Day 5: The Facts of Life BEWARE!

You've read about it in books! You've heard about it from friends! Maybe you even have one of your very own! That's right ladies! Its...It's...It's... YOUR PERIOD!

Believe me, I really don't want to have this conversation either. But facts are facts and having a period means throwing away way more stuff than you probably like. I haven't made the sustainability switch yet so, let's break it down and see what the options are.

1. Pads: The only choice for some, but OMG so much waste!

Options: Lunapads and GladRags seem to be the two most available options out there. Both offer organic cotton liners, which can be purchased in a variety of absorbencies and designs, and carrying bags for both clean and used liners. Just throw them in the wash and they're good to go again.

Lunapads Organic Cotton Sample Kit: $69-$97
(low end does not include laundry bag)

• 2 mini pads & 2 basic liners
• 2 maxi pads & 2 maxi liners
• 1 mesh laundry bag

Additional Items: $20

• moon pad bag (for used pads)

GladRags Organic Cotton Sample Kit: $59-$107
(Low end does not include last 2 items)

• 3 day pads
• 2 panty liners
• 1 night pad
• 1 classic carry bag
• 1 mesh laundry bag

Additional Items: none

Most people would shell out this much over the course of a year for regular pads, but it seems like a pretty expensive initial investment.


2. Tampons: Probably the most common choice. While more of us are choosing organic cotton, applicator free options, there is still a lot of waste created by these things.

-Step #1 is to stop flushing these things. The water system is NOT a trash can. Adding solid waste in the form of Tampons, Applicators, Condoms, Qtips, Cotton Balls, etc...makes the water that much harder to clean for future use. So put that shit in the trash can already!  

Moving on. -

Options: Sea Pearls Menstrual Sponges, seem to be a big hit. These sponges are 100% natural and sustainably harvested. Each sponge is good for about 4 hours of use and lasts about 1 year before needing replacement. Recommended disinfecting is with water and tea tree oil. Cool.

Sea Pearls: $15- $34

• 2 Packs Sea Pearls Sponges $24
• Upgrade to Ultra Durable Premium Sea Sponges $3
• Sponge Tote $7

These look pretty natural....No dioxins...No Rayon...Lessens the risk of TSS...Hmm? Who's sponge worthy, now?

-Tried the Sea Pearls in a pinch while home a few weeks ago. While I was happy to have an alternative to the bleached cotton with a plastic something or other micro mesh crap.. I wasn't totally impressed.

Pros

-Super Comfortable and Portable

-100% natural sea sponge

-good for light days

Cons

-difficult to tell when sponges need changed

-sponges are challenging to fully clean

-tend to shift in position and create leaks
-sponges fall apart 3 or 4 after a few uses

All in all, I will most likely use this item for the very end of my cycle. -

3. Menstrual Cups: This is a newer option designed to allow women to go up to 8-12 hours without changing. The Instead Softcup is the first product I remember hitting the market back about 2000. I tried it, but never got the hang of it and you still have to toss at least 2 plastic cups per day during your cycle.

Options: The Diva Cup and The Moon Cup look about the same to me. The only really different product I found is The Keeper which is made of organic latex. All come in a variety of sizes to account for changes resulting from giving birth.
Diva Cup $25

• medical grade silicone cup
• carry bag

Moon Cup $25

• medical grade silicone cup
• carry bag

The Keeper $30

• organic latex cup
• carry bag

I read a few reviews that said The Keeper is a bit firmer than the silicone and might not be suited to all body types.

-I ended up purchasing the Diva Cup. I absolutely love it. Its super easy to use (after an initial learning curve - be prepared) and very comfortable. The manufacturer is required to recommend that it be replaced every 6 months, but I did some additional research that makes me comfortable with the fact that I still have the same one a year later. The basic recommendation I have been following is to boil the cup each month after use and again before use the next month to ensure silicone is sterile.

