Last year, in March, I did a video on ten
things I don't buy anymore because of
minimalism and saving money. And I wanted
to do another video.. a fresh video for
2019, but the focus this time is not just
minimalism, not just saving money but also
health and environment. Hello hello!
Welcome back to the whole happy life. So
before we begin this video I wanted to
say a quick disclaimer. I am merely
sharing my personal experience in this
video and I'm not telling you that you
don't need to buy these things. I'm just
telling you why I've decided not to buy
these things and whenever possible I'm
going to put references in the
description. Let's begin. Number one:
disposable plastic baggies. So I'm
talking about the Ziploc bags.. those
one-time use snack bags, sandwich bags.
very thin plastic. They're very, very
convenient but the problem is it's
plastic and a lot of us don't recycle
them. They are actually recyclable but
majority of us probably aren't recycling
them because there's food residue on
them, so we end up tossing them in the
garbage. The average American family uses
several hundred of these a year.
I used to use quite a bit too. So what
can you use as an alternative? I
typically use glass containers for my
snacks and for my lunches but I do
recognize that glass does not work for
everybody, especially if you have young
children. There are companies that make
reusable sandwich bags from other
materials such as food grade silicone
and these are reusable and can also be
washed in the dishwasher, so consider
trying those out. Number two: tea bags. Now
I do have some tea bags remaining in my
kitchen cabinet but I'm not going to buy
anymore and I'll tell you why. First of
all a lot of the tea bags that come in
the pyramid shape, the ones that say
silken or silky, the very luxurious ones...
they're actually made out of plastic and
that plastic is not biodegradable. It's
going to end up in the landfill and stay
there for a really long time and if
you're like me and you drink several
cups of tea a day, that's a lot of
plastic going into the landfill. The
other issue I have with the plastic tea
bag is pouring boiling water on that
plastic. It is food grade plastic and
it's not supposed to leach plastics into
the water but there is some evidence
that it might. I want to err on the side
of caution and avoid those plastic tea
bags. At this point you might be thinking,
well i could just use paper tea bags...
It's not that simple. A lot of paper tea
bags actually do use plastic, so you need
to check if it's actually using plastic
or not. Because if it is,  it's not
biodegradable. So I'm just avoiding tea
bags altogether and I'm going to start
using loose leaf tea for all my tea. Put
it in a metal strainer, put some water on
it and done. Number three is fabric
softener. I have not used fabric softener
in over eight years and I don't miss it.
I used to use it for it's anti-static
properties and also for the scent. It was
very fragrant but I've decided not to
use heavily scented products because my
nose is very sensitive to them, plus a
lot of them contain phthalates which are
endocrine disruptors which are not good
for your hormones. In addition to that,
fabric softeners do have chemicals that
can cause irritant dermatitis in certain
people. So it's just something that I've
chosen to avoid. So what do I do about
the static cling now? In the summer I
will typically line dry my clothes so I
don't have to worry about static cling
but in the winter if I'm using the
tumble dryer, things can get staticky. The
trick is just to avoid over drying your
clothes. Dry them to a point where it's
kind of a little bit wet, but not quite
wet. Cupboard dry ...I think that's what it's
called and then you'll be fine. You won't
have much static. It's when we over dry
our clothes that's when they get super
staticky. Number four: microfiber cloths
and microfiber towels. Now if you use
microfiber cloths, you know how amazing
they are. They do a really good job with
cleaning but here's the problem... they are
made out of plastic materials and every
single time you wash them, some of the
microfibers come off end up in the waste
water... end up in our streams... end up in
the ocean. So microfiber cloths do
contribute to microplastic pollution. So I've decided I'm no
longer going to buy microfiber cloths
anymore. Now if you do want to continue
using your microfiber cloths because you
love them so much.. there is a product
that you could try. It's called a guppy
bag. I will put more information in the
description. This is not sponsored by any
means but I think it could be a solution
for people who do want to continue using
their microfiber cloths.
