This is the second peppermill to fail within 2 years due to the same plastic part breaking at the exact same spot (around the metal bolt in the center). I am now looking for a more durable pepper mill with a different grinder holding mechanism that is not made of plastic but it's near impossible to find one. Almost every pepper mill I've looked at is advertised with a high quality ceramic grinder but the material of the grinder doesn't matter if it's held in place with a plastic piece that is going to break eventually. Do you have any suggestions other than buying a mortar?

Are there any repercussions? Or if I only have access to a balcony, can't I just setup a bin with dirt and bury my scraps for free compost?

Hi everyone! I'm in the process of setting up a small business and I'll be selling clothes. I'm really stuck because I'll be selling my products online only and I want to use packaging that will protect my products 100% during transport and is also eco-friendly. Both of these things are equally important to me and I don't want to compromise on any of the two. Could you please share your knowledge and personal opinion on packaging that you like to see brands use?

I will need one mailing bag (which will enclose orders) + one clear or semi-transparent smaller bag (to pack individual items)

I'm not a huge fan of compostable bags because not every person has the ability to dispose of them properly and they usually end up in landfill. I really care about closing the loop, so I'm leaning towards 100% recycled and recyclable plastic packaging that's suitable for home recycling (you don't have to take it to a supermarket/big store for recycling) or paper packaging. However, one is still plastic which makes me a bit uncomfortable and paper is very heavy to transport, which increases CO2 emissions, and it also doesn't fully protect clothes from rain which is a huge problem as I am based in London - you know what this means...! :(

Unless there are any other alternatives I don't know about? I'd really appreciate any help!!

I have been attempting to make a dishwasher detergent, but lately limescale has been building up despite the dishes' cleanliness. My recipe so far for the mixture has been:

1 cup Baking soda, 1 cup Washing Soda, ½ cup Coarse Kosher Salt, ¼ cup Citric Acid.

Any suggestions on bettering the recipe is welcome, but the focus right now is specifically to cut the limescale. I've seen running a load with vinegar helps, but I'm not going to run twice per load and I'm not running vinegar AND baking soda in the same load.

Thank you!

I was recently gifted a few glass cups with glass straws and bamboo lids. We use these cups regularly but I’ve noticed that even if the cup sits in the sink just overnight (empty), the underside of the bamboo lid will have mold on it. How can I fix or prevent this?

hi everyone! I'm asking for ideas on how to handle household food waste that doesn't require composting. what we do in our house is that we feed leftover rice (and other dry, not easily spoiled and smelly) to pigs, chickens, and pigeons & turn eggshells into fertilizer. got any other ideas than the ones that we do? thank you :)

Hi!

We drink Cafe Bustelo, which is very very finely ground. With any of the reusable filters I’ve tried, I end up with grounds everywhere.

I’ve had success with the If You Care compostable filters (the 8-12 cup size), but does anyone have a suggestion for a reusable filter instead?

thanks!

two questions:

1. are pickle jars safe to put in the microwave? I understand the dangers of temperature differences as that can break the jar and/or the microwave but I keep my lunch in them and want to heat it up.

2. what are some other uses for jars?

Hi!

Over the last few years, I have been talking to my friends and taking their old sunglasses to wear, with the thought of them fitting me, but they usually never do. Now I have like 10+ pairs of old sunglasses. Maybe there could be another use for them, even if they are worn or scratched?

Thanks!

hey! i’m an avid brita user. i do not like how tap water tastes unless it’s filtered and i am not going to buy bottled water because i drink around 3 litres of water a day.

i was wondering if activated charcoal is a good alternative. my one question is, do i have to wait several hours every time i refill my jug? i guess i can have a few glass bottles with filters ready every day but the thought of running out doesn’t sound pleasant.

anyone have any tips for me on how to reduce my waste and keep on drinking water i like?

Is there any article that introduces zero waste cooking, aimed at people completely new to the concept?

Some people I've seen, when they hear "no plastic packaging," think that means just taking out of the plastic it was bought in, and putting it in a glass jar. They don't get the consequentialist idea of removing trash from the entire process.

Are there any accessible articles that lay the groundwork, which you'd recommend? If not, I feel like I'll have to write it myself.

Update: Thanks for all the suggestions; Have out them in a box in the communal area of my flat and will take them to the fire station if not eaten!

So doing a kitchen spring clear out and realising we have a lot of (sealed) snacks that we are never going to eat. Like sweeties and things like that. It's food so I don't want to throw it out but I know donating food can be tricky,

Any suggestions on what to do with them? I've started putting them in my pockets to give out to anyone I see sitting on the street but a there's a lot (adhd buying oops, getting better at checking what we have before shopping these days) and our flat is very small and doesn't really have room to store these things for long term.

TLDR; Have lots of small packs of snacks, how to get rid of them zero waste?

My workplace closed, and they let me take a box of 500 Tampax tampons. They look to me to be the “Tampax Pure Cotton” which is greenwashing jargon for “replacing rayon with cotton”.

