From a Biodiesel Forum

Legal Eagle

posted Mar 11, 4:20 PM March 11, 2013 04:20 PM

Today, while out at the farm where my biodiesel set up is located I needed to wash mt hands a few times and used some of my liquid soap as a "degreaser" before rinsing . Things is the only water available was from ice patches that were only partially thawed, so that is what I used and it was just as easy as using warm water. We have good soap :-)

Location: :-) Great White North eh ? | Registered: December 10, 2004

BobAbbey

posted Mar 15, 10:58 PM March 15, 2013 10:58 PM

It is amazing!

I get new uses and ideas for what it cleans all the time.

The restaurants I get my oil from use it to clean their grill at the end of the day.

www.fullcyclesoap.com

Location: Western NY | Registered: September 16, 2005

Hamlin205

posted Apr 3, 7:32 PM April 03, 2013 07:32 PM

One of our restaurants uses it to clean the screens over the cook top and fryers,

then use the same water to clean the floor. One of the Churches in town say our degreaser cleans the screens above their fryers when the Industrial strength stuff wouldn't. National BBQ champion in KC from our town uses it to clean his smokers.

Yes Sir this stuff makes great soap !!!

Location: Decatur, Al | Registered: September 03, 2009

Upcycling

Bob sent me a link on recycling the other night. There was a whole list of “cycles” but the ones that caught my eye were Upcycle and Downcycle. We like the theme “Reduce/Reuse/Recycle for our Full Cycle Soap so I was interested in the up to date definitions and how they might apply to Fulll Cycle Soap.

Downcycling is reusing or recycling a product for a second, lesser quality purpose in order to keep it from becoming waste. This is like when plastics are recycled into mixed, lesser quality but usable plastics. White writing paper is recycled into cardboard. Downcycling often creates a less expensive product and keeps waste out of the landfill.

Upcycling is creating useful items from recycled material while maintaining an equal or greater value. Recycled aluminum and glass can be examples of this. I bought a great truck for my grandson. It was made in the USA by Green Toys. It’s a good, sturdy truck complete with a race car, Colton’s favorite thing. It is made entirely from recycled milk jugs. Definitely upcycling. 

Many craft and decorating projects are examples of upcycling. There is a constant flow of repurposing ideas on sites such as Pinterest. Many magazines are dedicated to the reuse of vintage and antique items and used furniture. There is a large market for doors, fixtures, windows, trim, moldings, etc. taken from older, quality homes. Every time one of these ideas is used we save resources and, again, keep waste out of the landfills.

One of my favorite examples of upcycling is demonstrated by women in third world and underdeveloped countries. These women take items, such plastic bags, fabrics and other scrap or natural materials and make them, often by hand, into useful and beautiful products such as purses, totes, rugs, and jewelry. This goes way beyond upcycling or recycling. This creates a better life them and their families.  Please visit  HYPERLINK "http://www.kingdom-ventures.com/" http://www.kingdom-ventures.com/

So, how does this apply to Full Cycle Soap? Bob starts with used vegetable oil and converts that to environmentally friendly fuel. He then takes the glycerin by product (waste) of the fuel and finishes it into liquid glycerin soap. Two new, high quality products, each with a new purpose. Products that go right back into the environment with no harm and no further waste. Can’t get much more Upcycle than that.

Random Acts of Kindness

I haven’t written for awhile and this time what I am going to write about has nothing to do with Full Cycle Soap. It is about something that touched my heart and encouraged me to spend some time counting my blessings, something I could do a lot more often.

A couple of weeks ago I received a small envelope in the mail. It was the size of one of those envelopes that invitations are mailed in. I immediately did a thought check for upcoming weddings or babies. Nothing. Then a sweet surprise. I pulled out a cute, little pink & black card. Inside were a gift card and the words “A Random Act of Kindness”. The gift card was to Michaels. Someone knew just what I would like and went to the trouble to go a ways to get it. I was touched. I was pleased. I was amazed because immediately a number of sweet, special people who might do this came to my mind. The more I thought the more I realized that my life is full of incredible, loving women who pour nourishment into my life. Some are quite young. Some are not quite so young. Some are not young at all. But, all are special and for some reason, they all seem to love me. I am blessed beyond words.

