conuly

[...]

The children on Melrose strut their stuff
Is absolute zero cold enough?
And out in the valley, warm and clean
The little ones sit by the TV screen

No thoughts to think
No tears to cry
All sucked dry
Down to the very last breath

[...]

We watched the tragedy unfold
We did as we were told
We bought and sold
It was the greatest show on Earth

But then it was over

We oohed and aahed
We drove our racing cars
We ate our last few jars of caviar
And somewhere out there in the stars
A keen-eyed lookout spied a flickering light

Our last hurrah

And when they found our shadows
Grouped 'round the TV sets
They ran down every lead
And they repeated every test
They checked out all the data on their lists
And then
The alien anthropologists
Admitted they were still perplexed
But on eliminating every other reason
For our sad demise
They logged the only explanation left:

"This species has amused itself to death."

[Roger Waters, 1992]

Yeah, if thinking and/or caring just a little weren't such hard work, it wouldn't have to happen.

But the ratings! Oh, just think of the ratings!

*swoons*

And what better way to finally prove Human Omnipotence™ than a Grade-A 100% Man-Made Apocalypse!

YAY!

[/sarcasm]

From:

(IOW, I sympathize.)

From:

Y'know, 'tis the season for real apple cider, the home-made kind, which is generally sold in big glass jugs. If you have apple cider, you can very easily make apple cider vinegar (http://www.vinegarman.com/VinegarMaking.shtml) for a fraction of the price of store-bought.

You also don't need no steenking paper-or-plastic grocery bags - get yourself half a dozen string bags (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=string+bags&btnG=Google+Search); they're very cheap and they last practically forever.

You could also make your own toothpaste (http://chemistry.about.com/cs/howtos/ht/toothpaste.htm), which would save you a LOT of money and would keep you from having to have any kind of toothpaste tube at all. Or you could save your old plastic toothpaste tubes and refill them with home-made toothpaste, if having an actual tube is important to you. Alas, I don't think there's any way to re-fill a metal toothpaste tube.

The corporate bastards think they've got us all over a barrel - that we have no choice but to pay whatever they ask for their products (however shoddy, wasteful or loaded with poisons they may be) because we're too spoiled-rotten to do without them and too lazy and incompetent to find or make alternatives. It's enough to make me want to go whole hog and just stop buying ANY of their products, EVAR - to buy only local family-farmed food, to formulate all my own household and personal-care products, to walk or bike instead of driving, to only purchase items made by small Earth-friendly 'cottage-industry' businesses...

... I used to live that way pretty-much all the time, back in the 70's and 80's. We're still pretty Green here, though admittedly it takes more 'spoons' to live Totally Green than I've currently got - especially since the rest of my household views that as fanaticism rather than as mindfulness, and is not willing to live that way. One does the best one can, I guess, one day at a time, and sets as good an example as possible under the circumstances.

From:

I can't think how you might refill a plastic tube, but refilling the old metal ones was easy--you just opened up the butt end, shoved in your paste, and crimped the end again.

That said, just brush your teeth with salt & soda. Every dentist I've talked to says it's just as good as boughten paste, and it's hella cheaper. (If you absolutely must have mint flavor, add a dash of peppermint extract.)

From:

conuly

Baking soda does everything. Jenn right now uses it as deodorant, which I may try when mine runs out. I'm thinking, actually, that with the right amount of jars, you could have quite a variety - baking soda with rose petals, with lavender, with I don't know.

From:

That has given me a wonderful idea--rose-flavored baking soda toothpaste. I adore the flavor of roses and rosewater.

From:

Ah... refilling plastic tubes, you flatten them out to empty them of air as much as possible, then squirt in the stuff with a cake-decorator bag.

I have toothpaste in metal tubes - Tom of Maine's and JAson - but by the time they're empty, they're always pretty-well trashed; tight-crimped rolls with little holes where the metal's been stressed too much. I suppose they'd still be re-useable, though; just have to put a Baggie or something around them so they wouldn't make a mess when you squeezed.

