Updated 01/05/18 Every time I post pictures on Instagram or Facebook of my bulk shopping or farmer’s market hauls, I get lots of questions: Do you bring your food home in bags and transfer it to jars? (No, I bring the jars shopping and fill them directly.) Doesn’t your food cost more because the jars […]
environment
How to Respond to Critics of Sustainable Living
Updated 06/22/17 Perhaps you’ve taken the Plastic Free July challenge. You’ve banned plastic wrap in your home, started carrying your reusable water bottle everywhere and maybe you’ve started making your own granola. You feel very excited about your progress (as you should)! Then your friends and family criticize you and burst your bubble. Sound familiar? “You don’t […]
My Zero-Waste World: The TMI Post
In recent interviews, people have asked me if I follow zero-waste practices in aspects of my life other than food. The short answer: Yes but besides food, what else is there? The long answer follows. Food I’ve got this one covered on this blog. Essentially, to go zero-waste in the kitchen: Put together a shopping […]
My TV Debut!
Earlier this year, I was interviewed about zero-waste living on The Better Part, a show on KMVT, my city’s community television station. The show aired yesterday here in Mountain View and also in Cupertino and Los Altos. It will air again in several other towns near me over the week. But you can watch below […]
Pictures at an Aquarium (or Why I Went Plastic-Free)
Last week during spring break, my daughters, a friend and I headed down to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. My journey to plastic-free living, followed by zero-waste living (basically the same thing) began with my concern over the plastic pollution choking our oceans and its inhabitants. I decided I had to get plastic out of my life. […]
Two Upcoming Free Webinars!
I’m so excited to teach some more webinars. People had always asked me if they could watch them later and I had to say no. But I can now record them! And if you don’t want to participate in the webinar but simply watch it live (or later), I’ll stream these on YouTube. Tonight, I hosted […]
An Oven That Saves Lives
I love low-tech solutions. An oven made out of cardboard boxes will likely garner less attention than will a refrigerator that alerts its owner via Apple Watch of eggs on the verge of spoiling. At least, it would attract more attention here in Silicon Valley—and probably gobs of venture capital to boot. (Wouldn’t it be […]
17 Simple Tips to Clean Your Kitchen, Plastic-Free
When we first went plastic-free, cleaning presented a big challenge. How would we wash our dishes without plastic bottles filled with dish soap (not to mention filled with microbeads)? Sponges, made of plastic, come wrapped in yet more plastic. And how would we dispose of wet, stinky garbage? We found pretty simple solutions for all of […]
6 Self-Centered Reasons to Reduce Your Waste
A zero-waste lifestyle may conjure up images like the Albrecht Dürer woodcut below, The Penitent, with plenty of self-flagellation, a diet consisting of mere bread and water (when not fasting), hair shirts, medieval dregs—basically a wretched life of perpetual self-denial. When I decided to go plastic-free, I merely wanted to avoid contributing to the colossal plastic pollution problem in our oceans. I […]