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You may think that I am an anthropomorphizing fool. I don’t care.
I want you to think of Elena Tonra’s words coming from the point of view of a product you consume, perhaps an electronic device. I envision my computer singing the words of this song. How when I am finished with it, will it end up in a landfill? Will I dispose of it so easily and carelessly? Am I not in some way married to it? Am I required to have its use necessary for me to finish my schooling? To finish this project? To blog this to you now?
Yet it is so easy for me to forget, now. Possibly I’ll just leave it at a train station one day. Because of this class, because of this project, I am more aware of the natural world and the perceived dependence for survival with technology, with consuming. My computer is not trash. It is a resource, and one that I intend to make long-lasting.
I will not throw you in the landfill.
“This is torturous.”
This is Trashy.
I’m kind of a “momma’s boy.” Really, I have a difficult time saying “no” to my mother sometimes. Aren’t most families the other way around?
My trash from this past week was generously gifted from the fam. Shall we do this again? One more time…
Bread: basically every grocer will supply this in a single-use plastic bag. Try a local bakery which displays their goodies in open cases, in which you can bring your own cloth bag. Or, try baking your own bread at home! Remember to store it in a closed container away from sunlight. I like to put mine in the refrigerator. I don’t eat much bread, and it keeps longer.
Deli-cuts: just say no. Or, something close to no. All deli items are packaged in single-use plastic. They are then cut in slices and put into single-use plastic baggies for you to take home. Try bringing your own container to avoid that additional baggie, or avoid these easy eats and cook with paper-wrapped meats and cheeses. I hear cheese is hard to find without a plastic rind, so your best bet is a small, local producer.
Cereal: bulk grocer, bulk grocer, bulk grocer!
Raisins: bring your own containers to bulk grocery stores. In Manhattan, try People’s or even Hy-Vee.
Bars: candy, granola, snack, and whatever else is packaged individually for single use. You just have to say no. Many of these items can simply be made at home. You can then package them yourself in reusable containers or recyclable foil. What a pain, cooking and planning and shopping for ingredients. Pinterest anyone?
These are all changes I’ve made in my everyday life for this project. Three more days, and it will have been for 60 days. Take a gander, this is my trash for 60 days.
From left to right: (1) plastic seal from contact solution, (1) plastic seal from peanut butter, (1) plastic cap from scintillation vial, (7) pairs single-use laboratory gloves, (1) chocolate bar wrapper, (1) chip bag, (1) snack cracker bag, (2) granola bar wrappers, (2) mini cereal bags, (1) plastic deli bag, (1) plastic bread bag, (1) plastic raisin bag, (1) plastic mail sleeve, (1) plastic check holder, (2) strips plastic packing tape.
This was such an adventure. This was such a learning experience.
We’re almost done here, folks.
This is Trashy.
World Owes Nothing. The world owes nothing and I owe an apology.
Once more, Beth Terry, I have failed you. This is number 70 on her “Plastic-Free Living Guide.” Link below.
I ordered checks from my local bank to be mailed to my place of residence. Silly me, I thought a paper product would simply be packaged in more paper. Instead, the packaging was a plastic sleeve. I also received a flimsy plastic check holder which I will never use. Oh, and I acquired some plastic packing tape. Fantastic.
It could have been so simple to request no plastic or styrofoam packaging.
Instead, I learn the hard way.
This is so Trashy.
I am naive. Not in my nature, but in my relation to the entire world. I therefore write this to you with my limited knowledge of this much over-due topic. My descriptions will be general, and I implore you to research further, as this is a simple way in which to reduce personal waste from consumption.
Compost.
