Here’s the thing: the evidence that it actually works is pretty thin, and the reasons people give for using eggshells often don’t hold up to much scrutiny.

The Calcium Myth

Let’s start with the calcium argument, since that’s the main one. Eggshells are mostly calcium carbonate, and calcium is a genuine plant nutrient. The logic seems airtight. Except that calcium carbonate is essentially insoluble in soil that isn’t highly acidic, and most garden soils aren’t.

Research out of Washington State University found that crushed eggshells decompose extremely slowly under normal garden conditions, meaning the calcium they contain largely stays locked up and unavailable to plants. You’d need to grind them into a fine powder and have soil acidic enough to facilitate breakdown before they’d contribute anything meaningful to plant nutrition.

And if your soil actually is calcium-deficient? Agricultural lime does the same job faster, cheaper, and in a form plants can actually use. A soil test from your local extension service tells you whether you even have a calcium problem in the first place, which most garden soils don’t.

The Slug Myth

Then there’s the slug deterrent claim, which is probably the most widespread eggshell myth of all. The theory is that slugs won’t cross crushed shells because the sharp edges cut them. It’s a vivid mental image. It’s also not well-supported.

A study published in the journal Hortscience tested eggshells alongside other popular slug deterrents and found they were among the least effective. Slugs crossed the shells without apparent difficulty. Anyone who’s watched a slug navigate gravel, rough bark, or the edge of a terracotta pot might not be surprised by this. These are animals that produce their own mucus specifically for navigating hostile surfaces.

If slugs are genuinely destroying your plants, there are options that actually work: copper tape creates a mild electrochemical reaction that slugs avoid, iron phosphate pellets are effective and safe for wildlife, and trapping with shallow containers of beer is low-tech and surprisingly reliable. Eggshells are not in that category.

The Eco-Friendly Solution For Eggshells

The one place I’ll give eggshells partial credit: compost. Ground fine enough, they can contribute calcium to a compost pile over time as organic acids from decomposing material help break them down. But that’s a very different claim than sprinkling them around your tomatoes and expecting results. And even in compost, you’d need a lot of them to move the needle on anything measurable.

The reason this bothers me isn’t that eggshells are harmful. They’re not. It’s that gardening is already full of confident advice that doesn’t work, and new gardeners especially deserve better than a hobby built on myths recycled from post to post because they feel true. If you’re spending time crushing eggshells under the impression you’re preventing blossom end rot or building healthier soil, that time could go toward something with actual evidence behind it.

What About Blossom End Rot?

Blossom end rot on tomatoes and peppers, incidentally, is almost never caused by calcium deficiency in the soil. It’s usually a calcium uptake problem caused by inconsistent watering, which prevents the plant from moving calcium from roots to fruit regardless of how much is available. Adding eggshells to the soil doesn’t fix that. Consistent moisture does.

If you want to do something useful with kitchen scraps, composting them correctly and returning finished compost to your beds will improve soil structure, biology, and nutrient availability in ways that matter. That’s not as satisfying a tip as “save your eggshells,” but it’s what actually works.

Keep the eggshells if you want. Grind them very fine, put them in the compost bin, and call it a day. Just stop expecting them to do the things the internet keeps promising they’ll do.

The post Stop Putting Eggshells in Your Garden appeared first on Give A Shit About Nature.

The good news is that once you know which kind of paint you have, the path forward is fairly straightforward.

Latex Paint Versus Oil-Based Paint: Why It Matters

The first thing to figure out is what type of paint you’re dealing with, because the disposal methods are genuinely different.

Latex paint (also called water-based paint) is what most interior and exterior house paints have been for the past few decades. If the label says “clean up with soap and water,” it’s latex. Once completely dried and solid, latex paint is generally not classified as hazardous household waste and can go in regular household trash in most areas. The key word is solid.

Oil-based paint is classified as hazardous waste in most U.S. states. If the label says “clean up with mineral spirits” or “paint thinner,” it’s oil-based. This includes alkyd paints, many stains and varnishes, and some primers. Oil-based paints contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and solvents that can leach into soil, contaminate groundwater, and harm aquatic life. Throwing liquid oil-based paint in the trash is illegal in most states. Pouring it down a drain is both illegal and harmful to your plumbing and the water treatment system downstream.

When in doubt, check the can’s label for cleanup instructions. That alone will tell you what you’re working with.

Latex Paint: How to Dispose of It

For small amounts of leftover latex paint, the simplest method is letting it dry out completely in its container. The EPA recommends exposing leftover latex to air or mixing it with an absorbent material like kitty litter or shredded newspaper to accelerate drying, then throwing away the solid paint in your regular household trash. Leave the lid off the can when you put it out so your trash collector can see it’s dry.

For larger quantities, you can split the paint into multiple shallow containers to speed up the drying process, or add a commercial paint hardener (available at hardware stores). Once completely solid, it goes in the trash.

What you should never do: pour liquid latex paint down the drain, even though it’s water-based. It can clog pipes and disrupt water treatment processes. The environmental harm isn’t as severe as with oil-based paint, but it’s still unnecessary and in many places against local regulations.

Oil-Based Paint: Your Options

Liquid oil-based paint needs to go through a proper disposal channel. The two main options are:

Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) programs. Most counties and municipalities hold free HHW collection events at least a few times per year where residents can drop off oil-based paint, solvents, and other regulated materials. Earth911.com has a zip-code search tool that shows nearby HHW facilities and upcoming collection events. The EPA also maintains a directory of state and local HHW programs. These collections are typically free for households and are the easiest path for most people.

PaintCare drop-off sites. PaintCare is a nonprofit program funded by paint manufacturers that operates drop-off locations at hardware stores and retailers in participating states. In PaintCare states (currently including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Maine, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Washington D.C., among others), you can drop off both latex and oil-based paint at no charge at thousands of locations, many of which are hardware stores you’re probably already familiar with.

They accept house paint, primers, stains, sealers, and clear coatings like shellac and varnish, in containers up to five gallons.

If you’re unsure whether your state has a PaintCare program, the site locator at paintcare.org covers both PaintCare states and broader HHW locations nationally.

The Better Option: Use It, Give It Away, or Donate It

Before disposal is even a question, it’s worth thinking about reuse. Leftover paint in good condition is a resource, and tossing it is both wasteful and unnecessary if someone else can use it.

Paint that’s still liquid, well-mixed, and stored properly can often be touched up, used for priming, or donated. Many Habitat for Humanity ReStores accept usable latex paint, remix it, and resell it at discounted prices, with proceeds supporting affordable housing projects. Some community organizations and community theater groups actively seek donated paint. PaintCare also operates PaintShare reuse programs in some areas that return good-quality unused paint to the community at low or no cost.

The easiest path is often just using the paint. Touch-up jobs, garage walls, priming new projects, painting a shed — leftovers often disappear faster than you expect when you start looking for places to use them.

What About the Empty Cans?

Once a paint can is completely empty and dry, it’s often recyclable as metal. Whether it goes in your curbside bin depends on your local program. PaintCare drop-off sites do not accept empty cans, so if your curbside program doesn’t take them, they go in the trash. Leave the lid off so collectors can see the can is dry and empty.

Metal-lidded cans with any residual liquid paint are a different matter. Dry them out first, then check local guidance on whether they can go in metal recycling.

Avoiding the Problem Next Time

The cleanest solution to leftover paint is not having it. Paint calculators on most major paint brand websites can estimate how much you need for a given room size with surprising accuracy, and buying one container less than you think you need is usually better than buying one too many. Writing the room name and date on the lid when you open a can helps with future touch-ups so you don’t forget what you bought or when.

If you do end up with leftover paint, storing it properly buys you time. A tight seal, a cool location, and a layer of plastic wrap under the lid before you close it can keep latex paint usable for several years and oil-based paint for a year or more. That’s time you can find a use for it rather than treating it as waste.

