tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7571714765362039648.post6219284761958478248..comments2024-02-27T04:06:53.254-08:00Comments on Building Ordinary: Earth Day pledge: One year War on Garbagegraceonlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07600679221472546269noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7571714765362039648.post-51302562392618350552010-05-05T08:55:22.814-07:002010-05-05T08:55:22.814-07:00Chile, thank you so much for popping in and sharin...Chile, thank you so much for popping in and sharing your 3Rs and trash story with us. Moving is taxing in so many ways, isn't it? I watch your blog regularly, and I know you are spending tremendous energy, time and personal resources to avoid excessive waste, even with your move. How many people are willing to haul a ton of compost from their old home to their new, after all?graceonlinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07600679221472546269noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7571714765362039648.post-31388325191635046212010-05-03T13:22:54.642-07:002010-05-03T13:22:54.642-07:00Before we moved, we kept our trash to a minimum. ...Before we moved, we kept our trash to a minimum. We threw out approximately one plastic grocery bag of "trash" each week. About double that in recyclables, including most paper and cardboard. We compost all kitchen waste but I do not consider it "waste" as it is crucial for our gardening efforts and plants always have non-edible parts so we can't avoid the "waste".<br /><br />Now that we've moved, our trash has skyrocketed. Some of this is a result of the move itself. Tape, for instance, on the boxes. I'm removing all of it before saving the boxes for re-use in the garden rather than recycling. I'm trying to pass bubblewrap (saved and re-used for many moves) to others but not always finding takers. Peanuts (some over a decade old!) go to the packing stores for re-use. Most of the packing paper is being given away for other people moving but some is saved for the garden and compost.<br /><br />The big increases in our trash right now are coming from take-out and packaged food, and home purchases. My kitchen is still not unpacked all the way and we are very busy making it hard to cook as much as I should. That will change over time (hopefully quickly!) Avoiding packing on purchases is more difficult. We need to pick up supplies to fix up the house and yard, and <i>everything</i> comes wrapped in some form of plastic and none of it seems to be recyclable. <br /><br />We have no trash pick-up now, either, so I have to pay every time I make a trip to the local transfer station. It's incentive to try to reduce!Chilehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11406176434011890590noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7571714765362039648.post-62528294134810572222010-05-03T10:02:23.257-07:002010-05-03T10:02:23.257-07:00Sharon, yes, every purchase, especially where sing...Sharon, yes, every purchase, especially where single item shipping is involved, creates a pile of waste, typically only a part of which is recyclable. Would love to hear your--and any of my readers'--ideas on how we might cut down on such waste.<br /><br />Se'lah, you are welcome. I so enjoyed your blog--a new discovery, thanks to <a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/17654451878235512846" rel="nofollow">Wanda</a>--that I added it to my Good Reads list in the sidebar so I can check in regularly.<br /><br />Hayden, you certainly face a challenge. Having grown up in rural communities, I remember well the family farm dumps. It seemed every farm had one, usually on the downward slope toward a gully. There was almost always a rusted car of 1930s vintage or so, which was great fun to play in, but the half buried rusted tin cans and broken tools and glass were dangerous. They could slice right through a child's thin shoe and into the foot. I wonder if there are enough of you feeling irritated by the situation to begin organizing and developing interest in making community changes. Sometimes it only takes one person. In Boise, Idaho, in the 70s, a high school girl started a community recycling center that eventually became so busy it made a city-wide impact. Twenty-some years later, the city implemented curbside recycling. (Change takes time.)graceonlinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07600679221472546269noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7571714765362039648.post-77780178576877939102010-04-28T16:49:47.298-07:002010-04-28T16:49:47.298-07:00Here in southwestern rural Michigan, land is cheap...Here in southwestern rural Michigan, land is cheap, people are relatively poor, and there IS no municipal garbage collection. One hires it done (weekly) from one of several small businesses that collect and make the run to the landfill. Or - one drives to the dump on Saturday, when it's open to the general public, and pays to deliver. We do support the dump with our taxes, and in return have one free pickup load annually that we receive a coupon for with our tax bills. They will collect the standard plastic bottles there for a fee ($1.00 a garbage bag) and recycle it for us. I do get raw milk in those plastic containers, and save them until I have enough to make a run. But here the number on the bottom of the container is a non-issue - they won't take any of it as anything but landfill. I think its not only that the land is cheap and the people poor, but also that there aren't enough people to make recycling pay. I don't know. It irritates me - and others here, too. Especially in the younger generation. <br /><br />I take all of the paper shred from my brother-in-laws' small business and compost it, along with the coffee grounds from the local coffee house. <br /><br />When my grandparents were alive, their "dump" was the back slope behind the house. That's where they tossed all of their cans/bottles/refuse. The plants covered it, but we stayed away because of broken glass. I still find very old bottle/cans everywhere there on the land. This is typical of sparsely peopled spaces in the midwest I think. Where there are lots of people it gets cleaned up. Where there are no easy paths, much less roads, it's left to molder. Remnants of a different era.Haydenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02758977872663382006noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7571714765362039648.post-43417269140880667882010-04-26T14:59:01.612-07:002010-04-26T14:59:01.612-07:00Greetings Kathryn:
Thanks so much for stopping by...Greetings Kathryn:<br /><br />Thanks so much for stopping by my Necessary Room today. It's always a pleasure to welcome new friends. <br /><br />I love the social consciousness you share on your blog.<br /><br />One Love.SE'LAH...https://www.blogger.com/profile/16108031333928082540noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7571714765362039648.post-88700321074123741892010-04-26T10:05:19.652-07:002010-04-26T10:05:19.652-07:00We just bought "the perfect birthday gift&quo...We just bought "the perfect birthday gift" for one of our grand daughters, and want to buy two more for the other two grand girls. We're so excited about this gift - she'll love it! <br /><br />And now I see we've used a considerable amount of waste on just one purchased gift.<br /><br />The actual gift is about 1/5th the total size of the package. There's the box and its lid; the plastic piece that the gift is secured in that's the size of the box; the separate plastic cover that fits over the gift; the light weight cardboard box that the wall adapter is in; the little plastic zip lock bag that hold the USB cord. <br /><br />All of that packaging arrived at our door inside a USPS mailing box that had air-filled plastic bubble wrap surrounding it.<br /><br />All of it can go to recycling centers, but how much of it actually gets recycled? We were once told that the plastic bags we used to get in grocery stores were collected, but there wasn't a market for recycling them. So how do we really know what we put out for recycling is actually going to recycling instead of the landfill?<br /><br />Now I'm wondering.... how much more did our perfect gift cost all of us, and espeically our grand daughters' generation?Laughing Doodle 2022https://www.blogger.com/profile/18147973806343659342noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7571714765362039648.post-9402617777916787272010-04-26T08:46:21.412-07:002010-04-26T08:46:21.412-07:00Hayden, I understand the value of land has as much...Hayden, I understand the value of land has as much to do with the vast municipal recycling programs that cities like San Francisco enjoy as it has to do with our determination to be greener cities. Perhaps land is plentiful enough in Michigan that cities and counties there can afford to continue burying waste in the landfill. Sadly, here in San Francisco, as you may know, most of the recycled material goes in the front door of our huge recycling facility, where it is sorted on conveyor belts and shunted out back to ships waiting to take it to China. How much of our recycled waste is actually reused/remade overseas and, very likely, returned to us in glossy shrink-wrapped packaging is difficult to learn. Your practice of avoiding products that cannot be reused/repurposed is the model we all need to follow.<br /><br />Wanda, you are fortunate to live in one of the greenest cities on the West Coast. Portland has a number of model programs the rest of us could emulate. We too use the casual curbside giveaway for items. What a boon for city dwellers! Quite often, the bits we leave are gone before we get back upstairs and peek out the window to see if anyone wants them. I hope you'll write about your vermiculture project over the next few months. Would love to hear how that goes. It's really quite amazing to see all the food waste turn into a lovely black loamy substance that smells sweet and feels good in the hand.graceonlinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07600679221472546269noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7571714765362039648.post-12264344386739005342010-04-24T10:27:50.434-07:002010-04-24T10:27:50.434-07:00Fortunately, we have curbside recycling for almost...Fortunately, we have curbside recycling for almost everything. We compost what we can and this season I plan to build a worm compost bin to use on our garden.<br /><br />When I have something to get rid of that I think might be useful to someone else, I put it beside the road with a "free" sign on it. Frequently, it is gone before the day is done.Wandahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17654451878235512846noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7571714765362039648.post-9399502666017291312010-04-22T19:35:28.181-07:002010-04-22T19:35:28.181-07:00Recycling here is a nightmare. Basically - not do...Recycling here is a nightmare. Basically - not done. No where to take stuff that the groceries won't take back... no place for glass, for cans, for paper. The paper is easy, I compost it. It's just more carbon to balance the excess nitrogen I import from the coffee shop at "the corners." Cans do happen - more now, than when I lived in SF. Then I ate fish/seafood fresh a couple times a week, now most often I turn to canned sardines, herring. The nutrient difference is huge, I need it. That leaves glass and plastic, which I try hard to just avoid. When bottles happen (peanut butter, for instance) I add it to my collection of things I use for dry goods or for left overs. Plastics? I rarely buy anything packaged in plastic, and when I do - I'm screwed. Into the garbage-that-never-disappears it goes....Haydenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02758977872663382006noreply@blogger.com