Sustainable Haus

Over the weekend, I had the pleasure of meeting Janette of Sustainable Haus in person as we recorded a podcast together all about living an eco-friendly and sustainable lifestyle. As I was setting up my laptop she was explaining how she was purging many of the items in her house but was making sure she was finding a home for each and every item – all in keeping with the sustainable lifestyle theme. She is such a guru and I am so excited for y’all to hear our conversation on the Bring Your Own Kombucha podcast on itunes, however until it airs, here is a little sneak peak all about her company, Sustainable haus!

Tell us more about YOURSELF Janette.

Janette: I am a first Generation American – Both my parents grew up in WW2 Germany. My Mom lived in a tiny village on a farm. They met and got married here and while they had no money they had lots of ingenuity and common sense. My mom was a seamstress and worked for years part time in a health food store so eating healthy and organic were core. She also taught me to sew at a young age and both my parents taught me if I set me mind to something, I could do anything. That has been a theme throughout my life. I can and do make all sorts of things from cooking to sewing, gardening to furniture refinishing. After a long career in corporate, I decided to finally start a business of my own by combining my passion for healthy living with my talent for making things and my experience in the business world. So last November, I started Sustainable Haus with no business plan, no exact direction but the start of an idea of what I wanted to next.

What was the purpose behind Sustainable Haus?

Janette: I realized that I wanted to focus on providing solutions for the home that gave us and others better choices. So at the core was being environmentally friendly – with every detail. It was at this time that I learned about the Zero Waste and the Plastic Free movement. These were both themes that ties to my core values. I always hated throwing things away into the landfill and I loved organic materials. I love cotton, wool, silk, raw wood, antique furniture, real sterling or plated silverware and plants. I never really cared for plastics but until I started this journey, I also didn’t really understand how unhealthy plastics were. Well, actually let me be clearer, how toxic they can be – more on this is a minute. I have two girls Amanda who 21 and Alex who is 17 and my partner, Ethan and they have all been really supportive of both our lifestyle changes and my business. Within Sustainable Haus, all products solve a household challenge, are available package free, can be composted at end of life, and my raw materials are either upcycled or organic. So, some key products include: organic coconut soap laundry detergent that works really well – clients love it, upcycled felted wool dryer balls, everyday cloth napkins, unpaper towel, cotton produce bags, cloth snack bags, to go silverware, compostable brushes, general purpose cleaner, yoga mat cleaner, linen spray and beautiful organic cotton or bamboo cotton kids hooded towels.

For those who may not be as well versed as you are, what are the dangers behind plastic? Why is this such an issue?

Janette: Let me start by saying that plastics are a wonder material. They can be clear or colored, they can hard or flexible, they can be strong or stretchy. So pretty and versatile and they work well! However, everything I have read about plastic is that it just doesn’t ever biodegrade, yet we use it for single use items everyday, all day. But I think most of your readers know that its a terrible environmental issue, with the floating ocean gyres and how these garbage patches of straws and other plastics are actually killing our sea life and birds and getting into our food stream. In March of this year the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (one of 5 main gyres) was reported to be twice the size of Texas and contained approximately 1.8 trillion pieces of plastics weighing 88,000 tons. But there’s so much more to the story that we don’t always focus on.

Plastics don’t just harm sea life and animals, they can impact the health of humans. We’ve all heard the advice: don’t to microwave plastics or to leave plastic water bottles in a hot car or don’t reuse plastic again and again. But as I aimed to reduce waste and plastic, I did more research to better understand why I had heard these messages over the years and I began to really understand the hidden danger. To be so wonderfully functional, plastics which are a petroleum based product, have additives, fillers, pigments, flame retardants, antibacterial chemicals fragrances, etc such as —Bisphenol-A (BPA), Phthalates, and Polyvinylchloride, heavy metals like lead, slipping agents (aminal fat), etc. There is much to say about all these chemicals, but I want to keep it simple, basic and high level before focusing on solutions. First, in Europe they follow the Precausionaly Principal which means that companies must prove products safe before selling them whereas in the US, we do not have such a principal and worse yet, we lack disclosure rules that would permit consumers to start to understand exactly what’s in our products. We assume then that as we walk through our stores, that the products offered are safe. In reality, as we shop in our larger stores, you will find a huge volume of plastics, especially in food packaging, and there is no disclosure on what materials are in these plastics touching both our food and body.

