May 2, 2023 • 40 mins
What makes sponges bad? Find out in this harrowing episode of your new favorite green living podcast, where our intrepid heroines dive into bacteria, dishwashing, and even baby washing.
As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Some links below are paid links.
What we bought:
Sea Sponges
Other stuff:
Scrub & Throw Loofah
Resources:
Greenhive on Eco Friendly Sponges
Impactful Ninja: Are Sponges Eco-Friendly
Australian Marine Conservation Society on Sea Sponges
Council of Fashion Designers on Hemp
Common Objective on the Environmental Benchmark for Fibres
NY Magazine on Eco Friendly Alternatives to Sponges
Nature.com article on how gross kitchen sponges are
NPR on Can You Really Not Clean Your Kitchen Sponge
CNN on Your Dishwashing Sponge vs Brush
Time on How to Wash Dishes with a Sponge
Brightly on Dishwashing vs Handwashing
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Email us with questions: greeningupmyact@gmail.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
This week's episode as we coulddo, this is the second to last
in the season is on reusablesponges.
Right? This one isn't.
I thought we're doing eight. Arewe doing 10?
I think we're doing 12Shoot girl. Okay, shoot. We're
halfway through them past thehalfway mark as well. Yeah. Edit
that out or just keep it becausejust keep it hashtag math
(00:33):
Hello, Tiffany.
Katherine.
do love that we have full nameswith three syllables each.
Yeah, that is funny. Your nameshows up as Katherine Cox
on the clock, some very, veryBritish royalty. But I'm so glad
you could join me this evening.
I want to let you know that Idid. So I have a closet in my
(00:53):
office. And I was like, Oh, I'mgonna set it up for the podcast
tonight. And I went in there andI put the my chair in there and
I moved stuff around, I got mylamp going and my plugs. And
then I couldn't hook themicrophone properly to the table
that I have in there becauseit's a cheap little side table.
So I had to abort and go back tomy Abort mission. But it's it's
gonna it's gonna be a look inthere and I will post pictures
(01:19):
of it once I have the look.
That's awesome. I love it. I sawsomething about it on Instagram.
And I was like, Oh, she's makingnews.
Literally. Yep. Yeah, Ihave. I have a closet it could
use but it's right next toCharlie's bedroom, so I think
she would be very angry with me.
Yeah, that's just just youcackling Yeah, pretty much.
(01:41):
So if anybody ever asks us why Idon't generally listen to
podcasts of young men and thisis people are gonna be a you're
a sexist, blah blah blah. Butit's the cackling male comedians
do for some reason when they'reall laughing at their own jokes
and it just drives me crazy.
keeps me awake at night. Yeah, Ican't handle the boy cackles.
(02:03):
Girl cackles on the other hand,girl cackles fine boys. Can't do
it. Gotcha. Something very nonsoothing about it.
So funny. I never noticed thatbefore. But now I probably will
we cackle or like that wascackling. Just on cackle like a
boy. I guess we should say, thisis greeting up my egg. Yeah.
(02:23):
Welcome. Welcome to our podcast.
It's not about humor, or comedyor men cackling at all?
No, no, but we do try to havesome fun. We do try to have fun
we do. And we try to make yourlives better. Totally. Because
we look at products that claimto be green or sustainable. And
(02:46):
we figure out whether or notit's true.
Because we are two marketingwriters who have done our fair
share of finding the words youcan say even when they don't
mean anything.
Totally. Oh my god. It's sotrue. It hurts. But yeah, like
trying to skate around reallysaying anything by saying
(03:07):
nothing? Yeah, totally. Yep.
So in this case, we call thatgreen Hui? 100%. Yeah, we have a
list of green Hui words that weknow mean nothing.
Yeah, like, Mike, can I think ofany right?
natural, natural, biodegradable,eco friendly green?
Green? Yep. Even sustainable.
Yeah. Anything.
(03:30):
There's there unless it'scertified by certain groups.
It's just green hooey.
Yep. Totally.
Well, if you're ready, I willdelve into tonight's topic.
I'm ready. Oh, by the way, ifyou Oh, I do want to mention
because we 100% keep forgettingto say this. Which is fine.
(03:51):
We're learning but we haveseasons.
Oh, yeah. This is season one. Wedo have seasons.
Yeah. We do. We have seasons.
And I was considering editingsomething until like the first
episode, mentioning it. But Ithink I'm tired. And I don't
want to. We're just gonna fillpeople in as we go. And as we
(04:12):
remember. Yeah. And then we canhype season two, and people will
be like, Oh, yeah.
Yeah. See? See you said, Yeah,because we're trying to start
this off and make it asustainable podcast, sustainable
sustainability podcast. Andwe're gonna start with seasons
and hopefully transition intofull year round, but we're gonna
take some time, like maybe amonth or month ish in between
(04:35):
each season. But this wholefirst season is about cleaning,
household cleaning, specificallynot corporate cleaning, which
would be well, so Well, wedidn't take that on first
season. sounds horrible. Yeah,these are individual choices
that you can make in yourhousehold to avoid products that
could cause ecological damage,whether in their production or
(04:58):
their usage throughout yourhouse. as well as damage to your
person or that of people in yourhouse through I hate to say
toxins because that is anothergreen hooey word, but literally
things that could cause cancer,reproductive issues, breathing
disorders, you know, there aremany products out there that can
cause damage to human DNA orjust, you know, in general
(05:20):
carcinogens, etc, that areallowed to be on the market. So
we're trying to minimize thateffect inside your household and
outside of your house, and alsowhether or not they can be
reused, which is our number oneideal is to use less reuse. And
then Yes,yep, yeah. And also a lot of the
idea of like, toxins andchemicals and all this stuff is
(05:42):
like, over blown. Yeah. Not alot I would
say. But some of it ismisunderstood. Maybe Yeah,
because it is true there are butit's not like I'm gonna get
people are gonna throw eggs atmy house for this, but your non
organic apples are not probablytoxic the way right. Certain
(06:06):
cleaners are right, like leadpaint toxic, generically grown.
But it's also like eating leadpaint chips. Yes. More toxic.
Yeah. Having like walls. You'reprobably fine. Yeah. A lot of
people do. I do. I'm sure I do.
I as we have mentioned, ourancient rays that were bright,
frantically painting over.
(06:27):
Yeah. So we're trying to findthe balance between, like being
terrified of everything. Andgetting to the heart of what
truly matters. Yeah, exactly. Orjust living with stuff that will
actually kill you. Right? Whichis like very Victorian England.
You know? Like, oh, yeah, ofcourse. She did better when she
went to the beach. Her house wasfull of lead and carbon
(06:49):
monoxide. Right. Good. Weekendby the sea lady. You'll be
breathing again in no time. Yes.