I have major sensory issues with toothbrushing, so salt-and-soda, however flavored, doesn't work for me - the flavor's not the problem; it's the texture, and the sound the dry, scratchy powder makes against my teeth. *shudders* I need actual toothpaste, with a smooth, silent, consistent texture, or - despite my best intentions and efforts - my self-care routines would come to a dead stop every day when I got to the toothbrushing part of the program.

I haven't tried the salt-soda-glycerin recipe posted above, but it seems like it might blend up smooth enough to be acceptable. My personal-care routines are 'iffy' enough as it is, though, so I don't fix what ain't broke. The most expensive tube of toothpaste ever manufactured still costs a whole lot less than missing work because trying to brush my teeth uses up all the spoons (http://ballastexistenz.autistics.org/?p=156) I needed to get me out the door.

From:

Well if you are recycling the plastic bottle, what difference does it make? I know you can't recycle the bags (so I reuse them), but you're going to recycle the glass, right? And the metal, can you recycle the metal toothpaste tubes?

I can't believe they charge you double for the glass there. That sucks.

In the grand scheme of things does using plastic lower the weight enough during shipping to save on fuel? Shipping all the stuff you need for glass and metal PLUS the manufacturing of both could be something you didn't think about.

It's not that I think plastic is great (it has its place) but I don't know that glass and metal are as wonderful as they sound in this post. In America especially, shipping is a very REAL consideration when it comes to the impact of what you buy. It's a big country.

From:

conuly

They wouldn't charge double for the glass if the store brand came in glass. But as it doesn't....

And recycled plastic doesn't become new plastic bottles, it becomes stuff like fake down filling. Still useful, but not the same as melting down a bottle and making it anew.

From:

It's a really complex problem. Packaging sucks.

I wonder how much more a glass container costs. Obviously not double but I would imagine the store brand uses plastic because it is cheaper, and they keep costs as low as they can for those.

I actually just googled to see how to make your own vinegar.

I was even thinking now about my own consumption, and thought, well, I do buy in bulk, as in, go to the store and order X pounds of flour, and they still put it in plastic, and then I thought I could bring a container in to have it refilled and then realized with too many containers I would have to change from walking to using a car.

We're going to have to move you out to a farm. You'll have a better chance then! (My issue of Hobby Farm had something on growing grain for family consumption, how you don't need a HUGE farm for wheat, you can have a managable plot for personal consumption. I did not know.)

From:

conuly

I don't want to live on a farm, though. Not unless my farm? Is in the city.

From:

Part of the pitfalls of city living is packaging. Part of the pitfalls of rural living is transportation.

I can't think of an ideal environment to live in, as far as your environmental impact is concerned.

I do miss the city, but not as much as I thought. (And technically this town of 60,000 is a city. Go figure.)

From:

*falls about laughing*

Why, you silly thing, I grew up closest to a town of less than a thousand souls. Sixty thousand is a large city indeed.

I agree that packaging is a worry and a bother. I keep and reuse gallon glass jars and bottles (I call it short-track recycling), but they're so scarce these days I don't know when I shall ever get any more.

From:

Well, NYC to Dubuque IS culture shock. I still thought I would like to go smaller, until I went to a Hardee's in Fennimore (my goodness, Wisconsin is BEAUTIFUL, breathtakingly so), and it took 20 minutes to get fries and a drink.

It is hard to get glass jars, especially that size. Most I get really is sauce, jelly and pickles. Too late for this year for the most part, but next year I am making sure I save them and buying new lids, I plan on canning. Got some of the supplies from St. Vinnies already.

From:

Ask around at restaurants? Some of the 'commercial sizes' of products still come in glass, especially oily or acidic foods that tend to deteriorate plastics, and the kitchen staff may be willing to save the empties for you.

From:

rhicat.livejournal.com

There's also the weight problem. A carton of six plastic gallon jugs weighs far less than a carton of six glass jugs. Heavier packaging leads to increased fuel costs for transport.

