Digging through the trash

I was out exploring with my Dad today, and he took me to one of his favorite spots: an old trash dump! He's quite the treasure hunter!

It was amazing looking at what had been chucked. We weren't sure about the exact age of the site, but we're guessing it was not used after the 1950s, and we really have no idea when it started being used.

The most common items there were bottles, in every shape, size, and color. There were also a lot of pieces of broken dishes, a lot of shoe parts, many rusting out metal pots, buckets, cans, and even an old Model T Ford chassis, with the license plate still attached. Things were still recognizable, but were definitely well on their way to decay and decomposition. Nothing was bagged up. I guess garbage bags weren't invented back then.

I was thinking about all the plastic in our lives, and what one of our trash dumps might look like in a hundred years. I fear that it won't be evident whether our trash was left a year earlier or a century earlier. I worry that nothing in our landfills will be slowly returning back into the earth, but will be sitting there perfectly preserved as if in an Egyptian tomb.

It reminded me all over again just why it's so important to be cognizant of what materials the products I buy are made from. Sure it's great if I can recycle a plastic milk bottle when I'm done with it, but if a glass version is available, wouldn't I rather have that? Serving utensils in my kitchen will eventually break. When this happens, don't I want to worry about how to dispose of a piece of wood rather than plastic, even if that plastic has another use before it's finally thrown away? I know I'm not the first one to think about this issue, but sometimes we need our own experiences to make things hit home for us. Looking at a pile of somebody's relatively sustainable garbage made me realize that although I've cut my trash output drastically, what trash I do create isn't going anywhere anytime soon. That's not the kind of legacy I'm hoping to leave.

um, seriously?

OK, I was flying today, and I never leave an airport without being irritated about something.

You know that rule they have at the airport now about no liquids over 3 ounces can be carried past the security checkpoint? Things like plastic water bottles are strictly verboten past the metal detectors these days. Well, if you've been in airport recently, you've observed the tossing of countless contraband bottles. Straight into the TRASH CAN.

Can somebody get the TSA a couple recycling bins? Please? I mean, they have these giant garbage bins there anyway for people to toss the bottles into. Couldn't they make it a recycling bin as easily as a trash bin?

Or is recycling some kind of a security threat now too?

Trim your waste (and your waist)

I'm off today for a whirlwind tour - I have three weddings to attend in the next three weeks, for two great friends as well as my brother. It should be a lot of fun with a lot of opportunities to catch up with friends and family I haven't seen in a long time. I hope to be able to post over the next three weeks, but at best, it will be sporadic.

In the meantime, I'll leave you with a quick tip. When eating in restuarants lately with the picky eater, we've noticed that we often don't need to both order our own entree. We'll start with an appetizer to share, then move on to one entree, and then if we're still hungry, we'll order something else. Sure, it takes a bit longer, but the point of going out to a restuarant with somebody else is often to spend quality time anyway, right?

This method reduces our waste and saves us money, in addition to giving us a little extra time to linger and chat - I can't complain about any of that.

well that was easy!

I've given up microwave popcorn. Since I'm the one who does the shopping in this house, we've both given up microwave popcorn. It hasn't been a very popular decision around here, and it means I've spent more time than I'd like shaking a heavy pot with oil and popcorn seeds over a hot burner.

So today, I tried a little experiment. I reused a small brown paper bag (we get lots of these in our CSA share holding tomatoes, squash, and such) and placed about a quarter cup of plain old yellow popcorn kernels into it, and folded the top shut. I read online that one staple would be ok in the microwave, which I believe, since my tea bags have small staples that don't do any damage, but we actually have a cool staple-less stapler that I used just to be on the safe side.

I put it in for a little over 2 minutes, and voila! freshly popped popcorn, ready to be seasoned however I wish.

It's definitely a good way to save some money, and it absolutely cuts down on waste. Plus I've heard some concerns lately about commercially produced microwave popcorn, and this way I can be sure there are no nasty chemicals in there.

I'm glad I figured this out...it's way too hot to be shaking that pot over a hot stove today!

any volunteers?

The 30-Day No Trash Challenge is looking for its next challengee. It's a pretty cool way to examine your habits, especially if you're just getting into raising your awareness about your impact on the environment.