So yeah, we're trying to make itso that we don't need a weekend
in bath to recover from JaneAusten and later era diseases.
So all that to say, we aretalking about reasonable
(07:09):
sponges.
We are and I'm excited to hearall about them because I don't
know much.
Okay, I did the research. Andjust as a reminder, if you
haven't heard episode two, whichis after the intro episode this
season was about on papertowels. Well guess what? There
are unspun reusable sponges.
It's It's such I mean that'smarketing hooey right there
(07:32):
green hui to like an x whateverit is. Oh, paper Paper. Totally.
Yeah, just because it's reusabledoesn't mean it's on. I mean, I
get it is those quote unquote,paper towels are clearly not
paper towels. But these aresponges. The sorry Buzzkill. But
these are sponges, right? Okay.
But first, our sources, I got afew sources on the eco
(07:54):
friendliness of sponges andtheir alternatives. I got a lot
from green hive.io, as well asthe impactful ninja, which was
really interesting. Um, heespecially linked to the
Australian Marine ConservationSociety, on sea sponges. And
then I got some info on him fromthe Council of Fashion Designers
of America, and commonobjective. And then a really
(08:18):
great article that we want tolink to New York Magazine, the
strategist had a whole thing toeco friendly sponge
alternatives, which I reallyliked. Oh, nice. And I mentioned
that they have just yet a listof really good ones. And then
they did a lot of research ontalking to actual, you know,
renown, housekeeping bloggersand sustainability bloggers who
(08:39):
really know what they're talkingabout. And then a turn that this
took was how disgusting yourkitchen sponges that's coming
up. But I had some from NPR,there was a study in nature.com.
About the sponges that the NPRarticle said a lot of people
took out of context. But I alsolooked at CNN,
(09:00):
where there was a nature.comarticle about sponges.
Yeah. About how gross they are.
And the NPR article deep divesin deep dives deep dives into
into how sometimes the mediajust reported very lightly on
what that study said. Reallyinto the methods and Oh, nice.
Okay, so the NPR article kind ofrelieves a little bit of the you
(09:24):
gross don't use sponges aspectsof that study. And then time.com
had a well yeah, Time Magazinehad a bit about the grossest of
sponges and how to wash them,and how to wash dishes. And then
finally, the last part of thisthat you're going to hear is
about dishwashers. And I gotthat from brightly dot eco, the
(09:45):
blog about dishwashing versushandwashing, which not to give
it away, but you're gonna getschooled on that. Okay,
so I might know a little bit Imight have an idea about that
because I took a pmEnvironmental science in high
schoolpossible. It's quite possible,
you know more than I do. Infact, it's been 150 years. So
(10:08):
gillers school a long time ago,didn't we? Okay, so Tiffany, why
our kitchen sponges bad? Well,I'm
not you can guess I'm just goingto tell you but you know, I want
to I want to guess though, okay.
Yes, I think because you throwthem away all the time. That's a
(10:30):
very good first guess. But thereal reason that they're gross,
well, that they're bad isbecause they're disgusting.
Fair. So in that NPR article Iwas quoting from, they said, the
study, folks said we found 362different species of bacteria on
sponges. And locally, thedensity of bacteria reached up
(10:54):
to 45 billion per squarecentimeter. That was Marcus
agar, a microbiologist at firstVanga in University in Germany,
who led the study. That was verygood pronunciation. Thank you.
Thank you. I pretended to studymy twin sister study German. So
you know, I startedamazing. You just how do i
pronounce this? Yes.
(11:15):
Just don't get the really hardname. But so in VR, said, the
way you can compare this isthere can be spots on your
kitchen sponge with just as highconcentrations of bacteria as in
a toilet.
Yummy. Yeah, you cansanitize sponges. Now, this was
where the study got kind offunky. So the study said, there
(11:35):
are two species of bacteria thatshowed significantly greater
proportions in regularlysanitized sponges compared to
unclean sponges, therebyquestioning such sanitation
methods and a long termperspective. So that was what
most of the media sources thatweren't NPR ran with, even like
the New York Times did a wholepiece of that we got to get rid
(11:56):
of your dirty sponges. But NPRdug a little deeper, because
their reporter was a biologist.
And they said the study wasn'treally that thorough regarding
what sanitizing scent spongesmeant. They really only had
five, it was a self reportedstudy, and they really only had
five people who regularly cleantheir sponges and they didn't
(12:17):
say how they did it. Oh, if youmust use sponges, a few rules,
keep them away from raw meat.
Like if you're wiping yourcounters down, don't use your
sponge to wipe up raw meat.
Okay, that makes sense. Yep. Youcan. You can sanitize them by
wetting them and putting them inthe microwave for a minute,
which actually gets rid of quitea lot of the bacteria according
(12:38):
to the NPR article, especiallythe bacteria that will make you
sick. So it's actually a goodway to sanitize it. Just those
two bacteria that showed up inregularly sanitized sponges
aren't the ones that willtotally kill you. Right. Okay.
So this is just for just for oneminute.
One minute. Yep. Make sure itdoesn't have metal on it. Don't
(12:58):
put your metal scrubber in thedishwasher. Yeah, like your
microwave. Yeah. You can alsouse bleach as we know that you
use you have used green bleachon your sponges. Yeah, I did.
Yeah. And did what to them, itleads them into bleach. A
different color. But that's kindof what you expect with bleach.
And they said to us like asolution of 99% Water 1% bleach
(13:21):
kind of justokay. Although the green bleach
I don't it's unclear whether ornot it actually sanitizers.
Yeah, but yeah, go listen to ourlast episode that episode six
about green bleach and sunbleaching. I think maybe you
could just throw them out in theyard. Yeah, you probably getting
the lemon, you know, the grass,just in the grass. But the
answer the job and some someplaces recommended also that you
(13:45):
should run them through adishwasher on high heat. That's
another way to sanitize them. Itgets I've heard that before. And
I actually do that with mycurrent sponge. But yeah, I'll
yeah, I'm curious to hear aboutthe good alternatives because I
found one that I love, but Ohgood. Who knows if it's good or
not?
Well, the MLS thing theyrecommended. And this is where
we get into trouble is throwaway your sponges every two
(14:08):
weeks. Okay? And that is wherewe say Bad News Bears. Right?
They again, like you're sayingthe worst thing about sponges is
how often we just throw themaway. And because they're
disgusting, most hygienic,doctors and biologists would say
Yeah, throw them away. We don'tlike to do that. Right? Because
we're we want to reuse thingsand not contribute to landfill
(14:32):
waste. Yes. So the other issuethat's wrong with most of the
sponges that you can get, youknow like your Scott right?
Sponges is that those green andyellow sponges you buy at the
store, they're made of plasticnylon polyester or polyurethane,
and none of these break down inlandfills. So I know and also
(14:52):
when you're washing up and theystart to get raw and you know
gritty you know when you whenyou're hand washing the cheese
grater and you great you sponge.
