Beth Terry's Blog, page 2

How To Move Long Distance Without Plastic

Most moving companies wrap everything in plastic stretch wrap.

When I left my home in California last month to care for my dad in Maryland, I struggled to figure out how to do it plastic-free.   Moving across the country can involve a lot of disposable plastic if you’re not careful:  plastic bubble wrap inside your boxes, plastic tape to close the boxes, and plastic stretch wrap around everything. Apparently, stretch wrap is now a moving company’s best friend.  In fact, I had the followin...

Get Involved: Class Action Lawsuit Targets “Natural” Baby Wipes Claims

A few weeks ago, my friend Diane MacEachern of Big Green Purse reached out to me about an investigation for a new class action lawsuit that is just getting underway against companies that are promoting their baby wipes as “earth-friendly” or “biodegradable.”  If you know me, you know I hate greenwashing and have railed against the claims of companies marketing toothbrushes, produce bags, and so-called biodegradable plastics.  So I was very interested to hear more about the baby wipes issue...

The Unstoppable Kids of Heirs to Our Oceans

13-year-old Cambria Bartlett contacted me last year to do a phone interview about living plastic-free.   She and a group of other homeschoolers, calling themselves Heirs to Our Oceans, were creating a video about caring for our oceans, and Cambria’s personal focus was on plastic.

Since then, I’ve met Cambria in person and learned what exceptional kids she and her friends are: committed, passionate, and dedicated to preserving the planet for future generations.  I asked her to write a gues...

New Guide to Plastic-Free Living from Life Without Plastic

My friends Jay and Chantal, owners of the online shop Life Without Plastic, are brand new book authors!  Their book, Life Without Plastic, was just released today, and I’m very honored to have been asked to write the foreword.  Here’s what I wrote:

Ten years ago, I read an article about ocean plastic pollution – a problem I’d never heard of — and saw the shocking image that changed my life. The photo revealed the decayed carcass of a baby albatross who’d starved with a belly full of plasti...

Get a Signed Copy of Plastic-Free Book and Choose Your Own Price!

UPDATE:  It looks like I have already sold out of all of the hardback Plastic-Free books!  But visit this page again in a few days in case I discover additional books as I’m packing!

Purchase the original guide to Plastic-Free living for you or a friend between now and December 13 and choose your price.  It’s a great holiday gift!

When I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1989, I was 24-years old, striking out on my own for the first time, and struggling to figure out who I was and how...

Who Gives a Crap Recycled or Bamboo Toilet Paper without Plastic

The Problem:  Finding 100% recycled or tree-free toilet paper that doesn’t come wrapped in plastic.  Since 2007, my toilet paper of choice has been cardboard cases of Seventh Generation recycled rolls that come individually-wrapped in thin paper wrappers.  I ordered it from Amazon and even had a subscription at one time.  But over the years, I’ve received comments from readers that they would order a case and it would sometimes come with plastic inside.  Or that the plastic-free cases were...

Get Ready for Zero Waste October!

Rebecca Newburn is a middle school science teacher in Marin County, California, who, with a group of elementary and middle school students, successfully lobbied the Larkspur-Corte Madera School District to adopt a resolution making October “Zero Waste Month.”  And together with zero waste specialists Anastacia Nicole and Kathryn Kellogg of GoingZeroWaste, has created a program for cities and schools to participate in Zero Waste October.

Wait.  Before you say, “But it’s too late to plan any...

What I Did on My Summer Vacation

It’s been a while.  I spent all of August in Maryland with my family in the house where I grew up, celebrating birthdays, helping out my dad and brother, learning to love baseball (I even bought a Washington Nationals baseball cap), visiting with plastic-free friends, and driving for twelve hours each way to experience one stunning 2 and a half minute act of nature.  If I were still a kid (and who says I’m not?), this would be my report to the class.  And I would probably get marked down f...

Review – Guppy Friend microfiber catching laundry bag

In March, I wrote about microfiber laundry pollution from synthetic clothing and mentioned that soon there would be a special bag available called Guppy Friend to catch those microfibers before they are rinsed down the drain. Well, the bag is now available and the company sent me one to test out.

Guppy Friend is a product developed by the campaign STOP! MICRO WASTE, a German non-profit founded by a group of surfers and nature lovers to find solutions to the microfiber pollution problem.  G...

How to Make Liquid Soap Nuts Laundry Soap Plus Other Plastic-Free Laundry Ideas

The last time I wrote about doing laundry without plastic was June 17, 2009.  Obama was our new president, and Michael Jackson was still alive (he died a week later).  It’s time for an update.

Plastic-Free Soap Nuts Laundry Soap

Back in the day, we used powdered Ecover laundry detergent, in part because it came in a recyclable cardboard box and was the only brand I’d ever found that came with a cardboard scoop instead of a plastic one.  Those days are over.  Ecover switched to a plastic sc...