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Minimize the amount of waste you produce at home
Better Products, Less Waste
We've done the work to research and test all sorts of alternative products to find the best ones that benefit our planet while not sacrificing quality or convenience.
Find all our top recommendations for you!
Reusable "Paper" Towels
Replace your Paper Towels
Why make the switch? Save trees, save waste (paper is the largest waste in landfills), save green house gas emissions (paper industry is 4th largest emitter of green house gas emissions). We don't need to be cutting down trees if there's a better alternative.
How-to Tip: Once you switch to one of these, just place your regular paper towels under the counter to make it a little less convenient to reach for each time. You'll make the switch over quickly!
The Un-Paper Towels
Cost: $55
Why we picked: Easy to use and just snap back together after you've washed them
Alternative: Non-snapping
Tea / Dish Towels
Cost: $20
Why these? We don't have a specific recommendation, pretty much any option is better than paper.
DIY Method
Cost: Free
Why these: Crafty or not, here's a great walk though on how to make your own at home.
Silicone Top & Bees Wrap
Replace your cling wrap (Saran Wrap)
Why make the switch? Cling wrap is not recyclable and the manufacturing process is very very dirty. These are two great alternatives we've tried and use that ditch that nasty plastic.
How-to Tip: The silicone are dishwasher safe, while the bees wrap is a more natural option (read, not dish washer safe).
Silicone Stretch Tops
Cost: $6
Why we picked: Easy to use, fit pretty much anything, and dishwasher safe!
Bees Wrap
Cost: $19
Why we picked: Organic cotton infused with natural bees wax and a Bees Wrap is a Green America certified company.
DIY
Cost: Free
Why we picked: Astar's Place
walks you through the process to make your own bees wrap!
Silicone Baking Mats
Replace your Aluminum Foil
Why make the switch? While Aluminum is one of the best recycled materials (won't degrade over time) it takes a lot of energy to do recycle and you should be cleaning it before recycling it... Since we've switched, we haven't used aluminum foil once!
How-to Tip: If they get greasy or oily, just put in the top rack of your dishwasher!
Kitzini
Cost: $20
Why these? These are the best ones we've found out of all the 5 brands we tested.
Reusable Ziplock Bags
Replace your single-use plastic bags
Why make the switch? Never buy Ziplock bags again! These are safe alternatives to the single use plastic bags that can't be recycled. These are our favorite alternatives to single use plastic snack and sandwich bags.
How-to Tip: All are dishwasher safe, we just recommend keeping them on the top rack.
Russbe
Cost: $7.99
Why we picked: A set of 4 and the easiest way to start the switch from single use bags. They come in all sorts of patters and gallon bags!
Rezip
Cost: $19.99
Why these? Great middle of the road quality and price and you get 5 of them.
Stasher
Cost: $11.99
Why these: Highest quality... and the highest price. They can be boiled (sous vide) or baked.
Your Essentials
Be sure to have your essentials wherever you go
Why make the switch? Carrying the essentials for what you need everyday is the a great first step.
How-to Tip: Start with remembering to bring these with you to kick start your waste free journey.
Water Bottle
Cost: $14.95
Why we picked: Cupanion's bottle is light, perfect size, and comes with a Fill-it Forward tag so you can donate to water projects each refill!
Thermos
Cost: $29.95
Why we picked: Cupanion's thermos sturdy and keep your drink hot or cold for hours.
Utensils
Cost: $12.99
Why we picked: The best bamboo utensils we've tried in a convenient carrying case.
Reusable Bags
Reduce the amount of waste with each shopping trip
Why make the switch? Every time we go shopping we've got an opportunity to reduce our waste, there are tons of simple switches, these are a few of our favorites.
How-to Tip: The Chico bags are perfect to slip into your purse or backpack so you have one with you all the time.
Produce Bags
Cost: $14.95
Why these? Ditch the single use plastic bags and keep your produce fresh.
Alternative: Don't use bags at all...
Impact of Switching
Total Impact
Total cumulative impact of taking all these actions above over a year
90
Showers saved
(1,555 gal of water)
32
days of cow farts saved
(446 lbs of CO2)
9
trash bags of waste saved
(131 lbs of waste)
$435
equivalent to 217 cups of coffee
From our Blog
Waste and what we can do about it
We put one dump truck of plastic into the ocean every minute... but there's hope.
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