They say it better than I could, so from their website:

Various authors embark on a 30-day challenge to be trash-free and blog about it along the way. You can be next!
In the end, it's not just about a 30-day challenge. That's just the beginning. It's about learning how to be mindful of the waste you create on a day to day basis and using the 30 days to pick up new habits, incorporating those changes into your daily life & hopefully making an impact in the long run. How It Started: One day, on a whim, Miss Dayva decided it would be interesting to challenge herself to go sans trash for a month. And so her quest to be trash-free began. Anything that cannot be composted, recycled or reused in a meaningful way, is considered trash that would end up in a landfill and that's what she wanted to avoid. She has since completed her challenge and has now passed the buck. Ashley is the latest 30-day No Trash Challenge participant but we hope there will be more to come.

So if you think you're up for it, check out the blog, drop Ashley a note and give it a try!

the (almost) zero waste watermelon

Watermelon is in season here, and it's one of my favorites. Next time you enjoy one, though, don't throw the rind away...use it to make preserves! They're delicious (probably because of all the sugar), it's one more way to cut down on food waste, and it wasn't too much work at all.

The recipe is here - the only advice I would give is that although the finished product is quite soft, the rinds were still rather crispy for me until I let it cool and sit for a while. Then, however, they were wonderful and delicious. And now the first batch is gone. Guess I'll just have to eat more watermelon.

Enjoy!

Nordstrom, I'm voting you off the island

Nordstrom is a place that I'm officially declaring I won't shop at. OK, it's true that I can't really afford to shop there anyway (seriously...a Juicy Couture Baby 2 piece fleece set, on sale for $64.90, back up to $98 after the sale!?!?!?!? And girls jeans on sale for $86.90, back to $130 post sale!? Obviously somebody is buying this stuff, but man. I guess I'm cheaper than I thought!)

So anyway, I got this catalog because it was addressed to the woman who lived here 2 or 3 owners back. So I went on to catalog choice to opt out. Guess what? Nordstrom doesn't choose to participate in that program. So I called them and asked them to stop sending them, but it really irritates me that I had to take the time out of my day to do that - and then, of course, to complain about it here!

The irony is they are definitely trying to greenwash their customers, by putting a note on the back cover of the catalog stating how their catalog is 30% recycled content and certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, but if they really wanted to help people be more eco-friendly, they'd make it easy for people to not get the catalog in the first place.

This is my first experience with a merchant not participating in catalog choice. For those of you who haven't found this little gem yet, go check it out. For those of you who are already using it to manage which catalogs you receive, have any other merchants refused your requests? How successful do you feel it's been in cutting down unwanted catalogs in your mailbox?

Potty Training

I'm in the process of potty training right now. No, I don't have any kids. I do, however, have a cat. For the record, I'm not one of those people who thinks of my pets as a substitute for children, and I don't dress him up in little outfits. Although he is pretty cute.

But yes, we are potty training the cat. Why, you ask? Well, many reasons, but basically, in the long run, if this works out, it will save me time and money, reduce waste, and is healthier for the cat. How? Well, let's take a look at cat litter. It requires that I clean a litter box every day or two. That takes time that I'd rather spend doing...um, anything else, really. Cat litter also costs money. It's not crazy expensive, but money is money, and I like to save it where I can. Of course, when I clean out the box, the used litter has to be disposed of (read: sent to the landfill), so cutting out the litter box will cut out this waste, and the waste of the packaging for the litter. Not to mention that cat litter is really heavy, so I'm cutting out all the energy of transporting it from wherever it is made to my home. Plus, another big consideration is that the method for extracting the clay used to make cat litter is strip mining. Not cool. Finally, there are reasons to think that the fine dust particles in cat litter is harmful to your cat, and possibly even you.

So yep, I'm potty training the cat. Well, I'm trying anyway. I'll save you the long drawn out details of how it all works, but somebody got me this wonderful little system as a gift...it's actually a pretty simple solution, wouldn't you agree?

If nothing else, I figure this is good practice for if we ever have kids.