FAQ

Can I pour paint down the drain? No, for either type. Latex paint can clog pipes and disrupt water treatment. Oil-based paint is toxic to aquatic life and illegal to pour down drains in most areas. Neither should go in a drain, storm sewer, or onto the ground.

How do I find a paint drop-off near me? PaintCare’s site locator at paintcare.org covers both PaintCare program states and broader HHW locations nationwide. Earth911.com is also a good zip-code search tool for HHW events and facilities.

Is spray paint handled differently? Yes. Aerosol spray paint is typically not accepted at PaintCare drop-offs and should go to a household hazardous waste event. Check your local HHW program for specifics.

Can I recycle paint cans? Only if completely empty and dry. Whether metal paint cans are accepted in curbside recycling depends on your local program. Check with your waste hauler before putting them out.

What if my paint has a skin on top but is still liquid underneath? If the paint under the skin is still smooth and mixes evenly, it may still be usable. Remove the skin, stir thoroughly, and do a test patch. If it goes on smoothly, you can use it. If it’s chunky or lumpy throughout, it’s past its usable life and needs to be disposed of.

The post How To Dispose Of Old Paint The Right Way, And Why It Actually Matters appeared first on Give A Shit About Nature.

Whether those advantages translate into the bamboo product sitting in your cart is a completely different question, and the answer is usually no, it doesn’t actually come up in conversation before someone buys a set of bamboo sheets.

The Plant Versus the Product

The confusion at the center of bamboo’s eco-friendly reputation is the gap between what the plant does and what manufacturing does to it. As a crop, bamboo has legitimate sustainability credentials. It regenerates from its root system after cutting, can be harvested in three to five years compared to decades for hardwood trees, and supports soil stability. These things are real.

What happens next depends entirely on what kind of product is being made.

For solid bamboo products, things like cutting boards, flooring, chopsticks, or furniture, the material goes through relatively straightforward mechanical processing: cut, dried, pressed, and finished. The environmental footprint of this process is reasonably comparable to wood products, and bamboo’s fast growth rate gives it a meaningful advantage over hardwoods in renewability. When comparing bamboo flooring to tropical hardwood flooring, for example, bamboo regenerates in years rather than decades. That’s a real difference worth acknowledging.

For bamboo fabric, the story is almost entirely different.

What the FTC Says About Bamboo Clothing

The Federal Trade Commission has issued clear guidance on bamboo textiles: when bamboo has been chemically processed into rayon or viscose fabric, there is no trace of the original bamboo plant left in the finished material. The FTC considers labeling such products as “bamboo fabric” to be misleading, and the agency has pursued multiple enforcement actions against companies making unsubstantiated eco-friendly claims about bamboo clothing and bedding.

The process that creates most bamboo fabric starts with bamboo pulp, but then uses sodium hydroxide and carbon disulfide to dissolve the cellulose and regenerate it as fiber. Carbon disulfide is a neurotoxin with documented health effects in textile workers, and both chemicals can cause environmental harm through air and water pollution if not properly managed. What comes out the other end is rayon, with bamboo as the cellulose source rather than wood. The soft, silky feel that bamboo fabric is known for is a property of the rayon manufacturing process, not of bamboo itself.

The FTC notes directly that although bamboo plants can resist the growth of bacteria, there’s no evidence that rayon fabric made from processed bamboo retains any such antibacterial properties. The marketing claims that travel with bamboo fabric (natural, antibacterial, breathable, eco-friendly) are claims about bamboo the plant, not bamboo-derived rayon.

What’s Actually More Sustainable in Bamboo Fabric

There are better-processed bamboo fabric options, though they’re harder to find and more expensive.

Bamboo lyocell uses a closed-loop production process where the chemical solvents are captured and reused rather than discharged, significantly reducing pollution compared to conventional viscose. It’s a more honest product than bamboo rayon, though it’s still a manufactured fiber rather than a natural one.

Bamboo linen is the most direct translation of the plant into fabric: mechanically processed through retting, similar to how flax becomes linen. It has a rougher texture than bamboo rayon and represents a very small fraction of what’s sold as bamboo fabric. If bamboo linen is what you want, you’ll need to specifically look for it from a supplier who’s transparent about processing methods.

For most of what’s sold as bamboo clothing and bedding, TENCEL (lyocell made from wood pulp via closed-loop processing) or organic cotton is a genuinely more environmentally honest alternative.

Where Bamboo Actually Delivers

Solid bamboo products used in place of tropical hardwood or plastic are where the sustainability argument holds up most cleanly. A bamboo cutting board, compared to a plastic one, sidesteps the microplastic shedding problem associated with synthetic surfaces, is durable, and comes from a fast-renewing source. Bamboo flooring, when made with lower-VOC adhesives and installed as an alternative to tropical hardwood, has a reasonable sustainability case. Bamboo chopsticks used in place of plastic disposables reduce petrochemical material use.

The key variable in solid bamboo products is the adhesives and finishes. Bamboo flooring and some bamboo boards use formaldehyde-based glues in their manufacturing, which affects indoor air quality and complicates the end-of-life story. Certifications like FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) and low-VOC designations are worth looking for if this matters to you.

How to Make a More Informed Decision

When evaluating any bamboo product, the relevant questions are: what processing was involved, and what is the specific comparison being made? A bamboo cutting board compared to a plastic one is a favorable comparison. A bamboo fabric marketed as natural and biodegradable, with no mention of the chemical processing involved, is a much less honest comparison.

The same applies to bamboo toothbrushes (a reasonable plastic alternative, though the bristles are typically still nylon), bamboo paper (depends heavily on the process), and bamboo textiles (requires significant digging to assess). Bamboo’s growth characteristics give it a real head start as a raw material. What manufacturers do with that material determines whether the advantage survives to the finished product.

Buying bamboo isn’t inherently more or less sustainable than buying other materials. The honest answer requires knowing which product, which process, and compared to what.

Bamboo’s reputation has outrun its reality in a lot of product categories. That doesn’t mean it’s not a useful plant. It means the due diligence still matters.

FAQ

Is bamboo clothing eco-friendly? Most bamboo clothing is bamboo-derived rayon or viscose, made through a chemical-intensive process that uses substances including carbon disulfide. The FTC considers marketing this as “natural bamboo fabric” misleading. Bamboo lyocell and bamboo linen are more environmentally processed alternatives, though harder to find.

Is bamboo flooring sustainable? Compared to tropical hardwood, bamboo flooring has a meaningful advantage in renewability due to its rapid regrowth. The main concerns are adhesive content (some use formaldehyde-based glues) and transportation emissions, since most bamboo flooring is manufactured in Asia. FSC certification and low-VOC finishes are useful indicators.

Are bamboo cutting boards eco-friendly? Generally yes, compared to plastic alternatives. Bamboo is renewable, durable, and doesn’t shed microplastics. Some bamboo boards use formaldehyde-based adhesives, so checking for food-safe, non-toxic finishing is worthwhile.

Does bamboo actually sequester more carbon than trees? Bamboo does sequester carbon as it grows, and fast-growing bamboo can capture significant carbon during its growth phase. However, when bamboo is harvested and processed into products, much of that stored carbon may be released depending on how the product is made and how long it’s used. The net carbon math is more complicated than marketing typically suggests.

Should I buy bamboo products? For solid products like cutting boards, utensils, and flooring replacing hardwood or plastic, bamboo is a reasonable choice. For textiles, the eco-friendly marketing often exceeds the actual environmental performance of most bamboo fabrics. Look at what processing is involved and what specific alternative the product is being compared to.

The post Is Bamboo Actually Eco-Friendly? The Answer Depends on the Product appeared first on Give A Shit About Nature.

About 90 percent of the energy a washing machine uses goes toward heating the water. The actual mechanical work of washing clothes accounts for the remaining 10 percent. That ratio makes cold water one of the most impactful settings on the whole appliance, and most people aren’t using it.

