Kickin’ ur plastic: Part 4

What to do about Kleenex?

I grew up reading many old classic books and was always fascinated by the little customs and conventions surrounding handkerchiefs, things like having a useful one and a fancy one for show, and how everyone used to iron them each week.  People often cleaned things or wrapped things up in handkerchiefs.  It seemed rather cool to me, and I tried a couple of times to use one, but realized quickly the advantage Kleenex has in being disposable.  I don’t like carrying around used tissues.  I thought for the rest of my life I would just go ahead and use Kleenex and not worry about it.  Even when I got into more zero waste type interests I still thought that at least tissue boxes only have one small strip of plastic on the top.  Not too big a deal, right?

After a while I read an article featuring HankyBooks and was charmed.  So adorable and it seemed to really fix the major problem I had with handkerchiefs!  Plus they are a cute modern version.

I have not bought one yet, but I did make my own out of an old t-shirt.  Like so many other things, once the incredibly obvious solution arrives the actual process takes about five minutes to implement!

I sewed a seam in the back connecting the “pages” and simultaneously attaching the tie.

It rolls up nice and small, as you see.  I have not bought any Kleenex in several months, getting by with cloth and occasional TP.  Of course, we shall see what happens if I get a cold, though I think I might have had one this spring.  It started like one, anyway, but never turned into the normal messy, miserable thing to endure.  Since I eat Primal, I definitely seem more resistant to disease, so perhaps I won’t have the same type of colds any more…

Time to kick this plastic:  5 minutes.

Maintenance effort:  Completely fits my routine with no extra effort.

Cost:  $0.00

Y Girl

Asthma/Allergies: A good reason to kick your plastic

It seems like my immediate family members are the ONLY people I know who basically never have seasonal allergies, and none of my siblings (or me) ever had asthma.  There are several of us, so it always seemed a bit unusual to me, considering the prevalence among other families.  It’s especially weird considering that breathing fumes from candles or woodsmoke or basically anything tends to give me a headache after about five minutes, so I’m pretty sensitive.

Right now the pollen outside is so thick it layers all the cars in green and yellow and if you go on a walk at dawn the air smells incredibly strong and spicy.  I can tell I am breathing a lot of pollen, but I do not have to blow my nose often and my head and eyes feel great.  I am quite “bright-eyed and busy-tailed” lately, actually.  It’s not that I have good genes, either, because various cousins, aunts and uncles, and grandparents have seasonal allergies.

I was wondering why none of my immediate family has allergy problems and thinking about plastic and what I’ve been learning lately.  Specifically, if you are using plastic around your food supply, it leaches chemicals most quickly when exposed to radiation such as sunlight, heat, or acids.  I suddenly realized that maybe the reason we don’t suffer from allergies is because growing up (and still, for those of us who have moved out) we never had a microwave.  It never seemed necessary and with so many little kids it’s kind of a given it would get broken often, so we never got one.

I did a little googling, and boy is there a lot of interesting stuff out there related to plastic and the airway!
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If you use a microwave and don’t want to stop using it yet, try only heating things in glass or ceramic.  The microwave itself is still plastic, but you will lessen your exposure that way.  Then you can think about putting your microwave in the garage for a month or two and seeing how you can get along without it.

The body is pretty incredible and can metabolize a lot of poisons with time; phthalates especially I believe can clear out within a week, though other plastics might take longer.  What if you could cure your allergies and asthma symptoms by eliminating plastic?

I am SOOO curious about this, please someone try this and tell me!

Y Girl