Reduce plastic waste :: PlasticLess.com

I am growing a moustache all this month as part of the Movember campaign to raise money to fight prostate cancer. Please consider making a donation on my behalf

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As frugal as I am I have to admit that I have been using a new razor blade every time I shave up until recently. I don’t shave that frequently, so each blade did quite a lot of work. Now that I am trying to shave every second day to look respectable, I thought I’d try reusing a blade. It went well and I am debating going for a third try. I would like to hear from you guys about how many times you use a razor.

SIDE NOTE: A recent ad campaign from a big disposable razor company offered tips on shaving ‘down there‘ and the part of the ad copy that caught my attention was the insistence that you should use a new multi-blade cartridge every time.

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I use a safety razor as a plastic-less alternative to disposable razors. When I first made the switch, a few people in America left comments about how they could not find razors packaged without plastic. Hopefully that has changed now that retro-shaving is cool. Here in Tunisia, I have at least three brands to choose from. Gillette blades can be found in cardboard packs of 10, hanging on cardboard display panels right at the checkout.

People who follow me on Twitter may recall that I was sold a single Gillette razor blade last week by a shopkeeper who was down to his last pack. I had a bad experience with cheap razor blades earlier this year, but I decided to give it another shot with these Shark brand blades.

This is going to be a very short review. These Egyptian made blades do a perfectly adequate job. I would buy them again.

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I discourage people from giving me gifts. You may or may not be surprised to read that this behavior is almost 100% effective. Father’s Day is one of the occasions where I know that I will not receive any tangible expressions of appreciation for all the French toast and strawberries that I feed my kids and all the dangerous creatures that I remove from under the beds.

For those of you who are into gift giving (and receiving), a safety razor like the one sold by RetroRazor would make a great gift for Dad. Sharp things in general have a certain appeal as gifts.

Solar cooking is getting trendy enough that there are convenient case suitcase shaped ones for sale at various online boutiques. It looks like some are made at least partly from plastic. Taking a design from SolarCooking.org to a local sheet metal fabricator for construction is a better idea. The language barrier is holding me back from doing that for myself. If my cardboard and tinfoil version doesn’t hold up, I think my second cooker will be sourced in this way. My waste baskets appear to be locally made from metal scraps from a local cannery.

A home cooked meal made from local food is another great gift for Dad. The thing that bothers me about gifts in general is that they are far too often things that the recipient doesn’t really want or need. Good food is an infinitely better gift than an ugly tie.

If you have a father like me who is adamant about not wanting anything, give that a try. If he wasn’t serious, there is always next year.

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I said that I would do this if anybody double dog dared me. That was meant to be a lighthearted movie allusion to add some color to this otherwise quite boring green blog. Somebody dared me, in the comments, about ten minutes after I published.

I like the fact that the Overfly Brand Safety Razor comes in a cardboard box. I also like the fact that it is displayed by the dozen in a larger cardboard box. I don’t like the plastic on the handle. I considered reneging and using the plastic handle as an excuse. Then I remembered that the razor that I already own came in a plastic case. Chadd at retrorazor mentioned that his earlier importing efforts included razors in plastic cases. They have them in cloth bags now.

If the cheap Overfly Razor proved to offer an adequate shave, it would actually be a better choice than my original razor.

Here are links to photos of my test shave…

Sorry for going all old media on you with all the multiple page views. I figure I deserve some extra traffic since, as you see in the last photo, I bled quite a bit. It may have been the worst shave I have ever had. If you are tougher and/or more skillful than me it might be adequate. I have carefully dried this razor off and put it away. If I ever lose my good razor it can bridge the gap while I look for another good razor.

Update: Apparently the way I built the links late last night you could only see the pictures if you were logged in to the Plasticless admin, oops. It’s fixed now.

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I ventured into the back alleys of the souk in Bizerte today. I bought a very cheap all metal jack knife of unknown origin for 1.000TND (that’s about 73 cents) so I could ask to take pictures of some products without feeling like I was imposing. The above picture shows a cardboard box that holds a dozen other cardboard boxes that each contain a safety razor and a small mirror.