Why Cold Water Got an Unfair Reputation

The association between hot water and clean laundry made more sense decades ago, when detergent formulas were designed to activate at higher temperatures. Cold-water washing sometimes meant weaker cleaning performance, and that reputation stuck around long after the underlying reality changed.

Modern detergents, including most standard brands available at any grocery store, are formulated to perform well in cold water. The cleaning agents activate at lower temperatures, which means a cold cycle with a current detergent typically cleans as effectively as a warm cycle with an older formula.

The Energy Saving Trust found that washing at 30°C rather than 40°C reduces energy use by up to 57 percent per cycle, not because the clothes come out less clean, but because the machine isn’t spending most of its energy on the water itself.

For everyday laundry, which is most laundry, this is genuinely a no-sacrifice swap.

The Carbon Math Is Hard to Ignore

A 2016 report estimated that U.S. households produce around 179 million metric tons of CO2 per year from laundry. GE Appliances data found that only about one in five laundry cycles in top-loading machines currently uses cold water, meaning the vast majority of residential laundry is still being done with heated water that serves little functional purpose.

The individual impact is real too. Earth911 estimates that a household washing four out of five loads in cold water could reduce carbon emissions by around 864 pounds per year. That’s not a negligible number. For a practical household habit that costs nothing and takes zero extra effort, it stacks up unusually well against more complicated environmental actions.

This is the kind of change that’s easy to dismiss because it sounds too minor to matter. It doesn’t.

The Microplastic Problem

Beyond energy, there’s another reason cold water matters, and this one connects more directly to wildlife and waterways.

Synthetic fabrics, including polyester, nylon, acrylic, and polyester-cotton blends, shed microscopic plastic fibers during washing. These microfibers pass through wastewater treatment plants into rivers, lakes, and eventually oceans, where they’ve been found in fish tissue, drinking water, and marine sediments. A 2016 study published in Marine Pollution Bulletin estimated that a single wash cycle can release over 700,000 fibers from a 6 kg load of synthetic fabric.

Research published in Environmental Pollution found that microfiber release from synthetic fabrics increases as washing temperature increases, a pattern observed across polyester, polyamide, and acetate. Warmer water causes fibers to swell and separate more readily. Cooler water means less shedding per wash, which means fewer microplastics entering the water supply.

This connects to a broader issue worth understanding. Plastic pollution in waterways harms the same wildlife ecosystems that native gardens and habitat restoration projects support. The same marine animals documented ingesting plastic bags are also ingesting microfibers from laundry. The two problems come from different sources but end up in the same places.

What Actually Needs Hot Water

Cold water is fine for the overwhelming majority of household laundry. There are genuine exceptions.

Hot water remains useful for items where sanitization actually matters: cloth diapers, bedding used during illness, heavily soiled work clothes, or towels if someone in the household is immunocompromised. The CDC and most health guidance recommends washing items that have been in contact with someone sick at high temperatures. For those specific cases, hot water does real work.

For everyday clothing, workout gear, bed linens not related to illness, and most household textiles, cold water does the job. The distinction is worth making because it means you don’t have to adopt a rule. You just have to stop defaulting to heat when there’s no functional reason for it.

The Dryer Is the Bigger Problem

One thing worth knowing: the washing machine is only part of the laundry equation. Machine drying accounts for roughly 75 percent of laundry’s total carbon footprint according to Colorado State University’s sustainability program, significantly more than the washer. Air drying even a portion of your laundry reduces impact more than any single setting on the washer itself.

This isn’t to undercut the cold water argument. Both matter. But if the goal is reducing the environmental footprint of laundry specifically, cold washing plus air drying on even a partial basis is where the biggest combined gains are. If you have a yard or porch and decent weather, hanging clothes or items outside connects to the same logic as leaving space for natural processes in your yard: letting things dry and decompose naturally tends to be less disruptive than the powered alternative.

A drying rack inside works too, particularly in winter, and has the side effect of adding some humidity to dry indoor air.

The Practical Version

Switch your default wash setting to cold. Use warm or hot specifically when the load actually calls for it, which is less often than most people do it currently. Check that your detergent performs in cold water (most modern formulas do; if you’re using something older, it’s worth confirming). Run full loads rather than partial ones, since the machine uses nearly the same energy regardless of load size.

That’s essentially it. Nothing dramatic, no special equipment, no ongoing cost. The barrier to this change is almost entirely the lingering assumption that hot equals clean, and most of us picked that up without thinking much about it.

FAQ

Does cold water actually clean as well as hot? For typical household laundry, yes, when using a modern detergent formulated for cold water. Hot water has functional advantages for heavily soiled items and situations requiring sanitization, but those represent a minority of most households’ laundry loads.

Will cold water washing save money on my energy bill? Since heating water accounts for roughly 90 percent of a washing machine’s energy use, switching to cold water can produce a measurable reduction in electricity costs over time, though the exact savings depend on how often you do laundry, your machine’s age, and your local energy rates.

Does cold water washing affect how long clothes last? Warmer water tends to cause more wear on fabrics, can cause colors to fade faster, and contributes to shrinkage in natural fibers like cotton. Cold water is generally gentler on most garments, which can extend their usable life.

Should I change detergents to wash in cold water? Most widely available detergents sold in recent years are formulated to work in cold water. If your detergent is older or specialized for hot water use, it may be worth switching, but for most households, the current detergent will perform fine.

What about washing synthetic fabrics specifically? Cold water is actually a better choice for synthetics from an environmental standpoint, since warmer water increases microfiber shedding. For synthetic fabrics, shorter cycles and lower temperatures reduce the number of microplastic fibers that enter wastewater.

The post Cold Water Laundry: The Easiest Eco Habit Most People Still Haven’t Made appeared first on Give A Shit About Nature.

That’s a meaningful disruption to facilities processing thousands of tons of material, and it contaminates the paper stream in the process. A 2021 study published in Waste Management found that only about 12% of post-consumer plastic films with viable recycling pathways were actually being recovered in the U.S., and the primary reason is that most of them end up in the wrong bin.

Why Curbside Recycling Can’t Handle Plastic Bags

Materials recovery facilities (MRFs) use conveyor belts, spinning discs, and air jets to sort recyclables by type. These systems work well for rigid containers, cardboard, and glass. Plastic bags, being light and flexible, behave like fabric in this environment. They wrap around the spinning mechanisms, get caught in the rollers, and create the kind of problem that stops the whole line.

Recycle Ann Arbor describes the situation plainly: plastic bags and plastic film tangle up in the gears of recycling trucks and wrap around sorting equipment, causing multi-hour shutdowns. Workers have to enter the machines to cut and remove jammed material. And when bags do make it through, they end up in the paper stream, making that paper harder to process downstream.

This is why the instruction “do not put plastic bags in the recycling” shows up on nearly every curbside program’s guidance. It’s not arbitrary. The machines genuinely can’t handle them.

Where Plastic Bags Can Actually Be Recycled

The right path for plastic bags is a store drop-off program, not your blue bin. Major retailers including Walmart, Target, Kroger, Lowe’s, and many grocery chains have collection bins near their entrances that accept clean, dry plastic film for recycling. There are more than 18,000 locations in North America that participate in these programs.

Once collected, the bags are baled and sent to facilities that process polyethylene film specifically, where they’re turned into composite lumber, plastic decking, and similar products.

What these programs accept is broader than just grocery bags. Most also take bread bags, produce bags, dry cleaning bags, newspaper sleeves, bubble wrap, and the plastic wrap from paper towel multipacks. The rule of thumb: if it’s plastic, if it stretches when you pull it, and if it’s clean and dry, it likely qualifies. Check the bin at your local retailer for their specific list.

The key preparation step is cleaning and drying. Wet or food-contaminated bags contaminate the whole batch, which is how well-intentioned recycling ends up as landfill anyway.

