How do I recycle safety razor blades?

 

So you've made the switch from plastic razors to refillable double-edged safety razors!  Outstanding!  The plastic razors filling our landfills averages about 2 billion annually by EPA estimations.  That's a lot of needless waste.  Especially when you consider the cost of making them, and the carbon impact, or their leaching toxins.  

 

But how do you safely recycle the used safety blades after their use?  Those after the perfect wet shave have often relied upon what is called a Razor Bank.  They can still be found in stores but are mostly considered vintage items and often look like whimsical little porcelain jars shaped like a barber.  But you don't need these.  You need an enclosed tin that can easily be tossed in the recyling bin when it's full of old blades.

 

 

 

This project costs pennies and took approximately 20 minutes (plus drying time).

 

I stopped at my local grocery store and purchased a can of coconut milk.  Look for a tin can that you commonly would purchase and that contains only liquid (vegetable broth, tomato soup, etc) because you're going to pour that liquid out into a reusable container for later use in cooking and recipes.

 

Score the label carefully with a sharp knife. Please do use all cutting tools in a safe manner.  I do not recommend using your double edged razors to cut the label off the can.

 

After you score the label, simply unwrap the tin. 

 

Use a pencil, sharpie, or oil pencil to mark a line on the top of the unopened can.  This will be the slot that you use to drop old blades into the tin can.

 

Carefully use a chef's knife or tin shear to cut the slot in the top of the unopened can. 

 

NOTE: Face the cutting edge of the blade toward the center of the can in the direction you wish the slot to be cut. The backbone of the blade will force the cutting edge in the correct direction.

 

Gently move the knife back and forth once you have pierced the tin so that you open a nice wide slot and ensure that all sharp edges are safely tucked inside the tin can..

 

Drain the contents into your reusable container and put away for later use.  Rinse the tin by running hot water through the new slot you've made in the can. 

 

If you have label glue on the can, you can remove it with Goof Off or sometimes just peel it off with your fingernail.

 

As it is, your blade bank is now fully serviceable; however, you may want to decorate it.  Your choice.

 

If you do choose to paint it, may I suggest you use a low-, or zero-VOC paint, and make sure the area that you are working in is well ventilated.  Got to keep you clever and fierce! 

 

When the can dries, you can add lettering or put some bitchin' pin stripes on it.  Start adding your safety razors as they become dull, and once the tin is full, you can recycle the whole thing.  As our friend Dasha noted, this idea also works for recycling bottle caps and other common small household metals.

Have fun and Enjoy!!!After seeing a considerable number of threads recently regarding blade banks and disposing of spent razor blades I decided to show how to make a simple yet effective blade bank for under 50 cents. It is very easy, safe and ready for the recycle bin when full.

There are a few that can be purchased for a buck or two plus shipping or you could find some more fancy vintage banks in an antique shop or even Ebay but I would rather spend my money on razors and soaps. It’s great for the frugal (tight wad) shaver. I’ve heard of folks using glass jars which was really disturbing to me. Wet hands on glass do not go well together and as it gets full, it takes only a minor tap and the glass can shatter. 

 

This project cost 33 cents and took approximately 20 minutes minus drying time.

 

I stopped at my local grocery store and purchased 3 cans of store brand broth (liquid only) for a 1.00 as they were on sale.

 

Once home I scored the label carefully with a sharp knife. I thought about using a DE blade to do this (after all, this is B&B) but opted for the knife with as I just so happen to have this nice vintage Gillette Office razor knife, go figure!

 

After I scored the label I simply unwrapped the can. 

 

Using a pencil, I marked the top of the can where I wanted to make the slotted opening.

 

Now, with a large knife, (I choose this chef knife) I placed the tip on the end of the mark I had made.

 

I gently tapped the handle with the palm of my hand to cut or punch the slot in the top. 

 

NOTE: Face the cutting edge of the blade toward the center of the can in the direction you wish the slot to be cut. The backbone of the blade will force the cutting edge in the correct direction.

 

I moved the blade slightly from side to side so I was insured the edges of the slot rolled under so there would be no shape edges, and removed the knife to reveal a nice, clean slot.

