Preempting Christmas Wastefulness

I'm prepping for the holidays and trying to avoid wastefulness. The Black Friday ads are pouring in...I am doing everything I can to resist the manic over-buying frenzy. That's bad for my wallet, the environment, and my sanity.

Usually we have the kids make Christmas lists on Thanksgiving or the day after. They think about stuff they've seen on t.v., or they flip through the Toys 'R' Us Big Book, and they impulsively make long lists of random toys. We try to choose the ones they really want, and then they end up with a bunch of things they play with once and never use again. Talk about wasteful.

This year I'm giving them a sheet to fill out with the following prompts:

• 2 Books I’d Like to Read:
• Something I’d Like to Learn How to Do:
• Some Clothes I’d Like/Need (hats, jerseys, accessories, etc.):
• 2-3 Toys I want to Play With:
• 2 Video Games I’d Like to Have:
• Anything Else:

My hope is that by focusing their thoughts, they'll choose a few items in each category that really appeal to them, and we won't end up with a bunch of things that 1. aren't good for them and 2. will end up in the donate pile within 6 months.

Green listed

The other day I blogged about my brief vacation into minimalism and suggested that before you make a purchase, list what you have and carefully consider if you really need to buy the item. To buy less is to green more, usually. Every time you don't purchase something you are saving resources.

After publishing that post, a friend of mine sent me a link to another kind of list, this time to see what people really need to be packing around on a daily basis, and what is superfluous stuff.

So now I'm thinking...all this awareness list-making, where can I take it next?

As a dovetail to My Plastic Free Life's "Show Us Your Plastic Trash" challenge on awareness raising, I have a new kind of list to try:

Keep a piece of paper in your kitchen. Every time you throw away, or even compost food waste, jot it down. I'm thinking the ends and stems of things probably don't count for this challenge. But if it's something you could have eaten, but didn't, something that wilted, molded, rotted, soured, or just got tossed, write it down. Take a picture even, if it moves you. But make a list of all the food you wasted in a week, things you scraped off plates, forgot in the back of the fridge, whatever.

Image credit: Word of Mouth Blog

Don't cheat this week either. Don't leave nasty things lurking in the fridge or pantry just so you don't have to list them. Clean out all that waste. Got leftovers in the fridge that are no longer fit for human consumption? Are you sprouting a mold farm in your Tupperware? Clean it out. Write it down. Take a long, honest look at the food you're wasting.

Do this for a week, share it if you want. I'll link to any of you bloggers next week if you blog about it, just let me know. After looking at my food waste for a week, I'm going to take a good hard look at our eating habits, and our grocery shopping. Because if we aren't using it, why on earth would I buy it?



For more green blogs: 

RRR matey

Last Wednesday we only had one bag of trash go out in the weekly pick-up can. 7 people. 1 dog. 7 days. 1 bag of trash.

Awesomeness.

However, we have a preponderance of recycling to go out this week. While I feel much better about the amount of waste headed out trapped in plastic bags, taking up landfill space, I'm a bit bothered by the overall waste we're putting out. Because recycling still is waste, just less so. It takes energy to transport, energy to process, energy to transform...and all of that takes money too. City money that might be better spent elsewhere...if I cut down our overall output of packaging.

So a reality check. The 3 R's:



Reduce
Reuse
Recycle.
They aren't in that order randomly.




Reduce

I've done some of this with turning the lights off, using a clothes line, switching to cloth diapers (which also has a reuse element to it), putting in vinyl windows to reduce our heating & a/c use. I've also done a bit of this with buying in bulk, reducing packaging. We've also reduced our driving time by moving near everything we do. We used to fill the gas tank every 6-7 days. I filled it today. The last time we put gas in the van was September 10th. 25 days ago. That is phenomenal. I was hoping to make it 4 weeks, but we were just a bit short of that. Still...25 days on a tank of gas...

Now, I'm going to do something I don't often do:

Reducing means buying less. Buying things, consuming, is antithetical to a green lifestyle. Always. Doing without is the greenest option. We all have a number of things we just have to have. We have to eat. We need shelter and clothing. And when we make those purchases, we need to make them as wisely as possible to do the least amount of consumption, the least damage we can. But consumerism kills the planet. 

