This week's focus is waste. For seven days I will attempt to:
buy only local
continue recycling and find somewhere to recycle glass
not use napkins or paper towels
not use any disposable containers, cups, plates, etc.
limit energy/electricity use
carpool more
I've always been a little bit of a "tree hugger" at heart. I remember in 5th grade I did a social science fair project. I could have picked basically any topic I wanted, and I chose to research recycling in my hometown. That same year we had an old telephone book drive at my school. Everyone was supposed to bring in their old telephone books for recycling. I convinced my family to help me drive around to most of the hotels in my town to collect all the old telephone books from their guest rooms. That's a lot of telephone books!! Just ask my parents. I was passionate about recycling. Just one year ago I saved up a year's worth of glass. My city doesn't yet recycle glass, so I just kept storing it up thinking I would find somewhere that would accept it. I drove around for about 2 months with all of it in the back of my car hoping I'd find somewhere to take it. Finally I got tired of it spilling everywhere and clinking and clanging everytime I turned or slammed on brakes, and I threw it away. I'm also pretty sure that that security guard that cases our parking lot at work was growing a little suspicious of me. I'm sure that the year's worth of wine and beer bottles in the back of my car had him convinced I was an alcoholic. I'm surprised I didn't get random drug tested.
Well....it's day one of "waste" week, and I'm already off to a fantastic start. Umm. Not so much. So, I basically forgot (until about 10pm last night) that today was the first day of waste week. I was not prepared to begin this week. I didn't have my plan finalized and this is kind of "on the fly". This week should involve much planning. That became loud and clear by the middle of day one.
I managed the workday OK except for the fact that I forgot and ate my lunch off of a styrofoam plate with a plastic fork and washed it all down with sweet tea from a disposable cup. Whoops. That's nothing compared to the second half of the day. At the end of the day I realized I also forgot about the baby shower we're having for my co-worker at lunch tomorrow. See what I mean about planning, or lack thereof. Well, I had been nominated to make the diaper cake and signed up last week to bring chicken puff pastries to the shower. Turns out I don't really know where to go to buy diapers, ribbon, and a stuffed animal that is "local". Also, I didn't happen to have fresh dough, free-range and local chicken, or local cream cheese on hand either. So.... to Walmart I went. I cringe just thinking about it. The antithesis of buying local. The biggest, baddest box store out there. So, yes, on day one of waste week I went to Walmart. I figured, "Hey, if I have to go somewhere.... I might as well get it all in one place." And so I made my way through the crazy maze that is Walmart-- my head spinning just thinking of the sheer quantities of junk in that place, the awful labor processes that probably brought them to be, the fuel costs of transporting them all there, the marketing tricks hypnotizing you to think you need these things, and the fact that we flat out just don't need most of the stuff on the shelves there. I can at least feel good about the fact that the gift wrap I bought was "made with paper from sustainably managed forests". At least that's what the packaging said. Now, packaging. That's another thing. Most of it is just so unnecessary. At least all of it that I happened to purchase tonight was recyclable. It all went straight to the recycle bin. Once I finished reluctantly gathering all my "nonlocal" products for the shower tomorrow I decided I could at least accomplish one positive/proactive step toward leading a more wasteLESS life. One of my goals for this week is to invest in some more kitchen towels and linen napkins and eliminate the use of paper towels and paper napkins in my house. So, I headed over to that section in Walmart. Walking there I mentally slapped my wrist over the fact that this purchase was not from a local company, but in the end decided it was a good idea and one step closer to my "green" lifestyle. Finally I arrive at the aisle with all the kitchen towels, flour sacks, bar mops, etc.....so many choices. And then it happened. Jen Hatmaker warned me of this in her book. All of my thoughts came out and started to war against each other. I almost had a breakdown in the middle of aisle 10 over kitchen towels. I can buy cheap towels/napkins here and save money or I can spend more money on ones elsewhere and be assured they were not made by slaves. Do I buy kitchen towels or heavyweight bar mops? What color so that stains don't show up? Does thickness matter? Should I even make the switch to linens? Which is worse for the environment....throwing away paper towels or using more water and energy/electricity to wash cloth ones? Oh, the dilemma of it all!! Finally, I choose some kitchen towels made in India. Everything I picked up on that aisle was made in either Pakistan or India. I walked to the cash register trying to not think about the fact that the people who made them might be working under harsh conditions. I decided these would get me through the week and in the meantime I would research places to buy these items that I can feel better about. So, now I'm standing in the checkout line. I'm waiting behind a man who is buying enormous amounts of nasty canned cat food when I have the brilliant idea to make my own towels out of scrap fabric and old sheets that I already have at home. I don't have to buy them after all. Thank goodness!!! Problem solved. And then I saw it. The merry-go-round of plastic bags!!! I had a wave of panic rush over me. Here it is less than 24 hours into waste week and I'm about to carry plastic bags out of Walmart. For a split second I thought about running back out to my car to get my reusable shopping bags. Then I thought I'd just tell the cashier to put the items right back into the shopping cart instead of bagging them. In the end, I chickened out and let her put them in the plastic bags. Let me tell you, those cashiers load those things in there like it's their job. Wait.... Anyway, I think in their training they must learn to give their customers as many plastic bags as possible. I did re-bag my items to leave a few of the unecessary ones behind, and I'm sure the woman thought I was crazy, but oh well. Oh, and on the way home I filled my SUV up with gas. Hopefully, tomorrow will be a better day.
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| 7: an experimental mutiny against
excess "Jesus, may there be less of me and my junk and more of You and Your Kingdom" ~Jen Hatmaker |
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