 

I then drained the contents of the can in a bowl to save it for use at a later time.

This may take a couple minutes and you may need to shake the can to help drain. I then rinsed the can with some hot water. (Necessary? I don’t know but I did it anyway).

 

At this point you may find some label glue residue. I simple used a little Goof Off and a paper towel and cleaned it right off. If you don’t have any Goof Off or something comparable, you can soak the can in hot water for about 5 minutes and it will wipe right away.

 

At this point your blade bank is ready to go or if you’re like me, you might want to dress it up some and paint it.

I found some spray paint leftover from another project I had done some time ago and opted to use it. I was a light tan with actually was used to paint the heater cover in my bathroom so it made for a nice match but you can use any color you enjoy. After all, you’re making it for you.

I took a paperclip (bent into a hook shape) and tied it to a piece of string to allow it to hang for spraying and drying.

 

Make sure when spraying you are in a well-ventilated area. I choose to spray mine right out in the back yard hang from a tree branch.

 

Once the bank is dry (I used 1 hour paint) you can either use it as it is or take it yet another step and add other things to further customize your bank.

While the bank was drying I rummaged around the house to see what I could find to trick out my new bank. I found some ¼” vinyl artist tape that I had used for some signs and a little gold leaf paint for lettering (BTW, I really suck at lettering).

 

After a couple more minutes my bank is done. It may not be a fancy as a store bought bank yet for under 50 cents it’s going to do just fine. It will hold a few years worth of spent blades and I don’t need to worry about anyone getting hurt by them, and it’s totally green!!!

 

Have fun and Enjoy!!!After seeing a considerable number of threads recently regarding blade banks and disposing of spent razor blades I decided to show how to make a simple yet effective blade bank for under 50 cents. It is very easy, safe and ready for the recycle bin when full.

There are a few that can be purchased for a buck or two plus shipping or you could find some more fancy vintage banks in an antique shop or even Ebay but I would rather spend my money on razors and soaps. It’s great for the frugal (tight wad) shaver. I’ve heard of folks using glass jars which was really disturbing to me. Wet hands on glass do not go well together and as it gets full, it takes only a minor tap and the glass can shatter. 

 

This project cost 33 cents and took approximately 20 minutes minus drying time.

 

I stopped at my local grocery store and purchased 3 cans of store brand broth (liquid only) for a 1.00 as they were on sale.

 

Once home I scored the label carefully with a sharp knife. I thought about using a DE blade to do this (after all, this is B&B) but opted for the knife with as I just so happen to have this nice vintage Gillette Office razor knife, go figure!

 

After I scored the label I simply unwrapped the can. 

 

Using a pencil, I marked the top of the can where I wanted to make the slotted opening.

 

Now, with a large knife, (I choose this chef knife) I placed the tip on the end of the mark I had made.

 

I gently tapped the handle with the palm of my hand to cut or punch the slot in the top. 

 

NOTE: Face the cutting edge of the blade toward the center of the can in the direction you wish the slot to be cut. The backbone of the blade will force the cutting edge in the correct direction.

 

I moved the blade slightly from side to side so I was insured the edges of the slot rolled under so there would be no shape edges, and removed the knife to reveal a nice, clean slot.

 

I then drained the contents of the can in a bowl to save it for use at a later time.

This may take a couple minutes and you may need to shake the can to help drain. I then rinsed the can with some hot water. (Necessary? I don’t know but I did it anyway).

 

At this point you may find some label glue residue. I simple used a little Goof Off and a paper towel and cleaned it right off. If you don’t have any Goof Off or something comparable, you can soak the can in hot water for about 5 minutes and it will wipe right away.

 

At this point your blade bank is ready to go or if you’re like me, you might want to dress it up some and paint it.

I found some spray paint leftover from another project I had done some time ago and opted to use it. I was a light tan with actually was used to paint the heater cover in my bathroom so it made for a nice match but you can use any color you enjoy. After all, you’re making it for you.

I took a paperclip (bent into a hook shape) and tied it to a piece of string to allow it to hang for spraying and drying.