Yeah, it ends up that spongepart that you're washing down
the sink turns in Ohmicroplastic which easily gets
into our waterways and again,turtles ingest it, and then
we'll get really unhappy. Thesesponges aren't recyclable,
(15:13):
compostable, or biodegradable.
Even though we know thatbiodegradable is a green Hui
concept. Yes. So you don't wantjust the sponge, the three pack
of sponges that you get that youjust throw away every two weeks,
not a good choice. So what arethe other options? Now? Most of
these I got from impactfulninja. Okay. I love that first
(15:34):
name. Yeah. And across the boardthe places that I looked
recommended see sponges.
Wow, okay, I'm shocked. Okay,I've have a feeling I know why
you're shocked. But why are youshocked? Because
I would think if we all use asea sponge, they're not going to
be enough sea sponges in theworld.
Okay. Yes, that is the cons.
They are technically an animal.
(15:54):
So they're not vegan. Right. Andthere is some concern that they
could be over harvested now.
There are certifiablysustainably harvested sea
sponges.
Okay, so like Sisa sea spongefarms.
Yeah. And the Australian MarineConservation Society that link
was linked in this article saysthat sewage, scallop dredging
(16:17):
and other human interference areway more of a threat than over
harvesting. Okay, so they areregrettable. The other pros to
them is that they are naturalquote, unquote. I know that's
green hooey. But they're not ifthey're not plastic, you know,
they're not processed. Plastic.
They're not dyed.
Yeah, they're not giving off.
microplastics. Yeah.
Interesting.
Yeah, they're biodegradable.
Yeah.
(16:37):
Uh huh. Yeah. Do you have one bychance? I've used them in the
past. Okay, because I never haduntil I heard somebody say, Oh,
they're really good for kids.
Like, yeah, babies. Exactly.
Charlie, and I am obsessed withit. We've had it for two years
now. It does not smell. Yep.
It's so soft. And it works. Sodamn, well. Yeah, I want to get
(16:57):
some from my own. But I actuallythought that I was like, I don't
think it can't be good. Becauseit's there probably be okay.
Well,I actually have one that I used
to use on my face just as anexfoliator. It was great. It
just hung in the shower. And itdried and it turned into a rock
when it dried. But then it yes,that's off to get in the shower
and was great. And they'rethey're durable. They're soft,
(17:19):
like you were sayinghypoallergenic. And as long as
they're not dyed or bleachedagain, they're non toxic. Wow.
And you can throw them in thecompost bin when you're done
with them.
Oh, my goodness.
So I am so happy to hear this.
Yes. So exciting. So anotheroption that's similar to sea
(17:39):
sponges, but vegan is a loofa.
So did you know loofahs orplants?
No. Okay.
Well, I know everyone's like,Oh, they're like sea coral. No,
I they're girls.
I'm thinking okay, I'm thinkingof
the plant. Oh, no, not plastic.
viously that's,I know not what you mean.
Yes. They're named after that.
Those little plastic ones thatyou can buy in the store. You
(18:00):
know, men have gray and blackloofahs for men. These Okay, so
these loofahs Actually, I didn'tI didn't realize they were
there. I think they're they'reof Asian origin and in China.
They're gourds. They're likecucumbers. When I had a roommate
that grown a vine I had aroommate grew someone summer
white. You can grow your ownloofahs why? Yes. And they just
(18:23):
dry out,go to Home Depot and get some.
I don't think he ordered themonline. But he grew them in
Albuquerque, New Mexico, whichis not known for its water
production. So Wow. Yeah.
They're again biodegradable, youcan just throw them in the
compost when you're done withthem. They're very durable.
Again, hypoallergenic non toxic,you can grow them at home. The
(18:45):
con with a loofa is that they'revery harsh. They're not
particularly absorbent either.
Unlike sea sponges, and evenwhen they're wet, they can be
really scrubby so they might beable to kind of scrub, you know
your hard pans and things.
Okay, okay. So interesting.
Yeah, actually, because the seasponge would probably be too
soft for a lot of scrubbing, butI also have this like scraper
(19:08):
that I use.
So yeah, that's an option too.
And I will say, you know, that'swell and we'll get back to this
and we're going to do a wholeseason on personal products, but
you people use the sponges astampons. They're absorbent.
Yep. Just blew my mind. Gum.
(19:29):
So those are like the mostnatural sponges that you can go
for. Just plain picked off thevine picked off the seafloor
sponges. Next up and weencountered this with on paper
towels, we have bamboo. So wewent over this before. It's not
like they just take the bambooand make a sponge out of it.
They convert it into syntheticnylon or rayon and that process
(19:52):
is pretty bad for theenvironment and bad for the
people who are making it andthen possibly bad for your home.
Again, when you wash the thoserounds and nylons. They give off
microplastics. So, bamboosponges. I consider those to be
green hooey. I would say thoseare not. Okay. Not a sustainable
option. Yeah,cuz there's not like, there's no
way to turn bamboo into fabricthat's not like harmful or
(20:15):
releases chemicals that are badfor the streams and stuff,
right? Like there'sno or is there as far as I know.
No, I'm cute. Yeah, I don't. Ihadn't heard of it. But I don't
know maybe. Yeah.
And people may argue thatbecause it takes less water to
grow the bamboo that's lessharmful in cotton. Yeah. But at
(20:35):
that time,yeah, I remember while I was
researching the on paper towels,I learned that bamboo, the
bamboo industry is unregulated.
So it's kind of awhole Wild West of green shoots.
Yes. Yep. Well, and that leadsme to the next recommendation
that they had, which were hemphemp sponges,
okay. Are these in order of goodor is it just
(20:57):
I think kimchi and bamboo may besimilar.
Okay, I just wasn't sure if likesea sponge was number one.
I think if you're not vegan, Iwould say sea sponge just
because of its softness. It'sthe most I mean, it's what all
other sponges are named for andwrangled after it's the OG
sponge. So yes, gotcha. So thenhemp, again is another it's the
(21:21):
plant of the cannabis plant. Notit doesn't get you high.
won't have a really good timedoing dishes other
than Yeah, just like Whoo. Ituses a lot less water than other
fibers and makes a lot morefiber from the plant more than
cotton more than flax thatproduces. So that was the one
from the CFDA that I was readingabout when you look at
(21:42):
environmental rating. So themade by environmental benchmark
for fibers is a rating systemthat they have and they gave
organic hemp an A rating,because untreated hemp, which is
usually organic breaks down andit doesn't use pesticides, etc.
