Sheets to the Wind
As a fellow earthling, I get horrified when I see the videos of the pollution we’re throwing into the ocean. I use a Stanley commuter bottle at work instead of water bottles and I’m trying to cut down on the number of single-use plastics in my world. One of the biggest violators has been detergent jugs. I thought I was doing better by using this Ecos laundry detergent. It seems and sounds environmentally friendly but then I was corrected by the SIZE of the bottles. When I saw how many detergent bottles there are in the videos of waste, I thought we might try these new detergent sheets.
It always takes me a minute to make the leap to something new. At first, I was using liquid detergent because I had some really muddy jeans that needed to be washed. “I’ll try the …little sheets on something else”. After a few weeks, I decided to try the sheets. I didn’t bother reading reviews until later but found the sheets work as good or better than a standard portion of liquid detergent. And while I’ve been recycling the jugs the Ecos detergent came in, now I recycle a little box smaller than a packet of dryer sheets. That’s pretty cool.
I read a story a while back that referred to Recycling as “the Big Lie”. What? What does that mean? As I read the story, it was pointed out that the companies that make those bottles had no intention of recycling them. They realized all that had to do was call them “recyclable” and they were off the hook. Now it’s someone else’s problem.
By the way, when we bought our last washer and dryer, the guy at the appliance place said that one of the biggest mistakes we make is using liquid fabric softener. He told scary stories of home fires and more that he said were caused by liquid fabric softener. He also said to used the absolute minimum amount of detergent.
If you want to help save the planet by starting with a simple proven change, these detergent sheets are a safe bet. They really do work. While we’re talking about recycling, there was a story last week that said Costco is making a change with their famous rotisserie chicken. It’s not the chicken that’s changing. It’s still as wonderful as ever. (And still $4.99) But they sold 137 MILLION of those chickens last year and each one was sent home in a 2 piece plastic container the size of a football. Soon, they will come in bags.
Speaking of bags, we’ve also gotten away from single use plastic bags at the grocery store. No, we didn’t switch to paper. We had some cardboard bins that worked great and now we use these crates that fold up to nothing but hold a metric ton. ‘Might want to try them too.