 

Make sure when spraying you are in a well-ventilated area. I choose to spray mine right out in the back yard hang from a tree branch.

 

Once the bank is dry (I used 1 hour paint) you can either use it as it is or take it yet another step and add other things to further customize your bank.

While the bank was drying I rummaged around the house to see what I could find to trick out my new bank. I found some ¼” vinyl artist tape that I had used for some signs and a little gold leaf paint for lettering (BTW, I really suck at lettering).

 

After a couple more minutes my bank is done. It may not be a fancy as a store bought bank yet for under 50 cents it’s going to do just fine. It will hold a few years worth of spent blades and I don’t need to worry about anyone getting hurt by them, and it’s totally green!!!

 

Have fun and Enjoy!!!

The Chicago Flag Bar continues it's trip around the world

 

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  Our Sun kissed and solar produced embassador of the city's new eco-spirit most recently summited Africa's highest peak; Mount Kilimanjaro.  For a complete trip log and details on it's next adventure 'Like' and follow us on Facebook.com/ethicallyengineered or email: info@ethicallyengineered.com.

   

   

  Mount Kilimanjaro is the highest freestanding mountain as well as the 4th most prominent mountain in theworld, rising 5,882 metres or 19,298 ft from the base.

  

   

  Our good friend and fan Erin L. from Chicago heeded the call for adventure and chose to take The Chicago Flag Bar along as a token of appreciation for her hosts while visiting Tanzania.  While in country she visited historic animal preserves as well as trekked up this million year old dormant volcano with a Chicago Flag Bar in her bag.
  
  As Erin climed and eventually summited the moutain's Uhuru Peak she bore witness to the melting ice and snow that have been dated to 11,700 years.  Between 1912 and 2007 the ancient mountain has lost as much as 85% of it's ice.  If global temperatures continue to rise the ice is estimated to be gone in 11 years.
  
  Our goal is clear and we are renewed with dedication to our goals of carbon neutral production and delivery.  Thank you Erin for sharing the eco-spirit of Chicago with the people of Tanzania.

  
  

  

   

Re-engineering animal based products

Source:  GLiving

Legend has it that thousands of years ago, in the deserts of Arabia, a nomad carrying milk in a sack made from sheep intestine produced the accidental first batch of cheese curds. Her movements agitated the amalgam of milk and intestinal enzymes and, under the hot sun, produced what we call cheese. Rennet (or Rennin), an enzyme that is a product of calf stomachs and sheep intestines is a key ingredient in typical cheeses – not only making most cheese undesirable for vegans, but also for vegetarians – many of whom imagine that cheese is somehow produced without harming animals. Some veal with your cheese?

They are pioneering a new cheese in New York, and there is no reason that any food lover shouldn’t take them seriously.

Enter Veronica and Pablo of Dr. Cow, a small company that got its start making granola. They use raw, organic tree nuts like cashews and macadamias as the base of their cheese products. They apply different cultures and molds, and age it like any udder cheese. The final products are irresistible, delicious, and obsession-worthy artisan cheeses that are not only amazingly savory and versatile, but they are 100% raw, vegan, and full of probiotics, enzymes, protein, healthy fats, and omega fatty acids.  While conventional cow’s milk-based cheeses are laden with cholesterol, chemicals, hormones and a host of other objectionable attributes – not to mention the ethical and environmental concerns of animal agriculture and dairy-collection, Dr. Cow’s cheeses are an anomaly; Healthy and deviantly indulgent.

In Chicago, Dr. Cow can be purchased at Karyn’s Fresh Corner, 1901 N Halsted St.

How to throw the best vegan wedding ever.

In Chicago, Spring seems to have sprung.  The Ides of March are upon us and our minds, as well as the Solar Powered Studio, is consumed with the yearly wedding readiness.  In working with the planners we're currently finishing up an order of 75 Chicago Flag Soap Bars, destined for a beautiful Georgia wedding.  150 will shortly be ready for Melbourne. 