Compost is basically dirt. This nutrient-rich dirt is the waste of hungry, hungry microorganisms which live within organic matter. They require a certain environment to live, and perform this job. They need a certain temperature, humidity, and diet. For more of this info:
http://www.mansfieldct.org/Schools/MMS/compost/microbes.htm
http://www.composterconnection.com/site/ingredients.html
Now, how do ya compost? Let me breakitdown…
If you live in an area which reaches temperatures above 40 degrees Fahrenheit sometime during the year, and have access to Earth’s dirt floor, you can make your own compost pile! There are also a variety of other ways to yard compost.
http://www.composting101.com/building-a-bin-article.html
http://www.composting101.com/compost-bins.html
If you live in an area which reaches temperatures above 40 degrees Fahrenheit and do not have access to a yard, search areas near your community in which you could begin composting. Ask friends and neighbors to compost with. Otherwise, many state counties provide composting and recycling facilities for public use. This is what I have been doing, but do note that Riley County Transfer Station charges $11 per drop-off of food waste. Gross. More info for the Manhattan, KS area:
http://www.riley.ksu.edu/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=197
And if you are limited on space, something such as these may be doable.
http://smallnotebook.org/2008/04/06/how-to-make-a-worm-compost-bin/
http://www.naturemill.com/howItWorks.html
Now, what can ya compost?
Oh. My. Goodness. Almost EVERYTHING can be composted!!! Just remember – no glass, metal, plastic, or poo. And for denser matter like bone, only in commercial composting facilities. They reach the needed, much higher temperatures than any home composting.
http://life.gaiam.com/article/compost
Where do ya put it now, before ya compost it?
I’ve heard some call it a “compost bin.” But, that’s actually referring to the container in which the intended composting processes occur. This is the big bin usually outside the home. What we need is a “compost storage bin.” This is the intermediate container. This is usually a 5-gallon (or smaller) closed container which sits in the kitchen (where the majority of home compost material is produced). When it is time to empty, its contents are then transferred to the big “compost bin,” or “compost pile.” Isn’t language glorious?
There are so many links, and no pictures, and I do apologize. This was the big one for me. With my limited purchasing of packaged foods, I mainly rely on produce for convenience. This convenience produces food waste. In relation to recyclables, I produce alot of compost material. Isn’t that awesome?!
And ya know what’s more awesome? I don’t even have a picture to show you, because this week…
I DID NOT PRODUCE TRASH.
Do you wonder why? Do you wonder? I am always wondering. And sometimes, I am in wonder.
It’s little things for me. Like, going for a run without knowing the time. Or, waking up to the chatter of birds. Visiting home for a weekend is nice, too.
That’s what I did last weekend. It was very nice, and seems to have been much needed. I would pronounce to you my troubles as a college student, but they are truly not troubling. My perspectives on why I do some of the things I do is changing. This is more of what I wonder…
I am not rude. Or at least, I try not to be. Everything is culturally defined. And, I think this is one reason why we, as an American culture, to me, seem trashy. It’s not that we don’t care. I am a part of this “we,” and I do care. To me, it’s that we don’t wonder.
I wonder why this sort of packaging is being used. Even with Frito-Lay, which is producing biodegradable packaging! In 2010, they introduced the world’s first compostable chip bag with SunChips. This bag was very noisy to consumers, and was later pulled from shelves. An alternative bag was developed, which equals noise levels of other chip bags, but it is used to package only Original flavor SunChips.
And currently, this is all the information I am able to find. From viewing today’s stores’ snack shelves, I think all of those extra-crinkly chip bags are biodegradable, but I’m still unsure…
The other packaging pictured is from Wonka chocolate and Wheat Thins. There are other chocolate bars packaged entirely in paper and foil, which are recyclable. And for snack crackers, there are also others packaged entirely in paper. These are just a few common snack items which have less trashy alternatives.
I have all this packaging in my trash for this week because I love my mom. I went home last weekend, and when preparing to leave, she always goes through her kitchen and donates to me her unwanted groceries. I’m a poor college kid, and I couldn’t tell her no! That’s just rude, and I try not to be!