The ingredient list still has polypropylene and polyester in the core, so I’m hesitant to use too many on myself. I use a combo of reusables and NatraCare and am happy to support clean brands. I estimate it’d take me like 6 years to use up all 500. At the same time, I’m in a financially restrictive situation so saving money is helpful here.

On the other hand, I’m hesitant to donate it to vulnerable ladies who may then form a lifetime positive attachment to the brand, providing them with more business and possibly slowly poisoning these ladies. I am not currently in a position to volunteer in a way that I could educate those ladies on the risks of using this product.

I invite you to join me in this overthinking. Thoughts or ideas what to do? Any other sub to crosspost to?

My husband can’t let go of the dish sponge just yet. I’m trying to switch it over to something more sustainable. I’d love to grow my own loofah this year in our garden and use it to make dish sponges.

Has anyone done anything drastic or creative in their kitchens in using dishes more efficiently to reduce hand washing?

I'm looking for ideas both to reduce water and electricity use, and for health reasons - it's taxing (or sometimes impossible) for me to stand for long periods of time because of POTS.

I have severe food sensitivities so never eat from restaurants and eat very little processed food, so am doing three scratch meals worth of dishes for 2 people every day, so the dishes add up.

I have thought of packing up most of the dishes, only leaving one or two per person, to reduce the quantity, but I still have glass storage containers that would pile up. I've also thought of just packing up ALL the plates and bowls and only eating out of glass storage containers.

Any cool ideas out there on streamlining the hand dishwashing process?

Thanks in advance.

(Ps - I would love an automatic dishwasher, but it would require renovation, so not in the cards at this time.)

Edits - I'm already using wash basins to minimize water waste and don't leave the faucet running, and already have an aerator on the faucet. I have tried sitting on a stool but don't find this comfortable, and end up getting up from it constantly (maybe I haven't found the right stool/chair.) I don't cook with oils and can't eat bread (weird food sensitivities). Regarding one pot meals, I'm already minimizing the number of pots and pans I can cook with and unfortunately I can't always do one pot meals because of weird food sensitivities (I need to reduce oxalates by boiling veggies and removing them from the cooking water.)

I feel too guilty to throw them out . I don't have kids .

Is there any maybe dentist approve toothpaste and floss. And if any hope floss that can be compostable whether it be throwing it out or trying to find a place that can do that

I can't make everything zero waste but I'm trying

I am getting married soon and part of our flowers is DIY. We are arranging baskets to line our aisles and then will move them into the reception area after (same venue). It won't be too fancy, just 1-2 types of flowers that we'll try to get for cheap from the local grocery store and then shove into some lightweight baskets the day before. Should be a simple process which is why we are handling this part and only paying the florist to do other fancier stuff. I was thinking of using floral foam originally to keep the flowers hydrated and to not have a bunch of heavy vases of water to carry around, but then my low waste senses kicked in and I realized I would rather not buy big plastic bricks that apparently are not reusable and shed microplastics.

I have seen alternatives involving coconut coir, but I was wondering if anyone has experience with organic arranging alternatives like this? As a gardener, I have used coir a lot to start seedlings but am not sure how it would work with flower arranging in terms of providing physical structure. If it were an organic media like coir though I would LOVE to be able to reuse it in the garden after the wedding, so in theory it seems like it would be great.

This is the place to comment with any zerowaste-related random thoughts, small questions, or anything else that you don't think warrants a post of its own!

Don't hesitate to ask any questions you may have and we'll do our best to help you out. Please include your approximate location to help us better help you! If your question doesn't get a response after a while, feel free to submit your question as its own post.

If you're unfamiliar with our rules, please check them out before posting here.

Are you new to /r/ZeroWaste? Check out our wiki for FAQs and other resources on getting started. If you aren’t new, our wiki can also use help and additions! Please check it out if you think you could improve it!

Interested in more regular discussions? Join us in our Discord!

Think we could change or improve something? Send the mod team a message and we'll see what we can do!

Hi! I have moved somewhere with gigantic mosquitos. I have been trying to only use the botanical sprays (lemon eucalyptus or Citronella based) and it seems to help a little but I still got ate up. I will use DEET if I have to but I have a cat and the DEET makes me nervous. Also don't particularly care for rubbing things like that all over my skin, and I don't like the plastic or metal bottle waste as I will need a LOT of it. And I'm having to also use a lot of sunscreen so it's a lot to rub all over me in the morning. I am looking to try and make my own (if anyone has a recipe that works on giant southern USA mosquitos I would appreciate it, they seem very resilient) but in the meantime:

Does anyone have a other method they like? I have a uniform but if something like a hat exists that's doable. Or those little Keychains? I was also wondering if there is some sort of...Mosquito repellant balm I could rub onto my skin and maybe it wouldn't sweat away so much? I would just cover up more but it is already pretty hot and only getting to get hotter, I am doing vigorous work in the sun so i dont want to overheat. Plus they already got through thick socks and pants (i tuck my pants into long socks because bugs). Also discovered weed eaters attract mosquitos so that was fun.

Thanks!

My job requires me to wear suits most days. Men's suits are not machine washable. I've tried the Dryel at-home dry cleaning, but it doesn't work very well. I have to have things cleaned about once a week.