It breaks down more easily anddoesn't have any harmful dyes or
chemicals in it. Uh huh. But theissue is processing. Hemp again,
(22:05):
similar to bamboo, they use aprocess called rutting reading
our E TT ing. That's where yousoak the plant to separate the
fibers. And it can have badecological impacts. So there's
like three types of readingwater reading, you force water
into it, and that uses a lot ofwater and energy, chemical
reading can cause damage towaterways through improper
disposal of the chemicals. Okay,which usually happens, we guess,
(22:28):
inevitably. And then there's aprocess called do reading, which
is basically using water that'salready there. So you're not
like forcing water and it couldyou could use a pond or
something. But it takes a lotmore time. And that would make
the product kind ofunsustainably expensive. Okay,
so hemp, hemp has awesome andthen there's also processes to
(22:50):
make camp, softer or colorful,wrinkle resistant, and those
take a lot of harmful chemicals.
That's really interestingbecause I feel like hemp is such
a hippie dippie Oh, it is, Eric.
Well, it is because again,doesn't need many pesticides
doesn't need much water, it's aweed, right? We just literally
called weed because it justgrows on the side of the road.
Again, hemp though, because ofits relationship to cannabis is
(23:13):
really highly regulated. Andkind of, there's a lot of
regulation kind of keeping itfrom being used in certain
states and certain areas. Sothat also makes it hard to get
to. And the last thing about itis that it's really labor
intensive. So similar to like,there's a lot of hand picking
that needs to be done. And thatcan set you up in a bad
(23:33):
processes that are harmful forworkers. Right, like a lot of
exploitation, which I don'tthink is something we've talked
a lot about in terms ofsustainability. Now we've talked
about how the chemicals can harmworkers, but unfair labor
practices are also a huge partof sustainability. Yeah,
totally. So hemp, hemp can. Youneed to look for Fairtrade
(23:53):
certified organic hemp,basically, which might blow your
bank account out of the water.
Right? That's that's the thingthat's so hard about all of
this, like everybody, noteverybody, I guess some people
don't care. But people who docare want to make the right
choices. But then like wholeyeah, there's this whole matrix
of things you have to consider.
(24:15):
Yeah, it's so hard.
Yeah. So I mean, it might beworth it to spend the extra
money on certified organic,Fairtrade hemp sponges. Although
I think sea sponges are probablya better option.
Yeah, I was gonna say if a seasponges, at least one that comes
from somewhere that'ssustainably harvested. Yeah.
(24:37):
Then I kind of feel like youjust go that route. But
yeah, well, now there's a couplemore routes that I'm going to
take you down. Okay.
Dishwashing, I'm mostly thinkingof sponges for dishwashing.
Yeah. Then we get into ecofriendly cloths. There's a
product called a Swedish dishcloth, which is made from wood
he talked about that. Yep. It'snot made of plastic. It's
(24:58):
composed So at the end of itslife, it dries fast, so you
don't get bacteria on it the waythat your sponges are. And if
you're thinking about doing thisroute, instead of buying new
ones, just use your unpapertowels or reusable rags are
already using to wash yourdishes and throw them in the
washing machine. Right? Thatway, you you know, reduce use,
you're using multiple, you know,one product for multiple
reasons, and you don't get agross like a sponge by your
(25:20):
sink. Yes. So that's apossibility. So once again, we
want to reiterate with naturalsponges. If you're just throwing
them in the trash with all yourother garbage, it doesn't matter
if they're biodegradable, orcompostable, and you just throw
them in the trash, it's going toend up in a landfill.
And it's not going to it's mostlikely won't break down for 100
(25:42):
years.
Right. And it's gonna besurrounded by plastic. Yeah. And
also do you know, at least shadeis leach aid, leach aid Lea, ch
80. I should make sure this isfrom my ninth grade science
class. And I just realized thatright now, I haven't I don't
have it in my notes here. But Iwas just thinking about it. It's
water that has percolatedthrough a solid and leached out
(26:04):
some of the constituents. So ifyou throw anything wet into the
garbage, it becomes leech aid inthe landfill. And what that
means is it's just liquid likewhen you dump your coffee in the
Starbucks, when you dump theextra coffee out to add cream
into the garbage. You're makingleech eight hole when you throw
(26:25):
a wet sponge or a wet papertowel, or you haven't emptied
your cup of you know, whateverout before you throw it in the
trash. You're creating the cheatand what it is, is this toxic
fluid in our landfills, that asthings are breaking down, it's
just soaking into thegroundwater. So don't throw wet
stuff in the trash. Whoa, Iliterally have never heard of
(26:48):
that before, or would havenever. I do think about it. But
I don't think about it. Becauseof that. I'm more thinking about
it. Because of the poor guyscoming down my street with.
I mean, it's also gross foranyone who has to deal with your
trash, right? liquids in thetrash. But it
(27:09):
doesn't matter resources coffee,it's gonna get mixed with
whateverelse microplastics I mean,
especially if it's hot, it'sgonna break down, you know?
Yeah, whoa. So at the end ofyour movie at the movie theater,
I will if I have like, I don'tbuy sodas at the movies anymore.
But if I did buy a drink ofsoda, I will pour out what's
left in the sink and then throwit away. That is so smart. Also,
(27:31):
because I used to work at amovie theater and there's
nothing grosser than 12 full bagof soda.
I think about that at theairport. People dump out their
entire water bottles or whateverliquids, and there's just a bag
of liquidjust fluid for stock or TSA
agent to have to deal a janitor,janitorial staff. Yeah, it's
(27:51):
yeah. So anyway, be mindful. Youknow, if you're not going to
waste water, that's one way todo it. Make sure that you
control your liquids before youthrow them in the trash. So wow,
that's really helpful to throw awet sponge in the trash. But
again, if you've got naturalsponges and you're not
composting them, it's just asbad as the plastic ones. Right?
So get the compostable ones.
(28:14):
Either start a compound compostin your back yard or use your
city compost, you know, that'sworth it. If you're going to be
using these natural sponges,make sure you do that.
Yeah. And listen to our compostpile trash bags episode before,
before you went to compost,realize that it's gonna take
about 30 years. They're notthey don't because they would
dissolve if you threw coffee inthem. So
(28:36):
that's wild. So okay, do youhave any other options? Because
I wasoh my gosh, I do. Yeah, good.
Brushes. Okay, this was the bigone that they recommended at the
MBR. Well, I know at the time,Time magazine article, brushes
dry more quickly, right? Becausethere's more surface area that
dries more quickly. They aren'tporous, so they don't hold on to
(28:57):
bacteria. Okay, you can also runthem through the dishwasher.
Right? Yeah, clean them. I dothat. Okay. But the issue is
that most of them are plastic orsilicone, which have their own
problems with production, etc.
But you will use them longerthan sponges. Yes.
My brushes are plastic, and I'vehad them for probably two years.
(29:22):
Yeah, me too. I use and they getdown to the bottoms of things
and they're better at scrubbing.