The Bigger Picture on Plastic Film

It’s worth understanding why this matters beyond just the recycling logistics. NOAA’s marine debris program documents that all seven species of sea turtles have been confirmed to eat marine debris, with plastic bags and sheeting among the most common items ingested because they resemble jellyfish. A 2025 study published in PNAS and covered by The Conversation found that the lethal dose of ingested plastic for marine animals is far smaller than previously understood, and that plastic bags are among the most dangerous items collected in coastal cleanups.

The NOAA marine debris data connects directly to how plastic enters waterways in the first place. Bags placed incorrectly in curbside recycling can fall out during collection and transport. Bags left loose in trash cans are light enough to blow away. They end up in storm drains, waterways, and eventually coastal habitats, which is where the harm to wildlife begins. It’s the same chain of events whether the bag started in a well-meaning recycling bin or a carelessly closed trash bag.

Reducing plastic bag use altogether is the most effective step, and reusable bags are the obvious practical option most people already own. But for the bags that do come into the house, whether from produce, bread, or occasional grocery trips, the store drop-off bin is the right disposal pathway.

What Else Goes in the Store Drop-Off Bin

Since most people don’t know how broad the plastic film category actually is, it’s worth being specific. Along with grocery bags, most retail collection programs accept:

Bread and produce bags, cereal bags (the liner inside the box), dry cleaning bags, newspaper bags, the outer wrap on multipacks of water bottles or paper towels, bubble wrap, plastic mailers and bubble mailers (film portion only), Ziploc-style bags that are clean and dry, and plastic overwrap from electronics or household items.

This is a meaningful amount of plastic that can be diverted from landfill with a minor habit change: save a bag for your bags, keep it near the door, and take it to the store when you go.

The Part That Actually Requires Some Honesty

Plastic film drop-off programs are an improvement over landfill, but recycling rates for this material remain low, and the downstream market for recycled plastic film is limited compared to other materials. Recycling is better than landfill, but it’s not a complete solution. The hierarchy of reduce, reuse, recycle exists for a reason: reducing how much plastic film enters your home in the first place is more effective than recycling it after the fact.

That said, for the plastic that does come into your home, the difference between the right bin and the wrong one is real. Putting plastic bags in the curbside recycling creates problems for everyone in the system. Collecting them and taking them to a store drop-off is a small, concrete action that actually works.

It’s a bit like the difference between composting your food scraps correctly versus throwing organic material into a bin where it generates methane in a landfill. The material itself might be recyclable or compostable, but the pathway matters entirely.

FAQ

Can I recycle Ziploc bags? Yes, if they’re clean and completely dry. Ziploc and other resealable plastic bags are made from polyethylene film and are accepted at most retail store drop-off programs. Rinse them and let them fully dry before dropping them off.

What if there’s no store drop-off near me? Search for your zip code on the Plastic Film Recycling directory to find participating locations. Most areas with major grocery or home improvement retailers have a collection point within a reasonable distance.

Are biodegradable or compostable plastic bags recyclable with film plastics? No. Compostable and biodegradable bags are made from different materials and cannot be processed with conventional polyethylene film. They need to go in a certified composting program (if compostable) or the trash. Mixing them into film recycling contaminates the batch.

What happens to the plastic bags collected at stores? They’re baled and sold to film recyclers, who process them into pellets used to manufacture composite lumber, plastic decking, and similar products. They’re generally not turned back into grocery bags.

Should I just stop using plastic bags entirely? Reusable bags are the most effective option for grocery and produce trips. For plastic film that enters your home through packaging (bread bags, bubble wrap, cereal liners), collection and store drop-off is the realistic alternative to landfill.

The post Plastic Bags Are Recyclable. Just Not the Way Most People Think. appeared first on Give A Shit About Nature.

The problem is that the “biodegradable” claim has been tested rigorously, and the results aren’t what the label implies.

What the Research Actually Found

The most direct test of this question came from researchers at the University of Tasmania’s Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies. They placed commercial latex balloons, including those marketed as biodegradable, into freshwater, saltwater, and industrial compost for 16 weeks.

Published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials, the study found no meaningful degradation in any of the three environments. After four months in an industrial compost heap specifically designed to accelerate organic breakdown, the balloons came out intact, with knots still tied and color still vivid.

The industry’s primary counterargument has historically rested on a 1989 study, funded by the balloon industry itself, that claimed latex balloons degraded at roughly the same rate as oak leaves. That study was never peer-reviewed, its methodology was not disclosed, and it was later used in marketing for decades before independent researchers were able to test the claim directly.

Researchers writing in The Conversation characterized this history plainly: the industry relied on a single industry-funded study for decades.

The reason latex resists decomposition longer than raw rubber might suggest is the manufacturing process. To make high-quality balloons, latex is vulcanized with sulfur and combined with additional compounds including colorants, plasticizers, and stabilizers. These processing chemicals interfere with the biological degradation pathways that would otherwise break down natural rubber, meaning the finished balloon bears limited resemblance to what a rubber tree produces.

Why the Lag Time Matters

Even setting aside the question of whether balloons biodegrade at all, the harm to wildlife happens before decomposition, not after. A balloon released outdoors can travel hundreds of kilometers before landing.

Research cited by Wageningen University found that in water, latex balloons retained their original flexible character for over five months, which extends the window during which an animal can encounter an intact, flexible piece of material resembling a jellyfish or other prey.

This matters a great deal. A 2025 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, based on more than 10,000 animal necropsies, found that just three pieces of rubber (predominantly from balloons) gave a seabird a 50 percent chance of mortality. The researchers attributed the particular lethality of balloon rubber to its elasticity, which allows it to deform and cause obstructions at junctions in the digestive tract in ways that harder plastic fragments do not. Seabirds, sea turtles, and marine mammals all showed documented mortality from balloon ingestion.

The biodegradability timeline, even in the most optimistic estimates of six months to a few years, does nothing to protect the wildlife that encounters a balloon in the hours, days, or weeks after it lands.

The Ribbon Problem

Balloons typically come with ribbon or string attached, and this component doesn’t biodegrade even when the latex does. Ribbon and string trailing from a released balloon can entangle birds, turtles, and marine mammals, and they persist in the environment far longer than the balloon itself. This is sometimes overlooked when people evaluate “biodegradable” balloon products, which may address the balloon material while leaving the ribbon entirely unchanged.

What This Means for Celebrations and Memorials

If you’re organizing an event that currently uses balloon releases, there are alternatives that create similar visual impact without the environmental consequence. Seeded paper that can be planted afterward, bubbles (which disperse harmlessly), pinwheels, flags, streamers held by participants, or simply a collective moment of silence or candle lighting all accomplish the same commemorative purpose. We’ve covered plastic pollution in waterways before in the context of what ends up where, and balloons travel exactly the same routes as other plastic litter, with the added problem of being specifically attractive to wildlife.

For indoor use, balloons are a different matter. A balloon kept indoors, deflated after use, and put in the trash rather than released outdoors has a limited environmental footprint. The issue is specifically with release outdoors, where balloons become uncontrolled litter traveling to wherever the wind takes them.

If you want to use balloons for decoration without releasing them, the environmental concern is substantially reduced. Deflate and bin them after the event. The harm comes from the moment they enter the outdoor environment, not from the balloon existing.

The Practical Bottom Line

Biodegradable latex balloons are not meaningfully safer for wildlife than conventional balloons when released outdoors, based on current research. The degradation claims don’t hold up under independent testing, and the harm to wildlife occurs on a timeline that decomposition doesn’t address. The elasticity of latex specifically makes balloon fragments particularly dangerous to seabirds and marine mammals even in small quantities.

Choosing biodegradable balloons for outdoor releases isn’t a neutral choice wrapped in better packaging. The more accurate alternative, for events where something visible and uplifting is wanted, is switching formats entirely. That might feel like a bigger adjustment than it actually is, but most of the alternatives are inexpensive, widely available, and create the same shared moment without the downstream problem.

FAQ

Are latex balloons better than mylar balloons? From a biodegradation standpoint, latex breaks down faster than mylar foil. But the more relevant comparison for wildlife is whether either type should be released outdoors. Both pose hazards during the period before decomposition occurs, and neither disappears quickly enough to eliminate wildlife risk.

