REIGNING IN THE HOLIDAY WASTE

I love holidays!!  Whether it's new years eve, the winter solstice, Halloween or Christmas, any holiday is a reason to bring out the decorations, gather with friends and family, and make memories that last a lifetime.  Sadly, along with making those memories, we're making A LOT of trash.  While the amount of "extra" waste seems minimal during most of the months, December has the most holidays, the most consumption, and, the most waste.

According to NEEF (National Environmental Education Foundation), landfill waste increases approximately 25% during the month of December.  Of course, that's not much of a surprise.  More parties, more travel, more food, more presents.  How do we live mindfully in a consumption based month like December.  It's a struggle, to be sure, but it can be done with a little planning and some creativity.

Lets start with the 3 R's: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

GIFTS: Gift giving is expensive.  The time, money and thought that goes in to it drains our bank accounts and uses up much more energy than it's worth.  I start my holidays with a trip to my "gift" cupboard.  The gifts here are either items I've picked up during the year (usually on sale) or items I've received that I won't be keeping (REgifting).  It's easy to find a usable gift for a party hostess, a gift exchange, or as a last minute gift if you have a designated space for those extras that you've accumulated during the year.

No Peeking

Browse thrift stores.  Whether you're dropping in throughout the year (it's never too early or late to add to your gift cupboard) or at the holidays, you'd be surprised at the amount of new and barely used items that can be lovingly REgifted.

Gifts from the kitchen: Who doesn't love home cooking and baking??  Put on an apron and treat friends and family to homemade cookies, jam, or whatever your specialty happens to be.

Handmade reigns supreme!  I've made many of my gifts over the years, using recycled items, and I'm posting some of the pics below.  As a very "non-crafty" person, if I can make it, it's totally doable! Check out one of the many internet craft and idea sites for great crafting ideas for all of your REusable waste.

Handmade Paper Christmas Cards

with disposal instructions

Potpourri made with Lavender and 

Rose petals from my garden

Gifts from the garden

Homemade cookies in a

decorated thrift store vase

Decorating: How about a happy "natural" holiday?  Leaves, flowers, branches, pinecones, and many other outdoor finds are easy to find and easy to decorate with.  

REpurpose from your Recycling Bin.  Cans, bottles, cardboard, glass jars...just about everything in your recycling bin can be upcycled in to holiday decorations.  How about corks, bottle caps, and wine bottles...there's a holiday decorating tutorial for that, too.  Check out a crafting site and get in touch with your artistic side.

Mr. and Mrs. Snowman-crafted from recycled

items, cherished for over a decade

REuse: Not only will reusing your holiday decorations save you money, you'll get to enjoy the warm and fuzzy feelings associated with past holiday celebrations.

FOOD: December is a great time to start using up the food in your pantry, fridge or freezer.  Do you really want to store all those half used jars in your refrigerator door another year?  Are the "best by" dates on your pantry items looming close?  Get online, or pull out your recipe books and find some meals you can make without heading to the grocery store.

Have an "AFTER" holiday party.  Our  After Christmas party this year is December 27th.  Guests are asked to bring some leftovers for the potluck and to "regift" for the gift exchange.  It's a chance to clean out the pantry, the freezer, or the cookie jar.  It's a chance to reduce our extra stuff, reuse what we have, and make memories with friends and family.

Be Well and Happy Holidays

MILLIONS OF MAGAZINES

I love reading, and I’m a sucker for the magazines at the checkout line of the grocery store.  There’s always something that catches my eye. After all, who doesn’t want to delve deeper into how to lose 10 pounds in a week along with how to make the best chocolate cake ever?  But what do we do with the magazine AFTER we ate the cake and decided not to lose 10 pounds?  We could file it away for future use, referring to these amazing books of knowledge whenever needed, but will you really be able to find what you need, when you need it?  Do you have the room for all of that “extra” information?  I’ve cancelled all the subscriptions relying on my vast collection of magazines to provide new ideas, recipes, and projects for my home and garden.  If I see something I want to remember and keep, I copy it or take a picture of it with my phone and file it away in a labeled folder.  Hopefully I will live long enough to make it through my library and clear the clutter.  My strategy (though somewhat slowed down by my read, copy and file routine) has included the following methods.

