We are a pancake loving family. Similar to Leslie Knope’s love of waffles on Parks and Rec (currently rewatching). We eat pancakes like they’re going out of style. We eat pancakes for breakfast and dinner sometimes. I like that our mix is so cheap! I like that you only have to add water! We always have water! We eat pancakes so much that I was going to give us a pass on our store bought mix from Aldi, because EVEN THOUGH it comes packaged with a plastic bag, I can recycle the cardboard box and that plastic bag at Giant Eagle. And we love them. Pancake mix was by no means a priority for me.

Last weekend, I was making pancakes, sooooo content in my decision to not worry about zero waste pancake mix, when I turned the box over to look at the ingredients…just because…

…And I saw palm oil as an ingredient.

I may not be the most eco-conscious, vegan, hug-a-tree-while-being-barefoot and-scrubbing-a-baby-duck-with-blue-Dawn-dish-soap-at-the-same-time person out there, but I know enough to know that palm oil is bad for the environment. Like really bad. Like, bigger priority than recyclable plastic, kinda bad.

So even though my beloved Aldi box ingredients list said palm oil is less than 2% of it, I went on a search for a DIY pancake mix.

I really wanted one that was simple to make and only adds water. And a mix that I could keep on my shelf for awhile and not have to make right before my children start screaming because they’re hungry and I tried to stay in bed until 6:45 on a Saturday morning. Something simple. Ya know what I’m saying?

I found a recipe from Something Swanky that seemed simple enough to make, even if when you make the actual pancakes you have to have an egg and some milk. Those are two things I can’t guarantee are always in my house.  We did find the recipe ratio to be a bit off – it makes kind of runny pancakes, but we’ll figure it out.

Funny story though, when I told my husband about it, he was genuinely happy that we have to use an egg and milk in the mix instead of just water because it makes the pancakes taste better. I had no idea he felt that way. I was always trying to save money.

Anyhow, this mix is even cheaper and I got to put it in one of my glass jars and miss out on some plastic, some palm oil, and a lot of other chemicals/high fructose corn syrup for my family.

Update: WE FOUND HARTZLER MILK AT THE HARTVILLE GIANT EAGLE!!! I don’t know how we didn’t see it before! A friend mentioned it to me on Facebook and I was so jealous I couldn’t get it at my local store. It’s in a glass bottle and you do pay a deposit when you buy the milk, but if you return the bottle to the service desk, you get your deposit back.  We think…we haven’t gone through that process yet… And it’s also better organic milk, an Ohio and family run dairy, etc. etc. Also, I wore my zero waste deodorant today at work…and it’s much better than I thought my first go at natural, zero waste deodorant would ever be. I’ll be interested to see how it does in the summer, if it stains clothes, and in general to give it some more time. And I’m giving my zero waste mascara another go in the Prime Time.

This weekend, I got to use my zero waste kit. I felt very uncomfortable.

It was new & different and that new & different-ness was public.

But let’s back up. You may be asking, “what is a zero waste kit?”.

GREAT QUESTION

A zero waste kit is essentially a variety of items that you take out and about with you to help prevent you from having to use a disposable item when disposable is all that’s available. I kind of equate it to the backpacking mantra, “Pack it in – Pack it out.”

They have many fancy zero waste kits on sale like this one which all fits in a mason jar, but I opted instead to use things I already have around the house, because I already have all of this stuff around my house. Plus the ones for sale typically cost around $50 – $60. Yeah…I’m not paying that…

In my kit, from the left, I have a bag to carry it all from (made years ago from an old t-shirt that was too small, but I still liked because it was Harry Potter), a container for leftover food that can also double as a plate, a pouch of silverware with chopsticks a reusable straw and a cloth napkin, a dish towel which is a cheese cloth, a reusable water bottle, a reusable coffee mug, a reusable shopping bag, and the 2 pouches at the bottom are for clean handkerchiefs and dirty handkerchiefs instead of Kleenex.

From reading a little bit on zero waste kits, it sounds as if people don’t carry ALL this around ALL the time, but they try to think ahead and be prepared. Mine has been living in my mom mini-van since I made it. And there are many examples and better explanations out there from people who use them routinely, so if you’re interested, it’s worth a quick google search.