What about biodegradable ribbon or string? Most balloon ribbon is conventional plastic and does not biodegrade. Some companies sell natural twine or paper ribbon as an alternative, which is an improvement but doesn’t address the balloon itself landing in the environment.

Is releasing one balloon a big deal? The impact of any single balloon is genuinely small. The concern is cumulative: balloon releases happen at scale across many events, and balloons travel far from their release point. The animals affected have no way to distinguish between a single release and a mass release.

What about memorial releases specifically? Many families find balloon releases meaningful for memorials. Alternatives like planting a tree or native plant in someone’s memory, releasing butterflies (though this also has ecological concerns with non-native species), or using biodegradable seed paper create a lasting mark rather than a temporary visual. The intent behind the gesture translates to multiple formats.

Are there any truly biodegradable balloon alternatives? Bubbles biodegrade rapidly and harmlessly. Some companies make biodegradable confetti from flower petals or rice paper. Pinwheels, tissue paper pom-poms, and kite-style decorations all create movement and color without becoming wildlife hazards. None of these have the same simple visual impact as a balloon release, but all of them avoid the downstream problem.

The post Are Biodegradable Balloons Actually Better? The Science Says No appeared first on Give A Shit About Nature.

Fall planting flips that timeline. Plants go in during the cool months, spend the winter building roots, and come out of dormancy in spring ready to produce — often giving you a meaningful harvest in the first year after planting. Iowa State University Extension describes fall-planted strawberries as reaching “close to, if not full, fruit production the following spring.” Texas A&M AgriLife Extension puts it plainly: October is the prime time for planting strawberries if you want better springtime yields.

This isn’t obscure knowledge. Fall planting is standard practice among commercial strawberry growers. Home gardeners just tend not to know it exists.

Why Fall Works Better for Strawberries

The logic is simple once you understand what strawberries are doing underground. When you plant in fall, the soil is still warm from summer — warm enough to encourage root growth, but the air is cooling fast enough that the plant isn’t stressed by heat or trying to push foliage. Cool-season root establishment is genuinely what sets plants up for strong spring production. Strawberryplants.org notes that cooler soil promotes root development over foliage and stem growth, which is exactly what you want in the months before dormancy.

Fall also comes with a practical bonus that spring planting can’t offer: far fewer weeds. Annual weeds are dying back by September and October. They won’t compete with your new transplants, and a layer of mulch at planting can suppress what remains. Spring planting, by contrast, drops new strawberry plants into the middle of peak weed germination season. Anyone who has tried to stay ahead of weeds while also managing their other spring plantings knows how that usually goes.

The other advantage is time. Spring is busy. You’re starting seeds, hardening off transplants, turning soil, and managing a dozen other tasks at once. Fall has a slower pace for most gardeners, which means more attention for getting the bed prepared properly.

The Timing Window and What It Depends On

A general guideline for fall planting is four to six weeks before your expected first hard frost — enough time for plants to put down meaningful root growth before they go dormant, but not so early that they’re still pushing foliage and runners when cold sets in. In most of the mid-Atlantic and upper South, that puts the window in September and October. In the Deep South and warmer zones, planting can extend into November or even later.

Planting too early can work against you. Research from the University of Arkansas found that strawberries planted too early in fall may produce more runners than crowns — runners being the vegetative spreading shoots, crowns being the structures that actually produce flowers and fruit in spring. You want crown development, not excessive runner production. The ideal window varies by region, so checking with your local cooperative extension service for zone-specific timing is worthwhile if you’re unsure.

Plugs vs. Bare Root for Fall Planting

For fall specifically, plugs tend to outperform bare-root plants. Plugs arrive with soil already on their roots, which means less transplant shock, faster establishment, and an easier transition into winter dormancy. Bare-root plants are better suited to early spring, when they can wake up gradually alongside warming soil. If you’re planting in fall, look for plug transplants rather than the dormant bare-root crowns.

Whichever form you use, the planting depth is the same non-negotiable: the crown — the thick, knotty point where the roots meet the plant — needs to sit right at soil level. Bury it too deep and it rots. Plant it too shallow and the roots dry out. Getting this right matters more than almost anything else in the early life of the plant.

The Setup: What the Bed Needs Before You Plant

Strawberries want full sun — six or more hours daily — and well-drained soil. They’re sensitive to sitting in wet ground, especially over winter. If your soil is heavy clay, raising the bed even a few inches makes a real difference.

Soil pH in the 5.5–6.5 range tends to suit them well. A soil test before planting takes the guesswork out of it and lets you adjust rather than troubleshoot later. Most county cooperative extensions offer inexpensive soil testing and will tell you exactly what amendments to add.

Work in compost before planting — the same kind of thinking that applies to compost more broadly applies here: organic matter improves drainage, feeds soil biology, and helps plants establish faster. Skip heavy fertilizer at planting in fall. Nebraska Extension recommends avoiding excess fertilizer until spring warm-up, since pushing growth in fall can actually reduce winter hardiness.

Mulching: The Step You Can’t Skip for Fall Planting

If there’s one thing that separates successful fall planting from failed fall planting in colder climates, it’s mulch. Strawberry crowns can be damaged when temperatures drop below 15°F without protection, and freeze-thaw cycling — the alternating freezing and thawing of soil — can physically heave young plants out of the ground.

Wait to apply mulch until the soil has frozen to a depth of about half an inch, or until daytime temperatures have dropped consistently into the 20s°F. This timing matters: mulching too early can delay the plant’s natural hardening-off process and make it more vulnerable to the winter ahead. Apply four inches of loose straw, pine needles, or wood chips — something that won’t compact and smother. Avoid leaves for this purpose, as they tend to mat down.

In spring, pull back the mulch gradually as growth resumes, but leave some between rows for weed suppression and moisture retention through the growing season.

What You’ll Get the Following Spring

A well-established fall-planted strawberry has spent several months building a root system before it ever sees a spring. It wakes up ready to flower. For June-bearing varieties, you can expect a real harvest — not necessarily a bumper crop, but meaningful fruit — in that first summer after planting. Compare that to a spring-planted strawberry, which in many cases you’re pinching blossoms from for an entire season to encourage root development instead.

Day-neutral and everbearing varieties behave somewhat differently — they can fruit in their first year regardless of planting time — but they also benefit from fall planting’s root establishment advantages.

The Connection to a Healthier Garden Overall

Strawberries, grown well, are one of the more wildlife-friendly food crops. Their flowers support native pollinators early in the season when other nectar sources can be scarce. Nectar plants that attract butterflies and bees work in concert with food crops; a strawberry patch with some flowering companions nearby can become a genuinely productive corner of the yard for both people and pollinators. Native plants in pots and strawberry planters can even coexist in small spaces if your garden footprint is limited.

And if you’re thinking about soil health for the long run, leaving organic material in place — composting scraps, top-dressing with mulch rather than bare soil — builds the kind of biology that strawberries (and most perennials) thrive in over time.

Fall planting is an easy shift with a concrete payoff. You plant in a quieter season, the plants establish through winter on their own, and by the time you’d otherwise be starting a spring planting, your strawberries are already flowering.

That’s the whole argument. It’s a pretty good one.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I plant strawberries in fall in a cold climate? Yes, in most cases — though timing matters more in colder regions. Aim to plant four to six weeks before your first hard frost so plants have time to root before dormancy. Mulching properly afterward is essential for survival through winter in zones 5 and colder.

What strawberry varieties work best for fall planting? June-bearing varieties like Chandler, Camarosa, and Sweet Charlie are commonly recommended for fall planting, particularly in the South. In northern climates, varieties suited to your region will vary — your local cooperative extension service is the most reliable source for specific variety recommendations.