Years of magazines to read 

and projects to plan

Read me!!

One of my favorite magazines 

for frugal ideas

1. Bring magazines with you when you know you'll have a wait (doctor, airport, DMV, etc.).  Finished with it?  Tear off the name and address label and leave it for a thankful recipient.
2. Donate to senior homes
3. Swap with neighbors
4. Leave a few in the car for unexpected waits
5. Use for school and art projects
6. Sell (check out online marketplaces)
7. Add to your recycling bin

Be well, be sustainable and happy gardening!!

EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT

NEWSPAPERS

I stopped my newspaper delivery years ago, opting for the ease of other sources, but I still get a number of "free" deliveries (mail carrier, solicitors, etc.) that I'm unable to cancel. Fortunately, the amount isn't large and I have lots of great ways to reuse it here at home.

1. Shred and add to the compost bin

2. Use to smoother grass to make new garden beds

3. Use as a layer in your "Lasagna" garden (great book by Pat Lanza)

Shredded mixed paper in a new 

raised bed (blog 03-25-11)

4.  Use damp sheets to cover the worms in your bin

5. Make seed tapes

Seed tapes (blog 05-03-11)

Fun project for kids

6. Make "logs" for the fireplace.  Soak tightly rolled newspapers in water, allow to dry thoroughly 

    before burning.

7. Clean windows and mirrors

8. Wrap gifts

9. Use as packaging material when mailing items or storing holiday ornaments

10. Use at the bottom of your fruit and veggie drawer to absorb moisture and odors

11. Fruit ripening. Wrap pears and avocados in paper and store in a dark cupboard to ripen

12. Paper mache' craft projects 

13. Donate to animal shelters, schools, scouting troops and other groups

14. Craft projects (check out "Pinterest" for everything from baskets to wall art)

14. Dry wet shoes by stuffing them with crumpled newspaper

15. Use as a makeshift ironing board

16. Use crumbled wet newspapers to pick up the tiny pieces of broken glass after sweeping up the 

      big pieces

17. Unscrew a broken lightbulb.

18. Use tightly rolled up wet newspapers (wrap with a rubber band) to catch earwigs in the garden

19. Leave some newspapers in the trunk of your car for cleaning windows, providing traction in the snow, and laying in your trunk when shopping for plants and to protect your car from other messy containers

20. Start melon, cucumber and squash seeds in strawberry cages lined with newspapers.  Plant the seedlings, cage and all.  The paper will decompose and the roots will grow through the open spaces without being disturbed during the transplant.

Strawberry cage seed planting (03-24-11 Blog)

Sowing squash seeds

If all else fails, adds to your recycling bin.  It might be something great in it's next life!

Be well, be sustainable and happy gardening!!

CURBSIDE RECYCLING. IS IT WORTH IT??

Curbside recycling has made major news lately with many municipalities questioning their decades old decision to give disposable items an after life.  From vegetable cans to soda bottles, we believed that we were helping the planet by "recycling" items from the list provided by our city waste collector, easily imaging a new plastic bottle, park bench, or some other such reuse rising from the remnants of our "one and done" lifestyles.  We've embraced the idea of recycling so much that we've increased our overall garbage waste from around 2 1/2 lbs per person, per day in the 60's to approximately 4.5 lbs per person today.  

Friends, I have some good news and some bad news.  First the bad news.  There isn't a recycling fairy who magically turns our trash into playgrounds and soda bottles.  Recycling household waste (IF it's being recycled, and not sent to a landfill) usually includes a heavy carbon footprint. When you factor in transportation to a sorting facility, the processing required to break down the original materials, the manufacturing of the new products and the release of greenhouse gasses, chemicals and toxic metals into the environment, it's not a perfect system.