As an added bonus, I no longer have issues with BV or yeast infection as was common before with tampon use! Yeah.. Proving, once again,  that those things are a bad idea.-


So, looks like we have quite a lot more options than even a few years ago. Having grown up in the era of failed silicone breast implants (probably not the same thing), I'm inclined to try the sea sponges first. I would still count any of the cups a close second.

The only question I have now is: What's with the names of these things? Diva and Moon? Why does anything related to my period have to have a huge attitude or be an earth loving hippy? I don't get it.

Day 4: Waste Tally

Transportation:

• walk to train to carpool with 2 others
• carpool with 2 others to train to walk home

Solid Waste:

Reuse

• 1 plastic 1/2 gallon milk jug

Check out my nifty little upcycle project! (right)

Recycle

• a few scraps of plastic milk jug
• 1 12oz glass bottle
• 1 metal bottle cap

Compost

• 2 teabags
• 1 paper tea bag wrapper
• 2 18" square pieces of deli paper?

Composting deli paper is an experiement. Not actually sure it will work. The deli paper I have is thin, has no obvious wax coating and easily takes on water, so I have high hopes. Stay tuned for test results!

Trash

• 1 waxed tea bag wrapper
• 2 paper towels (oops!)
  

Hmm? How to get rid of those? One solution I found today is the People Towel. Their slogan: CHANGE IS AT HAND says it all. Unfortunately, they don't list a shop that carries them locally, so I'll probably just grab a small towel from home and pack it around for now.

Day 3: Commuter Cup Conundrum!

I didn't have my reusable cup this morning and REALLY wanted a coffee for the road.....so.....after learning that neither the Gelson's nor Oak's Gourmet Market on Franklin have commuter cups for sale.....

I totally caved! I bought a coffee: paper cup, plastic lid....all of it. Crap!

M. E. FRUGAL: Well, I guess I can reuse the cup as a seed pot, but the lid is just a single use item for the recycling bin.

M. E. REALIST: Now wait a minute...this is exactly how the laundry room got the be a clusterf #&k. WILLPOWER! Just don't buy it.

M. E. DEFLATED: The coffee didn't really taste good anyways. It was flavored with too much guilt. *sigh*

Day 2: Waste Tally

Off to a moderately good start. I got up a few minutes early to be sure I had time to make lunch. Finished off a loaf of store bought bread and used the outer bread bag to pack up my lunch.

BTW: When did bread start coming in TWO bags?

Composted an entire pound of raw cat food I forgot about in the microwave :(

I didn't get the glass bottle situation taken care of for trash day this morning, so we'll take care of that next Monday.

Tonight is the Old LA Farmer's Market right off my train stop so I picked up some tomatoes, fresh bread and a few other things. Most of it is only "natural" or "pesticide free" and not certified organic, which is disappointing, but at least it's local and supports small farmers.

Transportation:

• walk to train to carpool with 1 person to work
• carpool with 2 people to train to walk home
  
• Train to Hollywood/Vine to meet friends for dinner at Thai Palms.

Unfortunately, Thai Elvis (pictured right) was not performing.

• carpool (got a lift) to friend's house in Hollywood

Solid Waste:

Reuse

• 1 plastic grocery bag

Recycle

• inner plastic bag from bread

Compost

• 1 tea bag
• 1 lb raw cat food

Trash

• small ball of plastic tape
• average amount of TP (about 18 squares)

Day 2: There IS Free Lunch

In honor of creating less waste I find it my moral obligation to upcycle this left over sandwich from a lunch buffet at my office to my face. Yes!

Day 1: Food and Eating

Culprit numero uno: the Standard American Diet aka S.A.D.

PACKAGING AND STORAGE
1) Glass and Plastic Bottles: We (me and my BF) don't drink a lot of bottled beverages in my house other than beer and an occasional Mexican coke (made with sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup), or a bottled water in a pinch. When I first moved to LA, I was putting all these directly into the recycling bin to be picked up by the city...more times than not, these items would be hauled back out by an enterprising person with a shopping cart.

Concerned for the safety of these folks, I started to sort out the items with a cash redemption value and put them on the curb separately on trash day. Ok. Good, right? Except, I've gotten lazy and haven't set them out in about a month.

