May 26, 2012

Conscious Waste Project: Week One

In an effort to reduce my families waste, I'm starting the blogs very first series. The theme of the series is quite simple: Zero Waste. Each post will contain a section on the week's zero-waste project, the week's trash, and a list of improvements made and to make.

Week One
Project 1
No Wasted Leftovers

While my family actively composts, we still end up wasting a lot of food through leftovers that didn't get eaten before they spoiled. In order to combat this terrible waste, this week I'll be actively doing a few things:
  1. Cooking in smaller portions
  2. Eating leftovers more
  3. Waiting to cook something new till the leftovers are finished
  4. Re-purposing leftover food (cut up fruit in fruit salad, pasta in soups, etc.)
  5. Cooking food the kids are more likely to eat
Last Week's Trash
Total: 1 bag full

  • Library Receipts
  • Leftovers 
  • Candy wrappers
  • Tissues
  • A broken pen
  • Band-aid wrappers
  • Food packaging (Jell-O, local beef, chicken sausage, cheese, peanut butter, bread, strawberries, salad greens, cereal, applesauce)
  • Baby wipes
  • The garbage bag itself
  • Cat litter, in a plastic bag
Improvements Made
  • Fruits, vegetables, meat, bread and eggs are now bought at the farmers market (it opened last Saturday)
  • Bar soap (100% glycerine) in large quantity, to cut down on packaging 
  • Food scraps are composted or turned into soup stock
  • I keep my grocery list on my phone
  • "Yesterdays News" Catlitter - it's made out of recycled newspaper
  • Cloth bags are taken to grocery store, and when they're unavailable, I choose paper bags
Improvements to Make
  • Switch to handkerchiefs instead of tissues
  • Ask farmer that we get our meat from to have an alternative packaging method besides shrink-wrap
  • Toilet-train my little brother
  • Get coffee in bulk
  • Tackle the junk mail
  • Find an alternative to band-aids?
  • Make our own peanut butter
  • Make our own desserts/treats instead of the prepackaged stuff (candybars, jell-o, cake, etc.)
  • Make our own pasta
  • Switch to refillable pens
  • Stop using garbage bags
What's your zero-waste journey like?

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