I sewed the pouch for my silverware myself, mostly because I had my eye on these silverware pouches on Amazon for camping purposes and I was going to put them on Christmas list, but even before I fell down the zero waste rabbit hole, I decided it was wasteful because I could buy silverware at Goodwill. Which I’m still intending to do, but the one time I’ve been able to go in the past 2 weeks – they didn’t have any. So I still hope to go and find some good silverware for camping. And now to add to a family zero waste kit.

Back to my uncomfortable-ness.

Yesterday, I went out with my sister, brother, and sister-in-law. I brought my zero waste kit with me and we got Starbucks (a common sister occurrence!) and I used my reusable cup and got 10 cents off – WIN! No issues there.

For lunch, we went to Bi Bi Bop, which is essentially An Asian Grille… Chipotle style. Not knowing what it was (and thinking it looked very fancy), I only brought in my purse which happened to have my silverware pouch and my water bottle. But Bi Bi Bop had disposable items….wop wop.

And I was mad at myself for not even bringing in my bag (it would have been so easy!) and it would have been the perfect opportunity to start honing my awkward assertiveness that is going to have to come with this.

But it was really cold out. And the line was really long and growing.

So I didn’t go back out for it. Which I’m a little ashamed of. I opted to refuse a drink since it was a single use plastic cup (and they had some super cool sodas and flavored green teas that I probably would have drank even though I’m typically a water girl). I was able to use my chopsticks and give my fork to my sister. And although I took home leftovers and had to take a plastic lid, the lid is in my recycling and I cut apart the bottom paper dish and added it to my compost bin. Baby Steps. 

Today, we had a lunch after church that I had forgotten about and I was scrambling to gather reusable items for everyone in my family. I grabbed the stainless steel plates that I bought this past fall for camping, silverware, cloth napkins, and reusable cups. Keep in mind, I’m the mom who always forgets bibs and sippy cups for her kids, so this was a momentous occasion for me.

And I made my family use them. And I was proud, but super uncomfortable. The stainless steel plates were like glittering disco balls under the fluorescent lights – which got a lot of attention and therefore got a lot of comments. Not negative comments, but I was definitely aware of how different my family was and felt like a bright spotlight was shining on us. And different, today, was awkward and uncomfortable for me.

However, I know that it will get better with time. Actually.…I’m just hoping it will get better with time. That’s what this is all about. Making this my new norm.

It’s not like it took me that long to clean up afterwards. I stacked all the plates and the silverware into the mesh bag the plates came in and it took me about a minute to rinse them all at home and drop them in the dishwasher. It’s the perfect zero waste thing to do! It fits perfectly with my whole initiative!!!

But I was aware of my uncomfortable feelings and kept wishing that we could go back to last night when I got to have zero waste fun with a bath bomb and my kids were super excited and everyone was happy.

I can see some improvements I want to make on my ZW kit (that’s what the cool kids call ’em):

• I’m going to look for a different bag to carry it all in.
• I actually want to look for a better food container that will have a lid and I’d like a solution to dirty dishes so the gross stuff won’t get all over.
• I would like to make an all the time family zero waste kit.

My plan is to keep at it (next weekend will be a good opportunity for me to try again) and see if it gets easier with time. And to pretend I have more confidence than I actually have, and be more assertive and confident. #goodplan #itsalligot

I keep reading facts and stories about plastic in our world and my anxiety and tendency to overthink take over. The current statements stuck in my mind recently are, “By 2050, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish” and “Plastic is already a problem that we can’t recycle our way out of”.

Did you know that plastic can’t be recycled infinitely? Metal and glass can, plastic has limits. And we keep making it.

Every time my brain revisits one of those statements, I worry about the future generations and the future of our planet. And I wonder things like, at what point will our collective blindness to trash change? Will the government have to get involved and make plastic illegal? Will it be too late? Will the manual labor jobs of the future involve having to sift through landfills to sort out recyclables from organic material from…well, whatever else?

What a terrible job that would be. I don’t want anyone to have to do something like that. Would it even be safe?

They’re not exactly happy thoughts. An inadvertent consequence of trying to make a change in my life.

But with taking on this challenge, and more importantly, with following through on my terrible instinct to put myself and my thoughts and my weirdness out on a blog and be “that girl on Facebook”, I’ve had some even better inadvertent consequences.