So why am I writing all this? Because if the day ever comes that you think a small act of kindness really can’t lift someone up or brighten their day  or maybe even change their life……..please, think again.

Locally Made - The Localler the Better

I have a thing about products made in the USA. Actually, if I was truthful, which I try to be, I have a bigger thing against so much being made in China. 

It was reinforced recently when I saw a news story on July 4^th. A woman had noticed a tag on the small American flag her children were waving. You guessed it! Made in China. The story continued with a visit to the USA company where flags are made. Not the little toy flags. The real flags displayed in prominent places around this country. Thank God, at least for that.

  Now, I am not out to destroy the economy of China. Each country has quality items they could and should sell to other parts of the world. However,I do try hard to purchase as little from China as is possible. Sometimes I can get what I want or need and sometimes I can’t. Of course this means that I severely limit my spending dollars in certain big box stores. That part doesn’t bother me a bit because in my opinion, they are a part of the problem. I think we have brought much of this on ourselves. Many would rather have twelve of a cheap foreign made item than three of a quality USA item even though three would be plenty. I grieve the loss of American industry. The USA, in various ways, gave our industry away. It’s time to get it back I am not alone in my desire for USA made products. You can computer search on Made in USA and a list of shops and online products come up. More and more there are walk in shops that feature American made items opening up. 

Home Grown

Bob & I both like the idea of shopping at what we call “home grown” businesses. They are the businesses started and run by local folks. We are targeting some of these businesses as we begin our quest to market Full Cycle Soap. Our favorites are those that carry unique or made in America products.

We found one of the gems of the home grown businesses just a few weeks ago.  It started with a Groupon. You know, one of those on line coupons. I love these things and, as I am a gardener, I couldn’t pass up the chance to get a deal on a new plant. The result was a trip to Salmon Creek Nursery in Brockport. http://www.salmoncreeknursery.com.  


We stopped on a warm Sunday afternoon and were greeted by the very friendly employee, Anita, and the very knowledgeable owner, Dave. We found out that they have been in business for over 40 years. Their plants are beautiful and reasonable and I acquired a new Hibiscus. We went inside to pay and found a wonderful old building full of antique farm equipment and interesting local products. This is our kind of place. Most impressive was the friendliness. We received all the help we needed, all the questions were answered, and there was no hurry or pressure to buy. Just real nice people.

At checkout, we were told about and invited to a wine tasting being held the next Sunday. We were more than willing to take advantage of a chance to spend another afternoon in such a pretty and peaceful place. That Sunday afternoon was one of those hot ones a couple of Sundays back. We arrived to find the back porch all set up with a tasting bar, wines from a local store, an abundance of tasty snacks and a very good acoustical guitar player. There were tables scattered about, some of them made of wood or stone by local artisans. Dave and his wife Grace were greeting guests, giving expert advice about trees, shrubs, plants and such. It appears that they have events such as this as treats for their customers. This is a place we will definitely visit again.

The Golden Pond

Bob is making a trip to the manure lagoon this Saturday. He likes to call it the Golden Pond. I call it the Poop Pond. The town we live in has many more cows than people. Therefore, there is an abundance of these lagoons. Why, might you ask, would a sound minded person do such a thing on a Saturday morning? It’s all about the glycerin.

Glycerin is an interesting compound. It is also called glycerol, a colorless sweet viscous liquid derived from vegetable fats. It is a by-product of the soap-making process, which separates the glycerin from the fatty acids in the oil. The naturally-occurring glycerin stays in handmade soaps, but is usually removed from commercial soaps. Glycerin is a humectant that absorbs moisture from the air to keep hair and skin moist. It is also used as an emollient (skin softener), lubricant (skin lubricator that helps prevents moisture loss), emulsifier (thickener) and diluting agent in cosmetics. Glycerin is what makes natural liquid soap a strong degreaser.

