Are You Addicted to Plastic?

Every once in a while you see a documentary that affects you enough to make you want to change.  My husband Matt and I watched one of these recently called Addicted to Plastic.  It was really a great explanation the different ways that plastics are used, recycled, and reused, and all the crazy places it ends up, both bad and good.

A slide from Norwex founder Bjorn
Nicolaisen's presentation depicting
how we are all connected and affected
by our own choices.

In good news, there are people coming up with all kinds of creative ways to reuse plastic.  There is a company in Texas making railroad ties out of recycled plastic and a Georgia carpet manufacturer that is creating new flooring from waste materials.  There is a developer in Australia who is making a new, totally biodegradable plastic that he actually ate in front of the camera!

But in bad news, every single piece of plastic that has ever been made is still in existence.  The ocean has become this crazy, plastic soup, in which pieces of plastic of all sizes are being consumed by ocean life.  In the film, they use a net to scoop the top of the ocean and found the ratio of plastics ten times higher than any naturally occurring animals or plants.  They explained how often you can dissect fish and other ocean wildlife like birds to find all kinds of plastic in their bellies.  Not only are the animals suffering, but it leads you to understand that one can only imagine the concentration of chemicals we end up consuming as it goes up the food chain to us.  

And plastic bags.  Oh the bags.  There are some places that cannot deal with the waste and the country side is littered with bags like it is a flower growing on the side of the road.  Plastic bags have hit headlines in the US recently, too; in California, legislature enacted a ban on plastic grocery bags that could be the first of its kind to be signed into law in America.  

Bjorn speaking at the national conference
about his concerns for our environmental future.

Here are some stats that I learned at the Norwex National Conference:
- More plastic has been produced in the last 10 years than in the last 100
- The average plastic bag is used for 15 minutes
- 1500 water bottles are used every second in the US
- 5% of plastic produced is recovered


So what can you do?  Make small changes and be conscious of the choices you are making.  Think before you act, and most importantly before you purchase, and just make a smarter choice.  Choose glass, stainless steel, or other sustainable materials instead of plastic whenever you can - for bottles, cookware, cups, plates, and straws.  Choose reusable instead of single use whenever you can - for grocery bags, produce bags, baggies, and snack containers.

With Norwex’s new mission, to improve the quality of life by radically reducing chemicals in our homes, their new fall products, can help you make these decisions even easier.  And of course, Norwex has a package, the Pitch the Plastic Pack, so that you can buy all of these products at a discount.

Pitch the Plastic Pack

1.  The Out to Lunch Snack Bag and Out to Lunch Sandwhich Wrap are both free of harmful BPA, phthalates, PVC, and lead.  Choose these when you just need a baggie instead of their single use counterparts.

2.  Reusable Produce Bags will help you reduce your plastic footprint and are non-leaching and non-toxic. 

3.  A set of two Silicone Lids will help to reduce the amount of plastic wrap and aluminum foil that you use, each of which can leach harmful chemicals into your food and most often end up in the landfills.  The heat- resistant, food-safe silicone also allows for quick cooking, steaming and reheating in the oven or microwave.

4.  More than 500 million plastic straws are used every day, many of which end up in our landfills or oceans. Plastic straws are one of the top 10 debris items ingested by sea life. Our Stainless Steel Drinking Straws are an intelligent, eco-friendly, long-lasting alternative to plastic or paper disposable straws.  Just stick one in your purse or diaper bag so you are always prepared for that unexpected smoothie purchase!

So however you choose to do it, I challenge you to look around and see how you can reduce the amount of plastics that you contribute to our world.  Are you addicted to plastic too?

Going Paperless at Home

How many rolls of paper towels do you go through in a week?  Are you constantly grabbing a Clorox or baby wipe to clean something up?  Do you use Swiffer pads like they are going out of style?  Can you imagine how much money you could save if you stopped using all this disposable stuff?

It’s been a process, but picking one thing at a time, we finally use way less paper stuff.  Most times I feel like the cloth versions of my old disposable option generally works way better than their counterparts.  And it’s great not just for the environment but for my wallet too.  

Here some of the things I’ve been doing to work towards getting more paperless and reducing disposable waste in our home:

1.  Norwex Microfiber Cloths for Cleaning:  This was what took me to the next level using cloth. You can clean any surface with just water and a cloth, including your grossest stuff like meat goo and toilets. They don't get stinky as fast because of the silver woven into them, so you can use them more often without having to wash them.  This lessens your laundry and will allow you to have just one drawer of cloth stuff to clean your whole house.  My main must-have cloths are the Enviro and Window cloth (for cleaning all my surfaces, windows, mirrors, etc.) and the Kitchen Cloths (for daily kitchen counter/table/highchair/floor clean-ups).  If you have these things, you will hardly ever reach for the paper towels in the kitchen again.

My Norwex cloths and my little drying system... Yes, I am a dork!

2.  Cloth Napkins:  Get some on the cheap at Marshalls or TJ Max and have a set or two for your family and one set for just for company. Wash them in hot water and just don't worry about stains for the everyday ones. I use these in replace of paper towels sometimes for food stuff too, like when I need to dry brussel sprouts before putting oil on them to roast, or to squeeze water out of frozen and then thawed spinach.  They are thin cotton and don't leave fuzz on your food. 

3.  Baby Washcloths:  These little babies pop up all over the house for different reasons these days.  The biggest use is in place of disposable wipes for my almost two year old, Will.  I used to make a solution with essential oils and water, and either pour it over the washcloths (in an old wipe box), or use a spray bottle to spritz their little butts.  Now I just run some warm tap water over them in the box and they work just as well.  But baby washcloths also double as tissues for any bodily clean up you can think of, most often for snotty noses.  I keep a stack in the kitchen and a stack in each of the kids dressers.  They either get washed with the cloth diapers or with the load of cloth napkins, depending on which floor of the house I happen to be in when I need to toss them.