Let’s get the superficial stuff out of the way. I honestly think zero waste may make me save money. Which I KNOW my husband and family must be chuckling at because I’ve been buying zero waste products to try out – but it’s true. I’ve already noticed a shift in my mindset about what I want to buy vs what I need to buy. And I hope and hope and hope it sticks with me…because I KNOW it’s only 2 weeks in. Plus, I’m noticing that if I maintain my food plans and start going out of my way to buy things without plastic, I’m going to be more purposeful and less wasteful in the food I buy and use.

I think it’s also going to help declutter my house. That’s a good inadvertent consequence to have.

I think it’s going to make me healthier by putting better food in my body. I’m noticing the junk tends to be packaged in plastic. And I’m doing my best to refuse it (My new borrowed mantra: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rot – in that order).

But the best inadvertent consequence in only 2 weeks of sharing waaaay too much of my life is all the positive comments and news articles that you all have taken the time to share with me.

I’m so glad to know it’s more than just my mom reading my thoughts and embarrassments (Hi, Mom!). It’s so nice knowing that there are others out there in my circle who are not hipsters living above a bulk store co-op in the Pacific Northwest, but are still trying to take any small steps to cut out any amount of plastic in their life. Living in towns, like mine, where it may be really challenging.

It’s pretty cool. So thank you!

I wanted to share many of the things that have been shared with me, because they’re too good to keep to myself. I’m going to refer to everyone as “a friend” because friend, relative, acquaintance – you’re all friends:

• A friend mentioned to me that Lego is starting production on plant-based plastic for their blocks. You can read about it here. (And thank you Lego, you have been WAY too big a part of my life to cut you out!)

• A friend recommended drying ziploc bags on an aloe plant which is SO GENIUS because it annoys me when they hang around in my sink drying. (Which always makes me think, if I’M annoyed by 2-5 ziploc bags in MY house…just think of how ticked off Mother Earth is…Don’t Mess with Mama!)
• P.S. ~ I bought that aloe plant as a tiny little sucker at my Aunt’s greenhouse for like $3-4. I’m afraid to repot it because I think it may outgrow the house soon.

• A friend shared these toothpaste tablets that are also a zero waste company called Bite Toothpaste Bits and it seems really cool (Side note, do you think the girl in the video is wearing zero waste mascara??). It sounds like it was started specifically for travel and I could DEFINITELY see those being a great travel toothpaste option instead of my homemade toothpaste in a glass baby food jar. For the sake of Science and this blog…I may check them out at some point this year…

• A friend showed me that they have indoor kitchen composters available that will compost your organic waste within 24 hours. (I’m secretly kinda hoping that someone I know buys this so that I can see how it works – we compost in our backyard, so I won’t be. Maybe if I were a hipster living above a bulk store co-op in the Pacific Northwest…)

• A friend mentioned that they bought a pair of jeans from Aeropostale on Black Friday and when they went to remove the tag saw that the jeans were made from recycled plastic bottles:

• A friend sent me this link because their Uncle(?) has this ozone laundry system that doesn’t use ANY detergent. None. No harsh, bad for the environment chemicals that are packaged in plastic. Just a little box that’s easy to install. It costs a pretty penny…but I can’t wait to read up on this more in-depth. SO COOL! Love the idea.
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• A brewery in Florida is making beer can rings that are actually FOOD for sea turtles instead of a vessel of death for sea turtles. What?!?! 🙂

• A friend told me about Hartzler Dairy that has milk in grocery stores in reusable glass bottles that you can return to the store and avoid plastic milk jugs. After looking into it, I realized I visited there! On my son’s second birthday and had ice cream. AND I saw their milk at the Kent Co-op and seriously considered if it was worth it to drive 20 minutes out of the way to get their milk.
• A friend has shared some suggestions on bulk stores more South from me in Canton (Belden Village to be precise!) and I found I can get Hartzler milk at Fresh Thyme in Belden Village. I need to go and check it out for myself.

My husband shared this video with me which was super inspiring because I love to hear stories of how people are caring and things to make the world better. And my most FAVORITE FAVORITE line from it that I try to repeat in my head when I think of how ridiculous it is to go out of my way to try to make this work is:

“Why don’t more people do this? Because it is expensive, and it’s very hard…but it’s not impossible”.

That’s the line I want to stick in my head. It’s very hard, but not impossible.