Now, the good news!!  It's easy to be a recycling fairy (or King, Queen, etc.).  Folks, this is one of the main reasons that I, a self proclaimed tree hugger and waste Guru, started this blog.  It was about having responsibility for my environmental footprint.  It's about seeing potential in home waste instead of mindlessly tossing everything into the trash.  It's about protecting the earth, home to every living creature on the planet. It's about reusing what I have, refusing (or reducing) the purchase of new items, and instead, recycling and upscycling items on hand, discarding less to landfills AND recycling centers, and ultimately, lowering my carbon and environmental footprint in the process.   

Any internet search will give you dozens of ways to reuse your waste, and I urge you to look through as much of it as possible for interesting ideas to repurpose, reuse and upcycle your waste.  It's truly amazing what we can do when we think outside of the box.

In the meantime, I'm going to be spending the next few weeks giving you my daily list of 101 frequently used (and mostly trashed) items that we all come in contact with on a daily basis with easy to do ideas and projects to reuse, recycle, repurpose and rot (compost) so you don't have to decide whether to put things in the black, blue or green container.

Toilet paper roll seed starting pots

Newspaper seed tape

What's best is that none of my ideas include sending stuff to a landfill!!

Please don't stop your curbside recycling unless asked to do so by your city.  

Many items, such as paper, glass bottles and aluminum cans are fairly easy to recycle, saving natural resources and lessening the amount of GHG (greenhouse gasses) entering the environment.  Remember:  Sending waste to a landfill should always be our LAST option!

Be well, be sustainable and happy Spring gardening!!

LEFTOVERS-USED OR LEFT BEHIND?

After my Bunco night, I planned on cooking my husband a romantic steak dinner as a thank you for all the help he gave me, especially the awesome barbeque ribs he made for all of us.  However...
the frugal in me won out and he got a meal of leftovers-pulled pork sandwiches with coleslaw and leftover pasta salad from one of my Bunco guests.

Past it's prime cabbage and the last remains of 

 mayonnaise in the jar add crunch to our pulled

pork sandwiches

The pork ribs were "falling off the bone" good.

A quick dice, some additional sauce and about

5 minutes of heat and we had a delicious dinner

The night was still romantic, just the menu changed.  Now we have 2 steaks saved for the next romantic home date.

Anyway, back to the leftover issue.

A memorable quote I heard was "I don't make money off of what people buy, I make money off what they throw away".  The author of that quote might have been addressing the considerable amount of food that we purchase, only to throw it away. Whether it's the jar of fresh salsa that turns before we've had a chance to finish it, or the restaurant leftovers that get thrown away days after you brought them home (probably in a nonbiodegradable container) and are no longer recognizable, American's throw out approximately 40% of the food that they purchase.  That's a staggering amount of food and money for consumers, and a huge environmental footprint for the planet.  Think about it:

1. Growing food=water, fertilizer, herbicides, pesticides, farm machinery (if grown in a commercial facility)
2. Harvesting food=farm machinery, fossil fuels
3. Transporting food=fossil fuels
4. Production of processed foods=energy (probably fossil fuel)
5. Storing food=energy (probably fossil fuel)
6. Cooking food=energy (probably fossil fuel)
7. Storing leftovers=energy (probably fossil fuel)
8. Take out container (when applicable)=environmental nightmare
9. Transportation of waste to landfill=energy (probably fossil fuel)
10. Landfill=food waste attracts rodents and other wildlife, decomposing food smells horrible for the residents living nearby, emits methane gas (an extremely potent green house gas)

Let's not forget the hard work it took to earn the money for the food in the first place...

It's important to recognize the footprint behind the food we purchase.  If we throw that food away, we're trashing the planet as well as wasting our time and money.  

Food waste can be found in lots of different places.  The pantry, freezer and refrigerator door all hold the possibility of being future food waste.  From expiration dates to weevils, food that sits too long turns to waste.  Come on, who hasn't pulled an ice incrusted steak out of the freezer that was dated 5 years ago?  Sadly, that was me when I cleaned out and got rid of a garage freezer.  What a waste!  Lets fight for using up leftovers!!