Edit: One reader was right to point out that there is some concern that cat feces (specifically, the germ named Toxoplasma gondii, the same thing they warn pregnant women about when dealing with cat litter boxes) may be responsible for killing sea otters here in California. She is absolutely right, this is a concern, although at least one source mentions that things like a colony of 40 - 50 feral cats in Monterey and storm drain runoff contaminated by cats who do their business outdoors, are at least of equal concern at this point as household sewage. That's not really a good answer though - as long as we don't really know where the problem is stemming from, we can't just cross our fingers and hope it's not something we're doing. I checked the American Veterinary Medical Association website, and I'm no scientist, but I think this system will be safe for my cat, since he never goes outside, and he eats only packaged food. Here is what the AVMA has to say:

The most common way that cats become infected with T. gondii is from eating infected mice, birds, and other small animals.
For indoor cats, the most likely source is uncooked meat scraps. When a cat eats meat or other tissues from infected animals, it becomes infected with T. gondii and can excrete millions of oocysts in its feces each day. This release of oocysts can continue for more than two weeks. After the initial infection and shedding period, most cats will not pass oocysts in their feces again, even if re-infected.

Basically, I can't be 100% positive that my cat is not still excreting these cysts (this really sounds so gross; there's a good reason I'm not a doctor), but I can be fairly certain that he's "clean". If I had an outdoor cat, or lived in an old house where my cat was constantly killing mice, I would not find the risk acceptable. I think in this case, however, the small risk is outweighed by the benefits of another 8 - 15 years worth of environmental impact that would be caused by keeping him on the litter. What are your thoughts on this issue?

From zero to hero

A lot of what I've learned lately has focused on failing. Failing at things is fine; it teaches us what not to do, so that when we try again, our results are even better than we may have initially expected. Or at least what we wanted the first time around. The only big problem with failing is that it often creates waste - and food waste at that, which is my personal least favorite type of waste.

I, like everyone out there, have experienced my share of failures. I've made tortillas so brittle they'd crack if you dropped them. Loaves of bread that can prop a door open. Last weekend I bought strawberries at the farmer's market, and got sidetracked when I got home - and didn't remember the berries until two days later, when I found that a huge bunch of them had already started to mold (despite my best efforts, yes, my house is often so messy that I can overlook a flat of strawberries for two days. Sad, but true).

Two weekends ago, my picky eater brought home a big bag full of plums - somebody on his cricket team had a tree in their yard and decided to share. Only problem was, there were too many plums for us to eat before they became worm food. No problem though; I knew what to do with these - make jam! We green bloggers are jam making experts.

I, however, am also supremely lazy. So I found a recipe for no chopping, no peeling, plum jam.

I followed the directions. Well, mostly, anyway. I didn't have a thermometer, but I cook enough, so I was sure I could tell when everything was ready.

Problem was, even after adding all the sugar I had in the house (literally) and boiling for a really long time, it never turned into jam. It was just a sort of sour, plum sauce.

Sour like rhubarb.

Wait a second...

Rhubard. I love rhubarb!

This stuff was runny though, so I needed to get creative.

I found this recipe for rhubarb cake. Instead of the rhubarb, I substituted half a pint (or so...I'm not exact when it comes to cooking, as you may have noticed....) of the plum sauce for the fruit, and baked this puppy up (minus the orange zest). Picky eater gave it the veto, but in my own mind, I went from zero to hero in sixty seconds flat...this was a winner for me!

The point is, we all fail sometimes. The challenge is not to beat ourselves up over how we fail, but to ask ourselves how we can turn these failures into something succesful. We all try to reuse other things in our lives, why not reuse our food flops to make something useful? Like that delicious cake. I'm going to go have another piece right now...

Monday Monday...

I figured you might need a good laugh since the end of a long weekend can be a bit depressing, so I highly recommend that you check out the Farmer Love posts at Food on Food. It is some of the funniest writing I've come across yet.

Another one of my random frugality tips for those of you who don't always make your own butter: save the wrappers for greasing baking sheets. I fold them in half and seal them inside a ziploc bag, stored in the refrigerator until it's time to bake. Simply let sit at room temperature for a few minutes, and wipe across the baking sheet. It's something that would be thrown away otherwise, and it helps me avoid some of those mystery ingredients in those spray on products...plus it eliminates the waste of the spray cans.

Finally, as promised, a photo of my current project:

I'm either a genius...

or the last one to the party. Either way, I wanted to share this little gem I stumbled on today:

If you are out of fresh fruit, you can mix jam with yogurt - and it's delicious!