What’s bad about the plastic additives? Some of these additives are endocrine disrupting chemicals that can be especially harmful to pregnant women and children. BPA which mimics the natural estrogen hormones in our body has been tied to early puberty in girls, low sperm count in men, obesity, diabetes and breast/ovarian/prostate/testicular cancers. Additionally, these hormone mimickers also are tied to behavioral disorders and autism. Phthalates, an additive to Polyviny Chloride or PVC, has been linked to birth defects, asthma, and certain cancers. Flame retardants have been linked to reduced fertility, birth defects, hyperactivity, and learning disorders. Yikes, right?

And by the way, “plastics” come in many forms including synthetic fabrics.

EEK! So with that being said, what are a few simple ways to eliminate plastics from our daily living?

Janette: So, after learning about plastics and their chemical additives, I was ready to make some changes. My glass is beyond half full – it’s generally overflowing and with these few steps we can have some really positive results. Yay! Also I need to ask that we stop using plastic straws. We just don’t really need them (metal, paper, pasta, bamboo, and glass alternatives). Now for real steps

Stop drinking from plastics. Filtered tap water is good and avoids the microplastics found in nearly all bottled waters according to a recent study. Juice can be purchased in glass bottles and single servings can be put into non-plastic containers. There are great reusable travelmugs – stainless steel mugs or glass containers – I like Swell and Klean. And yes, there are baby bottles and sippy cups available such as Pura and Avent.

Don’t heat plastics, heat increases the intensity of these chemicals. No plastic in the Microwave, your hot car or dishwasher (and no PVC dryer balls in your dryer). Our kitchen dishes work great in the microwave. There are a number of good ways to bring you lunch such as cloth bags, bees wrap, pyrex and metal.

Decline paper, heat generated receipts, these contain a BPA coating. If you can’t have it emailed, or you work with them in your job, wear gloves and if you can’t do this, wash your hands with soap and water after handling.

Reduce plastic food containers. Store food in glass such as pyrex. Buy foods that aren’t in plastic packaging. This is hard. Visit your local farmers market and select foods in the groceries that are package free or are in glass, paper bags or cartons.

What are some good resources to learn more about the harms of plastic or living a more eco-friendly lifestyle?

Janette: Beth Terry’s book, Plastic Free: How I Kicked the Plastic Habit and How You can Too is my bible on this topic. For those without enough time, I suggest three documentaries that are really interesting and informative and with all the visual elements will likely change your life:

The True Cost, about fabric and the fashion industry and the effect on both the environment and people – That’s why I upcycle fabric, rather than buy new fabric. Specifically, did you know:
- Only 10% of the clothes people donate to charity or thrift stores get sold. -The rest end up in landfills or flooding markets in developing countries like Haiti where they are bought by the box and kill the local industry.
Plastic Ocean really highlights the problems with plastic. Did you know:
- Eight million tons of plastic are dumped into the world’s oceans every year.
Before the Flood, a Leonardo DiCaprio documentary is all about carbon footprint. By eliminating single use items in your life, you will significantly reduce your carbon footprint.

And, if you really like to focus on health impacts and to have hope, read this great but tiny study: Rethink Plastic Pilot Study sponsored by California’s Breast Cancer Research Fund – see attached link: http://www.plasticpollutioncoalition.org/pft/2018/5/9/new-rethink-plastic-pilot-study-reduces-exposure-to-chemicals-from-plastics. The ReThink Plastic study was designed to reduce exposure to the plastic chemicals using simple, practical behavior change and to spread the study messages to reduce plastic use. And what they found through a small number of blood tests was that for 68% (13 of 19 tested) estrogen activity was reduced one month after the study. To me this gives us hope that if we make changes, our bodies can become healthier. They are looking to expand the study based on these positive preliminary results.

To check out Sustainable Haus, find more info on them here: website | instagram | facebook

Stay tuned for Janette’s full interview on the Bring Your Own Kombucha podcast on iTunes in September!

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