Some social situations are just trashy. And, this was one I couldn’t didn’t fight for…
And, this is Trashy.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2010-10-05-sunchips05_ST_N.htm
http://www.fritolay.com/our-planet/steps-to-a-healthier-planet.html
Be excited. This post contains two trashy webcam pictures.
For this week, this is the amount of trash I have created. I feel sad about it…because…this was completely my intention. I refuse to not wear contacts, and this plastic seal was from my purchase of saline solution. So anti-climactic, I know…
But, here we are! Tomorrow, we will be at the end my 30 day minimum for this trashy project of mine. It was phenomenal, but is surely not the end. For your joy (and mine even more) I will continue to post weekly for some unknown duration. This has been such a journey, such an adventure.
On this day of near nostalgia, let me provide you with an understanding. Of how, through all the days we live in a capitalistic and consumeristic society, we are pressured into consuming. We consume and this becomes trash. I’m not proclaiming that consumption is trashy. It’s just that the way in which our products are available to us is trashy. We consume and that becomes trashy.
I chose this idea as my project because I wanted to do something. I wanted to do something which I could do. I wanted to show people that it is possible to not be trashy. It is possible to not feel like trash. And for me, I do feel less trashy. I am, have been, and will continue to be, less trashy. The way we, as a society, package products needs to change. The way we position, all alone, trash bins, with no other form of disposal nearby, needs to change. We need to change. We need to change?
This is the amount of trash I have produced during my 30 days. What you are not seeing is the amount produced from products I purchased from before my 30 days. You are not seeing the amount I have recycled. You are not seeing the amount I have composted. And thank goodness, you are not seeing the amount of toilet paper I have used…
This all took planning. As I write this today from out-of-town, I had to plan my traveling. I had to plan to not stop for food or drink packaged in single-use materials. I had to plan to take my own container for composting. I had to plan for recycling. I had to plan for not being rude. Not everyone can do everything all the time. This is why I share with you my trash. This is less, and this is doable.
And this is still Trashy.
GRAWRRR!!! I am reckless!!! I am so reckless! Do you see this nonsense?
Around 3p.m. on Friday, during my last shift at work for the week, my Tyrannosaurus strength broke the lid of a vial. You probably can’t see the massive crack in it, but trust me, it’s there… And then, that lovely, sinister ring of plastic…
It’s forcing me to confess to you an obsession I have. I like to think of it more as a love, but maybe I’m more in love. I’m in love with peanut butter. I love peanut butter! It goes with everything, and it doesn’t even have to.
I love PEANUT BUTTER.
The last time I went shopping at a large superstore, I purchased a glass jar of organic peanut butter. I thought this wasn’t trashy, but apparently it was. This ring of plastic was sneakily hiding itself, hugged between the lid and jar’s opening.
But now, I will refill this glass jar with freshly-made peanut butter. There are multiple stores in the Manhattan, KS area which offer this service. But there’s another love I have. People’s Grocery Cooperative. This member-owned grocery store operates through a democratic model, supplying only organic and locally made products. If you have not visited, I highly recommend. To me, this is a unique store which supplies many unique products.
I bring my own cloth shopping bags. This allows me to avoid plastic ones when checking out, along with the ones at the produce and other sections. I bring my own containers, which I reuse. After having them weighed at the register, I fill them with the many dry goods supplied in bulk. I purchase local eggs and milk which are packaged in returnable containers. I even scout for the cuts of meat packaged only in paper. There are also many other products offered in recyclable packaging. People’s is very helpful, and has been to me, very useful.
It’s so weird, for me, to think about eating organic. To be eating natural, to be eating local. I was not raised with these ideas. These ideas are recent in our American, western society. We associate these ideas, these eating behaviors, with an ideal – of being at a higher level of income. In the past, these eating behaviors would have been considered for the less wealthy. That if you could not afford packaged, processed foods, you were poor. Ecofeminist, activist, and author Vandana Shiva acknowledges this in her book Staying Alive. “People are perceived as poor if they eat millets (grown by women) rather than commercially produced and distributed processed foods sold by global agri-business.” These words are all about “perceived poverty.” That if somebody lives in a way different from your cultural norm, it means that they’re not living in a way which is comfortable and happy to them. No… Cultural ideals are not universal.