Do I need to pinch blossoms from fall-planted strawberries? This is a common question. For June-bearing varieties planted in fall, some gardeners do remove first-year blossoms to encourage root development, though fall-planted plants are generally better established entering their first fruiting season than spring-planted ones. Day-neutral varieties are typically allowed to fruit in their first year regardless.

When should I fertilize fall-planted strawberries? Hold off on heavy fertilizing in fall — too much nitrogen encourages soft late-season growth that can be damaged by cold. Wait until spring warm-up to apply fertilizer, then keep plants fed through the growing season.

What’s the difference between plugs and bare-root strawberries for fall planting? Plugs, which have soil on their roots, generally establish faster and handle fall planting better than bare-root crowns. Bare-root plants are better suited to early spring planting. If you’re planting in fall, plugs tend to give more reliable results.

The post Why Fall Is Actually the Best Time to Plant Strawberries appeared first on Give A Shit About Nature.

The problem is that “nothing” sticks around for roughly 600 years.

Monofilament — the single-strand nylon line most anglers use — doesn’t break down in any meaningful timeframe in the environment. When it ends up in water or on a shoreline, it stays exactly as dangerous as the day it was cut, tangling legs, wings, beaks, and flippers of wildlife that never asked to be part of your fishing trip.

What Monofilament Actually Does to Wildlife

The mechanism is grimly straightforward. Fishing line is nearly invisible, strong, and tends to tighten rather than break when an animal struggles against it. Birds are especially vulnerable — herons, pelicans, cormorants, loons, ducks, and shorebirds all encounter discarded line regularly around piers, shorelines, and boat ramps.

Line wraps around legs and can cut off circulation completely. It catches on wings and prevents flight. It tangles around beaks and makes feeding impossible. Starvation is a common outcome when line wraps around a bird’s neck or accumulates in its stomach.

In a study of bald eagle breeding territories in Arizona, half of the nesting areas had documented monofilament entanglement or had monofilament in the nest — because adult birds sometimes bring in fish that still have line attached, and birds occasionally pick up line as nesting material, not knowing what it is. Two bald eagle nestlings in that study died from starvation after entanglement.

Sea turtles, marine mammals, and fish are also regularly affected. NOAA Fisheries documents that entanglement is a global problem affecting hundreds of species, and that derelict fishing gear — line and nets lost or discarded — poses the greatest entanglement threat to wildlife of any marine debris category. A study by Ocean Conservancy and Australia’s CSIRO rated derelict fishing gear higher than plastic bags and balloons for wildlife harm.

The line that ends up causing this damage often isn’t thrown directly into water on purpose. It blows off boats. It falls off piers. It gets snagged on vegetation, breaks, and stays there. It gets tossed loosely in a trash can and works its way out. The intent usually isn’t careless — the result often is.

Why Throwing It in the Trash Isn’t Enough

The instinct is to put it in the garbage, and that’s better than leaving it on the ground — but it’s not a clean solution either. Loose monofilament in a trash bag can work its way out in transport. It blows out of open trash cans at boat launches. Animals rummaging through garbage at landfill sites can become tangled. And unlike most plastic waste, monofilament is too thin and specialized to go through curbside recycling — standard recycling facilities aren’t set up to handle it.

If you do end up throwing line in the trash, cut it into pieces shorter than six inches first. Short pieces are far less likely to entangle anything. This is worth doing consistently, but it’s not the same as keeping the material out of the waste stream entirely.

The Better Option: Monofilament Recycling Bins

This is the part most people don’t know about. Monofilament fishing line can be recycled — specifically by the Berkley Conservation Institute, which has been running a fishing line recycling program since 1990. Since then, they’ve recycled more than 9 million miles of line. The collected monofilament is melted down into plastic pellets and used to make new products, including fish habitat structures deployed in lakes and reservoirs.

Recycling bins specifically for fishing line show up at many boat ramps, fishing piers, marinas, and tackle shops. They’re typically small white tubes mounted on posts near the water — easy to miss if you don’t know to look for them. State fish and wildlife agencies in Florida, Texas, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Virginia, and others maintain networks of these bins and run active programs to expand them.

If there’s no bin at your usual fishing spot, you can mail monofilament directly to:

Berkley Recycling 1900 18th Street Spirit Lake, Iowa 51360

No charge. Remove hooks, weights, and tackle first, and only send monofilament — braided line and wire can’t go through their process.

How to Find a Bin Near You

Florida’s program is one of the most developed, run by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission as the Monofilament Recovery and Recycling Program. Texas Sea Grant runs a similar program along the Gulf Coast. The Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania maintains a bin network throughout their region. Most state fish and wildlife agencies either run programs or can tell you where the nearest collection point is. Searching your state’s name plus “monofilament recycling” will usually surface local programs quickly.

If your regular fishing spot doesn’t have a bin, you can request one. The Berkley Conservation Institute will ship collection bins at no charge to marinas, tackle shops, fishing clubs, and other organizations willing to maintain them. Plenty of programs have started because one angler asked a local bait shop to participate.

The Habit Worth Building

The people most likely to be leaving line in the environment aren’t the ones who don’t care — they’re the ones who never thought much about it. Fishing line is a byproduct of an activity people associate with being outdoors and in nature, which makes it easy to mentally categorize as not quite the same as other litter.

It is, though. Thin plastic that lasts six centuries is thin plastic that lasts six centuries, whether or not it started as fishing gear.

The habit is simple: collect your used line, cut any discarded line you come across into short pieces, and drop your monofilament at a recycling bin whenever you can find one. If you find line on a pier or shoreline, picking it up and putting it somewhere it can’t migrate back into the water is genuinely useful — you don’t have to organize anything or sign up for anything to do it.

This is the kind of small action that actually adds up. Bald eagles in the U.S. have been documented dying from lead poisoning from lead fishing sinkers and ammunition — a parallel problem with a similar individual-choice solution. Sea turtles finding their way to the wrong spot is another place where a simple human action makes a real difference to an individual animal. Monofilament fits the same pattern: a hazard that’s invisible until it isn’t, with a practical solution that most people simply haven’t been told about.

Now you have been.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I put fishing line in curbside recycling? No. Monofilament is a high-density nylon plastic that standard recycling facilities aren’t equipped to process. It needs to go to a specialized program like Berkley’s, either through a local collection bin or by mail.

What about braided or fluorocarbon line? Berkley’s program accepts monofilament only — single-strand nylon line. Braided line and wire cannot be recycled through their process. If you’re disposing of those, cutting into short pieces before trashing is the best option to reduce wildlife risk.

What if there’s no recycling bin near me? You can mail line directly to Berkley Recycling at 1900 18th Street, Spirit Lake, Iowa 51360. There’s no fee. If you fish regularly at a spot without a bin, contacting the Berkley Conservation Institute about placing one is straightforward — they supply bins at no cost to participating locations.

Is it worth picking up discarded line I find at the water? Yes, meaningfully so. Line already in the environment and snagged on vegetation or lying on a shoreline is an active hazard. Picking it up, cutting it into short pieces, and disposing of it properly removes a real risk from the local wildlife. It takes about 30 seconds and matters more than it looks like it should.

Does fishing line in the trash really end up back in the environment? It can, through a few routes: it blows out of open containers, works its way out during transport, or becomes accessible to animals at landfill sites. Cutting it into short pieces before trashing and putting it in a sealed bag significantly reduces — though doesn’t eliminate — these pathways. Recycling is the cleaner option when it’s accessible.

The post How to Dispose of Monofilament Fishing Line Without Harming Wildlife appeared first on Give A Shit About Nature.

The short version: if a paper towel got wet with water, wiped up food scraps, blotted fruit, or dried your hands, it can go in the compost pile. If it’s soaked in cleaning products, grease, or chemical disinfectants, it should go in the trash. That’s the whole rule, more or less. The rest of this article is just understanding why.