WHAT TO DO: For starters, I need to get these puppies to the curb and to the folks I've been hoarding them for. I have been wanting to quit drinking soda anyways and I can make sure to always have my reusable water bottle.

But what about the beer bottles? We like to host little cookouts for 4-6 people almost every weekend, which tends to make things add up pretty fast. This one requires more thought. Mircrobrew? Growlers? Homebrew?

2) Paper Coffee Cups and Plastic Cold Cups: Don't forget all those plastic straws and lids! Yes, I know I said I have a reusable coffee cup, but we only have one commuter cup, which I only pack around on weekdays and is too small for cold beverages. Generally in my house...hot coffee is small, iced coffee is large.

WHAT TO DO: Get another commuter cup and take both along on weekend outings for hot and cold beverages. Lately, we have been saving our extra morning coffee in a glass jar in the fridge to use later as iced coffee. I think keeping this jar full is probably a simple solution considering that we are usually coming from or heading to home when we buy coffee.

3) Paper Board and Cardboard Food Packaging: Generally this includes six pack carriers, an empty tea box or two, cereal boxes, a pasta or cookie box, an egg carton and one waxed paper milk carton per week.

WHAT TO DO: I could buy more bulk bin cereals, pasta and tea. I can get milk from a local dairy that sells their milk in reusable glass jars. Unavoidable paperboard packaging might be good addition to the compost pile as "brown matter". I definitely want to confirm that the printing is not done with petroleum ink first.

4) Styrofoam Take-Out Boxes and Portion Cups: OMG! This is the worst. I'm not sure where you live, but in LA Styrofoam is the go to material for take out food containers and lately, we seem to only be ordering from the places that individually package each and every item in it's own Styrofoam package. While the municipal recycling has started to accept "clean Styrofoam packaging" for recycling. I'm not convinced that the box my chili relleno and pad thai from last week came in will ever be clean enough to fit that description.

WHAT TO DO: Eat at home. Pack lunches. Not only do I save money when I cook on a regular basis, but I save an incredible amount of packaging. Generally it takes 45mins to an hour to get food delivered in my neighborhood. In that amount of time, I could easily go the the grocery store, get a few items and make a simple and healthy meal. Double whammy...less waste, more healthy.

5) Aluminium and Tin Plated Steel Cans: Not many of these right now. Probably would have more of these and less of the above if I had been cooking lately. Generally these are from canned tomatoes or beans.

WHAT TO DO: I have planted extra tomatoes this year in the hopes of reviving a family tradition from my youth and canning my own tomatoes for winter use. In the mean time, I can use fresh tomatoes and dry beans can be a bulk bin purchase.


FOOD WASTE
1) Compost and Worm Bin: I compost everything (even meat and diary). Greens and herbs for worms, coffee and citrus for fruit trees and the rest for the pile, but I must admit I still waste more food than I like. I feel especially bad when I see food that I have cultivated for weeks go to waste. As I said above, I haven't been cooking much. I have one full time job, a revolving slate of freelance projects as well as a number of community projects I support and volunteer for. I tend to be pretty busy.

WHAT TO DO: Slow down. I think if I have more time at home to cook and enjoy my food I will be more willing to make the complicated (and by that I mean, not a sandwich or cereal) meals that I really enjoy.


So here's the list for this week:

EASY(ish) STUFF
-Buy a second commuter cup
-Carry a commuter cup and water bottle at all times
-Cook more / pack lunch
-Take the cash redemption bottles to the curb
-Keep the iced coffee jar full
-Stop drinking soda
-Go the the bulk bin for grains, beans, cereals, etc
-Keep fresh tomatoes on hand
-Get milk from local dairy with reusable glass jars

HARD(er) STUFF
-Slow down
-Be aware of choices
-Think about ways to use fewer beer bottles. Microbrew? Growlers?
-Find out contents of packaging inks and compost if possible

Hmm? Seems manageable. Here I go!