Yeah. So yeah, they must makeones that aren't plastic. But
well, yeah, I'm about to go inand out. My goodness you read
you can get natural discoversmade of wood. And like fibers
like Tampico, which is a cactusfrom Mexico. There's a shop
called earthling.co or Earthlinkcompany, and they have $8 ones.
(29:47):
And again, it's wood in Tampico.
You can you you have to handwash it and let it air dry. But
it's still going to be lesssturdy than a sponge and it's
compostable when you're doneKnow
This week's episode as we coulddo, this is the second to last
in the season is on reusablesponges.
Right? This one isn't.
I thought we're doing eight. Arewe doing 10?
I think we're doing 12Shoot girl. Okay, shoot. We're
halfway through them past thehalfway mark as well. Yeah. Edit
that out or just keep it becausejust keep it hashtag math
(00:33):
Hello, Tiffany.
Katherine.
do love that we have full nameswith three syllables each.
Yeah, that is funny. Your nameshows up as Katherine Cox
on the clock, some very, veryBritish royalty. But I'm so glad
you could join me this evening.
I want to let you know that Idid. So I have a closet in my
(00:53):
office. And I was like, Oh, I'mgonna set it up for the podcast
tonight. And I went in there andI put the my chair in there and
I moved stuff around, I got mylamp going and my plugs. And
then I couldn't hook themicrophone properly to the table
that I have in there becauseit's a cheap little side table.
So I had to abort and go back tomy Abort mission. But it's it's
gonna it's gonna be a look inthere and I will post pictures
(01:19):
of it once I have the look.
That's awesome. I love it. I sawsomething about it on Instagram.
And I was like, Oh, she's makingnews.
Literally. Yep. Yeah, Ihave. I have a closet it could
use but it's right next toCharlie's bedroom, so I think
she would be very angry with me.
Yeah, that's just just youcackling Yeah, pretty much.
(01:41):
So if anybody ever asks us why Idon't generally listen to
podcasts of young men and thisis people are gonna be a you're
a sexist, blah blah blah. Butit's the cackling male comedians
do for some reason when they'reall laughing at their own jokes
and it just drives me crazy.
keeps me awake at night. Yeah, Ican't handle the boy cackles.
(02:03):
Girl cackles on the other hand,girl cackles fine boys. Can't do
it. Gotcha. Something very nonsoothing about it.
So funny. I never noticed thatbefore. But now I probably will
we cackle or like that wascackling. Just on cackle like a
boy. I guess we should say, thisis greeting up my egg. Yeah.
(02:23):
Welcome. Welcome to our podcast.
It's not about humor, or comedyor men cackling at all?
No, no, but we do try to havesome fun. We do try to have fun
we do. And we try to make yourlives better. Totally. Because
we look at products that claimto be green or sustainable. And
(02:46):
we figure out whether or notit's true.
Because we are two marketingwriters who have done our fair
share of finding the words youcan say even when they don't
mean anything.
Totally. Oh my god. It's sotrue. It hurts. But yeah, like
trying to skate around reallysaying anything by saying
(03:07):
nothing? Yeah, totally. Yep.
So in this case, we call thatgreen Hui? 100%. Yeah, we have a
list of green Hui words that weknow mean nothing.
Yeah, like, Mike, can I think ofany right?
natural, natural, biodegradable,eco friendly green?
Green? Yep. Even sustainable.
Yeah. Anything.
(03:30):
There's there unless it'scertified by certain groups.
It's just green hooey.
Yep. Totally.
Well, if you're ready, I willdelve into tonight's topic.
I'm ready. Oh, by the way, ifyou Oh, I do want to mention
because we 100% keep forgettingto say this. Which is fine.
(03:51):
We're learning but we haveseasons.
Oh, yeah. This is season one. Wedo have seasons.
Yeah. We do. We have seasons.
And I was considering editingsomething until like the first
episode, mentioning it. But Ithink I'm tired. And I don't
want to. We're just gonna fillpeople in as we go. And as we
(04:12):
remember. Yeah. And then we canhype season two, and people will
be like, Oh, yeah.
Yeah. See? See you said, Yeah,because we're trying to start
this off and make it asustainable podcast, sustainable
sustainability podcast. Andwe're gonna start with seasons
and hopefully transition intofull year round, but we're gonna
take some time, like maybe amonth or month ish in between
(04:35):
each season. But this wholefirst season is about cleaning,
household cleaning, specificallynot corporate cleaning, which
would be well, so Well, wedidn't take that on first
season. sounds horrible. Yeah,these are individual choices
that you can make in yourhousehold to avoid products that
could cause ecological damage,whether in their production or
(04:58):
their usage throughout yourhouse. as well as damage to your
person or that of people in yourhouse through I hate to say
toxins because that is anothergreen hooey word, but literally
things that could cause cancer,reproductive issues, breathing
disorders, you know, there aremany products out there that can
cause damage to human DNA orjust, you know, in general
(05:20):
carcinogens, etc, that areallowed to be on the market. So
we're trying to minimize thateffect inside your household and
outside of your house, and alsowhether or not they can be
reused, which is our number oneideal is to use less reuse. And
then Yes,yep, yeah. And also a lot of the
idea of like, toxins andchemicals and all this stuff is
(05:42):
like, over blown. Yeah. Not alot I would
say. But some of it ismisunderstood. Maybe Yeah,
because it is true there are butit's not like I'm gonna get
people are gonna throw eggs atmy house for this, but your non
organic apples are not probablytoxic the way right. Certain
(06:06):
cleaners are right, like leadpaint toxic, generically grown.
But it's also like eating leadpaint chips. Yes. More toxic.
Yeah. Having like walls. You'reprobably fine. Yeah. A lot of
people do. I do. I'm sure I do.
I as we have mentioned, ourancient rays that were bright,
frantically painting over.
(06:27):
Yeah. So we're trying to findthe balance between, like being
terrified of everything. Andgetting to the heart of what
truly matters. Yeah, exactly. Orjust living with stuff that will
actually kill you. Right? Whichis like very Victorian England.
You know? Like, oh, yeah, ofcourse. She did better when she
went to the beach. Her house wasfull of lead and carbon
(06:49):
monoxide. Right. Good. Weekendby the sea lady. You'll be
breathing again in no time. Yes.
So yeah, we're trying to make itso that we don't need a weekend
in bath to recover from JaneAusten and later era diseases.
So all that to say, we aretalking about reasonable
(07:09):
sponges.
We are and I'm excited to hearall about them because I don't
know much.
Okay, I did the research. Andjust as a reminder, if you
haven't heard episode two, whichis after the intro episode this
season was about on papertowels. Well guess what? There
are unspun reusable sponges.
It's It's such I mean that'smarketing hooey right there
(07:32):
green hui to like an x whateverit is. Oh, paper Paper. Totally.