Why This Is Worth Caring About at All

Americans generate an estimated 3,000 tons of paper towel waste every single day. The U.S. consumes nearly half the world’s paper towel supply, and none of it is recyclable — not a single sheet, regardless of what the packaging implies. Once a paper towel is used, the EPA has confirmed there’s essentially no significant recovery pathway for it. It goes to a landfill, where it breaks down and releases methane — a greenhouse gas considerably more potent than CO2 in the short term.

Composting won’t fix that system-level problem. But it does reroute something that would otherwise generate emissions in a landfill and instead turns it into something that actively improves your soil. That’s a genuine trade-up for about two seconds of effort per day.

What Paper Towels Actually Are (And Why They Break Down)

Paper towels are made from wood pulp — essentially processed plant fiber. That’s the same basic material as leaves, cardboard, and newspaper, all of which are standard compost ingredients. In composting terms, paper towels count as a “brown” material, meaning they’re carbon-rich. A healthy compost pile needs both carbon-rich browns (paper, leaves, cardboard) and nitrogen-rich greens (food scraps, coffee grounds, fresh grass clippings). Most home composters don’t have enough browns, so paper towels are actually a useful addition, not just a disposal workaround.

A paper towel breaks down in roughly two to six weeks in an active pile. Tearing them into smaller pieces speeds that up considerably — more surface area means more contact with the microbes doing the work.

The Real Question: What Was on the Paper Towel?

This is where it gets practical. The paper towel itself is almost always fine. What trips people up is what was absorbed into it.

Safe to compost: Paper towels used to dry hands, blot washed produce, wipe up water spills, clean up food scraps, blow your nose (as long as you’re not sick with something contagious), or wrap fruits and vegetables. Basically anything organic and not chemically treated.

Skip the compost bin for these: Paper towels soaked in cleaning products, disinfectants, bleach-based sprays, or anything labeled antibacterial. The chemicals don’t disappear just because the paper breaks down — they can kill the beneficial microbes your compost depends on to function. A dead compost pile smells bad and stops working. Same goes for paper towels that wiped up heavy grease, cooking oil, or meat residue. Fats create an anaerobic environment in the pile, cut off airflow, attract pests, and generally cause problems out of proportion to what they contribute.

One that surprises people: even “natural” or plant-based cleaning sprays can disrupt compost biology if the concentrations are high enough. When in doubt, trash it.

What About the Bleach? Isn’t That a Problem?

Most paper towels are bright white because they’ve been bleached. This is probably the most common concern people raise, and the answer is a little more nuanced than either “totally fine” or “definitely dangerous.”

According to compost researchers, the chlorine dioxide used in bleaching breaks down quickly in the environment and doesn’t accumulate in finished compost in any meaningful way. It won’t measurably change your pile’s pH or harm your garden soil. That said, the bleaching process itself — before the paper towel ever reaches your hand — does generate dioxin residues and releases chemical byproducts into air and water during manufacturing. So the environmental concern with bleached paper towels is more upstream than in your compost pile.

If you want to avoid the issue entirely, unbleached paper towels exist and compost just as well — often faster, since they retain more lignin (the natural structural compound in wood) that feeds soil organisms over time. Worth knowing if you’re shopping for a new brand anyway.

How to Actually Do This

It doesn’t need to be complicated. Keep a small container near your kitchen compost bin — or just make a habit of sorting before you toss. When you pull a paper towel off the roll to wipe up something, take two seconds to decide: water, food, or hand-drying? Compost. Cleaning spray or cooking grease? Trash.

Tear them up before adding them, especially if your pile runs on the drier side. This helps them incorporate rather than sitting in a mat on top. If you’re adding a lot at once, mix them in rather than layering them — paper can clump and slow airflow if it piles up.

If you don’t have a backyard compost pile, this still applies. Many cities with curbside organics collection accept paper towels in the food scrap bin. Check your local program — most do, as long as the towels aren’t contaminated with chemicals.

This Fits Into Something Bigger

Composting paper towels is a small habit. But it connects to a broader shift in how you think about what goes in the trash versus what can go back into the ground. Fallen leaves are another thing most people bag and discard that actually belong in the compost or back in the yard — same principle, larger scale.

The soil in most suburban yards is depleted from decades of bagging, blowing, and discarding anything organic. Compost is one of the simplest ways to rebuild it. And if you’re growing anything — a vegetable garden, native plants, even a single serviceberry tree — healthy soil is the foundation everything else depends on. A compost pile that includes your paper towels, food scraps, and yard waste produces something genuinely useful, not just a way to feel better about your trash.

The paper towel itself is worth using less of when you can — a reusable cloth for most tasks, a paper towel when you actually need one. But when you do use one, composting it instead of throwing it away takes the same amount of effort as not composting it. That’s a rare situation in environmental action. Most things require some trade-off. This one really doesn’t.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you compost paper towels with food on them? Yes, in most cases. Paper towels used to wipe up plant-based foods, fruits, vegetables, or food scraps are fine. The exception is paper towels saturated with meat juices, dairy, or heavy grease — those are better off in the trash to avoid attracting pests and disrupting your pile.

Can you compost paper towels used with cleaning products? No. Cleaning product residue — even plant-based or “natural” formulas — can kill the beneficial microbes your compost needs to function. If the paper towel was used with any kind of spray cleaner, disinfectant, or chemical product, put it in the trash.

Do paper towels count as greens or browns in compost? Browns — they’re carbon-rich, like cardboard or dry leaves. If your pile feels too wet or is running slow, paper towels are a useful addition to help balance things out.

What about paper towels from a public restroom or workplace? Same rules apply, but realistically most workplaces don’t have compost collection. If yours does, clean hand-drying towels are generally acceptable. Check your local program’s specific guidelines.

How long do paper towels take to break down in compost? Roughly two to six weeks in an active, well-maintained pile. Tearing them into smaller pieces before adding them speeds up the process.

The post Can You Compost Paper Towels? It Depends on What’s on Them appeared first on Give A Shit About Nature.

Conventional spider sprays typically use pyrethroids or organophosphates — synthetic compounds that work well but come with real tradeoffs: residue on surfaces, potential exposure to children and pets, and broader environmental impact when they wash outdoors. The good news is that for the average household spider situation, non-toxic methods work genuinely well. Here’s what the evidence actually supports, what’s worth skipping, and what to do if you’re dealing with something more serious.

Why spiders are inside in the first place

Before reaching for any repellent, it’s worth understanding what’s drawing spiders into your home — because prevention is more effective than any spray.

Spiders follow their food. House spiders don’t come inside looking for you; they come inside looking for the insects that are already there. If you have a lot of spiders, you probably also have a lot of smaller insects they’re eating. Addressing the conditions that attract insects addresses the spider population at the source.

Common spider entry points and attractants:

• Gaps around windows, doors, and utility pipe penetrations
• Torn or ill-fitting window screens
• Outdoor lighting that attracts insects (which then attract spiders) near entry points
• Clutter in basements, garages, and closets — undisturbed piles are ideal spider habitat
• Firewood or yard debris stored against the house exterior

Sealing entry points with weatherstripping and caulk is the single highest-impact spider prevention step available — more effective than any repellent, and permanent. A quick inspection of your doors, windows, and foundation for obvious gaps is time well spent before anything else.

The catch-and-release method (for the one spider in front of you)

If there’s a single spider you want gone immediately, the most direct approach is capture and release. Place a glass or jar over the spider, slide a piece of paper or cardboard underneath, carry it outside, and release it away from the house. A spider caught this way poses no risk to you, takes about thirty seconds, and leaves no residue anywhere.

For larger spiders or anyone uncomfortable getting that close, a handheld vacuum on low suction works well. Empty it outside promptly.

Peppermint oil: genuinely supported by science

Peppermint oil is the most popular natural spider repellent — and unlike most home remedies, there’s actual peer-reviewed research behind it. A study published in the Journal of Economic Entomology found that peppermint oil showed significant repellent effects on two out of three spider species tested, with brown widow spiders avoiding treated areas in more than 75% of choice trials. A more recent study in ScienceDirect identified catnip, cedarwood, cinnamon, and clove oils as effective repellents against wolf spiders as well.

