Reduce #4: no easy choice- soap

first- I want to say that the alternative dry cleaner was satisfactory. I dropped off a lot of items and one fancy top came back with the stain still there, but I'm not sure that a traditional dry cleaner would have gotten it out either. So, I'll stick with the silicone-based dry cleaner!

second- I have been thinking a LOT about the bar soap I use in the shower. About a year ago I switched from liquid shower gel back to the bar soap I grew up with. This was a lot cheaper, I didn't run out as often, and the packaging seems a lot better for the environment. Shipping heavy liquid soap probably has higher environmental costs as well. Also, I use a washcloth with a much longer lifespan than the loofahs I used to buy. I believe using bar soap is a reduction in my harmful impact on the environment.

I am happy with using bar soap, but which bar soap? Soap was traditionally made of animal fat-- and America's biggest brands of bar soap are still made of animal fat! It surprised and shocked me that I was rubbing rendered beef fat (tallow, sodium tallowate, and some kinds of stearic acid are derived from beef fat) all over my body. But, I eat beef and support using the whole animal. They certainly aren't killing cows just for the fat.. but... but... beef fat in the shower?

The alternative is soap derived from vegetable fats. I'm apprehensive about automatically choosing this because doesn't it take more energy to make vegetable fat than to simply pick up waste-fat from a slaughter house? The other thing that makes this a "hard choice" is that animal-fat based soap is about $2 for 9 ounces. A soap made locally with vegetable oils is $2.95 for 3.5 ounces. The cheapest mass-produced vegetable soap I can find is 8 ounces for $2.84. I love the idea of the local soap and knowing my soap-maker, but it is so expensive! I'm going to try the cheaper vegetable-based soap and occasionally buy the locally-made soap, but this is not an "easy choice!"