I didn't have time to defrost any berries this morning, and I'd eaten all the fresh fruit that we had in the house, so I dropped a teaspoon or two of black cherry jam into a cup or so of plain yogurt, added my sunflower and flax seeds, and it was wonderful. Sort of like that stuff you buy in the store that advertises "fruit on the bottom" - except I know exactly what the ingredients were when I enjoyed this. And with a lot less waste. And it's a lot cheaper. I'm guessing kids would really like this, especially if they find regular plain yogurt with fruit mixed in not sweet enough.

In some ways it was better than using fresh fruit because everything was a more similar consistency. And there was no washing or chopping to do. I love figuring new stuff out!

I'm off to enjoy the rest of this long weekend - I hope you all do too!

Here's what I think about that.

Below is the letter that I sent to Coca Cola today regarding the response they've e-mailed me. For any of you particularly interested in labor issues, you may also want to check out this site.

Also, as Organic Needle reminds us, the Coca Cola company owns countless brands. See a really big list of brands owned by Coca Cola here.

To Whom It May Concern:

I received your response to my inquiry regarding the village of Plachimada in India.

Your response was much what I expected, explaining how you hadn’t actually violated any laws. I understand that the court decided you have the right to use local aquifers, but that does not absolve you from your responsibility to do the right thing – and draining a community’s water resources to the point where they can no longer sustain themselves is not the right thing, regardless of what the court says.

Your argument that the water tables would not be adversely affected in conditions of normal rainfall is empty, as you yourself point out that the last few years have not been ones in which normal rainfall has occurred. Apparently your strategy in this case is to carry on as usual despite the fact that the conditions you’ve established to avoid negative environmental impacts have not been met?

I understand that a court ruling in your favor means you may never be held legally accountable for your actions, but I am not bound to judge in accordance with legal rulings, and I am holding you accountable for the damage you’ve done to the community of Plachimada.

Your contention that your biosolids are not hazardous is not comforting. Why were they distributed to farmers in the first place? Because it was the cheapest, easiest way for you to unload your waste? Do you honestly assert that the high levels of cadmium in these solids are not dangerous? If so, you’ve lost all credibility with me. I highly doubt that you’d spread this sludge in your own backyard and allow your children to play in it.

Your product quality information, although interesting, was not the focus of my concerns about your activities in Plachimada.

To reiterate the point of my original letter, which I do not feel has been addressed at all by your response, I would like to know what are you doing to clean up the mess you have made? Although I’m glad that you’ve figured out that in normal rainfall years, you wouldn’t be draining the water tables, and you’ve stopped dumping biosolids on people’s farms, I don’t see anywhere that you’ve addressed the fact that you’ve stressed community water resources in low rainfall years – what are you doing to remedy this? What are you doing to clean up the cadmium in the soil that you are responsible for?

You stated that you do "business around the world honestly, ethically, in compliance with applicable law, and with respect for the basic principles of human decency and justice." Excuse me for saying so, but I disagree. I'd say the only one of these you've got done perfectly is the compliance with applicable law, with some sort of misguided assumption that the rest will follow. Unfortunately, compliance with written law is not a guarantee of honesty, ethical behavior, and certainly carries no assurances regarding basic principles of human decency or justice - that is up to you, and in this regard, you are failing.

Corporate responsibility does not mean telling the world that you are doing the right thing, it means actually doing the right thing. Thus far, I see a serious lack of responsibility on your part.

Thank you for your additional time, and I await a response.

Sincerely,
Melissa

Weeds for dinner!

For all intents and purposes, Chile practically came to my house and made my dinner for me last night. OK, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but I do have to say thanks for two fabulous posts that inspired dinner around here last night - the first was about how to make stock.

I was excited when I first saw this post because I love making soup. I gave up buying cans or boxes of stock a while ago - too package intensive. I switched to the little bouillon cubes. A lot less packaging, but check out the ingredients sometime - disgusting. Well, I don't know if disgusting is the right word. To be fair, I don't know what most of those things actually are - like silicon dioxide and disodium guanylate. I think I'll pass, thanks. The other nice thing about Chile's stock recipe is that it gives me a way to use up those onion bits that normally are the one bit of food waste in my trash (I've heard worms don't like onions). So I'd been saving up bits of onion, squash ends, tomatoes and such for the past week, I threw it all in the pressure cooker and made what is hands down the best veggie broth I've ever tasted in my life.