Glycerin is also a byproduct of the production of biofuel from waste vegetable oil. Bob makes fuel for all three of our vehicles so there is a lot of glycerin byproduct. He makes Full Cycle Soap from some of the byproduct. It is a fine, rich dark brown, liquid soap which is an excellent all purpose cleaner. In this case, the soap making process starts out with the glycerin byproduct (a combination of glycerin,  free fatty acids and residual soap) instead of the oils. The soap production proceeds by adding an alkali (lye), water and heat. However, unless someone orders a tanker truck of soap, there will always be a large quantity of glycerin to be dealt with. Hence the manure lagoon, the perfect place to dispose of this excess.

It turns out that another aspect of glycerin is that, when diluted, even with liquid manure, it can be used to enrich the soil. So, it’s not a matter of doing no harm. The glycerin is actually beneficial when applied to the soil along with the liquid manure. A local farmer friend is happy to have the glycerin and it gives Bob a close handy place for disposal. Of course, manure lagoons come with their own set of challenges. There is the smell and if anyone knows Pastor Mike, ask him about his boot sometime.

As for me, I don’t go near the Poop Pond. My job is to have lunch for Bob when he gets back and to clean his work clothes (using Full Cycle Soap), which is enough. 

Vicki's First Blog

So, Bob is working hard at getting the business of Full Cycle Soap off the ground.  He has wanted to start a blog for some time now and since he refers to me as his “verbyologist”, I have agreed to give it a try. As my husband of 43 years, I know Bob well and actually take this as a compliment. Interestingly, I don’t read blogs but he assures me that it is just like talking about any subject I choose and I can do that. As I was picking an empty hand sanitizer bottle out of the trash at church this morning (we like to recycle pump bottles by filling them with our soapand giving them to friends) I got to thinking about how much I dislike the current trend of spreading antibacterial products all over everything. I particularly dislike the over use of hand sanitizers, and antibacterial soaps & body washes. Ah, a good blog topic for a soap web site blog.

I thought that, perhaps, if I was going to give my opinion, I should do a little research and see if I could back it up. I started with some simple searches on Wikipedia. It didn’t take long to determine that my thinking was fairly sound.

Hand sanitizer was the simplest. It really is just alcohol. This is meant to kill bacteria, which it does, good & bad. Now I am not against this product in all cases. Limited use in public places probably doesn’t hurt. Sanitizer does no known harm to the environment but it sure does dry the skin. Hence the need for a good glycerin based hand soapto restore the moisture robbed by the sanitizer. 

Antibacterial products are another story. Again, these products kill bacteria, good and bad. There is inconclusive data that antibacterials are a factor in creating antibiotic resistant super bugs. We know that these products don’t kill 100% so the concern that the “bugs” left behind are the strong resistant “bugs” is a valid concern, at least for the bad “bugs”. Also, these products do little against viruses. The main concern is that antibacterial products often contain two chemicals in higher than preservative concentrations. One is triclosan, the other is triclocarbon. I am not going to go into all the aspects of these chemicals but there are some well grounded concerns. It would be good to search and read a bit about these, especially if you use these products on your children. (Do the words endocrine disruption make you nervous?)  Even further, especially for those concerned about natural products, these chemicals have a negative effect on the environment (aquatic bacteria and fish) and most probably, when mixed with chlorinated water, produce carcinogens. 

Basically, there is no clear evidence that using antibacterial soaps or hand sanitizer for general use reduces the spread of common sickness any better than proper washing with soap and water. And, even though not fully substantiated, there are a number of health and environmental concerns about the widespread use of these products. So, why not stick with using a good, moisturizing, grease cutting, all natural product like Full Cycle Soap? I see no reason.