Rossen Reports: Can beeswax and bamboo save you money at home?
Going green can sound intimidating and expensive but it doesn’t have to be. We found environmentally-friendly that will not only help save the environment but also save you money!
Watch the video above: Our Chief National Consumer Correspondent Jeff Rossen tests out three products that you’ll want in your home.
Here’s links and some information on each product we used:
Beeswax food wraps: You can only use plastic wrap once. Once you take it off your food or a container, it sticks together and has to be tossed. Plastic wrap then sits in landfills for hundreds of years. Beeswax wraps are a good alternative because they can be reused for up to a year.
Using the heat of your hand, you can seal the wraps to anything. For care, all you have to do is wash them with eco-friendly soap. We bought a pack of six wraps (of all different sizes) for just $28.
The pack we bought is currently sold out on Amazon, but we have you covered with other links too: A 7-pack from HunnyBee for $21 and a 3-pack from Bee’s Wrap for $15.
Bamboo towels: We waste billions of dollars on paper towels every year, which are also a one-time use. One roll of these reusable bamboo towels replace 60 conventional paper towel rolls. That’s up to 6 months of paper towels.
One sheet can be used up to 120 times before you have to pitch it. After using it, you can either hand wash it or toss it in the washing machine with the rest of your laundry. The bamboo material is also eco-friendly. We bought one roll for $9.
Battery charger and rechargeable batteries: When batteries sit in landfills, they corrode and the chemicals soak into soil and can contaminate groundwater. Plus, we waste hundreds of dollars on batteries. You can save money by using rechargeable batteries. We picked up batteries and their charger for about $42. The batteries can be fully charged in under an hour and will last up to five years.
If you haven’t made the switch to rechargeable batteries, regular batteries still need to be recycled. Many electronic retailers usually have a recycle bin or bucket where you drop them in. You could also check in with your municipality building to see if batteries can be recycled there.
Energizer has a map that lets you plug in your zip code and look for recycling locations by you. Here are some dos and don’ts from Duracell on how to recycle batteries as well.