Making my own stock is great for a few reasons, besides the fact that it is delicious - I'm using something that otherwise would have been waste, I'm saving money (not tons, but a penny saved and all), and I'm able to reduce my consumption of prepackaged food items.

I didn't let the inspiration stop there, though. Chile also wrote about a veggie (weed) called purslane last week. Hm, interesting, I thought. I didn't run out to buy any though - but it showed up anyway, in my CSA box this week. A gigantic pile of it, in fact. I normally would have pushed this to the back of the fridge, not knowing what to do with it, and probably end up freezing it just before it went bad. But I felt encouraged yesterday, and found two great recipes yesterday: one for purslane and pea soup and the other for a rice and purslane melange. Both were relatively simple - especially the rice, which was super easy. They also both had a surprising creaminess to them (surprising to me anyway, because, aside from the small amount of butter used in the soup, they are both entirely vegan recipes). Lucky for me, they were also both pretty forgiving recipes - I substituted onions for leeks in the soup, and I had a lot less peas than what it called for. No matter. I also used brown instead of white rice for the rice dish.

The best part? I've mentioned before that someone around here (hint: not me!) is a picky eater. He's declared repeatedly how he finds brown rice disgusting and has no interest in eating it. Well, I gave him a spoonful of the rice with purslane, and he proceeded to polish off the entirety of what was to have been my lunch today. That's ok, it makes me happy when people like the things I cook - and I have plenty of purslane left, so I'll be making more of the rice today. I think I might try freezing some for the next time I have a lazy day and don't feel like cooking.

I liked this stuff so much that I am going to try to grow some in one of my containers. I figure if it really is a weed, I should be able to keep it alive. Has anybody grown it before? Where do you get seeds? I've never seen them for sale before. Any growing tips?

Creating Pause Points

One thing that was interesting in my recent read, "Mindless Eating" was a discussion of creating pause points for ourselves as a strategy to be more mindful of what we eat. One example is taking a large bag of chips and, rather than eating straight from the bag, portioning them out into individual containers - creating a point at which we'll be forced to pause before eating more (the pause point here is the opening of a second container).

I didn't feel super psyched about this book because it was more of a diet than an eco book, but nevermind - our brains are amazing things, and I guess mine was working without my knowledge, because today I realized that we can create pause points for the other parts of our lives too. We've probably all heard the advice that if you want to stop charging things, put your credit card in a bowl of ice and freeze it. You're creating a pause point (a pause iceberg, more than a point, actually).

I realized I've done some similar things for myself in respect to my "green goals" - I made a rule that I only buy an item after I've placed it on a written list for a minimum of two weeks. I finally put the paper towels in a cabinet high above the refrigerator - I need to really want to use those before I haul out the stool and climb up to pull them out. I close, unplug, and move my laptop into another room when I'm done working so that it has to be worth the effort of retrieving it, plugging it in, and waiting for it to boot up.

My fellow Silicon Valley resident Pete Kazanjy had an "ah ha!" moment while dining out at one of my favorite spots, In N Out Burger, and noticed that virtually everyone there would grab a pile of napkins, not use most of them, and toss them in the trash when cleaning up their tables. He designed a simple sticker reading "Remember, these come from trees" to be affixed to paper towel and napkin dispensers, which, in effect, creates a pause point for us. Check out Pete's blog for lots more info about the project.

We all know that paper napkins and towels come from trees, just like we know we shouldn't eat an entire bag of potato chips. But not all of us are mindful all the time, and these stickers create a pause point for us - they provide a physical, visual cue which remind us to stop and think before proceeding with our intended action. These stickers have the potential to be incredibly effective - it is estimated that each sticker placed on a dispenser will save up to 100 pounds of paper each year!

I like the way the message is phrased; it's not saying "Hey, I can't believe you didn't bring your own cloth napkins, jerk, why are you destroying the environment by using these disposables?" Instead, it's just a gentle reminder to consider the resources consumed in the item about to be used.