This is Trashy.
Not quite. For the last month or so I have been waiting to post my final blog in order to get some things in order. Mostly, it gave me a chance to propose these ideas to different communities I am involved in and reflect on their reaction. Statistically speaking, Over the past three months I have saved about $45. There are two different ways I was able to save this money.
1 – Reduction in use of water bottles (only using one) = $25.
2 – Avoidance of buying plastic items (mostly drinks) = $20.
Before this project, I would have at least one water everyday from packages that cost about $6 for every 24 bottles. More often than not, I would buy other bottles for convenience in the price range of $1 to $1.25. So, $25 is a rough estimate.
Also during this project, anytime I would be purchasing an item that was contained in plastic, I would avoid it and wait until I could make another choice. For the amount of coffe, tea, other drinks, or food that I refused to buy, I estimate I saved at least $20.
Both of these estimates are not very precise, and would vary for each person. I’m not a large coffee drinker, in fact, I drink water most of the time. So, for someone else who doesn’t drink water much but enjoys sodas and other flavored/caffeinated drinks – the result would be different. However, there is no doubt that money would be saved here.
Although I attempted to g out how this project looked for me financially, I reflect more on how much I did not consume when I could have made the simple and easy choice to do so. My financial stats do not contain all of the to-go cartons I never used, the daily newspaper I put back on the rack (except for the crossword..), and it does not contain all of the efforts I made to make environmentally conscious decisions rather than ones for my own convenience.
In my communities I gained much more of a perspective of where my peers thoughts were. Up until my last blog all my feedback had been from people who had never thought twice about recycling or their consumption levels. When they heard what I had to say, I usually realized they had stopped listening as soon as I said the word, “recycle” or “reduce”. I was plesantly suprised! In my English class for example, I teamed up with another girl from my class to present ways to recycle on campus. We did a presentation of all of the local opportunities here, and of all the ways you can reduce your consumption on a daily basis. On the day of our presentation, out of all 6 groups that presented THREE were about environmental topics! One even said that hybrid cars were just a capitalist ploy to get money, because in the longevity of their life they have 25% more emissions than normal cars. WHAT?! I have no idea where he got his information, but wow. Is this true? I haven’t gotten the opportunity to check around. But my point is – I totally underestimated my classmates motives and ideas. Needless to say, I was glad to know other people were at least thinking about their choices, and attempting to educate others.
Another plesant suprise I had was finding out information that related so closely to this topic in the most unusual places. I was coming out of one of the residence hall dining centers, and they were handing out bags. They were reusable shopping bags. And sure, we’ve all seen these before. But it had some interesting information on it. Zero paper bags can biodegrade in landfills because of the lack of oxygen. Fourteen of the plastic bags contain enough petroleum to drive a care ONE MILE. There website has other sorts of information and resources at www.onebagatatime.com.
In the end, I have hope. I have hope that we can turn this around, and do what is best for each other and the world that we live in. Ultimately, we have to reduce. That is the only thing that will help solve the problem. Without it, we will always be searching for some sort of unknown solution with energy, recycling, and many other obstacles. People will definitely say they support these actions, and even that they believe it is necessary. But they must act. Action is crucial if we want anything and everything that needs to happen become a reality.
To summarize (but never finish), there is no such thing as “Out of sight, Out of mind” so let’s get rid of this idea. We do affect what is going on in our waters like the collection of plastic waste in a plastic garbage patch. We must act NOW. We are never in this alone.
RALLY CRY: ONE PERSON CAN DO IT!
