Happy Earth Day! April 22nd is a perfect day to spend thinking about our relationship to the earth. I've been thinking about it more and more like a human relationship that has gone off course. How have we been disconnected lately? How can we course correct and get into ease and flow again? How can we bring back the balance of give and take? For me the answer is something like, "Lets spend some time together, nature. I'll listen to you and be present with you and enjoy you and please let me know what you need". And then I find I can connect with that delight and care and energy to protect her. I find this to be especially important during Covid 19. I notice that natures beauty brings a sense of hope. What brings you into connection with the our beautiful earth? I would love to see your answers on Earth Diaper's Facebook page!
Earth Diaper is proud to continue to coordinate diaper deliveries and composting for JMJ shelter during the Covid 19 state of emergency. We were also featured in the Bay Area Beat Podcast! Check it out here.
We welcome your donations to continue our important work at Earthdiaper.org.
Inspiration to Create a Better World, One Choice at a Time
Farmers Market and bulk bin scores!
Going plastic free has gotten easier in a few ways as I establish new routines. For example: food shopping is at the farmers market, the bulk bin, and a few other items that come in cans and jars. I had a delicious leek, squash soup that Ive never tried before. Its definitely work to start new patterns but once they are established it feels much easier then at the beginning.
I bought, and am using, my first shampoo bar! Honestly, my hair felt a little greasy the first few days but now it just feels think and hydrated (on the description it says it takes 3 weeks to adapt but for me it was much faster). I love the actual experience of using it, its so different than I expected in that the lather is super foamy. I expected it to be like a bar of soap and have no lather! Im excited to try the conditioner bar too. The brand I bought is: rocktopsoap.com. I also tried some products by a seller on Etsy that are plastic free and come in cardboard and tin. I never knew one could buy chapstick, lipgloss and lipstick that comes in cardboard! I’m so excited and like these products a lot. The face cream is nice too but the tinted moisturizer is made out of cocoa (and smells like it), which turns out I don’t like. And, the hair mouse makes my hair a greesy mess. Its made out of Shea butter. I have to keep searching for products that will work for me in those ways. Its clearly a trial and error process.
I’ve also been using the same piece of floss for a week at a time. I was at first wondering if this is sanitary, but when I think about my toothbrush being rinsed off and reused after brushing I decided that rinsing and reusing floss after use was no different. I might see how long it lasts before it tears.
I made my own toothpaste which was super easy with equal parts baking soda and coconut oil. I used the coconut oil from Trader Joes that comes in a glass jar. The taste is salty from the baking soda, so I’m getting used to that. But my teeth feel so clean! Honestly, way cleaner than store bought toothpaste.
I still have things I need to figure out as I run out of products that are packaged in plastic. The 30 days Plastic Free Challenge is a good time to really focus on finding new products and creating new habits. I imagine my brain cells working to reach out to each other..and the moment they make that little connection everything just gets easier :).
Challenges are abundant: my plastic free products came with tape on the package which Im pretty sure would contain plastic? Bummer. How to get around that? Honestly not sure as I’m probably not going to stop shopping online completely, and my local stores don’t carry plastic free items. I think the key is approaching it like a detective solving a problem. It’s not about guilt, it’s about inspiration to create a better world, one choice at a time.
Toothpaste with ingredients I already had on the shelf.
Shopping for spice refills in the bulk area.
Plastic Free Drama
So I had my first interpersonal conflict around plastic use with my dad. I’m supposed to be buying the groceries for my parents this month, but had let my mom know that that was with the condition that they be plastic free. So my dad was super attached to me getting a certain type of cracker, and I let him know I felt like I couldn’t do that, and he had a minor tantrum about it. It got me thinking about eco psychology and how resistant to change and inconvenience we all are. Also how emotional food is and how attached we are to certain foods. Changing habits involves a creativity and willing to change that can be hard under stress. We talked about it and I learned that he viewed it as me being ungrateful for all the things he does for me. So I got a change to thank him for all those things. Anyway, I didn’t buy the crackers, but I did buy some really nice olive rye bread today as a peace move.
That being said yesterday was a low point for me on this challenge and I wished it wasn’t making this inconvenience come up in my family. It was hard especially to have him say that individual actions like this don’t matter (I disagree) and we need a better solution to our plastic problem like dissolvable plastics (I agree). And I had to explain that for me this is like a mindfulness practice around consumption and that I think bigger level policy change IS needed. But individuals caring is what (hopefully) drives policy change.
Today I feel pretty good about it again. I went to another new bakery and asked for my bread in a plastic free bag which started a conversation with the employee there who ended up feeling inspired by my commitment and found me a paper bag (I forgot my cloth ones on this trip).
