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ASHEVILLE GREENWORKS
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  • Programs
    • Bee City USA Asheville >
      • Native Pollinator Plants and Nurseries
      • Pollination Celebration >
        • Pollinator Photo Contest
      • Pollinator Garden Certification
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      • Adopt-a-Street
      • Clean Streams Day
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We are drowning in plastic.

From beauty products to grocery bags to water bottles to our daily cup of coffee, plastic is present in every aspect of our lives. Most of these items are designed to be used once and thrown away, usually heading to the landfill.

Some of the plastic that we think can be recycled, like drink lids, straws and utensils, end up in the landfill because they're either too difficult to recycle or there's no market for the end products. Even recyclable plastic such as water bottles are becoming harder to recycle.

The most effective approach to reducing our plastic waste is to REFUSE, REDUCE, and REUSE.

In January 2019, GreenWorks spearheaded the creation of the Plastics Reduction Task Force -- a group of motivated volunteers dedicated to reducing single-use plastic in our environment. 
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Join the plastic-free movement and break free from the plastic ties that bind us.
Donate now for a plastic-free future
Mind Your Plastic May is meant to encourage and challenge us in our journey to live plastic free. These posts are created by GreenWorks staff, Plastic Reduction Task Force volunteers, and other plastic-free advocates in Buncombe County. If you've found these posts helpful and encouraging, please consider making a donation to support this work. If you have any questions, please email [email protected]
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The Dirty Little Secret of Getting Your Laundry Clean

5/19/2019

1 Comment

 
Sunday is laundry day in my house. With a four person household, I probably average about five loads of laundry per week. That adds up to be a lot of laundry detergent each year. Over 30 billion loads of laundry are done each year in North America, leading to about 900 million laundry jugs discarded annually in the United States. Once empty, only an estimated 30 percent of these high-density polyethylene (HPDE) jugs are recycled. The remaining 70 percent ends up in landfills or as litter.

I never gave much thought to the container my liquid laundry detergent came in until I started the Mind Your Plastic May Challenge and spoke to Mari Fox, the owner of Shecology in Weaverville. I posted about Mari’s story on May 6th. Here it is again as a refresher.

One day in 2010, Mari had run out of her favorite Seventh Generation laundry detergent, which couldn’t be found in many places at the time. She jumped in her car to drive to a market to buy the laundry detergent. While waiting at a red light, she realized how ridiculous it was to be driving all over town burning fossil fuel to purchase “eco-friendly” detergent that was mostly water, packaged in plastic and shipped long-distance by trucks to the store. Think of all the monetary and environmental costs of doing that!
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Fortunately, Mari came up with a brilliant solution -- Laundry Pills! Shecology’s Mother’s Little Helper Laundry Pills are concentrated soap nut powder (we’ll get to soap nuts in a minute) in dissolvable capsules that you add to your laundry load. No plastic, no shipping of plastic jugs of water. And they work! The secret is the soap nuts.

From Shecology’s site: “What are soap nuts? They're actually not "nuts" at all! These curious little pods are harvested, de-seeded, and sun-dried fruit from the “Soapberry” tree native to Northern India and Southern Nepal. These towering, thickly vegetated trees are naturally organic because pests do not like the taste of their frothy fruit.
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Of all the varieties of soap nuts, Sapindus Mukorossi is the best for cleaning because it is loaded with the natural surfactant “saponin.” When dissolved in warm water saponin transforms into a foamy substance that removes dirt and odors from most any surface – from textiles to tennis shoes!”
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For those DIY enthusiasts among us, you can purchase soap nuts and make your own cleaners for everything from your hair and body to dishes and laundry. If you’re like me, and DIY projects are merely a fantasy, you can purchase laundry pills or laundry powder from Shecology online. 
Sincerely,
Dawn Chavez
Executive Director
Asheville GreenWorks

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1 Comment
[email protected]
1/28/2021 11:45:25 am

Why are plastic bottles becoming harder to recycle. Please explain

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    Staff from Asheville GreenWorks, volunteers from the Plastic Reduction Task Force, as well as other guest writers who are advocates and friends.

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​Asheville GreenWorks is a 501(c)3 non-profit environmental organization, governed by a Board of Directors. Established in 1973, GreenWorks mission is to inspire, equip and mobilize individuals and communities to take care of the places we love to live.
  • Hard 2 Recycle
  • Programs
    • Bee City USA Asheville >
      • Native Pollinator Plants and Nurseries
      • Pollination Celebration >
        • Pollinator Photo Contest
      • Pollinator Garden Certification
    • Rivers & Roads >
      • Adopt-a-Street
      • Clean Streams Day
      • Cleanup Supply Stations
      • Trash Trout
      • WNC Big Sweep
    • Education
    • Urban Forestry >
      • Adopt-a-Spot
      • Cool Green Asheville
      • Food Tree Project
      • RRI
      • Tree Nursery
      • Treasured Trees >
        • Treasured Trees Calendar
    • Waste Reduction >
      • Asheville Bag Monster
      • Composting Information
      • Flip Your Lid
      • Plastics Reduction Task Force
      • Recycling Information
      • Smash Don't Trash
  • Get Involved
    • Volunteer
    • Experiential Internships
    • Youth Environmental Leadership Program >
      • YELP Staff & Alumni
      • How to Apply
    • Make a Donation
    • Wish List
    • Sponsorship
  • Upcoming Events
  • About
    • Job Openings
    • History
    • Staff/ Contact
  • Newsletter
  • Blog Roll
    • Latest News
    • Protect our Pollinators
    • Voice for the Trees
    • Mind Your Plastic May
    • Fall Leaves