Stop Wasting And Save
| January 15, 2010 | Posted by Lisa Sharp under Uncategorized |
We have become a throw away society. We use disposable napkins, towels, dishes, water bottles, bags, food storage, straws, and on and on. There are now even one time use tooth brushes!
If we saw those items as money would we be as quick to throw them away? Let’s say you use one roll of paper towels, a pack of napkins, a 12 pack of water, and a pack of plastic sandwich bags once a month. That would be around $21 a month and I’m guessing that is WAY less disposable items than most people use. That would work out to $252 a year.
Now often people say it costs to much to use reusable items, let’s do the math. You can get four Klean Kanteen water bottles, eight Lunchbots, a large set of cloth napkins, and a set of dish cloths for $220 easily (you could do cheaper!).In less than a year you would make back your money.
Now I bet if you are still using disposables you would save even more because you likely have many more disposables than I listed. I challenge you to add up your monthly cost of disposables and add up the cost to get reusables to replace them. If you aren’t sure what you would replace them with or where to find the item here is a list of some of my favorites.
Paper Towels:
Cut up old t-shirts in to rags.
Use dish rags and towels you already have.
Check out thrift stores for cheap dish towel and cloth sets.
Buy more dish cloths and towels.
One of my favorite items for cleaning up spills is a Skoy Cloth.
Paper Napkins:
You may already have some cloth napkins, if so use them.
You can find cloth napkins at thrift stores and your local home stores.
If you can sew you can make your own.
You can buy them on Etsy.com (and other online stores).
Disposable Dishes:
I’m sure you have real dishes so use them.
Water Bottles:
If your towns water doesn’t taste very good to you or is not good quality get a filter. I recommend Brita because you can recycle the filters.
Klean Kanteen and Earth Lust are my favorite stainless steel bottles. The easiest is a plain (non-painter) Klean Kanteen because they can be put in the dishwasher.
Plastic Straws:
Go without
Get a set of glass straws. They go in your dishwasher and are very strong.
Plastic Sandwich Bags:
LunchBots are my favorite. They come in different sizes, are dishwasher safe and easy to use.
Wrap-N-Mats are another good option.
You will find tons of options on ReusableBags.com and Etsy.com.
Disposable Food Storage:
Pyrex is my number one pick. You can find good deals on Amazon.com. (Anchor is another glass brand I like that is made in the US)
If you go with reusable plastic be sure to look for #5 plastic or even better containers that say BPA-Free and still don’t microwave them.
You can also get stainless steel food storage, check out ReusableBags.com for some options.
Plastic Wrap:
Use a container with a lid (like Pyrex or Anchor).
Cover a bowl with a plate and a plate with a bowl.
Grocery Bags/Produce Bags:
Bring your own. Etsy.com and ReusableBags.com are great options to find all kinds of reusable bags.
My favorite produce bags are these hemp bags and my favorite reusable bags for keeping with me are Chico Bags or Envirosax. My favorite for grocery shopping are Acme Bags and my organic Whole Foods bag.
I’m sure I missed some disposable items so be sure to ask if you want to know what I use and where to find other items. And if you have some favorites be sure to share! I will leave you with this video.
Here ya go FTC: Glass Dharma is one of my advertisers, however these options are my own, I’m not paid to write about them. I have also reviewed some of these products in the past but have no current ties with them and I’ve never been paid by them.