Yeah, just because it's reusabledoesn't mean it's on. I mean, I
get it is those quote unquote,paper towels are clearly not
paper towels. But these aresponges. The sorry Buzzkill. But
these are sponges, right? Okay.
But first, our sources, I got afew sources on the eco
(07:54):
friendliness of sponges andtheir alternatives. I got a lot
from green hive.io, as well asthe impactful ninja, which was
really interesting. Um, heespecially linked to the
Australian Marine ConservationSociety, on sea sponges. And
then I got some info on him fromthe Council of Fashion Designers
of America, and commonobjective. And then a really
(08:18):
great article that we want tolink to New York Magazine, the
strategist had a whole thing toeco friendly sponge
alternatives, which I reallyliked. Oh, nice. And I mentioned
that they have just yet a listof really good ones. And then
they did a lot of research ontalking to actual, you know,
renown, housekeeping bloggersand sustainability bloggers who
(08:39):
really know what they're talkingabout. And then a turn that this
took was how disgusting yourkitchen sponges that's coming
up. But I had some from NPR,there was a study in nature.com.
About the sponges that the NPRarticle said a lot of people
took out of context. But I alsolooked at CNN,
(09:00):
where there was a nature.comarticle about sponges.
Yeah. About how gross they are.
And the NPR article deep divesin deep dives deep dives into
into how sometimes the mediajust reported very lightly on
what that study said. Reallyinto the methods and Oh, nice.
Okay, so the NPR article kind ofrelieves a little bit of the you
(09:24):
gross don't use sponges aspectsof that study. And then time.com
had a well yeah, Time Magazinehad a bit about the grossest of
sponges and how to wash them,and how to wash dishes. And then
finally, the last part of thisthat you're going to hear is
about dishwashers. And I gotthat from brightly dot eco, the
(09:45):
blog about dishwashing versushandwashing, which not to give
it away, but you're gonna getschooled on that. Okay,
so I might know a little bit Imight have an idea about that
because I took a pmEnvironmental science in high
schoolpossible. It's quite possible,
you know more than I do. Infact, it's been 150 years. So
(10:08):
gillers school a long time ago,didn't we? Okay, so Tiffany, why
our kitchen sponges bad? Well,I'm
not you can guess I'm just goingto tell you but you know, I want
to I want to guess though, okay.
Yes, I think because you throwthem away all the time. That's a
(10:30):
very good first guess. But thereal reason that they're gross,
well, that they're bad isbecause they're disgusting.
Fair. So in that NPR article Iwas quoting from, they said, the
study, folks said we found 362different species of bacteria on
sponges. And locally, thedensity of bacteria reached up
(10:54):
to 45 billion per squarecentimeter. That was Marcus
agar, a microbiologist at firstVanga in University in Germany,
who led the study. That was verygood pronunciation. Thank you.
Thank you. I pretended to studymy twin sister study German. So
you know, I startedamazing. You just how do i
pronounce this? Yes.
(11:15):
Just don't get the really hardname. But so in VR, said, the
way you can compare this isthere can be spots on your
kitchen sponge with just as highconcentrations of bacteria as in
a toilet.
Yummy. Yeah, you cansanitize sponges. Now, this was
where the study got kind offunky. So the study said, there
(11:35):
are two species of bacteria thatshowed significantly greater
proportions in regularlysanitized sponges compared to
unclean sponges, therebyquestioning such sanitation
methods and a long termperspective. So that was what
most of the media sources thatweren't NPR ran with, even like
the New York Times did a wholepiece of that we got to get rid
(11:56):
of your dirty sponges. But NPRdug a little deeper, because
their reporter was a biologist.
And they said the study wasn'treally that thorough regarding
what sanitizing scent spongesmeant. They really only had
five, it was a self reportedstudy, and they really only had
five people who regularly cleantheir sponges and they didn't
(12:17):
say how they did it. Oh, if youmust use sponges, a few rules,
keep them away from raw meat.
Like if you're wiping yourcounters down, don't use your
sponge to wipe up raw meat.
Okay, that makes sense. Yep. Youcan. You can sanitize them by
wetting them and putting them inthe microwave for a minute,
which actually gets rid of quitea lot of the bacteria according
(12:38):
to the NPR article, especiallythe bacteria that will make you
sick. So it's actually a goodway to sanitize it. Just those
two bacteria that showed up inregularly sanitized sponges
aren't the ones that willtotally kill you. Right. Okay.
So this is just for just for oneminute.
One minute. Yep. Make sure itdoesn't have metal on it. Don't
(12:58):
put your metal scrubber in thedishwasher. Yeah, like your
microwave. Yeah. You can alsouse bleach as we know that you
use you have used green bleachon your sponges. Yeah, I did.
Yeah. And did what to them, itleads them into bleach. A
different color. But that's kindof what you expect with bleach.
And they said to us like asolution of 99% Water 1% bleach
(13:21):
kind of justokay. Although the green bleach
I don't it's unclear whether ornot it actually sanitizers.
Yeah, but yeah, go listen to ourlast episode that episode six
about green bleach and sunbleaching. I think maybe you
could just throw them out in theyard. Yeah, you probably getting
the lemon, you know, the grass,just in the grass. But the
answer the job and some someplaces recommended also that you
(13:45):
should run them through adishwasher on high heat. That's
another way to sanitize them. Itgets I've heard that before. And
I actually do that with mycurrent sponge. But yeah, I'll
yeah, I'm curious to hear aboutthe good alternatives because I
found one that I love, but Ohgood. Who knows if it's good or
not?
Well, the MLS thing theyrecommended. And this is where
we get into trouble is throwaway your sponges every two
(14:08):
weeks. Okay? And that is wherewe say Bad News Bears. Right?
They again, like you're sayingthe worst thing about sponges is
how often we just throw themaway. And because they're
disgusting, most hygienic,doctors and biologists would say
Yeah, throw them away. We don'tlike to do that. Right? Because
we're we want to reuse thingsand not contribute to landfill
(14:32):
waste. Yes. So the other issuethat's wrong with most of the
sponges that you can get, youknow like your Scott right?
Sponges is that those green andyellow sponges you buy at the
store, they're made of plasticnylon polyester or polyurethane,
and none of these break down inlandfills. So I know and also
(14:52):
when you're washing up and theystart to get raw and you know
gritty you know when you whenyou're hand washing the cheese
grater and you great you sponge.
Yeah, it ends up that spongepart that you're washing down
the sink turns in Ohmicroplastic which easily gets
into our waterways and again,turtles ingest it, and then
we'll get really unhappy. Thesesponges aren't recyclable,
(15:13):
compostable, or biodegradable.
