Last week’s CTWW had me thinking about the apparently innocent soap that I use. I am not one for fancy cleansing products, I just buy plain and simple… or so I thought. I don’t even buy shampoo; even when I had hair, I didn’t buy shampoo. I just used soap.
Brazil is a third world country, despite what the blonde bimbo (president) says.
To find things like eco-friendly products is all but impossible. Here eco-friendly means you put ‘eco-friendly’ on the same old shit and you sell more.
Equally, it is hard to find ingredients to make your own.
So I am stuck with using my ‘simple’ soap.
Rolling right along to this week’s CTWW.
This challenge is not difficult for me. It’s part of my life.
This week, before tossing anything out, consider alternate uses. For example, could the item be composted or used for another purpose? Could the item be given away and used by someone else? And here’s a “biggie”: could we avoid the item in the first place thereby eliminating the need to toss it out? The idea is to think before tossing anything and end up with less trash at the end of the week.

Fancy jar
Yesterday I finished two jars, one was a fancy schmancy jam jar, and the other was a jar of requeijão. I don’t buy stuff in plastic containers.
The fancy schmancy jar is drying after washing and removing the label and will become part of my tea-bag jar collection. They are just the right size to hold 25 tea-bags, and perfectly sealed so the tea doesn’t deteriorate.
The Itambé Requeijão jar has already become a kitchen drinking glass.
I have enough of these glasses that I will give a set of six to my ex, for her to use at home.
So nothing gets chucked unnecessarily.
I even save the tops. They make handy little trays for mixing oil paints when the mood so takes me as to paint, which I do from time to time.
Outside I have a stack of wood pieces that I have scavenged, they may come in handy one day; coils of old telephone wire will eventually become clothesline or go along the wall for passionfruit to grow on. There are also pots for plants that my neighbour was chucking out, they will get used eventually, some already have.
There are plastic jars on top of my fridge from chocolate milk drinks, and I have a cupboard full of jars awaiting a new life.
I have a policy bad habit of saving anything that may/might become useful in the near or distant future.
Posted by livingsimplyfree on March 6, 2013 at 3:50 pm
I think it’s great you can share your “glasses” with your ex, there aren’t many of us who have good enough relations with our exes. This weeks challenge is something that comes naturally to me as well and am working on one project right now that is a combination of all sorts of left over bits and pieces.
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Posted by argentumvulgaris on March 6, 2013 at 6:09 pm
>lsf, that was supposed to be a reply, I always do that.
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Posted by argentumvulgaris on March 6, 2013 at 6:08 pm
>lsf, we spent the first two years incomunicado, then a chance meeting in the street changed that. The kids needed me as much as I needed them and the ex realised that. We help each other, this weekend I am giving the kids a PC (read my post on Life is a Labyrinth) and in return I get a 29″ flat screen TV… don’t know if it’s any good, but let’s have a look before I condemn it. When I lived with ex and kids I had a bits box, all the polystyrene, cardboard, plastic nic naks, pens, etc and on wet days we used to make things.
AV
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Posted by Lottie Nevin on March 7, 2013 at 12:27 am
AV I love your green-ness. You’re my kind of guy! I save jars and containers too and re-use for storage, painting jars etc
I don’t know if you ever read my post ‘What a Waste’, but I am so mad at the Indonesian government for their nonchalance regarding environment and green issues.
Can you believe that there is no re-cyclying done here?! It pains me to have to throw away glass bottles etc with the rubbish but living in a small apartment there is little room and I can’t compost anything because we have no outside space.
Just writing about it makes me MAD!
Great about the PC for your kids – I bet they’ll love it 🙂
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Posted by argentumvulgaris on March 7, 2013 at 8:47 am
>Lottie, my greeness is not as green as I would like it to be. I would dearly love to return to a rural lifestyle. City living is just anti-green. I have now read your post, it looks like Indonesia does indeed have a massive problem, and I agree with your sentiments whole heartedly.
Oh, the kids will love the PC, and fight over it….
AV
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Posted by Change the World Wednesday – 13th Mar | Eco-Crap on March 13, 2013 at 11:38 am
[…] I talked about last week. The saved drinking glasses from requeijão went to my ex’s yesterday. I finally got to deliver the 2nd-hand PC for the […]
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