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Showing posts from May, 2019

Taking a stand on liquid soap waste

UPDATE: I feel silly, but I had not read the directions for the SoapStandle prior to using it, so was confused because the soap stuck to it. Turns out, it was meant to work that way ! ( See tutorial.) The soap and stand are meant to stick together. Here, then, is my edited version of the original review: I love the premise of using a soap "standle" - that all the plastic waste from those disgusting pump liquid soap dispensers is killing ocean life. However, if one is more inclined to use a soap dish, as I have become accustomed to, it may seem a little odd when the soap sticks to it. That said, there are clear benefits to the SoapStandle, and I'm all for greening my bathroom. The publicist for SoapStandle tells me via e-mail that in the green home movement there is a trend to turn away from liquid soap. She claims that "during a typical trip to the sink, we use almost 7 times more liquid soap (2-3g) than bar soap (0.35g). That means more chemical feedstocks, more

Stop using plastic straws: the award-winning message from one Va. university

When I lived with my mother in Texas, she worried about the way I would reuse my straws. "I'm not sure it's sanitary," she said. I told her there was a big movement to curtail plastic use and reuse straws. I had been sent a metal straw a couple years earlier. Mom didn't use straws, but she immediately understood. I was happy to see that there is a nationwide university movement toward this end. Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia has announced that students there recently became "champions" in the nationwide Pledge Against Plastic Straws Campus Challenge 2019. The contest was organized by California-based Simply Straws, which sells reusable straws and encourages college campuses to shutter plastic straw use. Longwood collected 878 pledges from students, staff and the community to “Kick the Straw” habit, putting the university ahead of 71 other institutions. Indiana State came in second place. All one has to do to understand the ills of plasti