The mechanism makes biological sense: spiders taste and smell through sensory receptors on their legs, making them highly sensitive to strong chemical compounds on surfaces they walk across. Peppermint’s active compounds — primarily menthol and menthone — appear to be genuinely aversive.

Important caveat: Peppermint oil and mint are toxic to dogs and cats, even through inhalation. If you have pets, avoid using peppermint oil in areas they access, or skip it entirely in favor of other options. The ASPCA’s Animal Poison Control Center confirms mint toxicity for both dogs and cats.

How to use it: Add 15 to 20 drops of 100% pure peppermint essential oil to a 16-ounce spray bottle filled with water and a few drops of dish soap (which helps the oil disperse rather than floating on the surface). Shake well before each use. Spray around window frames, door frames, baseboards, and any corners or gaps where spiders enter or congregate. Reapply every one to two weeks — the volatile compounds evaporate and lose effectiveness over time.

Cotton balls soaked in peppermint oil placed in corners, under furniture, or in closets are a lower-mess alternative. Replace them weekly.

Note: lemon oil, despite being widely recommended online, showed no significant repellent effect in the Journal of Economic Entomology study. Citrus juice and lemon peels have limited research support for spider repellency specifically — they may have some effect, but the evidence is much weaker than for peppermint.

Diatomaceous earth: the most reliable non-toxic killer

If repelling spiders isn’t enough and you want something that eliminates them, diatomaceous earth is the most effective non-toxic option available. Unlike essential oils, which deter spiders, diatomaceous earth kills them — worth knowing if that matters to you.

Diatomaceous earth is a fine powder made from the fossilized remains of microscopic aquatic organisms called diatoms. Under a microscope, it’s razor-sharp. When a spider (or any insect with an exoskeleton) walks through it, the particles scratch through the waxy coating of the exoskeleton and cause the spider to lose moisture and desiccate. According to the National Pesticide Information Center, this mechanism is purely physical — spiders cannot develop resistance to it the way they can to chemical pesticides.

Always use food-grade diatomaceous earth for indoor applications. Industrial-grade DE is processed differently and has a different silica structure that is more hazardous to inhale. Food-grade DE is widely available at hardware stores and online — Safer Brand Diatomaceous Earth is a well-regarded option.

Application: Apply a thin, even layer in areas where spiders travel — baseboards, window sills, corners, under furniture, around door frames, and along the exterior perimeter of the foundation. Thin is key: a thick pile of DE is less effective than a fine dusting because spiders can walk around visible obstacles.

Critical safety note: Wear a dust mask during application and avoid applying in areas where children or pets will disturb it. Food-grade DE is not toxic if ingested in small amounts, but the fine particles are an irritant if inhaled in quantity. Once settled, it’s generally safe — the respiratory concern is primarily during application when the powder is airborne.

DE loses effectiveness when wet. Reapply after cleaning or if moisture reaches treated areas.C

Cedarwood: a gentler passive repellent

Cedar has a long history as an insect and spider repellent, and the research supports it: cedarwood oil was among the five essential oils that significantly deterred wolf spider activity in the 2025 ScienceDirect study.

Cedar applications are low-effort and low-maintenance. Cedar blocks, sachets, or chips placed in closets, drawers, storage areas, and along baseboards release repellent compounds passively. Cedar mulch around the exterior perimeter of the house adds an outdoor layer of deterrence. Cedar America and similar suppliers offer cedar chips and blocks specifically for pest deterrence.

Cedar repellency fades as the wood dries out. Sand cedar blocks lightly every few months to refresh the surface and reactivate the oils, or replace them annually.

Sticky traps: low-tech, high-information

Sticky traps (also called glue boards) placed along baseboards and in corners do two useful things: they catch spiders, and they tell you where spiders are traveling and how many you’re dealing with. This makes them valuable both as a control method and as a diagnostic tool.

They’re not a complete solution on their own — they won’t eliminate a spider population — but combined with essential oil repellents at entry points and diatomaceous earth in high-traffic areas, they fill in the gaps. Catchmaster and Terro Spider & Insect Traps are widely available options.

Reducing clutter and web management

Spiders are strongly motivated by shelter. Undisturbed piles of boxes, clothing, firewood, and stored items provide ideal habitat — dark, protected, and close to the insects they eat. Regular decluttering, especially in basements and garages, removes the conditions that make your home attractive.

When you see webs, remove them promptly. Repeatedly destroying webs eventually discourages spiders from treating a location as viable territory. A vacuum with a hose attachment handles webs in corners efficiently, and the spiders inside them.

When to call a professional

Most household spiders are harmless. The species that pose genuine medical risk in the United States — primarily black widows (Latrodectus species) and brown recluse spiders (Loxosceles reclusa) — require different handling than the general advice above.

If you’re finding multiple black widows or brown recluses in your home, that’s a situation where professional pest control is the appropriate response. DIY methods can reduce their numbers but typically can’t address an established population of medically significant spiders comprehensively.

How to identify them:

• Black widow: Glossy black body, distinctive red hourglass marking on the underside of the abdomen. Found in dark, undisturbed areas — garages, woodpiles, under furniture.
• Brown recluse: Light to dark brown, violin-shaped marking on the back near the head, six eyes rather than eight. Found in undisturbed areas, particularly in the South and Midwest.

If you’re uncertain whether the spiders in your home are a dangerous species, your local Cooperative Extension Service can often help with identification — many offer free insect/spider ID services by photo submission.

The complete non-toxic spider control plan

Working through these steps systematically handles most household spider situations without any chemical pesticides:

Prevention (do these first):

• Seal gaps around windows, doors, and utility penetrations with weatherstripping and caulk
• Repair torn window screens
• Switch outdoor lighting near entry points to yellow or sodium vapor bulbs, which attract fewer insects
• Store firewood and yard debris away from the house exterior
• Reduce clutter in basements, garages, and storage areas

Repellents (ongoing maintenance):

• Peppermint oil spray at entry points and in corners — reapply every 1 to 2 weeks (avoid in homes with cats or dogs)
• Cedar blocks or sachets in storage areas and closets
• Cedarwood oil spray as an alternative to peppermint for pet-safe households

Active control:

• Diatomaceous earth (food-grade) along baseboards and entry points
• Sticky traps along baseboards and in corners
• Regular web removal throughout the house

Frequently asked questions

Do essential oils actually repel spiders or is it a myth? Peppermint oil has genuine peer-reviewed research supporting its repellent effect on at least two spider species. Cedarwood, catnip, cinnamon, and clove oils also showed repellent effects in a 2025 study. Lemon oil specifically did not show significant repellent effects in the best available study. The science is more solid than most people realize — though effectiveness varies by concentration, freshness, and spider species.

Is diatomaceous earth safe around kids and pets? Food-grade diatomaceous earth is not toxic in the way chemical pesticides are, but it is an inhalation irritant during application. Once settled, the risk is low. Keep children and pets out of the area during application and until the dust has settled. Avoid use in areas where pets might sniff or dig at it repeatedly.

Why do I suddenly have more spiders than usual? Spider activity increases in late summer and fall in most of North America as males become more mobile searching for mates, and as cooler temperatures drive them indoors. An unusual spike often also indicates an increase in the insect population they’re feeding on. Addressing lighting that attracts insects near your home and sealing entry points will help most seasonal influxes.

Can I keep some spiders and get rid of others? Absolutely. Most household spiders — cellar spiders, common house spiders, jumping spiders — are harmless and genuinely useful, eating mosquitoes, flies, and other insects you’d rather not have around. If the goal is specifically to remove dangerous species or reduce a large population rather than eliminate every spider in the house, targeted application of diatomaceous earth in problem areas is more appropriate than whole-home repellent treatment.

What’s the fastest way to get rid of a spider right now? A glass and a piece of cardboard for capture-and-release, or a vacuum. Both are immediate, require no products, and take under a minute.

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