Even though we know thatbiodegradable is a green Hui
concept. Yes. So you don't wantjust the sponge, the three pack
of sponges that you get that youjust throw away every two weeks,
not a good choice. So what arethe other options? Now? Most of
these I got from impactfulninja. Okay. I love that first
(15:34):
name. Yeah. And across the boardthe places that I looked
recommended see sponges.
Wow, okay, I'm shocked. Okay,I've have a feeling I know why
you're shocked. But why are youshocked? Because
I would think if we all use asea sponge, they're not going to
be enough sea sponges in theworld.
Okay. Yes, that is the cons.
They are technically an animal.
(15:54):
So they're not vegan. Right. Andthere is some concern that they
could be over harvested now.
There are certifiablysustainably harvested sea
sponges.
Okay, so like Sisa sea spongefarms.
Yeah. And the Australian MarineConservation Society that link
was linked in this article saysthat sewage, scallop dredging
(16:17):
and other human interference areway more of a threat than over
harvesting. Okay, so they areregrettable. The other pros to
them is that they are naturalquote, unquote. I know that's
green hooey. But they're not ifthey're not plastic, you know,
they're not processed. Plastic.
They're not dyed.
Yeah, they're not giving off.
microplastics. Yeah.
Interesting.
Yeah, they're biodegradable.
Yeah.
(16:37):
Uh huh. Yeah. Do you have one bychance? I've used them in the
past. Okay, because I never haduntil I heard somebody say, Oh,
they're really good for kids.
Like, yeah, babies. Exactly.
Charlie, and I am obsessed withit. We've had it for two years
now. It does not smell. Yep.
It's so soft. And it works. Sodamn, well. Yeah, I want to get
(16:57):
some from my own. But I actuallythought that I was like, I don't
think it can't be good. Becauseit's there probably be okay.
Well,I actually have one that I used
to use on my face just as anexfoliator. It was great. It
just hung in the shower. And itdried and it turned into a rock
when it dried. But then it yes,that's off to get in the shower
and was great. And they'rethey're durable. They're soft,
(17:19):
like you were sayinghypoallergenic. And as long as
they're not dyed or bleachedagain, they're non toxic. Wow.
And you can throw them in thecompost bin when you're done
with them.
Oh, my goodness.
So I am so happy to hear this.
Yes. So exciting. So anotheroption that's similar to sea
(17:39):
sponges, but vegan is a loofa.
So did you know loofahs orplants?
No. Okay.
Well, I know everyone's like,Oh, they're like sea coral. No,
I they're girls.
I'm thinking okay, I'm thinkingof
the plant. Oh, no, not plastic.
viously that's,I know not what you mean.
Yes. They're named after that.
Those little plastic ones thatyou can buy in the store. You
(18:00):
know, men have gray and blackloofahs for men. These Okay, so
these loofahs Actually, I didn'tI didn't realize they were
there. I think they're they'reof Asian origin and in China.
They're gourds. They're likecucumbers. When I had a roommate
that grown a vine I had aroommate grew someone summer
white. You can grow your ownloofahs why? Yes. And they just
(18:23):
dry out,go to Home Depot and get some.
I don't think he ordered themonline. But he grew them in
Albuquerque, New Mexico, whichis not known for its water
production. So Wow. Yeah.
They're again biodegradable, youcan just throw them in the
compost when you're done withthem. They're very durable.
Again, hypoallergenic non toxic,you can grow them at home. The
(18:45):
con with a loofa is that they'revery harsh. They're not
particularly absorbent either.
Unlike sea sponges, and evenwhen they're wet, they can be
really scrubby so they might beable to kind of scrub, you know
your hard pans and things.
Okay, okay. So interesting.
Yeah, actually, because the seasponge would probably be too
soft for a lot of scrubbing, butI also have this like scraper
(19:08):
that I use.
So yeah, that's an option too.
And I will say, you know, that'swell and we'll get back to this
and we're going to do a wholeseason on personal products, but
you people use the sponges astampons. They're absorbent.
Yep. Just blew my mind. Gum.
(19:29):
So those are like the mostnatural sponges that you can go
for. Just plain picked off thevine picked off the seafloor
sponges. Next up and weencountered this with on paper
towels, we have bamboo. So wewent over this before. It's not
like they just take the bambooand make a sponge out of it.
They convert it into syntheticnylon or rayon and that process
(19:52):
is pretty bad for theenvironment and bad for the
people who are making it andthen possibly bad for your home.
Again, when you wash the thoserounds and nylons. They give off
microplastics. So, bamboosponges. I consider those to be
green hooey. I would say thoseare not. Okay. Not a sustainable
option. Yeah,cuz there's not like, there's no
way to turn bamboo into fabricthat's not like harmful or
(20:15):
releases chemicals that are badfor the streams and stuff,
right? Like there'sno or is there as far as I know.
No, I'm cute. Yeah, I don't. Ihadn't heard of it. But I don't
know maybe. Yeah.
And people may argue thatbecause it takes less water to
grow the bamboo that's lessharmful in cotton. Yeah. But at
(20:35):
that time,yeah, I remember while I was
researching the on paper towels,I learned that bamboo, the
bamboo industry is unregulated.
So it's kind of awhole Wild West of green shoots.
Yes. Yep. Well, and that leadsme to the next recommendation
that they had, which were hemphemp sponges,
okay. Are these in order of goodor is it just
(20:57):
I think kimchi and bamboo may besimilar.
Okay, I just wasn't sure if likesea sponge was number one.
I think if you're not vegan, Iwould say sea sponge just
because of its softness. It'sthe most I mean, it's what all
other sponges are named for andwrangled after it's the OG
sponge. So yes, gotcha. So thenhemp, again is another it's the
(21:21):
plant of the cannabis plant. Notit doesn't get you high.
won't have a really good timedoing dishes other
than Yeah, just like Whoo. Ituses a lot less water than other
fibers and makes a lot morefiber from the plant more than
cotton more than flax thatproduces. So that was the one
from the CFDA that I was readingabout when you look at
(21:42):
environmental rating. So themade by environmental benchmark
for fibers is a rating systemthat they have and they gave
organic hemp an A rating,because untreated hemp, which is
usually organic breaks down andit doesn't use pesticides, etc.
It breaks down more easily anddoesn't have any harmful dyes or
chemicals in it. Uh huh. But theissue is processing. Hemp again,
(22:05):
similar to bamboo, they use aprocess called rutting reading
our E TT ing. That's where yousoak the plant to separate the
fibers. And it can have badecological impacts. So there's
like three types of readingwater reading, you force water
into it, and that uses a lot ofwater and energy, chemical
reading can cause damage towaterways through improper
disposal of the chemicals. Okay,which usually happens, we guess,
(22:28):
inevitably. And then there's aprocess called do reading, which
is basically using water that'salready there. So you're not
like forcing water and it couldyou could use a pond or
something. But it takes a lotmore time. And that would make
the product kind ofunsustainably expensive. Okay,
so hemp, hemp has awesome andthen there's also processes to
(22:50):
make camp, softer or colorful,wrinkle resistant, and those
take a lot of harmful chemicals.