I may be shooting myself in the foot with this next bit, but it's heavy on my mind. (Oy! What a metaphor mishmash I've created. Soap boxes and foot shooting and mind weights, oh my!) "Green giveaways" are NOT living up to the pursuit of sustainability. I'm following a slew of blogs right now to learn as much as I can about living the most eco-friendly lifestyle possible. There are parents around the globe trying their hardest to be good stewards of the planet we are leaving our children, and I truly appreciate the work they are doing. So many of these blogs are offering giveaways. Eco-toys, eco-books, eco-make-up. And I get it. Money is tough. I'd love to help my family with my writing, and I know that sponsorship is a huge deal, as is getting free things for your family. And I'll admit I've entered a couple of giveaways trying to get cloth diapers for Girl 2. Those things are expensive, and we really can't afford many. 

But I think I have to stop. It's hypocritical. Because shipping one cloth diaper across the country is a waste. Shipping a box of wooden blocks from NYC to Idaho is a waste. Buying local is reducing. Buying less...that's even better. Asking, "What can I buy so that I'm more Earth-friendly?" is like asking, "What can I eat so that I lose weight?"  Both are fair questions, to a point. But really we should ask, "Can I cut this out? Do I really need this?" Endless acquisition is toxic.

Junk Lady from Henson's "Labyrinth"

 Minimalism is really the only true path to sustainability. That's hard for me to say. I like stuff. I want things. I hate my cell phone. I want a new one. I want new clothes, books, a bike...My computer is slow, I'd like an iPad...or even a laptop. I have five children! I'm hardly the picture of minimalism. Just the other day I posted my pages and pages of to-dos...not a minimalist lifestyle. I need to work harder to pare away the crap. 

Every single choice we make affects someone on this planet. That sounds overblown, but it isn't. What I buy affects the economy and jobs. It affects wildlife and plant life. It affects the people who see me with my new acquisition. It affects my children. Some things are small, and not a huge deal, others are significant. But every purchase/action has an effect. We talk about purchasing power, but in a capitalist society it's easy to overlook the power of putting your wallet back in your pocket.

There are two more "R's" to discuss... but I'm feeling a bit like I've shouted in church. Reusing and Recycling can wait for another day.

Squishy Tushies

There are some days I'd really like to be plugged back in to the Matrix.

Now that I'm really paying attention to our habits and lifestyle, there is so much potential for guilt. While there is much internet discussion about slacktivism and people easing their consciences with quick band-aid fixes, I think the converse is true as well. Sometimes there's so much I want to do, I'm almost paralyzed by the guilt/difficulty of doing it all. I don't want to be a slacktivist, I want to change the world.

My favorite writer, Anthony Doerr, recently wrote a somewhat depressing and frustrating article about how little awareness really changes things, and extreme technological fixes might just be the only viable solution. He also seems to be saying that even on the path to extinction we can stop to smell the roses.

I can't decide if I feel admiration or anger.

But enough of this intellectual codswallop! I'm a stay-at-home mom, I shouldn't be reading or thinking. I should be talking about baby bowel movements and diapers.*

*Sarcasm         

So.

In an earlier post I fretted about the expense and complications of cloth diapering vs. my huge guilt over the number of dipes Girl 2 is generating. The internet is CRAZY confusing when it comes to cloth diapering, even though there are 80 gazillion sites that claim to have an easy explanation. I gave up and decided that diapering was the one area I was just going to have to remain a wasteful Earth killer. Maybe I could potty train Girl 2 sooner, to reduce the number?

A friend of mine read my blog and shot me an email about how she cloth diapers. She was straight-forward, she was simple, and she told me what I really need in practical terms. Here's what she said, in a nutshell:

• I need a minimum of 3 diaper covers. She recommended Econobum   
• I need a stack of pre-fold diapers. Each of the diaper covers comes with one, plus you can use a good, absorbent flannel to make your own. Basically it's a 30 inch square, which you fold thusly. (first set of pics). I can use old receiving blankets.
• Then you just have to make sure you wash them sans fabric softener, and check to make sure your detergent works well with them. She recommended washing with baking soda.

Here's my math, once I understood what I really needed:

           I spend an average of .18 on a disposable diaper. (coupons!)
           If I do 5 changes a day, that's $0.90 a day in diapers.
           One econobum cover costs $9.95 on Amazon (free shipping since it'd be over $25)
           I can get by with 3, which would be a total of $29.85
           I have lots of flannel receiving blankets I'm not using, so the insert part is basically free.