From:

sporks5000.livejournal.com

I have a friend who has this theory regarding numerous things: There's nothing that he can personally do about the problem, so he might as well be as big a part of it as possible, thus spurring those who are in a place to do something about it into action.

it's terrifying how much sense it makes.

From:

conuly

Yes, it does. And it's making me laugh, too.

From:

[...]

The children on Melrose strut their stuff
Is absolute zero cold enough?
And out in the valley, warm and clean
The little ones sit by the TV screen

No thoughts to think
No tears to cry
All sucked dry
Down to the very last breath

[...]

We watched the tragedy unfold
We did as we were told
We bought and sold
It was the greatest show on Earth

But then it was over

We oohed and aahed
We drove our racing cars
We ate our last few jars of caviar
And somewhere out there in the stars
A keen-eyed lookout spied a flickering light

Our last hurrah

And when they found our shadows
Grouped 'round the TV sets
They ran down every lead
And they repeated every test
They checked out all the data on their lists
And then
The alien anthropologists
Admitted they were still perplexed
But on eliminating every other reason
For our sad demise
They logged the only explanation left:

"This species has amused itself to death."

[Roger Waters, 1992]

Yeah, if thinking and/or caring just a little weren't such hard work, it wouldn't have to happen.

But the ratings! Oh, just think of the ratings!

*swoons*

And what better way to finally prove Human Omnipotence™ than a Grade-A 100% Man-Made Apocalypse!

YAY!

[/sarcasm]

From:

(IOW, I sympathize.)

From:

Y'know, 'tis the season for real apple cider, the home-made kind, which is generally sold in big glass jugs. If you have apple cider, you can very easily make apple cider vinegar (http://www.vinegarman.com/VinegarMaking.shtml) for a fraction of the price of store-bought.

You also don't need no steenking paper-or-plastic grocery bags - get yourself half a dozen string bags (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=string+bags&btnG=Google+Search); they're very cheap and they last practically forever.

You could also make your own toothpaste (http://chemistry.about.com/cs/howtos/ht/toothpaste.htm), which would save you a LOT of money and would keep you from having to have any kind of toothpaste tube at all. Or you could save your old plastic toothpaste tubes and refill them with home-made toothpaste, if having an actual tube is important to you. Alas, I don't think there's any way to re-fill a metal toothpaste tube.

The corporate bastards think they've got us all over a barrel - that we have no choice but to pay whatever they ask for their products (however shoddy, wasteful or loaded with poisons they may be) because we're too spoiled-rotten to do without them and too lazy and incompetent to find or make alternatives. It's enough to make me want to go whole hog and just stop buying ANY of their products, EVAR - to buy only local family-farmed food, to formulate all my own household and personal-care products, to walk or bike instead of driving, to only purchase items made by small Earth-friendly 'cottage-industry' businesses...

... I used to live that way pretty-much all the time, back in the 70's and 80's. We're still pretty Green here, though admittedly it takes more 'spoons' to live Totally Green than I've currently got - especially since the rest of my household views that as fanaticism rather than as mindfulness, and is not willing to live that way. One does the best one can, I guess, one day at a time, and sets as good an example as possible under the circumstances.

From:

I can't think how you might refill a plastic tube, but refilling the old metal ones was easy--you just opened up the butt end, shoved in your paste, and crimped the end again.

That said, just brush your teeth with salt & soda. Every dentist I've talked to says it's just as good as boughten paste, and it's hella cheaper. (If you absolutely must have mint flavor, add a dash of peppermint extract.)

From:

conuly

Baking soda does everything. Jenn right now uses it as deodorant, which I may try when mine runs out. I'm thinking, actually, that with the right amount of jars, you could have quite a variety - baking soda with rose petals, with lavender, with I don't know.

From:

That has given me a wonderful idea--rose-flavored baking soda toothpaste. I adore the flavor of roses and rosewater.