So many of you have shared ideas or suggestions or said things like, “I made my own dry shampoo!” or “I’ve been taking my reusable bags shopping!” or “I’ve ordered bamboo toothbrushes!” and although I haven’t heard it outright, I think some people have made zero waste kits to carry with them. So Thank You! for warming my heart and keeping those depressing thoughts on the fringes of my mind by sharing all the positives. For a girl with anxiety, it makes a difference. 🙂

Updates: You’ve all probably seen that I went to Lush today with my sisters and my brother. I have yet to try their shampoo bar and it may take me a few days because I’m trying to “train” my hair to add another day in between washings. I WORE ZERO WASTE DEODORANT TODAY! AND IT WASN’T BAD! I didn’t smell bad and I didn’t have to reapply! And I figured out how to edit my photos on here – WOOT WOOT! I also got zero waste lip balm, which has also been good so far. And I have several posts in the making about food changes. I’m actually getting a little nervous that I’m doing too much at once because I do want sustainable change. But that’s probably my anxiety and overthinking taking over. Only time will tell. 🙂

…Or maybe those dark smudges under her eyes are from zero waste mascara.

I knew that not all products would be created equal, but I resolved to give them a try and search for solutions and annoyingly broadcast it to everyone on my Facebook feed. Those who haven’t un-friended me at least… (Ugh…Julie has ANOTHER blog post? Enough already…)

I am not picky about make-up or mascara and actually have 4 cheap tubes of mascara in my bathroom drawer right now. I don’t know why I still have them – it’s ridiculous, but it’s a fact.

I found one on Etsy that was zero waste, vegan etc. etc. and it was roughly $10 with free shipping (FREE!) so I went for it. Because $10 for a mascara sounded really good to me.

Being only a week into my zero waste initiative, I of course get super cocky and elitist and decide to write in my comments: “I’m going zero waste so minimal packaging, please. I dont know if a wand is included, but I dont need one, i will be reusing my previous one. Thank you!” I copy and pasted that – yeah…didn’t realize my errors in capitalization and punctuation (as a teacher, I am ashamed). Never underestimate the power of a good edit.

Anyhow, it arrived beautifully in a reused Amazon box – just the mascara in a cute linen bag. I wanted to try it RIGHT AWAY and I realized I needed to clean off one of my old mascara wands so I chose the oldest mascara…the one that I personally didn’t like the wand on. ….Because that makes sense…

Big Mistake. HUGE.

Do you KNOW what it’s like trying to clean waterproof mascara off of a mascara wand? I do. Unfortunately. It’s not fun. It sucked. I wanted to take a picture of it to show all of you my epic fail but I couldn’t. Because my hands were black. And sticky. My sink was black. And sticky. I had to clean my sink after it! And if you’ve read my post on house cleaning, you know I don’t really do that! Then of course, my toddlers used their chaos honing devices…beep…beep….beep…to find the closest most chaotic situation to insert themselves into and started trying to climb up on the bathroom stool to touch things on the counter, touch the black sticky stuff, to whine at me to pick them up, and to ask ridiculous questions. Like, “Mommy, what are you doing?” and “Why are your hands black?”

Not my ideal situation.

I persevered and got it cleaned up. Eventually.

But then I had my clean wand and I realized I had no idea how to go about this. Cursing myself at my stupid zero waste comment, my internal monologue started: …huh…I wonder if a mascara wand WOULD have been included. And if instructions WOULD have been included….am I using this right? ….how do I get the wand INTO the tin to get the mascara on? ….do I warm it up first?…. am I the problem? Why can’t I do this? I’ve taught sex ed to 8th graders but I can’t figure out zero waste mascara?? What’s wrong with me?

My wand ended up bending a little as I tried unsuccessfully to access the mascara within the tin, but I got it in and got it on. It’s not really a lengthening mascara, just more of a darkening mascara. And it takes a lot of effort – a lot of heavy blinking to get it thoroughly onto your eyes. Which is why I’m wondering if I’m applying it wrong (which it very well could be). It also had a tendency to “melt” (for lack of a better term) and settle into my 35 year old eye wrinkles that I’m trying to accept with dignity, but still don’t want them accentuated by smudgy black mascara making them look like giant crevices.