There is a small fee for the stickers, to cover the cost of producing them, with any overages donated to the Sierra Club. I'm going to order some - I'll be asking permission before slapping them up, but I'm thinking about the libraries, grocery stores, and coffee shops in my area. Schools are actually offered the stickers free of charge!

I'd also like to encourage all of you to decorate your world, so if you'd like some stickers, I'd love to provide them! I'll place my order next Friday, so sometime between now and then, send me an email letting me know how many you'd like and your mailing address (my email is on the sidebar there). I'd also love to hear about your plans for where you'll be stickering - a lot of you are much more creative than I am, so you'll probably come up with all sorts of ideas I'd never think of.

Book Review: Mindless Eating

Since I'm still a bookworm, I've read "Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think" by Brian Wansink.

It's an interesting read, but when I think of mindfulness, it implies a connection between all things - myself, the environment, other people, and so on. This book seems to be focused strictly on how we mindlessly eat too much and how this leads to people being overweight. So I guess it's not really an ecologically focused book. It seemed like it could (and should) be from the title, but that was my big disapointment.

The research is still very interesting, and just because the author doesn't focus on the relationship between mindless eating for an individual and the impact that has on the world at large, doesn't mean I couldn't think about those issues as I was reading.

I have to question some of his research (I know, I'm not the one with the PhD, but still, bear with me). A lot of the research had to do with participants estimating caloric content of different foods. Maybe I'm an exception here, but I have no IDEA how many calories are in anything. I know what foods are good for me and which aren't, but I really don't know or care how many calories they contain. I care about whether they contain iron, protein, calcium, and other vitamins, but even then, I couldn't tell you how many of each of these are in any given fruit or veggie. So calories? Couldn't be less interested. Does this make me an anomaly? Can most Americans tell you how many calories are in a slice of pizza or an apple?

One very interesting point that he discusses is consumption norms - basically the idea is that when a product is in a larger package (and this applies to non-food items like shampoo, as well) we use or eat more because the packaging prompts us to. I think it's worth considering transferring some food items to smaller containers with this in mind. I actually purposely, for some time now, have purchased walnuts from the bulk bin in fairly small quantities (they're expensive, for one thing - about $10/lb.) and I find that I use less when I have less of them on hand - but it's still enough to make my salad plenty tasty.

There were a few things that I thought were pretty bad in this book, like his suggestion that if you're going to eat at McDonalds, throw half the fries in the trash before you get to the table. The idea is that we'll mindlessly eat whatever is served to us. Sorry, I can't sign up for this idea...how about realizing that McDonalds isn't exactly a great diet choice in the first place, but since you've chosen it, eat the fries, and enjoy them? Or order a smaller size? Being wasteful isn't, in my opinion, an acceptable response to the realization that we are mindless.

He has done a lot of research that shows that people do make mindless food choices all the time, but I guess the part that I didn't really like was the acceptance that we have to continue being mindless. It was an interesting look at how we make some of the choices we make regarding food, and it was an interesting subject to ponder, but I was underwhelmed and wouldn't consider this a must-read unless you're looking for suggestions on how to control your eating.

Next up on my bookworm reading list will be "The End of Nature" by Bill McKibben. If you haven't yet checked out the Bookworm Blog - thanks to everyone who organized that, it's great! Happy reading!

Drink beer, save the planet?

We were in Colorado for a wedding until yesterday, and after all the wonderful festivities wound down, we had a day to poke around. We were staying about ten minutes from the Coors brewing company, it turns out, so we decided to go for a tour.

It was the typical stuff for the most part (not that I'm complaining - free beer is a good thing for me!) I certainly didn't expect to be too inspired while I was there, but I saw a quote on the wall that grabbed my interest: "Waste is a resource out of place."

The tour went on to explain the various ways in which the company minimizes waste creation - selling grain leftovers to cattle farmers for feed, selling "sad beer" to ethanol plants, and even using their cooling ponds to generate a small amount of electricity. I'm not writing this because I necessarily think this is the most environmentally responsible company in the world or anything, but because I really like that philosophy of rethinking waste.

The idea that all waste is just a misappropriated resource could fundamentally change the way we deal with our trash. Some of my fellow bloggers are already doing this: Chile is making stock out of veggie scraps. Heather is eating fruit scraps. They are doing what this philosophy asks us to - looking at "waste" and finding a place where it is no longer waste, but rather a resource. Freecycle does just that - although it can be tedious and tiresome at times - after we've decided we have no use for a resource, this site aims to help us find others who are eager to put it to use.