I approve of the packaging, but I wasn’t very impressed with the product. First off, they have a plastic handle. Secondly, there is no handle twisting mechanism to open the blade housing. It just kind of snaps together. For me, part of the safety in my razor is being able to open it with my hands far away from the blade. If anybody double dog dares me, I will pick one up and do a proper product review.

I was charmed into buying off-brand razor blades last year. I recently finished using them and felt kinda stupid the first time I used my newly purchased Gillette Silver Blue blades. They were much more effective and much less murderous.

I was also charmed into getting a very cheap shaving brush last year. The pig bristles came unglued from the handle after just a few uses. I have been using my bare hands to lather up my face for some time now and it seems to be sufficient. I just read that actual badger hair is used to make some shaving brushes in China. My source indicates that paying less than $10 for a brush virtually guarantees that you won’t get badger. I worry about the level of animal cruelty in hunting and trapping badgers. I worry about the welfare of pigs as well, but since they are being farmed for meat anyway, using their bristles doesn’t seem abhorrent to me. Does anyone want to start a cruelty free shaving brush business? Certain breeds of horse have hairs that work for this purpose.

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Coffee is arguably the most important commodity in the world. In terms of dollars and cents, it is #2 after oil. Coal is said to have fueled the industrial revolution, but coffee was there as well. Its effect on the central nervous systems of humans may have been a catalyst for most historical events that get tagged with the word revolution. A favorite anecdote for coffee historians concerns a decree by a British monarch that all coffee houses were to close their doors. The reasoning was that the thinkers of the day were talking about a revolution over coffee (and this was long before the crunchy granola waitresses had started incessantly playing Tracy Chapman CDs).

The wholesale abandonment of disposable coffee cups is a revolution whose time has come. The White House of George W. Bush switched from expanded polystyrene cups to biodegradable paper. Team Obama is looking for an even greener option.

An issue of concern to many is the cafeteria. So, let me give everyone a brief update. We took a small but significant step when we started selling new reusable coffee mugs in the cafeteria and the Foggy Bottom coffee shop. I am pleased that so many of you decided to support this endeavor. So much so that they sold out immediately, but now are again available for sale. (State Department Earth Day Remarks)

The simplest and most convenient way to personally eliminate disposable cups is to sit down at home or at a cafe and drink from a reusable cup. If you drink so much coffee that this seems like a hardship, you might want to consider cutting down. Three 8 ounce cups of coffee per day provides the recommended maximum of 400mg of caffeine. If your schedule simply doesn’t have room for a sit down cup, get a travel mug. Lots of cafes offer discounts to customers that fill up using their own mug.

I blogged about buying coffee in bulk to cut down on packaging waste back in 2007. That is the best way to buy coffee if you live in a place with local roasters. If you can find it, Fair Trade Organic coffee in bulk is the absolute ideal way to get your coffee fix.

I think I may have found the second best way to buy coffee today. One of the most famous Italian coffee roasters sells coffee in these nice metal canisters.

It looks to me like there is no BPA lining on these cans. That would make sense since there is little risk of food poisoning with roasted coffee. The canisters are durable and attractive and they can be used to store other dry goods after you have finished your coffee. A French press contains a lot less plastic than a typical drip coffee maker. It also makes better coffee.

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I have had this glass bottle of shaving cream for a few months now and I can say without a doubt that it is adequate for its intended purpose. I can’t say the same for the brush that I bought at the same time. The synthetic bristles had been poorly glued to the handle and it fell apart after only a few uses (can you say Made in China?). I am keeping my eye out for a better one, but I have discovered that the shaving cream can be applied and lathered with just my fingers.

I am not reducing my plastic consumption very much with this purchase. Conventional shaving cream cans usually have a plastic cover and nozzle. The best reason to choose products in glass jars is that these containers are very reusable. There may come a time when we have too many glass jars in our house, but it still a long way off. Besides using them for storing homemade condiments, we also them for spices, sugar and tea.

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