          $29.85/.9 = 33.16, so basically in 34 days, I'd have broken even. 

One month. Seriously. 

So I talked to the man, and we decided to go for it. I bought 3 Econobums, folded all my old receiving blankets into diapers, and then the sweetest part, my cloth diaper mentor sent me this care package:

My econobum purchases with lots of adorable prefolds from my cloth diaper guru. 

Girl 2 has been wearing cloth diapers since Saturday afternoon, and it is going great. 

The relief I feel from eliminating disposable diapers is HUGE. I didn't realize how heavily it was weighing on me every time I rolled one up and pitched it in the trash. We still have a big stash of them, so she'll be wearing  one a night since she sleeps so long. That should give me a little wiggle room with laundry too. I can do the wash at night.

Two things. (2)

So, thing two...

I'm assuming you know about the oceanic garbage patches. (I cannot type "oceanic" without thinking "815"...) If not, it's an easy google, but beware, it's depressing. The BBC has a really amazing interactive graphic that shows you how big the Great Pacific Garbage patch is in relationship to where you live. It's horrible, really. Plastic bags are insidious, hegemonic demons.

Photo swiped from Raubi Marie

I'm kind of being hyperbolic. Kind of.

The thing is, even if you eliminate the plastic bags at the grocery store for hauling your food, there are still the bags you put the produce in, the little baggies in lunches, the plastic liners in processed foods like cereal, etc. They are everywhere.

I've been reusing the produce bags from the grocery store & fruit stands for kids' sandwiches and lunch items. I've also been reusing bread bags for this. But they get dirty & nasty, and there's still no choice but to pitch them eventually. So I'm trying to eliminate them one by one.

My first step is to eliminate the need for sandwich/snack bags. I know you can buy plastic (it's eve.ry.where.) containers for sandwiches and such, but we often don't use the standard square bread, and I don't want to spend a ton of money. Plus, I have this dream of eliminating petroleum-based products entirely...not sure we'll ever get there (especially when I think about toys) but it's something to aim for.

I decided to dust off the old sewing machine and make my own reusable sandwich bags. My mom gave me a yard of fabric to play with, and I had to fiddle with sizes and linings.

The first attempt:

The sewing is kind of a mess, the bag a was a bit too small, and the liner (a repurposed tablecloth from Girl 1's birthday) is tooflimsy, but still, I was excited. The shape and function seemed workable.

So I made a bigger bag, lined with a thick plastic shopping bag: 

Terrible picture, but basically while the liner works great, the bag is much too big. You could fit two sandwiches on Dave's Killer Bread in the thing. Which is fine, but kind of unwieldy. 

So I reduced the size a little, and decided to try repurposing a Dorito's bag for the liner: 

Success! This bag looks good, has a satisfying and sturdy feel, makes a neat-o crinkly noise, and is made by reusing materials that can't be recycled. I was able to make two identical bags. The kids all had hot lunch at school today, but they will be testing these next time they bring their own lunch.

I am so exited by the idea that I can make these, I'm inspired to make a bunch more. I went to the thrift shop to look at clothes and bedding that could be transformed into replacements for plastic bags. I spent very little money and came home with some really cool fabrics. I forgot how much I love the thrift store. 

I'm pretty dang excited. 

Two things. (1)

Boy 3 never has just one topic of discussion. Anytime he wants to talk to his dad or I, he always has two things. Always. "Mom? Two things...First, can I have a granola bar? and....Can I watch Avatar shows?"  "Mom? Two things. First, my throat hurts. and....Whatcha doin?"

Maybe it's a middle child thing. Maybe he needs to add weight to his conversations. Whatever it is, it's become a family joke to start all conversations with the phrase, "Two things..."

So.

Dear Readers, two things...

First, I found some free pallets on craigslist to build into a compost box, but then realized I don't really have a vehicle to haul them. We do own an ancient uglytruck for macho-type activities, but I have never attempted to drive the monstrosity, and tooling around in a jittery old pickup truck doesn't seem safe for the ever-present Girl 1 and Girl 2 (they will not bite you, they want to have fun! And out of the box came Girl 2 and Girl 1.). The organic garden store (!) that had them isn't open when the man is home from work, so I was stymied as to how to get the pallets from across town to mi casa.

