What Ana Does

It's nearly Earth Day and in celebration I thought I'd share some of my favorite Earth Day sustainability swaps. Because, here's the thing: plastic sucks and we can all do better. Also, and I'll mention this a few times, when I first started talking about sustainability, the swaps were hard to find or at a much higher cost. Things are changing in this industry and sustainability is getting easier to find and less pricey. And more accepted.  1. Laundry and dishwasher pods in cardboard packaging. These are now super-easy to find. I use Dropps but there's a few other brands out there that are just as good. And the cardboard box gets recycled.  2. Toothpaste tabs. I've tried a few brands and really love the Hello tabs because they fizz up the best and leaves that minty fresh taste after using them. They're also packaged in a cute tin. I've tried mouthwash tabs, but haven't found the one I love yet. 3. Shampoo and Conditioner Bars.  Another product th...

As a family, we are devoted to bringing reusable bags to the grocery store -- every time. It's a practice we started WAYYYY back when we were living in New Jersey, continued in France (where a plastic bag is not free) and we've gotten pretty good about remembering each time we go. (Checklist: grocery list, phone, sunglasses, bags).  And yes, I look down my nose at people walking out of the grocery store with a cart full of plastic bags. It's so wasteful, horrible for the Earth and bringing your own is stupid SIMPLE, people.  BUT, with this pandemic, grocery stores are not allowing use of reusable bags for fear of spreading germs from home. I'm fine with that. But I'm NOT OK with using plastic bags.  We get by with refusing a bag, when it's just a few items. Or requesting paper bags, which are a far more sustainable choice. Most are made of recycled paper, are easily recycled or reused around the house.  But let's discuss the reality of the situation. It...

From the GreenPeace Article:    Every Single Piece of Plastic Ever Made Still Exists! It's been bugging my logical brain lately that we buy plastic toothbrushes that are made out of a material that is, while very cheap, meant to last a very long time. As in 400 years or more. And doesn't decompose. Just think, every plastic toothbrush you've used in your lifetime is going to out live you and the next four or more generations. Your great-great-great-great grandchildren will have to deal with your toothbrush. How insane is that? Meanwhile, we're only going to use that toothbrush for a few months. It sort of boggles the mind. So, I've been buying bamboo toothbrushes, which will decompose in about a year. Most can be tossed into your backyard composter. This makes way more logical sense to me. I'm only going to use it for a very limited time, why do I need something like that to outlive me? Image Source: HumbleBrush And here's the best part: w...

This month we're home in our Illinois house for summer vacation and I'm literally surrounded by plastic and it's making my head spin. The thing is, our Paris apartment was a blank slate. And I knew as we were moving in that I wanted to focus on using less plastic -- getting creative and avoiding certain things that I've already detailed on earlier posts. (For example, not accepting plastic bags at stores and finding alternatives to the packaged food.) But now that I'm back in our home of seven years, it's full of plastic ... and the food we're used to is packaged. (Trader Joe's, damn you!) Luckily, it's summer so I have a weekly farmer's market I can shop plastic-free. But, otherwise, we're in plastic-packaged food wasteland. It's crazy. For example, I was carrying a bunch of spinach and carrots (because I forgot my reusable produce bags) and a helpful produce man ripped off a plastic bag and offered it to me. Argh. (I thanked...