But HOLY FUCKIN SHIT, THE PLASTIC. No matter how many times I ask them to put as many garments in each wrapper as possible, I always get the clothes back with each suit in one wrapper, then 2-3 shirts in another, and so on.

How do I get around this?

Edit: I only have things cleaned about every 3rd wear, but I'm the banquet manager at a nice hotel in Texas, so I deal with food and beverage, AND I sweat a lot from hard work and being in and out of kitchens and crowded ballrooms. If I stretch the cleaning anymore than I already do, I'll stink and look shabby

Hiya! First time post on this subreddit.

I've been trying to look into zero waste deodorant (especially after downloading the Yuka app and realizing that my arm & hammer deodorant may be harmful to the environment) and I'm debating over either Bite or Wild deodorant. I really like that both of them have paper wrapped refills and have reusable metal containers.

I've read that Wild deodorant can leave white marks; I haven't seen much about Bite. So, I wanted to see if anybody could share any personal experience with either of the brands?

I tried the matcha/apple deodorant from Hey Humans and the paper packaging rlly turned me off of it as it had gotten oil on it and was falling apart.

Aspects I'm wondering about are:

• texture/how does it feel when applied
• white marks/streaks
• how long has it lasted for you
• how much it helps with body odor

I may be missing some aspects here, so any information is welcome.

I just wanted to share the result of a "No Junk Mail" sticker I applied to my mailbox on January 1st 2023. In addition to the sticker, I also had my name removed from the Canadian Marketing Association's lists by filling a very short form here. It literally takes less than a minute.

On this image, you can see the comparison between 2022 and 2023.

For the info, I live in Québec, Canada.

I found the original sticker here. You can find the English version + the French version I did here.

The text on the sticker is a copy/paste of what you could find on Canada Post's website before they changed it few months ago.

On the website, Canada Post tells you that, sticker or not, they will deliver addressed advertising mail and political items (community newspapers, mailings from governments, materials related to elections).

In 2022, I received 144 unrequested pieces of mail. 24 were addressed commercial ads or political items. Meaning that 120 pieces were straight junk.
In comparison, I only received 30 unrequested pieces of mail in 2023 : 17 addressed ads and political items, and only 13 junk items.

I'm really happy with what 5 minutes to print and put a sticker on my mailbox and 1 minute to fill and submit a form did for me and I encourage you to try this on your own if you live in Canada and find junk mail to be an issue.

I bought these sturdy headphones for around $30 about two years ago with the intent of using them for years to come.

As all wired headphones do, the wires by the plug started wearing down until the sound eventually can’t be transmitted anymore. I knew a simple fix is to replace the plug, but a) I don’t know how to solder electronics, and 2) didn’t know if replacement aux plugs were even available for purchase. Lo and behold, you can get replacement aux plugs for cheap!

A $20 soldering kit, $8 replacement plug, a 10-min YouTube tutorial, and two hours later… my headphones work like brand new! The left & right audio comes out of the correct sides and I’ve regained my beloved headphones 💕

So proud and happy of myself for bringing an otherwise dead electronic back to life.

Thank you for reading!

My wedding dress is a simple strapless dress. I want it to be dyed black so I can wear it again instead of sitting in the closet. Are there any companies where you can send your clothes and have them professionally dyed? I have tried dying clothes myself but it didn’t work out that great and the process sucked!

Hey all, my partner and I are throwing a brunch for Easter tomorrow and everyone keeps asking what to bring and honestly I don’t really want them to bring anything, especially not food since we prepare a complete buffet and we want to serve this for our event and not try to make room for new dishes as people show up… and the plastic wrap and foil they are usually brought in.

But what I actually really want is for them to just bring their own (washable) cup/plate/fork/spoon/ knife for their own personal use so that I don’t have dishes and so that we don’t use a bunch of disposable items.

It’s a little late for this event, but for the next party we host, I was thinking of communicating this on the invitation and maybe a link to a packable set of utensils and such to encourage people to be more waste concious. What are your thoughts on this? Has anyone done something similar? How did it go?

Any recommendations of zero/low waste moisturizers in the Canada for people with sensitive skin?

I just filled up at my local zero waste refill shop and my skin is reacting to it sadly. No idea why either.

How can I fix my shower curtain? I hate to buy a new one, but can’t think of a way to fix it. If I can’t fix it, is there a way to repurpose it?

I've got ADHD (and various other mental illness/health struggles) and find that being eco friendly is a challenge. I've bought concentrates of cleaners I like and I follow the directions of using them; I've been reusing bottles for years, but I'm struggling to dust regularly.

I'm REALLY tempted to buy those disposable Swiffer duster thingies and handles but I'm trying not to. Any suggestions or links to alternatives? If there's a washable option you recommend that would be great. The easier I make doing something, the more likely I am to do it.

Also, what cleaners are zero waste packaging and don't damage the environment? I see powders and concentrates but they're so marked up!

Best shower curtain that are recyclable and don’t get moldy? We don’t want to go back to the plastic one that lines the inside of the shower, but all the cloth ones we have tried all mold at the bottom from being wet so often. We wash it each week with hot water and bleach to slow the process. What do you all use?