Beth Terry's Blog, page 13

Coffee in a Mason Jar

When you read this, I’ll be (hopefully) on the road to Burning Man. Being without a cooking stove for a week will mean a change in my diet… but no change in the way I drink my coffee because I don’t heat it anymore anyway.

Making cold brewed coffee

I think I learned about cold brewed coffee from my friend Tracey TieF (with whom I went to Burning Man last year), and the idea intrigued me. Checking on Google (because that’s my first impulse any time I learn about anything new these days), I lea...

My Morning Zero Waste Green Smoothie

Zero Waste Week is coming up September 2 – 8, so this morning I thought I’d take pix of my daily green smoothie making process, sans packaging or plastic waste.

This is also a post about storing greens so they don’t go bad before you can eat them, thus avoiding food waste. See, about a month or so ago, I realized I wasn’t getting enough fresh produce in my diet. I wanted to eat more kale and other fruits and vegetables. And I figured blending a whole bunch of things together in a smoothie ever...

Brush With Bamboo is my new favorite toothbrush

After reading my blog, and especially the review of several differenteco-friendly toothbrushes,Rohit Kumar and his friend Rohit Sahdev were inspired to create the perfect plastic-free toothbrush. While they haven’t yet found a way to create a brush that is completely plastic-free, they’re getting close. Their company is called Brush With Bamboo, and I’ve really been enjoying using the various toothbrush incarnations they’ve developed over the past year and observing the Rohits’ efforts to cre...

This Blog Is Going to Change. For the Better — I Hope.

Have you noticed I don’t blog much anymore? I’m averaging about two posts a month, and I’ve been feeling like I’m letting my readers down. (For those of you subscribed to the Show Your Plastic Challenge posts or Community Discussion Group, it may seem like you receive a lot from me, but those posts are written by other people — other awesome, involved, engaged people. You guys rock!)

So I’ve been doing some thinking (which is not in itself news, by the way.) I’ve been pondering why I am blogg...

It’s the Burning Man Plastic Footprint Project!

Last year was my first trip to Black Rock City and the annual Burning Man festival of art, fire, and radical creativity, as well as dust storms, cracked feet, and dry, bloody boogers. I can’t wait to go back. This year, I’ll be part of theEarth Guardians’ Plastic Footprint project — combining art and education about plastic-free living. Today, I’ll tell you about the art and associated workshops we have planned. Tomorrow, I’ll share all the new plastic-free solutions I’ve discovered for Burni...

Dear Lotus Foods, Why Package Healthy Stainless Steel in Toxic Styrofoam?

Dear Lotus Foods:

My husband and I used our old rice cooker a lot. We used it so much, that we burned out the fuse and had to replace it. I was pretty stoked about being able to fix our appliance and make it last longer instead of tossing it out. So recently, when the connection between the machine and the power cord started to get loose (and we had to lay something heavy on the power cord to keep the machine from cutting off each time we used it), I told Michael that I was going to see if I c...

Happy Plastic-Free July!

Today is Independence Day in the United States. In Australia and growing numbers of countries around the world, the entire month is Plastic-Free July, so let’s celebrate our independence from single-use disposable plastics!

What you can do

Register to participate on the Plastic-Free July Web Site (I know, it’s already July 4. So what? Better late than never.)
Come back to this page tomorrow (Friday) at 6pm PDT, 9pm (EDT) (which is Saturday 9am in Western Australia, 11am in New South Whales) for...

So many cool, plastic-free innovations; so little time and blog space

I attended the Plastic Pollution Coalition’s Think Beyond Plastics Competition conference two weeks ago and have been trying to find the time to sit down and write about it ever since! There were so many cool plastic-free innovators and activists there, I barely know where to begin. If you will recall from myprevious post, the competition sought to reward and support creative start-up entrepreneurs working to be part of the plastic pollution solution. Such as…

Pulpworks

Pulpworks was one of the...

Take Action — No More Plastic Micro-beads in Facial Scrubs!

Six years ago, I posted a rant about the fact that many commercial facial scrubs contain tiny plastic (polyethylene) beads meant to exfoliate the skin. These beads are too small for water treatment plants to filter out, so they end up in our waterways and eventually the ocean. In the ocean, tiny plastic pieces mix with the zooplankton to enter the food chain. What’s more, plastic in the ocean acts as a sponge, absorbing and concentrating toxic chemicals. It’s one thing when plastic ends up th...

From the Waste Up – A Movie About Learning to Live Plastic-Free

Among all the depressing environmental films out there, wouldn’t it be great if there were a funny, entertaining one about what it’s actually like to try and live without plastic? Taina Uitto, who has blogged at Plastic Manners since 2010 about her own plastic-free experiment, has been filming her process since day one. And last year, she invited 6 Vancouver families to join her. Now, she is putting the footage together into a feature film called From the Waste Up: Life Without Plastic, which...