That's really interestingbecause I feel like hemp is such
a hippie dippie Oh, it is, Eric.
Well, it is because again,doesn't need many pesticides
doesn't need much water, it's aweed, right? We just literally
called weed because it justgrows on the side of the road.
Again, hemp though, because ofits relationship to cannabis is
(23:13):
really highly regulated. Andkind of, there's a lot of
regulation kind of keeping itfrom being used in certain
states and certain areas. Sothat also makes it hard to get
to. And the last thing about itis that it's really labor
intensive. So similar to like,there's a lot of hand picking
that needs to be done. And thatcan set you up in a bad
(23:33):
processes that are harmful forworkers. Right, like a lot of
exploitation, which I don'tthink is something we've talked
a lot about in terms ofsustainability. Now we've talked
about how the chemicals can harmworkers, but unfair labor
practices are also a huge partof sustainability. Yeah,
totally. So hemp, hemp can. Youneed to look for Fairtrade
(23:53):
certified organic hemp,basically, which might blow your
bank account out of the water.
Right? That's that's the thingthat's so hard about all of
this, like everybody, noteverybody, I guess some people
don't care. But people who docare want to make the right
choices. But then like wholeyeah, there's this whole matrix
of things you have to consider.
(24:15):
Yeah, it's so hard.
Yeah. So I mean, it might beworth it to spend the extra
money on certified organic,Fairtrade hemp sponges. Although
I think sea sponges are probablya better option.
Yeah, I was gonna say if a seasponges, at least one that comes
from somewhere that'ssustainably harvested. Yeah.
(24:37):
Then I kind of feel like youjust go that route. But
yeah, well, now there's a couplemore routes that I'm going to
take you down. Okay.
Dishwashing, I'm mostly thinkingof sponges for dishwashing.
Yeah. Then we get into ecofriendly cloths. There's a
product called a Swedish dishcloth, which is made from wood
he talked about that. Yep. It'snot made of plastic. It's
(24:58):
composed So at the end of itslife, it dries fast, so you
don't get bacteria on it the waythat your sponges are. And if
you're thinking about doing thisroute, instead of buying new
ones, just use your unpapertowels or reusable rags are
already using to wash yourdishes and throw them in the
washing machine. Right? Thatway, you you know, reduce use,
you're using multiple, you know,one product for multiple
reasons, and you don't get agross like a sponge by your
(25:20):
sink. Yes. So that's apossibility. So once again, we
want to reiterate with naturalsponges. If you're just throwing
them in the trash with all yourother garbage, it doesn't matter
if they're biodegradable, orcompostable, and you just throw
them in the trash, it's going toend up in a landfill.
And it's not going to it's mostlikely won't break down for 100
(25:42):
years.
Right. And it's gonna besurrounded by plastic. Yeah. And
also do you know, at least shadeis leach aid, leach aid Lea, ch
80. I should make sure this isfrom my ninth grade science
class. And I just realized thatright now, I haven't I don't
have it in my notes here. But Iwas just thinking about it. It's
water that has percolatedthrough a solid and leached out
(26:04):
some of the constituents. So ifyou throw anything wet into the
garbage, it becomes leech aid inthe landfill. And what that
means is it's just liquid likewhen you dump your coffee in the
Starbucks, when you dump theextra coffee out to add cream
into the garbage. You're makingleech eight hole when you throw
(26:25):
a wet sponge or a wet papertowel, or you haven't emptied
your cup of you know, whateverout before you throw it in the
trash. You're creating the cheatand what it is, is this toxic
fluid in our landfills, that asthings are breaking down, it's
just soaking into thegroundwater. So don't throw wet
stuff in the trash. Whoa, Iliterally have never heard of
(26:48):
that before, or would havenever. I do think about it. But
I don't think about it. Becauseof that. I'm more thinking about
it. Because of the poor guyscoming down my street with.
I mean, it's also gross foranyone who has to deal with your
trash, right? liquids in thetrash. But it
(27:09):
doesn't matter resources coffee,it's gonna get mixed with
whateverelse microplastics I mean,
especially if it's hot, it'sgonna break down, you know?
Yeah, whoa. So at the end ofyour movie at the movie theater,
I will if I have like, I don'tbuy sodas at the movies anymore.
But if I did buy a drink ofsoda, I will pour out what's
left in the sink and then throwit away. That is so smart. Also,
(27:31):
because I used to work at amovie theater and there's
nothing grosser than 12 full bagof soda.
I think about that at theairport. People dump out their
entire water bottles or whateverliquids, and there's just a bag
of liquidjust fluid for stock or TSA
agent to have to deal a janitor,janitorial staff. Yeah, it's
(27:51):
yeah. So anyway, be mindful. Youknow, if you're not going to
waste water, that's one way todo it. Make sure that you
control your liquids before youthrow them in the trash. So wow,
that's really helpful to throw awet sponge in the trash. But
again, if you've got naturalsponges and you're not
composting them, it's just asbad as the plastic ones. Right?
So get the compostable ones.
(28:14):
Either start a compound compostin your back yard or use your
city compost, you know, that'sworth it. If you're going to be
using these natural sponges,make sure you do that.
Yeah. And listen to our compostpile trash bags episode before,
before you went to compost,realize that it's gonna take
about 30 years. They're notthey don't because they would
dissolve if you threw coffee inthem. So
(28:36):
that's wild. So okay, do youhave any other options? Because
I wasoh my gosh, I do. Yeah, good.
Brushes. Okay, this was the bigone that they recommended at the
MBR. Well, I know at the time,Time magazine article, brushes
dry more quickly, right? Becausethere's more surface area that
dries more quickly. They aren'tporous, so they don't hold on to
(28:57):
bacteria. Okay, you can also runthem through the dishwasher.
Right? Yeah, clean them. I dothat. Okay. But the issue is
that most of them are plastic orsilicone, which have their own
problems with production, etc.
But you will use them longerthan sponges. Yes.
My brushes are plastic, and I'vehad them for probably two years.
(29:22):
Yeah, me too. I use and they getdown to the bottoms of things
and they're better at scrubbing.
Yeah. So yeah, they must makeones that aren't plastic. But
well, yeah, I'm about to go inand out. My goodness you read
you can get natural discoversmade of wood. And like fibers
like Tampico, which is a cactusfrom Mexico. There's a shop
called earthling.co or Earthlinkcompany, and they have $8 ones.
(29:47):
And again, it's wood in Tampico.
You can you you have to handwash it and let it air dry. But
it's still going to be lesssturdy than a sponge and it's
compostable when you're doneKnow
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