1. Buy Less to encourage eating what's on hand.
2. Take stock of what you have before you go to the market.  You may not need to make that trip after all
3. Have meatless Mondays (using pantry meats or beans) and freezer Fridays (cook up those veggies and meat before they get ice crystals)
4. Reheat (or repurpose) your left overs the following day.  If you don't eat it on day 2, you're even less likely to eat it on day 3.
5. Repurposing (meatloaf=chili, roast chicken=chicken pot pie, etc.) is great for adding variety and using up other "on hand" ingredients.   
6. Freeze for future use 
7. Repurpose the last of your condiments.  Mustard and mayonnaise can both make great salad dressings, right in the bottle.  Ketchup can make barbeque sauce, etc.  
8. Have "buffet" night 2X a week, once on the night before trash day, once 3-4 days later.  You'll start looking forward to all the time you'll save when you don't have to start everything from scratch.
9. Have a seasonal or year end purge of your refrigerator and freezer to use up your older food and condiments.  Let your New Year's resolution be to use up BEFORE it goes bad.
10. Compost it (if possible)
11. Picture yourself throwing away 40% of every dollar of food you purchase.  

Be well, be sustainable and happy gardening

PARTY TIME TONIGHT

While Bunco night wasn't "waste free", I definitely cut down on the amount of waste that accompanies a 16 person potluck.  

The eco-friendly line starts here

For starters, the plates and forks are part of my party stash.  I bought 32 plates from the dollar store 15 years ago for my parents' 50 wedding anniversary.  Although I've given a few away with bakery treats, 28 still remain.  The napkins are used everyday.  They're easy to wash and last decades.  

Less than a load

For my contribution to the "green" theme, I made margarita jello shots.  The idea came around when I found a bag of shot cups in my party pantry.  I had tequila on hand and limes on our tree so the only purchase was lime jello and triple sec.  I sprinkled a little sea salt on top and wow!  It was just like a margarita.  My guests loved them.  Of course, the plastic cups are trash...or are they?  

Didn't stand a chance, did they

I soaked the cups in warm soapy water to melt the jello and clean the cups.  I'll be filling them with soil and planting a few seeds in each cup.  In a month, the seeds will have germinated and grown enough to be looking for a larger pot.  I'll be taking them to the next Bunco night, which is a Spring/Easter theme, to hand out to my fellow gardeners.  After that, the cups will be theirs to reuse or discard.  I'm just happy I didn't have to send them to the landfill.  

I made sorting the potluck waste easy (sort of) with labels, but this isn't your usual party set up.

Where does everything go?

So, how much waste did 16 women make?  I thought I'd take the plunge (literally) and figure it out.   I had already placed my bags in the trash bin when I was cleaning up last night so I grabbed my handy dandy plastic gloves (small sized plastic bags that I've saved) and went out to weigh the waste.

Waste not want not

I can't believe I'm going in 

This was pretty nasty, and something I wouldn't usually do, but all in the name of research, right?  I need to have a baseline figure for future party waste.  The total amount of landfill trash was 6.2 lbs.  Divided by 16 ladies, we were between 1/3 and 1/2 lb. of trash each for the evening.  Not bad.  FYI ladies...I'll be looking to lower that total next time it's my turn.

Bunco Buddies

Thanks to the awesome ladies who were part of my blog.  You're the BEST!!

Be well, be sustainable and happy gardening!!

WEEKLY WEIGH IN HAPPENING SOON!