I'm going to be making a very conscious effort in the near future to re-think waste. In fact, I'm going to try to eliminate it from my life. Instead of seeing trash, I'm going to start looking at all those homeless resources and try to help them find their place. I think we need to start thinking this way on a larger scale as well. We need to start seeing the opportunities created by these orphaned resources rather than think of waste as something that is no longer useful, and in need of disposal.

After all, think about what the word waste actually means: to consume, spend, or employ uselessly or without adequate return; use to no avail or profit; squander. The very definition of the word tells us that when we create waste it means we have not used something to its full potential. Why is our attitude towards trash so casual? If someone were to tell you that you were using your money in your retirement account uselessly or without adequate return, you'd make adjustments, right? Why should we not approach the resources of physical things with similar care?

The western world creates a lot of waste. Imagine if we were able to view all of it instead as a resource. I wonder if then we'd finally realize how much we truly have.

I highly recommend...

these organic cotton produce bags from Organic Needle - I'd been trying to reuse my plastic bags as much as possible in order to reduce overall waste, but when stuff would go mushy and moldy sometimes (even if just a little bit of lettuce slime) it became really hard to get them clean, they didn't dry properly, etc. I'll use up the ones I still have kicking around before saying goodbye for good, but these cotton bags are just lovely! I used them for fresh produce as well as dried beans from the bulk bins, and I couldn't be happier, plus I got to support a small business owner. The large ones were also great to put my empty milk bottles in when I biked to the store. It kept them from banging together in my backpack. Check them out!

who wants to wash dishes anyway?

alex in wonderland 8
Originally uploaded by independentman

The answer to this question, I found to my surprise, is me...well, at least some of the time...

We went away to the ocean for the long weekend, and it was great - we had nice weather, beautiful scenery, and it was really nice to get out of the city and visit a part of the state I hadn't seen before. I'd forgotten how much work it can be to coordinate a big group of people to go away on an overnight trip, especially now that we have friends with kids.

Overall, I think we did some okay, and some not so great things on our trip, environmentally speaking. The destination itself was about 2 hours away, and since the alternative plan originally discussed involved "several" small day trips, I think our fuel use was not horrible.

We cooked all of our meals ahead of time and packed them up in a cooler, so we avoided the waste that is so often involved in eating in a restaurant (or takeout, as often ends up being the case when there are little kids involved).

What was not so great was to witness the amount of trash we created. We separated out glass bottles for recycling (it's California, after all...they must at least recycle glass, right?), but the rental office was closed while we were there and no information was left as to what else we could or could not recycle, so a lot of stuff got put in the trash that, at least in our house, would normally be recycled. I considered bringing it all home but we were packed in the car pretty snugly, and I'm 99% positive that I would have been voted down on that one.

A big part of this trash came from paper products. I have some paper towels left in the house from before I decided to give them up, but we've trimmed our use to the point where we go through a roll probably every three to four months (and a good bit of that use is by visitors). I was amazed then, to see that we went through almost one roll of paper towels every day. I still am not sure why...

The remaining bulk of the paper in the trash took the form of disposable bowls and plates. I still feel some guilt over this one, but to make a long story short, it kind of came down to me either volunteering to wash all the dishes for the whole trip, or agreeing to the disposable paper products. I would have gladly washed some of the community dishes, but I also didn't want to be solely responsible for the task.

Anyway, I'm writing this because I'm curious - how do you handle group situations like this where others may have different priorities than you? I was reminded how easy it is to control what goes into and out of my home, where only two of us live, but it's a lot more difficult to keep tabs on this sort of thing when the household population quintuples!

There's also an element of not wanting to be perceived as the crazy one in the group. I don't want to be seen as condescending or judgemental or an eco-nut job - especially since the people we spent the weekend are the friends I married into - my friends-in-law, if you will - they aren't people I've known since high school or kindegarten and can just say anything around.

What would you have done? Signed up for dishwashing duty? Agreed to the paper? Lectured everyone on the evils of everything disposable? Thrown a tantrum? Suffered silently? Feel guilty until the next vacation, at which time you volunteer to wash all dishes?