The day after Labor Day, the man had the day off, so I thought I'd ask him to go pick up the pallets. Turns out, he had plans of his own, and that turned out to be organizing our wood pile. We have two fireplaces in this house and the previous owners left logs & branches strewn all over. So no pallets for me. BUT, as he was hauling and moving branches, he found this:

w.0.0.t.! 

It was hidden along the side of the house and covered in brush. We moved it into the backyard, and voila! (I actually saw online someone type "whala!"... I wanted to break stuff.) We are composting!

Problem: we need some chicken wire or something, because the dog is runty and can pull scraps out of the box. She's in heaven. Us, not so much. 

Older pic of Dumpster Diving Dawg.
She wouldn't hold still for me to get a picture of her today. 

So that's thing one. We have achieved a compost beginning, and we didn't have to drive anywhere or buy a thing. I'm hoping to find some cheap or free wire to enclose it, but we are moving right along.

Stay tuned for thing two...

Point of No Return

We're out of paper towels.

I knew this was coming, we've been low for a while. I've watched the rolls diminish and I've resisted replenishing. We're going paperless.

I week or so ago I bought a pack of 18 cotton washcloths for $4 or so. They're brightly colored and about 12" x 12". I forgot to take a picture and we've been using them, so they aren't photogenic anymore. They're terrycloth squares. You get the idea. We're using these for surface cleaning, kitchen messes, etc. No more paper towels for spills. I actually feel a little anxious about this. I don't know why. We're kind of paper towel people. I don't even own cloth napkins. That's something else to rectify soon, especially now that we're out of paper towels, and I'm committing to buy no more.

I've never cleaned a mirror with anything other than paper towels. I'm kind of sheltered. :)

I'm also out of pop. Coke. Pepsi. Soda. Caffeinated carbonated fizzylicious goodness. The man still has his cache of Mountain Dew, which I am resolutely staying out of. Well... more like "lip-biting finger-crossing hopefully staying out of". But I'm going to try. I'm giving up pop.

I have been drinking around 2-3 cans of pop every day for years. I've quit before, and I'm not sure how well I'm going to do this time, but it's time. First, it pollutes me. It's crazy unhealthy to put soft drinks in your body. Even though I love them. Love love love...

Anyway.

Even though we recycle the cans and the boxes they come in, it's still using up a lot of energy (and TONS of water) to make the pop, package the pop, ship the pop, recycle the packaging...etc. All for something that's bad for me, and I really don't need. (Once I'm over the withdrawal.) So I'm quitting. I am. Okay.

I also realized that there's no reason to wait for my own bike, I can borrow back the one I gave to Boy 1 to do some errands. I hooked up the little baby trailer to the bike, put the girls in it, and rode to pick up diapers (insert cringe of guilt here...still stewing on the diaper issue). The girls are HEAVY. Good grief. I made it to the store and back, but I didn't realize just how out of shape I am, nor how hard it would be to haul them in the trailer. Felt like I was pulling them through molasses, and I'm all tired now. So I definitely need to get away from this monitor and out moving more often.

Reading over this post, I'm feeling like an unhealthy blob. Ugh. I suppose it's good I'm doing something about it.

Progress

Before I do my goal check in, I wanted to talk about waste. 


We received an update from our waste/recycling company that recycling in the Boise area has skyrocketed since they began no-sort recycling. I'd like to quote that pamphlet directly, but we recycled it. 


From the Allied Waste website: "In the first month of the new no-sort program Boiseans recycled a whopping 50% more than in months-past.  Residents who struggled to fill their old blue bin now report (with smiles!) that their 95-gallon blue carts (equivalent to 3 garbage cans) are not big enough to hold their recyclables. Many folks who didn't buy in to the blue bin program have signed-up for blue carts and are now recycling advocates.

As we passed our one year anniversary of "Curbit" we are pleased to announce that residents are recycling 100% more than last year (36 pounds per household per month)." 

That's awesome.

Treehugger today has a good article on "Pay as you throw" waste management. I think this could be a great system. People would be thinking about packaging more, and wasting less. The cynic in me wonders if people would just start driving their junk into the woods and dumping it...or stashing their trash in a neighbor's can in the middle of the night...or in a nearby dumpster. Still, I think it's a good concept.