From:

Ah... refilling plastic tubes, you flatten them out to empty them of air as much as possible, then squirt in the stuff with a cake-decorator bag.

I have toothpaste in metal tubes - Tom of Maine's and JAson - but by the time they're empty, they're always pretty-well trashed; tight-crimped rolls with little holes where the metal's been stressed too much. I suppose they'd still be re-useable, though; just have to put a Baggie or something around them so they wouldn't make a mess when you squeezed.

I have major sensory issues with toothbrushing, so salt-and-soda, however flavored, doesn't work for me - the flavor's not the problem; it's the texture, and the sound the dry, scratchy powder makes against my teeth. *shudders* I need actual toothpaste, with a smooth, silent, consistent texture, or - despite my best intentions and efforts - my self-care routines would come to a dead stop every day when I got to the toothbrushing part of the program.

I haven't tried the salt-soda-glycerin recipe posted above, but it seems like it might blend up smooth enough to be acceptable. My personal-care routines are 'iffy' enough as it is, though, so I don't fix what ain't broke. The most expensive tube of toothpaste ever manufactured still costs a whole lot less than missing work because trying to brush my teeth uses up all the spoons (http://ballastexistenz.autistics.org/?p=156) I needed to get me out the door.

From:

Well if you are recycling the plastic bottle, what difference does it make? I know you can't recycle the bags (so I reuse them), but you're going to recycle the glass, right? And the metal, can you recycle the metal toothpaste tubes?

I can't believe they charge you double for the glass there. That sucks.

In the grand scheme of things does using plastic lower the weight enough during shipping to save on fuel? Shipping all the stuff you need for glass and metal PLUS the manufacturing of both could be something you didn't think about.

It's not that I think plastic is great (it has its place) but I don't know that glass and metal are as wonderful as they sound in this post. In America especially, shipping is a very REAL consideration when it comes to the impact of what you buy. It's a big country.

From:

conuly

They wouldn't charge double for the glass if the store brand came in glass. But as it doesn't....

And recycled plastic doesn't become new plastic bottles, it becomes stuff like fake down filling. Still useful, but not the same as melting down a bottle and making it anew.

From:

It's a really complex problem. Packaging sucks.

I wonder how much more a glass container costs. Obviously not double but I would imagine the store brand uses plastic because it is cheaper, and they keep costs as low as they can for those.

I actually just googled to see how to make your own vinegar.

I was even thinking now about my own consumption, and thought, well, I do buy in bulk, as in, go to the store and order X pounds of flour, and they still put it in plastic, and then I thought I could bring a container in to have it refilled and then realized with too many containers I would have to change from walking to using a car.

We're going to have to move you out to a farm. You'll have a better chance then! (My issue of Hobby Farm had something on growing grain for family consumption, how you don't need a HUGE farm for wheat, you can have a managable plot for personal consumption. I did not know.)

From:

conuly

I don't want to live on a farm, though. Not unless my farm? Is in the city.

From:

Part of the pitfalls of city living is packaging. Part of the pitfalls of rural living is transportation.

I can't think of an ideal environment to live in, as far as your environmental impact is concerned.

I do miss the city, but not as much as I thought. (And technically this town of 60,000 is a city. Go figure.)

From:

*falls about laughing*

Why, you silly thing, I grew up closest to a town of less than a thousand souls. Sixty thousand is a large city indeed.

I agree that packaging is a worry and a bother. I keep and reuse gallon glass jars and bottles (I call it short-track recycling), but they're so scarce these days I don't know when I shall ever get any more.

From:

Well, NYC to Dubuque IS culture shock. I still thought I would like to go smaller, until I went to a Hardee's in Fennimore (my goodness, Wisconsin is BEAUTIFUL, breathtakingly so), and it took 20 minutes to get fries and a drink.

It is hard to get glass jars, especially that size. Most I get really is sauce, jelly and pickles. Too late for this year for the most part, but next year I am making sure I save them and buying new lids, I plan on canning. Got some of the supplies from St. Vinnies already.

From: