SEASONAL SELF-CARE BLOG

little choices every day

Posted on January 13th, 2019

I ran out of both of my bottles of olive oil a few days ago. I’ve been using my other oils, but dipping my bread in sesame oil just wasn’t cutting it. So today I just had to get more. It’s cold outside & I really didn’t want to go out there, but I needed some olive oil and I’m also at the very bottom of my last refilled glass bottle of lotion. Since Integral Foods sadly closed last month, I’ve had to scramble and find places that I could refill everything. So this morning, looking at these empty bottles, I thought well I could just walk to the corner grocery store and easily get another bottle of olive oil, and lotion. It’s so close, so easy, and one more bottle of olive oil and one more plastic container of lotion won’t really make that big of a difference. I can at least recycle the bottle. It’s cold out there. Another part of myself said, yes, but you know that it’s a slippery slope, one bottle becomes two and three and convenience wins again and again and the Earth and ocean loose again. I know recycling isn’t really the answer because “they” say that only 9% actually gets recycled. I don’t want my plastic lotion bottle & olive oil bottle to be thrown into a landfill or floating in the ocean just because it’s a little cold outside & I’m feeling lazy today. The words of Jane Goodall were still swirling in my head from the video I saw on FB last night.

“If we could just get a critical mass of us who think about the consequences of the little choices we make each day…what we buy, what we eat, what we wear, how it’s made, did it harm the environment….so we collectively, as billions of human beings making the right ethical choices…that’s going to move us in the right direction”

And so I rose to the higher little action. I put my empty olive oil & lotion bottles, cloth bags for some rice and other dry goods, in my backpack, got my coat on and went out into the cold to the new Precycle store in Bushwick. It was actually a beautiful winter day to walk to the subway & the ride was just 15 min, no big deal really. At Precycle, I was delighted to see an array of choices for oil, besides my organic olive oil, they have canola oil, sunflower oil, balsamic & rice wine vinegar & honey. They also have bulk Vermont Liquid Lemongrass Zen Soap  & Ecos dish soap. I’m ecstatic to have these other options for liquid soaps. When I run out of mine, I’ll go fill them up @ precycle. Unfortunately they do not have bulk lotions, which I’m bummed about. I talked with the owner about the need for a refillable lotion now that Integral is closed as it was the only place I could find in New York with refillable lotion. I suggested that she carry EO lavender lotion since I know that exists in refillable dispensers with a pump. When I went up to pay, she had already looked into EO lotions. I was impressed- She’s already on it!! So hopefully we will have a new place to get refillable lotion!! If you know of another place that does refillable lotion, please let me know. As I have maybe 3 more days of lotion & then I need to refill my lotion bottle!

joyous heart!

Leigh
plastic free yogini
#plasticfreeforthesea
#bethechange