Beauty, Health, Love
DIY Plastic-Free Deodorant
When I went looking for plastic-free, safe, and effective deodorant, I turned first to Beth Terry and her Plastic-free Living Guide at her incredible blog My Plastic-free Life. Following her advice, I tried baking soda, plain and simple. I’d been using baking soda for years as my main household cleaner, as a skin-soother in the girls’ bath water, and more recently in […]
Celebrations and Holidays
A Mother's Day Less Plastic
Reblogged from Trash Backwards: By Rebecca Rockefeller Celebrate your favorite mom(s) and your favorite Mother Earth in plastic-free style this coming Mother’s Day. While the old-fashioned advice that “a hand-made present is the best” still stands, of course, you may have reached a point where you’d like to gift your mother with something other than […]
Community Connections
Reuse Is My Favorite “R”
Grandma Inge’s tip put used coffee grounds in car you’ll be happier I come by my love of reuse thanks to my Grandma Inge, an artist and world traveler who foraged for materials wherever she went, reused almost everything, and threw very little out. Like so many people who have known war or want, as […]
DIY Crafts & Trash Hacks
Toys Less Plastic: DIY Dollhouse Dolls – Now in Pants!
Update: We have figured out how to make our DIY Dollhouse Dolls wearing pants! To make your own, follow the directions in my first post about these here; there’s no sewing required, and except for the hot glue, this is a plastic-free craft. Instead of adding dresses or skirts over the skin-colored embroidery floss-wrapped legs, […]
Food Less Plastic
Sorrel & Miner’s Lettuce Pesto
In which I make yet another version of pesto using what’s in season in my own backyard. It’s been HOT here, not just warm – The other day, Seattle was warmer than Palm Springs, and although we’re across the sound from the Emerald City, it was plenty toasty on our island. When the sun shines […]
Grow & Forage
DIY Garden Trellis Ideas
Looking for an inexpensive garden trellis that harnesses the power of reuse for function and beauty? As a devotee of immediate gratification building projects and frugality, I’ve got a few suggestions. Branches: I share a community garden plot with my Trash Backwards co-founder and great friend, Liesl Clark of Pioneering the Simple Life. When we […]
Housekeeping
The Beauty of Compost
I used to put my compost into a steel canister with a lid that I kept to the right of my dish soap by my kitchen sink. But as we started to grow the majority of the produce we eat, our food waste went way up – All those bean stems, strawberry hulls, eggshells, and […]
Personal Narrative
In Praise of Turkish Towel Seaweed
This past weekend, the stones along the wrack zone of my favorite local beach were draped with one of my favorite seaweeds, Turkish Towel, Gigartina exasperata. I’ve been in love with seaweeds since middle school, when my friend Vicki and I collected and pressed local seaweeds for a science class project. Fanning the specimens out […]
Zero Waste Tips
Plastic-Free Fun & Games: Switch
Looking for a plastic-free game? We’ve got one you can play without buying anything new – You probably already have everything you need right at home, or even in your backpack, briefcase, or purse. There’s no need to buy anything at all, let alone anything wrapped in or made of plastic. Our friends Zann and […]
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Haiku – 11th May 2013
spring tide walks uphill through rain and through my window wakes me with its funk
