Day 6 No Photos Forgot Camera

Day 6:

Here is where the trust begins. I have no photos. My garbage bag rests in my car. I sneak out my garbage when the Fam isn't looking. The bag has only grown slightly since last we blogged. I hope you believe me.

I was washing the dishes and noticed how much water I was using. I am seriously considering doing another sustainability challenge with water. Got any suggestions on rules?

OH! I took all my tissue and composted it! Made some room for my seaweed packaging and potato chip bags.

Time to Care

Day 5: Friday. Chicken bones stink to high heaven and my plastic bag is showing signs of wear. I am pleased. I have today off to see the Fam in Puyallup. My mother will not be happy about the chicken bones so I finally find time to compost.

Time. I think that if we made sustainability easier people would do it. Imagine if we could throw all our recyclables into one bin? Someone else could sort it! Or we compost like the Koreans? They have cans just for leftovers and collect it all to feed pigs! They have these cellulose toothpicks that disintegrate and are edible (pigs).

I dug a hole into my bin, dumped the bones and some other food bits, buried it and as you see, covered it with a block. I learned from your comments about cats that dig!

Then I headed out to P-town.

Arrived. Hugs. Told Folks about the trash. Mom told me to leave it in my car. Went to the Puyallup Fair - Mom told me to leave bag in my car. Ordered a Gyro. It came with a paper plate and waxy paper. Got a coffee in Styrofoam cup. Pops and I drank smoothies made from...gasp! Real fruit! Came in a plastic cup. Mom told me to throw away my trash. I insisted. She gave me that scary Korean look. I held my ground...then THEN my Father (peacemaker) took the trash out of my hands and threw it away! Not even recycling it! He said, "Tell 'em that was my trash. I paid for it."

After he muttered something about 'earthy crunchies,' we continued on.

The Puyallup Fair does not make it easy to recycle. In fact, I do not recall many recycling bins at all. Now, Moscow! There's a town that recycles like the world is ending. I have been lectured by people my friend calls, "Recycling Nazis" before. But I would take "R.Ns" over no recycling.


Here's the Mo-Man doing his own reuse, recycling...hunting for cat poop. Dog eats steak, lamb, Gerber Ham baby food, ground beef, salmon and kibble, but hunts for poop.

Camera Cord...Rest of Week

My apologies. This is the second day I forgot the camera cord to download photos.
I had an English teacher, Mrs. Harding...who gave me a quote I often use: excuses are the building blocks of failure.

So, this is not an excuse...but an explanation! I was busy.

Tomorrow I hope to have a new posting. I can say this...the Puyallup Fair makes it very hard to recycle. My parents are calling me "Earthy Crunchy." And all my garbage fit into a standard plastic shopping bag! Yeah me!

I am thinking about another challenge... water conservation. What is the least amount of water I can use in 7 days? Think I should try?

Oh. That's Me.

Day 4:
So I am sitting in Control 2 transcribing Listener Testimonials. These are short audio files of our members encouraing listeners (not you because you're already a member) to become members and support NWPR. I'm happily typing away. Giddy at the thought of finishing this major project today....when sniff sniff. Man. I smell like garlic! I unzip my jacket and smell it. No. I lift up my t-shirt and smell...nope. What the heck? I thought. It must be my lunch. But I don't have garlic in my lunch today. Then there it is...that white plastic blob...pillowy and smelling like GARLIC!

You see, while you can compost chicken bones after boiling them down, or removing all meats...I don't have the time this week.

I read Tess's blog today and she's right on when she says:
I think the best way to get people to reduce their waste stream is to make it easy, manageable, and [ahem] palatable for them to do so.

Maybe there's a big business in this? Instead of Scrap Booking...Table Scrapping? A truck comes around, picks up scraps/bones...compost them and sell it back to us! Or something like that.

I sure feel sorry for the next Board Operator/DJ...Maybe I'll play on a joke on them and come into control 2 and ask..."What smells in here?"

I Want to Say One Word To You. Just One Word

Plastics.

I have noticed that most of my garbage (Day 3) is coming from plastic wrap. I'm not sure what to do with Saran wrap coated with food. This morning I thought about wrappin my melon in wrap. Then I decided to cut it up and store it in a reusable plastic container. Score! Notice the lack of meat. One commentator suggested going Vegan. I did it for lunch.


All this has me thinking. What can we do with plastic bags?
Plastic Bag Chair


Plastic Evening Bag


Plastic Bag Crafts



I also found a Safeway plastic bag dress (shudder) and various plastic bag toy animals No lead paint in them I'm sure!

I took the advice from commentators and am composting Mochi's poo. I have yet to boil my chicken bones down and compost them...thus the eerily delicious decomposing dinner smell in my purse.


I forgot my hankie today. Notice the tissue box in my purse. Thank goodness for recycling!

NO! Chicken Bones, Napkins and My Competitive Nature

Day 2: I'm still alive. I now have a little bag of garbage. It irritates me.


So far I have learned that I grab tissues and napkins like dogs grab tennis balls. So, I hand washed a hankie (which was given to me so I didn't have to purchase it and create a receipt AND...the best part...was left behind by a hippie with dreadlocks on a hiking trail.) and am going to buy cloth napkins.
This is making me think a lot about what I use and my habits. Oh! And I have confirmed that I am ever so slightly competitive. My goal is to generate the lease amount of trash EVER. So when I cooked dinner and realized I used up all my rice noodles, thus, leaving behind a plastic bag, which I don't think is recyclable, I was pretty hard on myself!



Thinking about what I am eating is not new to me. Some of you know about my food allergies. However, thinking about the packaging and bones involved is!

But here is where the learning begins. I didn't know you could compost bones! Then I did some research:


Since then, I have learned to cook the turkey neck and make soup from it, and then, when most of the meat has been stripped, it can be buried deep within a pile in a pocket of aged material. Now I compost chicken bones, T-bones, pork chop bones, etc. with absolutely no problems at all.

Tomorrow...how to deal with Old Man The Mochi Shih Tzu Poo!

My Garbage Challenge

I’m going to carry around my garbage for a week.

I was inspired by Marketplace's Tess Vigeland who is hauling her household garbage with her for two weeks. Hear Tess talk about this challenge: Garbage Challenge

Tess is doing it for 2 weeks. I will not set myself up for failure and have changed some of the rules.

1. I will carry my household/office trash for 1 week.
2. I will be recycling or composting EVERYTHING I can!
3. I’m going to modify my eating and shopping to keep the trash down.

I have a feeling I will still be carrying a lot of garbage. Oh Crap! I have a dog. Good thing he is a Shih Tzu…I have to figure out how to compost his nuggets.

Wish me luck and I’ll take photos!

UPDATE: 9/17/2007 10:25am
I made it 10 hours without generating any garbage. Then...I watered my office plants and to dry my hands I automatically reached for the paper towels! NOOO! Do I recycle this? Can I compost this? Thom heard my gasp and suggested I reuse it until it dispears. Then...without really thinking I blew my nose in it. Thom was mortified. "Well, now try and wipe things up with it!" So this makes me think of two things.
1. Paper towels make terrible hankies. I need to use that hankie a dear friend gave me...
2. Dish towel
My first piece of garbage is a paper towel.