 

So with these thoughts of weddings and romance; I thought it a good time to re-post some tried and true suggestions to consider while planning your vegan wedding:

1. Maintain a sensible tack;  Friendly but firm: Make your decision to hold a vegan wedding clear and be up front about it.  Help the unfamiliar by making a list of products that contain animals. Caterers often think they are being sensible and helpful when offering to make some items for the omnivores.  Ford them no quarter and nip it in the bud by making your stance clear.  It will help to avoid akward moments during the selection process.
2. Prepare yourself with Recipes: If you don't have access to an all-vegan caterer in your town or city; having some favorite recipes is a good start.  You may have to contact caterers that usually prepare carcass for weddings and ask if they would be able to prepare a vegan reception. Use this guide, or look at the VegNews 2008 feature on vegan weddings for hints and help.
3. Don't let the caterer take the easy way out: Doesn't this sound amazing: marinated vegetables, grilled vegetables, raw vegetables, and stuffed vegetables. Vegan does not mean they get to simply prepare a bunch of simple side dishes; nor should you let them charge you the same. There are so many resources for vegan options that please everyone.  Comfort food, gourmet food, and mainstays are all available if you keep the caterer on point.
4. Don't lose focus on the cake: In Chicago we are fortunate to have a bunch of vegan wedding cake experts but in your city; maybe not so much.  As with the caterer you may have to contact traditional wedding cake bakers to ask them if they are able to make a vegan cake.   It's not as hard as you would think.  Many bakers are willing and more than able to do this. Short of making those call there is a good resource: Jolinda's guide to vegan wedding cakes.
5. The power is in you: Facing limits in your area?  Vegan roadblocks can occur and that's when you cowgirl-up and do it yourself. Again, the vegan wedding menus feature includes recipes for almost any budget, and many of them can be sized up to accomodate large and hungry crowds. Almost any vegan cake recipe can be turned into a wedding cake. Just take a decorating class at a local bakery or college, and you'll be set. However, remember to check with the wedding venue about self catering.  It may, in some areas, be a health code issue.  If they are good with it and only have a few managable requirements to ensure safety; why not go for it and pull off the best vegan wedding ever!

Are Girl Scout cookies killing orangutans?

Source:  Grist

Please take a look at the article above from The Grist.

Below you will find my reaction to it's over simplified reporting.  In reading this article from The Grist one can easily be outraged at palm oil, cookies, The Girl Scouts, or all of the above.  However, it's once again, economics to blame.  Well, economics and the global affects on agribusiness.

Palm oil is the problem?  Girl scout cookies are the problem?  Really?!?!  An ingredient produced by the planet and little girls are to blame?  C'mon; the growing practices are to blame.  Look...I make products with sustainably grown/sourced and fair wage palm oil from a Columbian Co-op and have for a few years due to their bio-sphere positive agricultural practices.  Never once did I say to myself that the ingredient is to blame or that little children were to blame.  I just switched to a better, and more ethical producer.  

Nature or nurture?  It's not me.  It's how I was raised.

Look; it's just plain bad reporting to say things like "palm oil, the No. 1 culprit behind deforestation in Southeast Asia, particularly Indonesia and Malaysia."  Palm oil is not an evil to stamp out.  The GROWING PRACTICES are!  Support the users and producers of ethically grown and bio-diverse palm oil.  Don't just make statements, out of hand, that encourage consumers to blame a product.  Go the extra step and tell them to look for ingredients and growing cooperatives that do not contribute to rain forest deforestation, invest in adult education, build evaporation awnings to protect valuable irrigation water, and protect animal habitats.

Look I understand it's easy to vilify and tear down a product like palm oil; but if you really understood how much good this product does in our daily lives; from common baked goods to Soaps and detergents, Candles, Cosmetics, manufacturing and transportation lubrication, biodiesel, glue, printing inks, textile industry just to mention a few.

In addition to oils extracted from the oil palm fruit, other parts of the tree can be used in industry. For example, leaf fibers and empty fruit bunches are used to produce chipboard and plywood. After plantations are cleared out, the trunks of old palms can be used to make furniture.

Look, I'm all for bringing the attention to problems a affecting change but oversimplifying and demonizing a great product from the earth like palm oil is not the way to do it.

