 19:04:46 +0000

Hi Emily,
Congratulations on your amazingly tiny platic tally! It took me 4 tries to finally get the yogurt thing to work. I wrote out my method in the comments on another post. Here’s the link if you’re interested: http://myplasticfreelife.com/showyourplastic/2011/01/danielle-week-4/

By: emily

emily — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 23:06:46 +0000

Thanks for the helpful tips. I’m going to request that our local Coop carry those Skoy cloths. I like using rags but I’m also wanting to make sure that my partner feels comfortable with the changes I’m making in my life. He’s a paper towel guy and I will need to take baby steps before getting him to use only rags. I’m pretty good about saving old shirts and rags for cleaning. Kay, I like your idea about color coding the rags.

By: Kay Pere

Kay Pere — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 22:12:57 +0000

At our house, I’ve replaced sponges and paper towels, for the most part, with cotton wash cloths and rags. I use one color (blue striped) wash cloth for washing dishes, another (plain blue or white) for cleaning kitchen surfaces, and a bucket full of old white (gray now) rags torn from old towels and washcloths for other cleaning.

It grossed me out to think of accidentally washing dishes with the same rag I’d used to clean the bathroom, so this avoids that possibility.

I throw the kitchen and dishwashing towels in with other laundry. The dirty-jobs rags and towels get washed separately when I’ve accumulated enough for a full load or are thrown in with my grubby gardening clothes.

I hang all these up to dry rather than running them through the dryer to further reduce energy consumption.

This approach has reduced our use of disposable paper towels to almost nothing and eliminated Swiffers entirely. I still use sponges with the scubby back and dish scrubbers on tough baked on things or soap scum. When my current stockpile is gone, I’ll look for more eco-friendly alternatives. Still, don’t mix kitchen and bathroom sponges!

By: Beth Terry

Beth Terry — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 19:55:39 +0000

Emily, thanks for taking this challenge. Your low plastic consumption is amazing.

I’m surprised your coop doesn’t have plastic-free sponge or scrubber options. My favorite sponge is not a sponge at all. Check out Skoy cloths: http://myplasticfreelife.com/2008/10/skoy-cloths-theyre-plastic-free-and/ These are what we use for dish washing. They are compostable, last a really, really long time (longer than sponges), can be cleaned over and over again, and don’t come in plastic packaging.