The Versatility of Vinegar

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Like baking soda, vinegar has many uses. The great thing about choosing vinegar over conventional products is it is eco- and human-friendly. The following is a list of ways in which I’ve learned to use vinegar. To find additional ideas, check out this website.

The water where I live is very hard so I am constantly fighting scale build-up. To combat this, I use a small brush and vinegar to remove the scale. I’ve learned through trial and error that scale should be dealt with early on and not later once it has built up to ridiculous proportions. The low pH of the vinegar aids in dissolving  the scale, and the brush helps to loosen and remove the particles. Be sure to make note of what the surface you are trying to clean is made out of. The “granite” (it’s really more like a schist) counter-tops in my kitchen and bathroom have a seal that can be easily removed by vinegar, so I cannot use vinegar to clean them.

Vinegar and water combined in a 1:1 ratio will create a nice all-purpose cleaner. This cleaner can be used to clean up messes, clean windows and mirrors, and sanitize surfaces. It can even be used in conjunction with baking soda to sanitize your toilet bowl when cleaning it.

Vinegar also works well as a rinse agent in the dishwasher by helping to remove water spots.

My most favorite use of vinegar is in unclogging drains. By sprinkling a little baking soda and vinegar down a drain, then stopping it with a rag, and pouring boiling water down the drain 15 minutes later, you can unclog your drain. This has failed once in the dozen or so times I have tried it.

Happy cleaning 🙂

Preserve Gimme 5

One thing I was disappointed to discover is that depending on where you live, only certain types of plastics can be recycled (tip: you can visit this site to find out what can and cannot be recycled in your area. The website allows you to search for all types of products, not just plastic). Polypropylene (PP), the #5 plastic, is not widely recyclable, which means these types of plastics tend to occupy landfills for no good reason. Items like food containers and squeeze bottles are made from PP. Apparently many other items are too, such as Brita water filters, Brita pitchers, and Preserve plastic products, such as their toothbrushes, razors, and tongue cleaners.

In an effort to clean up landfills and reduce the consumption of energy by recycling #5 plastics into new products (it takes less energy to recycle than it does to create from scratch), Preserve has developed a new program called Preserve Gimme 5.

To identify whether or not your plastic is a #5 plastic, look for a triangle stamp (similar to the ones you see here on the right) on the product and find the number inside of it. This stamp may be small depending on the product. For my Brita water filter I actually had to use my hand lens to read the number.

There are two ways you can recycle your #5 plastics through this program. The first, and easiest way, is to drop your plastics off at a select location. To find if there is a location in your neck of the woods, go here. If there isn’t, you can mail your plastics to:

Preserve Gimme 5
823 NYS Rte 13
Cortland, NY 13045

Unfortunately, for my area, there is currently no drop-off location. I still plan to participate but I have decided to wait until I have a large amount of plastic to send. It’s a waste of fuel and money to send only one or two items at a time.

Yes, it is unfortunate that some may have to pay postage to mail in their plastics, but it’s for a good cause! Besides, if you buy Preserve products, you can mail them in for free by going here to print the shipping label. This may seem like an incentive to get you to buy Preserve products (and maybe it is), but what you may not realize is by doing that you’re also purchasing from the same pool of plastic, not from a company that has created new plastic products to add to the amount that already exists.

The Frightening Truth About Plastics

Plastics make it possible, right? To be honest, when I first learned about what’s in plastic, and what plastic can do to our food, I was frightened. I remember standing in my kitchen looking at my mixing bowls, spatulas, and tupperware containers. I looked at our plastic coffee mugs, the plastics our condiments came in, even the yogurt, milk, and juice. They were everywhere, and I couldn’t help but wonder how safe I was after having consumed food that was stored in them.

The thing is, not all plastics are as bad as others. It depends on the type of plastic. There really is no “safe” plastic though, so I am beginning to consider switching all of my containers out (once they are no longer useable) for glass and stainless steel instead.

The most important thing in making that decision, though, is knowing about your plastics. Each type of plastic is assigned a number and a name (which is just an abbreviation for the full title). Here is a list of plastics that exist (taken from Loux):

1. PETE: Polyethylene terephthalate ethylene. It is used for water, soda, juice, shampoo, detergent bottles and peanut butter containers. It’s considered a “safer” plastic because although it contains stabilizers and flame retardants it has fewer chemicals that can leach into food, drinks, and soil.

2. HDPE: High-density polyethylene. This is an opaque plastic used for milk jugs, plastic bags, bleach bottles, and cleaning bottles. It too is considered “safer” because it doesn’t leach as much.

3. PVC: Polyvinyl chloride, or just vinyl chloride. This is used for plastic cling wrap, cooking oil, water pipes, some toys, and plastic spray bottles. This plastic is a known carcinogen, and can leach compounds such as plasticizers, phthalates, and di-(2-ethylhexyl)adipate (DEHA).

4. LDPE: Low-density polyethylene. This is used for plastic grocery bags, plastic wrap, and some baby bottles. It is “safer” because it doesn’t leach as much.

5. PP: Polypropylene. This is used for plastic containers and tubs and some plastic squeeze bottles. This is considered a “safer” plastic because, again, it doesn’t leach as much, and it can withstand high temperatures.

6. PS: Polystyrene. This plastic is used for styrofoam containers and plastic cultery. It is considered dangerous because styrene, which is used to make polystyrene, is extremely toxic to the brain and nervous system, and this compound can leach from the container. Styrene is also a suspected carcinogen, and may have adverse effects on red blood cells, the liver, kidney, and stomach.

7. Other: usually polycarbonate. This is used for hard plastic baby bottles, sippy cups, sport water bottles, metal food can liners, and 5-gallon water bottles. This is a dangerous plastic because it can leach Bisphenol-A (BPA). Loux explains that “Almost all government funded studies clearly link BPA with adverse effects, including changes in hormone levels, early puberty, changes in gender-specific behavior, prostate enlargement, decreased sperm production, altered immune functon, and behavioral effects to include hyperactivity, increased aggression, and impaired learning”.

7*. PLA: Polylactic acid and other bio-based plastics. These are used for deli containers and take-out food containers, cold cups, straws, food wraps, cultery, even toothbrushes. These plastics are the safest of all, because they are nontoxic, biodegradable, and they are made with renewable resources. It also takes less energy to manufacture them, and the manufacturing process releases less greenhouse gases.

Well, there you have it. Pretty scary, isn’t it? I still store my food in plastic containers since they are still good and I consider it a waste (of money too) to replace all of them right now. I no longer heat anything in plastic though, as this can cause a greater amount of compounds to be leached into food.