Tell your readers to look for sustainably grown products and to support businesses that "get it".  Tell you readers to vote with their dollars.  Put down the candy and cookies made with deforestation palm oil.  Sure, it's the cheapest.  Pick up the products that may cost a little more due to organic (reduced yield) farming, vegan, fair wage or fair trade, carbon neutral, or chemical free (no parabens or petrochemicals or toxins that harm the grown water or bioculture and travel up through the food chain).  Then email the Girl Scouts of America and tell them that you will buy more when they switch ingredients and that you are willing to pay for the extra cost.  Sustainable agriculture practices, humanity, species and the planet are worth it.

Winters' biggest bloopers: Common seasonal moisturizing mistakes

It's cold outside and during this time of year the streets of Chicago are bone chilling.  Perhaps it's cold in your neck of the woods as well.  Below you'll find a few tricks to fix winter dryness.

The common issues are parched frizzy over dryed hair, itchy or flakey skin, and cracked lips.  Most of the common mistakes we commit trying to fix or ward off the cold.  Each day I see commuters applying salves while waiting for the El, passing lunch breakers skirting into gleaming buildings with scorched hair and itchy and dry skin.

Most of the dryness is caused by our need for quick warmth and many of us are from the More is More School of heat.  Not so; easy does it with is the rule.   Who doesn't enjoy that steaming hot shower, comforting radiator, and the hot air of a dryer.  But these are over used sources of quick heat that we pay for later.  The cure?  Moderation and some good sources of moisture to rapair.

Hair

Your scalp produces fewer oils in the winter.  Shampooing every day is not necessary so be kind to your hair.  Naturally, if you skip a day or two it's going to feel unnatural.  Hey, it's a change to your process and you may even think that your hair feels dirty.  But don't worry.  Rinse with warm water and use an organic conditioner.

Static is often the biggest hair problem in cold weather. I recommend using a dime sized portion of vitamin E or Camellia Oil immediately after getting out of the shower, then drying your hair on a medium setting or air drying if time permits.  Careful, a little goes a long ways and be careful to avoid over moisturizing.

Lips

Ever heard the urban myth that you can be "addicted" to lip balm. Not true, but you may be addicted to a routine that is not working for you.

The solution is finding a hydrating balm with lipids that will give the barrier layer time to heal. Stay away from long-lasting lip color formulas and balms with menthol.  These items can dry and open the lips natural moisture layer to attack.  Finding and using natural lip balms with lipids is an easy trick.

Most commercial brands, including the so-called medicated lip balms, have a petroleum base. Petroleum jelly, petrolatum, white wax, paraffin wax, and mineral oil are all synonyms for petroleum or petroleum by-products, used to hold moisture against the skin – but these may be toxic.

Add to that aluminum salts, preservatives, artificial flavors and sugar or artificial sweeteners and you've got a potentially dangerous combination of chemicals that natural health experts say should not be used anywhere on the skin, and certainly not near the sensitive mucus membranes of the mouth.

But the real culprits, as far as dry lips go, are additives like menthol, camphor, phenol or alcohols that are used as counter-irritants to give lips a cool, soothing sensation as lip balm is applied.

Hygroscopic ingredients are your moisture loving friends.  Look for lipid rich hemp oil based balms, those with aloe and organic ingredients as well as good old glycerin, sorbitol, and glucose or sucrose.  These Ingredients can maintain a high level of moisture in the upper layers of the skin for several hours and can reduce the rate at which water lost.

Skin

Ceramides, lactic acids, peptides and glycerin are the best ingredients to look for in skin moisturizers.

What does that mean? Skip the anti-aging aisle (the chemicals designed to stop wrinkles can be drying) and check for vitamin E.

What happens in the shower matters too. First, pass on the boiling water. You can douse your whole body in cream but if you totally stripped your body of that protective barrier, it's going to take a lot to get it back to that natural balance.  Then switch your soap for a creamier body wash that will add moisture as it cleanses.

Cheap fix: A humidifier for your bedroom will replace the moisture that your heater sucks out of the air, stopping the problem before it starts.