Plogging in Pointe-Claire
October 2, 2018Have you ever heard of plogging? It consists of running or jogging and picking up trash as you go. This trend started in Sweden in 2016 and the term ‘Plogging” actually comes from Swedish, “Plocka Upp”, which means “Pick Up”. This new exercise craze allows you to exercise and do something great for the environment. …
On the Edge (of BO): Experiments with Natural Deodorants
September 24, 2018Being zero waste is not without its sacrifices. Most of the time, it involves precious personal time spent making something from scratch: think my husband’s granola, toothpaste, mustard, cleaning products, yogurt. In my mind, it is a worthwhile investment to help reduce the plastic and garbage in the world. I can’t just tell people to…
What Fashionable Zero Wasters have in their purses
July 26, 2018Being a zero waster is a lot like being a boy scout. You always have to prepared for anything. I wanted to share with you, dear reader, some of things that I do to stay prepared. I keep two reusable shopping bags in case I have to buy something. Typically one is made of fabric…
A Sticky Situation: Making Strawberry Jam
July 26, 2018Nothing captures the essence of summer fruit like jam. When I was growing up, we had a large garden in our backyard and we grew strawberries. I have many happy memories of my mother making strawberry jam, however, I never seemed to have (or be able to find) the time to make it myself. As…
Weighing In on Waste
July 14, 2018As we have now reached the 6 month window of our year of zero waste, I wanted to know if we have further reduced our garbage. Facing a weigh in of garbage, I am a little nervous. I am not sure that we have made a significant improvement in our waste reduction recently. It is…
Reflections after 6 months Zero Waste-ish Living
July 2, 2018Happy Canada Day and 6 month Zero Waste Anniversary! We have made it to the half way point of our zero waste-ish experiment. For me, it has been a life changing yet enriching experience. Thank you to everyone who has given me positive feedback on this project and encouraged me to continue. While I routinely…
Shopping to Reduce Our Waste
June 24, 2018People are often curious about how I shop zero waste. It certainly is a big change from last year at this time. The major difference is that I rarely go to the traditional grocery store. When you look at today’s grocery store, you see packaging, packaging and more packaging! Here is a high- level review…
Starting a Garden
May 24, 2018I have to admit something. I don’t exactly have a green thumb. Unlike my mother in law who has a gift with plants, anything green left me with me eventually turns brown or worse, dies. Whenever I went on vacation, I used to tell my plants that they were going to the spa (aka my…
A Reason to Continue
May 15, 2018A few weeks, I had the privilege of travelling to sunny California for business. I was going to meetings in El Segundo, about 20 minutes from LAX. El Segundo is a chemical engineers dream: decorated with steaming distillation columns and perfumed with oil refining. El Segundo (The Second, in Spanish) became the second site of…
Experimenting with Homemade Cleaning Products
May 8, 2018As a wanna-be zero waster, I know that I have to make and use homemade cleaning products. Unfortunately, my efforts to date have been limited and somewhat unsuccessful. In researching the topic of homemade cleaning products, three ingredients appear: vinegar, baking soda and castile soap. I have tried a vinegar and water 50/50 blend for…