I loved this project. I hated this project. It was such a developmental, uplifting and rough time for me. I had to learn not only about sustainbility in eating but also sustainability in keeping myself accountable for the things I do in my life.
For instance, I told alot of people at my presentation today that I re-conceptualized my body as a battle ground, as a cite of protest and a starting point for sustainability. Before this project, when I thought about people hurting the environment with their actions I thought about people littering, not recycling. Now I know that eating, the very act of consuming is in itself a choice to be environmentally stable-or not. Reducing your carbon footprint is as easy as reducing the amount of meat you eat. This doesn’t mean you have to be a hardcore (hXc) vegan or even a vegetarian 100% of the time (although I think it’s completely awesome when people choose those paths.) It means you choose a meat-free dish once a day. Or you only eat meat three out of the four days a week. These efforts alone can cut your carbon footprint by 25%, reducing several tons of C02 the average American would usually eat.
Vegetarianism was easy, veganism was more difficult, and local produce was nigh impossible for me, mostly because of travel and scheduling that week before spring produce was available. And although nature.org thinks that vegans produce 72% less carbon that meat eaters, I learned that the statistic might be flawed. For instance, vegans might rely on tofu, or tempeh, or veggie burgers for their main sources of protein. These have nearly as high a carbon footprint than does anything else–they require process, packaging, shipping, refrigeration, and are sent from a location to a central warehouse and then to your local supermarket. The simple fact might be that if you’re only concerned about meat eating and C02 emissions, eating locally grown meat is the better and more sustainable choice. But as we pointed out–there are a multitude of reasons for eating or not eating meat. Some people cannot stand the cruelty done to animals. some people are worried about health. it’s all about balancing and making choice.
Those choices, however are important. To restate some statistics from an early blog post–there’s a lot at stake. 1/3 of C02 emissions comes from the food industry. 91 percent comes from methane and carbon production in farm management–this is largely factory farms and CAFOs. So yes, even eating vegetarian food cannot escape this statistic. However I am more aware of my body and my environment and how they interact with each other. I have gained a new sort of spirituality that helps me realize just how much control I have over myself and how I treat the world around me. I eat less meat, and sort of just see the world differently. It’s like a new lens in life. And I’m supremely grateful for this project and the new beginnings it’s provided me.
I have now presented my poster to the class about my window farm. Thanks to everyone that stopped by to learn about window farming. Showing my window farm to people gives me an opportunity to educate others about creative gardening and producing/buying local organic food.
I was asked many times today about what I was going to do with window garden now that the class project is over. My garden will live on so do not worry. My window farm will be moving with me to a Boy Scout summer camp that I run. There it will hang in a window in the dinning hall. With this prime location I will have around 1500 people walk by it during the summer and I am sure that many of them will stop to take a look.
The possibility of having 1500 people learn about local food is an exciting idea that I cannot turn down. Exceptionally sense most of that 1500 will be middle school kids. Teaching kids at a young age is the easiest way to make meaning life changes.
And after camp the garden is moving with me to Chicago where I hope to expand it.
I hope that many of you are think about making your own window garden, and if you do please let me know. Here are a few things that I have learned from making my own can could help you.
First, herbs are the best to plant in a window garden because many of them do not grow to big. This style of gardening is not good for large plants. Also herbs allow you to continually harvest them without completely killing the plant.
Second, do forget to water them. The bottles themselves are not very big and with that they cannot store a lot of water. I have to water my garden every two days or it will quickly dry out. I learned this the hard way and my lettuce has not fully recovered from it yet.
Last, come up with a design of your own. You could simply build one close to mine or you could be creative. Being creative with your garden makes this project such a fun to do. A good friend of mine is now making one out of old sections of plastic plumbing of different sizes. Some of the pipes even have right angles in them so he can be even more creative with the design. He is planting wild flowers in his.
Over all this has been a fantastic project. I have truly enjoyed designing and building my garden and learning about environmental issues at the same time in class.