I wore it for 5 days and for the record, I work with some gorgeous, very well-put together women. And naturally, I kept forgetting that I was test-driving zero waste mascara on my face and I would be talking to a female colleague, noticing how beautiful their eyelashes were, and I would start self-consciously rubbing under my eyes. Because I’m awkward and forgetful. My days are super busy, so I wasn’t focused on checking up on my mascara throughout the day. I’ll try to do that one day this weekend and perhaps I’ll post an update.

I was starting to feel comfortable with it, but decided to go back to my old mascara A) to not be wasteful and use it up since I have it and B) to compare. It was so much better! Easier to apply – (no heavy blinking!), super fast, and no smudges during the day. I still had some darkness in my eye wrinkles, but I think it may have been from my eyeliner.

Despite this looong post about how awkward it’s been, I am not ready to hang it up yet. I’m going to give it some more time to see if it becomes better. And I may try a different mascara wand since I wasn’t happy with the one I used. I don’t think 5 days is a fair trial since it could just be me and the fact that it’s different (or it could have been my eyeliner running away from a make-up that’s so pure and free of all bad chemicals). I wanted to share my honest experience so far, but I’ll probably be perusing other options at the same time.

After realizing yesterday that the Kent Co-op was not going to be my be all, end all grocery solution, I went on a new adventure to Duma Meats, the local butcher. (Can we pause and take a look at the awesome cardboard laundry detergent I saw at the Kent Co-op? I’m going to look more into this…)

Duma Meats used to have a counter at the Hartville Flea Market and I had seen them there and knew about them, but I had never been to their shop. And since I’m new to blogging and it’s by NO MEANS the primary focus in my life (I work full time, people), I didn’t snap any pictures until the very end when I was in my car and driving away.

As mentioned previously, we have no intention of going vegetarian or vegan, but my goal was to find a way to prevent the waste that has previously come with our meat which included a styrofoam tray, that squishy-bloody-absorby thing, and a plastic wrapping:

I had called Duma’s Meats (I don’t know if it’s Duma or Duma’s or Dumas – I swear I’ve seen all three…) previously for what was one of my first, awkward phone conversations about zero waste:

Me: “Uh…hi. So, I’m trying to take a zero waste initiative in 2019 – yay for going green! – and I was wondering if it would be an issue if I brought my own containers to your store and if you could fill them in an attempt to reduce my use of single-use plastics.”

Woman who is being asked this for the first time: “…Uh…I don’t see why that would be a problem….but let me go check…”

(Loooooooong time on hold. Not super long, but both of my kids toddled up to me separately – upset – and I was able to calm both of them – separately.)

Woman who is being asked this for the first time: “That would be ok, as long as you understand we’d still have a piece of plastic to weigh the meat on our scales and we wouldn’t be responsible if any of the meat goes bad in your freezer due to your packaging or containers.”

Me: “Oh my goodness – that would be terrific! And this is all new to me and I’m sorry for being weird and awkward and thank you so much!”

End Scene.

I talked it over with my husband who agreed that even though it might be a little more expensive (which I’m not sure it was…), it will probably be a higher quality meat and we like the idea of frequenting a local place. So I ventured out with my reusable plastic containers for some meat.

We’ve always menu planned – and typically have done multiple weeks at a time, but with kids, it’s time for a revamp to plan just for 1 week. Typically, we need to go get milk or fresh fruit/veggies at least once a week anyhow. It’s definitely going to take some planning to remember to bring the proper amount of containers, but it WILL probably stop me from impulse shopping and being wasteful in my grocery purchases.

It was surprisingly easy, despite me being totally and completely awkward (not a new thing for me), and you could tell a little confusion on the part of the woman helping me at the counter (definitely a new thing for her), but she was ridiculously nice and accommodating. I’m hoping it will get easier and I will embrace my weird-girl-ness the more that I go. (They also have a deli with cheese and I’m assuming they’ll let me put that in my containers too – take that Hartville Giant Eagle.) I expected them to stick the price sticker onto my containers, but she took a strip of their wax paper to stick the price stickers on and then escorted me up to the register to explain it to the check-out girl, so as to not confuse her. She wasn’t confused, I checked out, and headed on my way. The nice thing was, all our meat from the week was already nicely packaged for the freezer:

So despite the little bit of plastic that accompanied my pork chops and chicken breasts into their containers, I still feel like it was a big reduction in trash and plastic and I’m happy to feel quasi-successful at zero-waste butcher shop shopping. Let’s hope it continues that way.