Day 7 and I'll be weighing in this evening before I take my weekly waste to the curb.
With nothing else to do for the day (insert hysterically laughing emoji) I'll be laying on the couch eating bonbons.  That and hanging laundry to dry, (it might be my only chance for a few days), syphoning water from uncovered containers to the garden beds to prevent mosquitos from breeding, and cleaning up before my Bunco buddies show up tomorrow night.  This is my first time hosting Bunco night and some of the ladies might be somewhat surprised with my commitment to "waste free".  I'm mean, they know that I enjoy working in the garden and making compost, but that's about it.  Chances are they haven't realized what a whack job I am.  Just to be on the safe side, I won't ask anyone to dump a bucket of grey water instead of flushing the toilet.  Or well I?

What would you think??

Bunco at the crazy lady's house

After my "how low can I go" challenge, what's next?  Is "suggesting" to your party guests that they use grey water cool or creepy?  If I leave the "Did You Know" sign in the bathroom, will I be invited back next month? Should I try and be the changing force that asks "how low can YOU go" to her guests, or is that over the top?  Comments appreciated.  Tune in Saturday for the out come.

Be well, be sustainable and happy gardening!

I've arrived at day 6 of my "how low can I go" challenge.  I had hoped to keep my household waste inside until the weigh in but it's getting a little sour smelling in my kitchen.

Landfill to the left, recycling, reusing 

and upcycling to the right

I'm not quite sure where to put everything. My trash containers have been promoted to rain barrel status.

Catching the overflow from the rain gutters

I've heard that rainy days are made so that gardeners can clean the house.  Trapped inside for the morning I used a solar charged battery to shred scrap paper for the compost bin.  

Shredded "browns" for the 

compost bin

The battery had just enough juice to make it through shredding this pile.  With 4 days of rain in the future I won't be able to charge it again soon.  

After shredding the good stuff I was

left with (clockwise from the top)

a cardboard box to reuse or recycle,

2 envelopes that can be reused, 2 cards,

glossy paper for the recycling bin

and....

plastic envelope windows going

to the landfill

Just in case you didn't believe me about standing in the rain and syphoning water....

My husband snapped this picture of 

me draining water from the barrels

to use around my veggie garden

Be well, be sustainable and happy gardening!

CLOSING IN ON THE CHALLENGE FINISH LINE

Day 5 of the challenge and I spent the day at home, preparing for the 4 days of rain that will be starting this evening.  Working and eating at home kept my trash load to a minimum, and the food from my home garden is key to it all.

The daily beer cans show a pattern

This is my actual landfill waste, although

the foam cup and lid will probably

be washed and reused out of a sense

of environmental duty

With 2 days to go until I weigh my household waste, I'm feeling pretty good.  Other than the TV, my waste is fairly minimal.  Knowing that I'm weighing it all has helped me to make a few better (less wasteful) choices.  The bag in the photo above was popping corn (expired 2 years ago), and I chose it over the microwave package in the pantry (plastic wrapper and bag) that I would have to deal with if I chose that route.  The popcorn might have been a bit "weevely", which is why I am not reusing the bag.  My mom always said a few weevels never hurt anyone, but this might be going to far.  

Be well, be sustainable and happy gardening!!

TV TRASHES TRASH CHALLENGE

Day 4 starts with the knowledge that even though my trash (by weight) was minimal,

Everything here can be recycled, 

repurposed, or composted.

the 70 lb. tv and 2 lbs. of batteries and remotes put me way over my 4.4 lb. per person per day, but I'm no quitter so I will see this out to the end.

BTW, while dropping off my electronic waste I took a moment to speak with the attendant helping me.   Old TV's are crushed and become waste.  No recycling, no reusing of parts, no "after life".  Sad news for sure, and something I'll be mindful of in the future.

There was actually a paper plate, napkin and fork from a celebration I attended, but someone whisked them away while I was chatting with my cuz.  I don't know if I would have actually brought the paper plate home or not, but the napkin and fork would have definitely  made it into my purse for composting (napkin) and reusing (fork).  I'm always looking for ways to save money (and the planet) and when it comes to waste, you snooze, you lose.

Here are a few ways I keep my landfill waste to minimum

Food Bags

I decided to stop buying storage bags until I ran out of free options.  That was probably a decade ago. Free options include cereal bags, bread bags, tortilla bags, etc.  I shake any crumbs into the kitchen counter bin to be sent to the compost pile, and store the bags for future use.  

