My February Zero Waste Challenge
Curiously Green is an exclusive Earth 911 series showcasing the adventures of individuals attempting to go green. This month Nyree from Peterborough, England, continues her New Year’s Resolution of a zero-waste lifestyle.
My zero waste challenge is getting harder and harder; things that seemed amusing in week one now seem frustrating at best, tantrum inducing at worst (just ask my boyfriend).
And, to make matters worse my efforts have failed to impress the rest of my office. I work for an environmental charity and many of my colleagues have undertaken the challenge themselves.
It seems one month is just not good enough. If I’m going to bask in green glory at the end of this, I have to bite the bullet and extend my challenge. I haven’t told my boyfriend yet—it might tip him over the edge.
Since my last post I have written a total of three letters to my local representative, with two replies so far. The first letter was in regards to using brown paper bags (I notice from American TV that those are prominent in the U.S.) instead of the plastic monstrosities available here, even though I carry a reusable bag.
Letter two and three were both regarding increasing what we can recycle locally. Many items that can be recycled aren’t in my area because the Council just isn’t set up to do it, such as plastic food cartons. I had to take them out of the recycling bin and add them to my bag of waste, which was annoying as I thought I was doing really well.
The biggest challenge since my last entry has been a small dinner party we held. It took extra planning because I know from experience that this type of event has the potential to create masses of rubbish.
I would usually have bought something packaged to heat up in the oven, but to cut down on waste I visited the local farmers market and had produce put straight into the plastic tubs I had brought with me.
I decided not to do the traditional three courses meal—but instead went with a Swedish dish called Raclette that features mostly meat, cheese and produce. This meal is very low effort, low waste, and extremely sociable.
The only garbage left over that couldn’t be composted or recycled was the cellophane wrapper around the dried meats.
Final Thoughts
Here’s my top tips from the first month:
- Buy a re-usable shopping bag and remember to take it with you
- Set up a compost bin in your garden—or even better a wormery to break down even more food types
- Find ways to reuse items which can’t be recycled; plastic tubs can make great flower pots!
- Shop locally at independent shops as they tend to use less packaging
- Plan your meals so you only buy food you need—and think about packaging before you hit the stores
- This is an impossible challenge so all you can do is your best; don’t get disheartened when you still generate trash despite your best efforts
Wikipedia » My February Zero Waste Challenge
posted on February 6th, 2008 at 2:20 am
[...] China expat and traveller community blog | Lost Laowai China Blog wrote an interesting post today on My February Zero Waste ChallengeHere’s a quick excerptCuriously Green [1] is an exclusive Earth 911 series showcasing the adventures of individuals attempting to go green. [...]
laurel77
posted on February 29th, 2008 at 7:59 am
Great watching your progress as I’m right behind you! Keep going. I have found that the no-trash idea is more of a mindset that requires a bit of planning, or preparing, testing and time.
I have been raised to just do, and now I must think ahead a bit.
For instance, I have kids and birthday parties have become insane; goody bags, tons of plastic, paper and disposable cartoon character things, juice boxes…etc. So, this time, no goody bag, I gave out Jibbets and placed them right on the kid’s Croc, have comm’l silverware and plastic plates, I just put in dishwasher, juice poured from a recyclable bottle into little plastic cups that I washed, tablecloth was brown paper that the kids decorated, homemade cake, no balloons, water party in the yard–it was fun. And we didn’t have a huge black trash bag for our efforts! We wrap gifts with decorated 100% post recycled brown paper and recycled ribbons–no one cares or notices.
But, here’s what bums me out, it takes time and that is something I think our society seems to be losing because we do so much with our time and have little “open” time. So we grab the water bottle, the wrapped goody, buy the junk–it’s just faster and in the end not very eco-friendly. I’ll stay optimistic.
patriciab
posted on February 29th, 2008 at 10:02 am
Laurel 77,
You’re right, learning to avoid grab-and-run purchasing takes time and effort. And time is something many of us don’t have much of - because we are working long hours to be able to afford “goody bags, tons of plastic, paper and disposable cartoon character things, juice boxes…etc” Finding the time can get easier as you begin to see that larger trade-offs may be possible. And letting kids learn that having fun does not require lots of plastic goodies is worth its weight in gold.