As far as the trash battle here, we're making progress. On July 21st, when I started this blog, we were filling our trash cart to the point where it wouldn't close, every Wednesday.  Over the last five weeks, our waste has dropped considerably. Yesterday my husband came back in from taking a trash bag to the can. He asked if I'd seen the garbage this week. I hadn't.  Turns out we are making noticeable progress: 

Half empty. (from this optimist's POV)

I'm pretty flippin' excited about that. And, I know we can do better. I'm inching closer to the composting thing, we're going to do it, we just have to agree on where in the yard to put it, and we have to get the pallets to make it. Still, I'm hoping to start that in the next week or two. We're still reducing packaging, buying as much from the bulk bins as possible, buying more fruits & veggies, and fewer individually wrapped snacks. So I think we can reduce that waste even more. I'm pretty pleased.

On a side note, the kids are responding. They are currently cleaning the playroom and Boy 2 just came upstairs with a broken flip flop. He asked, "Mom, should I throw this away, or can it be recycled?" I don't think he would have asked that a month ago. We can't recycle it, but we're looking for a way to reuse/repurpose the pair. 

It's coming together. 

Baggin'

I've been looking for fun ways to reuse plastic bags. We use them to haul things around, and as small trash can liners, but that doesn't use very many. I knew there were some crafts to be made from them, so I researched what was out there.
These are the sites I found: Artists Helping Children and Green Living Tips

I tried making a jump rope for the kids out of bags. Since the bigger boys are in football, I thought it would be fun for their conditioning, plus ropes are great for imagination play. But the problem I encountered is that most of the crafts require you to cut off the handles, making little plastic waste all over the place. It seems like more of a hazard than the whole bag. I know it stressed me out as the little thingers flew around the kitchen with Girl 2 underfoot.

It was also stupidly time consuming, and half-way through I bailed on it. I've decided there is just no redeeming plastic bags. They're a menace, pure & simple. Since I've switched to reusable bags, I shouldn't be acquiring any more plastic bags, but I already have a significant stash. I'm the room parent for Boy 2's fourth grade class this year, so I think I will try to use some of the bags up to make crafts at their parties (there's a cute ghost craft that would be great for Halloween). Any other bags are going to be taken back to the store to be reused there.

Crap

The kids go back to school on Monday, so we're in the prep zone. While I'm still working on getting my green on, I haven't had the time to put my fingers to the keys.

I've been researching cloth diapering. Why is it so confusing? While there are a lot of sites out there that explain the different types of diapers, how to fold them, where to buy them, I'd love a practical discussion of how well these methods work in real life. I just can't figure out practicality vs. effectiveness vs. cost.

Girl 2, aka "the Baby" is almost 10 months old. If she's like her siblings, we have a max of a year and a half left in diapers. When I look at all the prices out there for cloth diapers, it's just too expensive. I can get disposables pretty inexpensively, especially if I bargain shop and use coupons. If I was on my first child, and could reuse the diapers, or even if I'd started cloth diapering when Girl 2 was born, it might have been worth the cost. But the learning curve, the chaos in my house, and the price are just too much. I've also looked for biodegradable disposables, but so far the only kind I've found are also too expensive. 

I'm feeling sad and frustrated by this. I know that we're making a lot of waste, and LASTING waste with the way we're diapering now. I also know that we are on the run a lot once school starts, and I'm not sure we can learn how to cloth diaper on our fifth child. I really want to cloth diaper, but I don't think we have the time or money to afford it. 

To add to my guilt is this. I'm not going to look back at the number of diapers we've sent to the landfill with the first four, because there's nothing I can do about that, and it's just discouraging. But looking ahead, and assuming the Baby is in diapers for 18 more months, we're looking at a lot of waste.

Basically:

18 months = 547 days. 

Assuming 5 diapers a day 

= 2735 diapers or so until she's potty trained. 

And while I'm not looking back...there's a little mathematician in the back of my mind trying to calculate 2.5 years of disposable diapers for each of the 5 kids. I'm squelching that voice, I can't fix the mistakes I've done...but I feel the emotional weight of them.

So do I just decide that there's nothing I can do, so I should just keep on the way I have been? Or do I ignore our time & money limitations in order to be a better environmental steward? Is there some middle ground I'm missing?