I still haven’t made the toothpaste but it looks super easy: coconut oil and baking soda with a drop of essential oil.
Next on my list today is to figure out how to order plastic free toilet paper and a razor.
At its best this feels fun. Like being a detective.
Plastic Free-Trials and Triumphs
Plastic Free for 30 Days?!
So I decided to try an experiment and go plastic free for 30 days January 2020. I decided as well to start a Facebook group with my friends interested in trying it with me as much for accountability as support. So far this social support has been immensely valuable, especially as I have my family and others knocking it down as impossible. I must admit I feel scared to fail. It seems like everything is in plastic. I suspect I will fail at some point but the main idea for me is to make this a practice, much like a mindfulness practice would be, in order to highlight my patterns and increase my awareness around consumption. Im very curious how it will change my eating habits and open my mind around products and ways of getting my needs met that I didn’t know about before.
So far I was thrilled to find an Etsy online plastic free store where I was able to find lip gloss, hair stuff and tinted sunscreen made in tin and glass with healthy ingredients. Here is the shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/BeeYouOrganics?ref=simple-shop-header-name&listing_id=717343737. I also found a cleaning supply company that ships cleaning products in paper and cardboard for you to refill the plastic bottles you already have. The company is called Clean Cult https://cleancult.pvzi.net/JXY3r. I will be eating mostly from the bulk bins and farmers market. I’m not sure how this will effect my weight. In fact, as I write this I realize I should weigh myself to find out.
If you are inspired to join us the group is public and its called Plastic free for 30 days! https://www.facebook.com/groups/1000925713613643/requests/
From Diapers to Dirt: Musings From a Redwood Forest
Post from January 30th, 2019. As I write this I am sitting below a canopy of redwoods breathing in the fresh earthy scent and listening to the trickle of water below in creek kissed by a recent rain. My desire is that everyone could breath this air and feel this alive, and that it lasts for generations to come.
The colors pop as I think about our recent trip to Earth Baby (Bay Area compostable diaper company and service) and how it’s owner, Tony, generously shared pictures of different brands of decomposing diapers that he has experimented with and how they look at different lengths of time in decomposition. And no, there did not happen to be any baby poop involved in this experiment! That Hayden and I are getting excited about decomposing diapers might give you a sense of how passionate we are about this as an environmental solution. And, no, we didn’t have any idea a year ago that we would nerd out this hard on diapers.
One solution to guarantee that redwood forests, like the one I’m in now, are not over run with trash in years to come is Earth Diaper. We have been working hard to set up our non profit. We are now fiscally sponsored and are accepting tax deductible donations! This is an exciting evolution and can’t believe how fast everything is happening!
We just completed a pilot trial with four low income families, two in a transitional shelter who are single moms getting their lives together and staying sober, and two who are immigrant moms from Mexico. One is just 18 years old, studying and working full time while single mom-ing. She is an amazing inspiration to me. They all loved the diapers, they said they work great and were an immense help to have them. One mentioned that she changes her baby more often because she was not worried about the expense of the diapers. I had not realized how much stress this was causing her before! I was surprised to hear about how much the pilot families were interested in composting and how much desire they had to help the earth and make it a better place for their babies. I must admit I was touched. They feel proud to be able to contribute less waste and, I discovered, have sadness about the state of the environment just as I do.
We have been getting a lot of positive feedback in general about the need for this service (which I can also attest to as a public health nurse home visits for the last 5 years—this is a huge need for our low income communities). Thanks to the donors of our GoFundMe project we were able to make this happen and will start the next phase of our project. We have been talking to different transitional shelter communities of single moms, low income daycares and low income clinics about bringing bulk compostable diapers and doing bulk pick ups. We have conversations started with three different shelters, WIC, Head Start and a local clinic regarding having their site be a central pick up and drop off site for compostable diapers and education about composting. We are partnering with Earth Baby and Tiny Tots to bring diapers and do composting with our families.
Hayden and Lily with Pat Gorman, JMJ Shelter
We are beginning to reach out to different funder and garnering support for our project. So far we are totally donation run. Thanks to each and every one of you who have supported us thus far. I realized the other day that just like folks say it takes a village to raise a child it will take a community to raise a non-profit! We are on board for bigness and we want to link arms with each and everyone of you in the process. I wish you could see the smiles on these moms faces. Perhaps you can imagine it right now. And you can imagine that cute little baby in fresh diapers. And then breathe in the deep earthy scent of a moist redwood grove.
Inhale…Exhale…Community..Support…Love.
Warmly,
Lily