I've personally decided to switch over
to cotton cleaning cloths... cotton towels..
very thin ones. I got them from the auto
department at Costco and they've worked
pretty well. They don't leave too much
lint behind, so I do like them. Now if
you're a woman who loves microfiber
towels for her hair, I do recognize that
they work a lot better than a regular
towel, especially when you're trying to
reduce the frizz. So what are your
alternatives? I have used cotton t-shirts
and they've worked pretty well at
reducing the frizz. Cotton towels really
frizz up my hair completely, but a cotton
t-shirt...a fine weave can work as an
alternative to a microfiber cloth. it
obviously won't dry as fast but it is a
better alternative when it comes to
environmental health. So before I tackle
the tomatoes, let's talk about BPA. You
may have heard of it. It's bisphenol A...
it's an endocrine disruptor that is used
in a lot of canned goods. It's in the
lining. Now you can buy bpa-free cans and
they use something called bps but BPS is
suspected to be an endocrine disruptor -
now why am I talking about tomatoes in
particular and not other canned goods?
Well tomatoes tend to be very acidic and
because of that they leach a lot more
of the BPA into the tomato. And because
of that canned tomatoes on a regular basis...you're going to up your BPA intake which is
a lot of good thing for your health.
Number six is jewelry that's not
sustainably made. Now I am very minimal
in terms of my style.. I don't really wear
a lot of jewelry... so that's one of the
reasons I don't buy it. Also because I
don't want to spend money, but I do have
other reasons and it has to do with the
environment. Any new items made from
silver, gold, platinum are going to require
mining and mining can be a very
environmentally destructive process
depending on how it's done. So if I do
decide to buy any jewelry in the future
I will try to get sustainably made
pieces or I will just take whatever I
have ...melt it down and create something
new or vintage is also an option. Number
seven... flushable wipes.  Not exactly a
topic  I thought I would ever talk
about on this channel, but here we are.
Thanks to a demand for convenience and
hygiene, flushable wipes are a big market..
apparently a 2.1 billion dollar market and
it's set to grow to 3.5 billion by 2023.
That is a lot of flushable wipes and I
was part of that market.
The problem with flushable wipes is not all of
them are biodegradable and even if they
are marketed as biodegradable, they don't
quite degrade the same way as toilet
paper, so they can clog up sewers.
Apparently taxpayer dollars are going
into cleaning up sewers because of
flushable wipes, so I've decided to not
use flushable wipes anymore. It's going
to be sad because I do find them very
convenient but I have another solution.
Now a bidet would be nice! But all of us
don't have resources to have bidets in
our houses, so you could get something
that will attach to your toilet, attached
to the water line and spray water at
your tushy. That is an option. I have not
gone down that path but I have a
portable bidet. It's basically a bottle
that I can refill with water every
single time I need to use it and spray
water out of it when I need to get clean.
So I think it's a good solution. I'm
going to put a link in the description
if you're interested. Number 8: disposable
straws and disposable cutlery. I have
some disposable straws at home but I
have not used them in quite some time.
I've switched over to reusable straws.
The problem with disposable straws is it's
a single-use plastic. It usually ends up
in the landfill or worse... ends up in the
ocean. According to UN figures, 2000 tons
of disposable straws end up in the ocean.
That is a lot and I no longer want to
contribute to that. Number nine is single
portion products. So I'm talking about
products that are basically a single
serving. Usually in plastic.. so as an
example yogurt cup..s they really tiny
ones..is just one serving of yogurt. Apple
sauce cups, oatmeal packets that are just
a single serve. The problem with all of
these single serve items is it creates a
lot more plastic waste than buying bulk.
So I no longer buy these kind of items.
Number ten is clay litter. I have two
cats so we do have a litter box at home.
A lot of people do use clay litter but I
have decided not to use that because of
two main reasons. One is it's not good
for the cat's health because it does
produce quite a bit of dust and it can
go into their lungs and also into my
lungs when I'm cleaning out the litter
box. The other issue is clay litter is
not a renewable resource.. it has to be
mined. It is stripped mined and that does
have an environmental impact, so I don't
use that. I use a biodegradable wood
pellet litter that does not have any
accelerant or any additives... it's just
100 percent hardwood and that's been
working pretty well for me.
I hope you found this video informative
and you learned something new. If you did,
please do consider giving it a thumbs up
and consider subscribing. I will see you
in the next video. Bye!