Storage containers

Reusing plastic storage containers keeps them out of the landfill longer and cuts out the need for plastic wrap.  While it is a hassle, consider taking one with you to a restaurant if you know you'll be packing something to take home.  Some plastics can be dangerous in the microwave.  Be cautious or better yet, transfer to a glass bowl before heating.

Plastic bags ready to tumble out

I bring reusable bags when I shop.  In fact, there's an 10¢ bag charge at stores in our area if you don't bring your own, and I'd be more likely to hand carry my items out then I would be to pay the dime if I forgot to bring a bag.  So really, where do all of these bags come from????  The answer:

EVERYWHERE!!!  Everything is wrapped in plastic, comes in plastic, gets stored in plastic.  It's beyond me why anyone would BUY plastic with all of opportunity to reuse what comes to us.  I use smaller (hand size) bags for picking up anything yucky (morning walk with the dog), medium size bags for storage, (especially when traveling) and larger ones line household trashcans.  If I ever run out, I'll buy some...but it's been more than 2 decades since I bought household trash bags so it certainly won't be happening anytime soon.

Cloth is King (or Queen) in our home

Cloth napkins are always the norm here, and make every meal more festive.  They take up very little room in the washing machine, and can be a perfect addition when you just need a few more items for a full load.  

Cloth handkerchiefs are my go to, but not my husbands.  I love how soft they are and they're easy to wash and reuse. If I'm sick, I'll opt for disposable, but the tissues get thrown in the fireplace to be burned on a chilly night.

Be well, be sustainable and happy gardening!!

THE CHALLENGE GETS CRUSHED (AND NOT IN A GOOD WAY)

Day 2 didn't bring a lot of waste, per se.  Early morning saw me (literally) in my bathrobe, syphoning water out of buckets.  This was followed by a few hours on the computer.  No waste.  My afternoon was spent at a sporting event.  My waste included a beer can, a water bottle, a cardboard box and a plastic fork. I'm blaming my husband for the fork.  It was nachos, finger food, darn it.  You're killing me.  I'm not sure if the sports arena recycles the can and cardboard, however,  I did bring the water bottle, paper napkins and plastic wrapper from the fork home.  The napkins are super easy to compost or reuse.  The water bottles will be returned for the deposit and recycled.

Wow.  What's going on with all of that 

PLASTIC!!

Yikes!! What's up with all of the water bottles??  I do have a bit of an explanation.  The sparkling water bottles in the back row comprised part of my "earthquake preparedness" kit.  I had over 100  bottles of filtered water from my refrigerator dispenser stored in a cabinet in my garage.  I kept the water bottles rotated for freshness and I used this bottled water to fill my coffee maker in the morning.  To tell the truth,  I had a mental image of the "Big One" hitting, my house sitting in a pile of rubble, all utilities cut off, but I had water. While the earthquake scene will most likely still happen sometime in the future, the "Big One" that hit was that my old, inefficient refrigerator has stopped filtering water.  I'm now using up my earthquake preparedness water and my fingers are crossed that what I've saved so carefully for my emergency kit won't be needed anytime soon.  Or ever, for that matter.

The bottles will be recycled.  The 

wrapper is landfill bound.

I'd be feeling REALLY good right now, except I've had a challenge disaster.  Today is our citywide electronic waste drop off day.  I've had a TV to get rid of for months, and it's too old to donate or give away.  

This TV must weigh 70 lbs.  

Batteries and remotes not included.

I would love to be able to "not include" this.  After all, it's an old tv, used by 4 people, divided by many years, responsibly discarded, etc. Blah, blah, blah.  It is waste, and as such, will be included in my weekly totals.  Bummer.  On the bright side, it does take the stress out of next weeks Bunco party. It's hard to top over 70 lbs in one day.  Despite the set back, the challenge goes on.  

Be well and happy gardening!