4.  Resist the Paper Plates:  We bought a set of plastic plates that we use for the deck if we want to eat outside, and these are also the plates we try to take if we picnic or go camping.  For larger parties I still go with paper or plastic stuff if we don’t have enough, but I try to resist the temptation to grab paper plates mid-week when I just don’t want to do dishes.

5.  Use Tupperware and Reusable Snack Bags:  I've been in a bad streak of using plastic baggies lately. Things that help are Tupperware and reusable snack baggies.  I've also started saving empty pickle, salsa, and pasta jars because the wide tops make it easier to store leftovers. I get excited when the label comes off easy or if the lid is plain without the brand written all over it!  

6.  Cloth Diapers:  If you are in this phase of parenthood, it may not be as hard as you think.  After I found my groove with it, it was only an extra load of laundry every 2/3 days.  This still may seem like a lot, but now it’s just a habit and it doesn’t seem like much at all.  Maybe even borrow some dipes and try them out before you buy them.  I cloth diaper part-time when we have a busy weekend and can’t get to the laundry, and that's okay too.  But every cloth diaper used is a disposable diaper I don’t have to buy again.

7.  Norwex Microfiber Cloths to Wash Your Face:    There are lots of easy to use disposable make-up removal cloths out there, and I used to use a couple cotton pads with astringent every night. Now I just get my Norwex Body or Baby Cloth wet and wipe my face off. I find I wash my face more often because it is easier and I don't have water dripping down my arms and on the sink. Plus you are removing a big chunk if chemicals from your life too (not to mention some pricey items in the budget).

8.  Skip the Cotton Swabs or Other Little Disposable Things:  This may sound gross, but I stopped using cotton ear swabs.  I’ve heard doctors say before that they aren’t that great for you, and I had a nightmarish thought one day that my daughter Addy saw me use one, grabbed one herself, and jabbed it in her ear.  *shudders*  I just use my washcloth to clean my ears, and it seems to be working out just fine.  Just pay attention for one week to all the little paper things you grab, and focus on one at a time to see if you can get by without it.  You may surprise yourself.

9.  Other Norwex Cleaning Products to Replace the Disposable Options:  I love my Norwex mop, and it works so much better than my old disposable Swiffers.  My Norwex Dust Mitt is also super convenient and can just be washed and used over, with no chemicals/sprays needed. 

10.  Put the Disposable Options in the Basement:  Or in some other far away place.  After you have the cloth options available, you will still want to just fall back to the paper if they are staring at you.  Put them somewhere that you know you can get them if you need to, but not convenient enough to grab on a daily basis.

My kitchen/dining room cloths

I think the key here is that it doesn't have to be all or nothing.  You can use the disposable options sometimes when you are just too busy to get to the laundry, and you are still cutting back.  Just pick one thing speaks to you and start there.  I know I am more motivated to use cloth because it's cheaper - the investment is already made and every time I use it my cost per use goes down.  And I don't have to go to the store to replenish it, which means less impulse buys at Target because I shop less often.  So just do what you can do, one step at a time. 

Don't Stick Your Head in the Dishwasher

Seriously, what was in there?

This morning there was a little piece of a sippy cup at the bottom of my dishwasher.  As I stuck my hand in to get it out, I made the mistake of looking around in there.  Unless you want to clean your dishwasher friends, never, ever do this.

It was GROSS.  I had no idea that something that cleans stuff could be so dirty.  All along the sides there was this thick soap scum, and the bottom edge of the door had become a collecting spot for this weird, gray sludge.  

So instead of loading the dishwasher back up with dirty dishes, I was suddenly thrown into the extra task of cleaning out the sludge.  I grabbed an Enviro Cloth, and that took care of most of it.  I thought I was going to need the Cleaning Paste, but the Enviro just sort of just melted it off.  I took out the silverware basket and cleaned it in the sink with some dish soap and a SpiriSponge, and that cleaned up pretty quickly too.  I wiped down all the inside walls and the bottom the best I could reach, and then went to the computer to see what Google said I should do.

I learned that there are filters at the bottom of the dishwasher - did you know that?  I didn’t.  It looks like some dishwashers have larger pieces that unscrew and come out that you can wash, but the pieces on mine that unscrewed were much smaller.  But, when I took it out, there was a large piece of plastic that came out, all full of soap scum and ick.  It looked like a piece of a grocery bag or something.  I have no idea how that got in my dishwasher, but it should surely run better now.

After reassembling it, I threw a cup of white vinegar in the bottom and ran the heavy duty cycle with no dishes in there.  Google suggested doing some sort of cleaning cycle, but my machine didn’t have that.  When it was done, it was kind of shiny and all the little gobs of goop that I had unleashed were all cleaned up.  I also read that you can put some baking soda in the bottom over night if you are having smell issues, but after the vinegar cycle, it really looked and smelled fresh again.

I would say beginning to end, my actual cleaning time was maybe 15 minutes.  So if you decide to stick your head in the dishwasher, let me know how it goes. 

Hello World!

Hey all!  If you know me, you know that I'm passionate about Norwex and what it can do to help you save time and money.  For me, Norwex also kick-started a personal movement to become more health conscious, use less chemicals in all parts of my life, and learn more about the whole green living thing.  My husband Matt and I have been on the path to living more minimally for a long time, and this all just seems to be the next logical step for us and our family (who consists of our daughter, Addy, and son Will).

So I'm excited to start my new blog to help document all of my Norwex and green living experiments.  I feel like we on a journey towards better health, so hopefully you can gleam some tips and tricks along the way, making a smoother journey for yourself.  Thanks for joining me!

The Dixon Family, November 2013