(P.S. – I was noticing that Duma’s was handing other people their meat in brown paper packages which made me awkwardly ask, “Uh…how do you typically package your meat?” ….because I was feeling stupid bringing PLASTIC containers to reduce my use of PLASTIC when they’re wrapping everything up in paper. But it’s a wax, freezer paper which to my understanding, you can’t recycle. People do use wax paper as fire starters, but although we have a wood burning fire place and an outdoor fire pit, we don’t build enough fires to warrant saving all the wax paper from the meat we would consume throughout the year.)

Tonight I drove 10 minutes out of my way to check out the Kent Co-op. It’s in downtown Kent, Ohio and I had SUPER high hopes for it to be my new grocery store. Keep in mind, I lived in Washington State for roughly 6 some years where Co-ops were more common (and big!) and the regular grocery stores had a GIANT bulk and organic section. Now that I’m trying to go zero waste, I never realized what I had until it was gone (isn’t that just the way?).

Don’t get me wrong – it’s a great little shop and if I lived in Kent, I think I would frequent it. But since it’s small and it’s out of the way and many items were still wrapped in plastic…I’m exploring other options that will work for me.

However…if they would have had fruit snacks in bulk, I would go all the time.

My kids love fruit snacks so much. I don’t get it. I’ve never really been a fan of fruit snacks. If I’m going to have a snack, I want some carbs! Something filling. Fruit snacks to me, are like…fruity chewy air. I’m still hungry after I eat them, so why even eat them? (Side note…I do really like gummy bears. Weird.)

But fruit snacks have become a staple in our house – particularly when we’re getting home and trying to get dinner made and the kids are staggering around the house doing that fake-kid-pout-cry-thing that hits at that certain decibel and makes your eye twitch and your head rattle. Know what I mean? Fruit snacks tend to make that stop. There are days I will do anything to make it stop.

I have seriously reduced the amount of fruit snacks given out freely in this house since going zero waste. As in, they got them when we had a picnic lunch at the zoo for New Year’s and my 3 year old has gotten them in his lunch on his preschool days. I’m trying to stick to my vow of NO MORE FRUIT SNACKS TO STOP WHINING.

That’s me reducing 🙂 We’ll see if it lasts…

As far as I know, although they come in a cardboard box (which is recyclable), the wrappers are not. So I decided to do what all crazy moms decide to do…make my own. Juuuuust to see what it’s like.

I found the recipe from A Side of Sweet. Once again, like making butter – it was kind of one of those fun things just to try out once. I’ll try many a thing once. And it was really super, even if it took A LOT more gelatin than I was prepared for (I had to cut the recipe in half). I let my 3 year old pick out the fruit juice we used while at the grocery store and of course, he chose Peach Mango. What 3 year old picks Peach Mango? The recipe is essentially fruit juice, gelatin, and honey. You mix it all together on the stove top, and pour it into molds, and refrigerate. We only had Christmas molds.

I thought they were gross. So naturally, I took them to my family Christmas celebration that we had the next day to pawn them off on my unsuspecting family and nephews. In order to sell them, I did the adult over-exaggeration and over-emphasis of how cool they are, “Hey nephew…wanna try a homemade fruit snack in the shape of a Santa Claus??? They’re Peach Mango flavored.” They ate one and even came back for more later. And I think everyone else tried at least one. Score!

But I still have some in the fridge. And I don’t know if I’ll make them continually. Perhaps if I find some really good fruit juice flavors or acquire some cuter molds, I’ll try making them again. But I don’t think this is a long term solution. And I did have the thought that maybe I should just get my kids to eat nature’s fruit snacks, which would be dried fruit. That may be my future solution, but I’m imagining it will be a long transition to get there.

I still hope to find them in bulk. Close by.

Updates: My toothpaste no longer tingles. I don’t know why now. Was I detoxing before? Am I used to it now? I flossed today (it’s Wednesday) and I used a longer string of Dental Lace and it didn’t break. Easy switch. I’ve also worn zero waste mascara for the past 5 days. Not bad, but not great either. My zero waste deodorant and lip balm arrived today, but I’ll wait to try the deodorant until the weekend (you’re welcome, coworkers).