I have always prided myself on being a frugal and thoughtful consumer, concerned about the ecological and ethical impacts of the products I buy. I pay that extra $10 a month to support green energy, use CFLs where I can, have low flow shower heads, bricks in the toilet tanks, buy earth and animal friendly cleaning products or make my own, wear my clothes until they're dead, line dry most often, use my dish and pasta water to water landscaping, shower every other day, have no ac, rarely use my gas in wall heater, bike or take public transport almost all of the time, drink tap water, buy local and organic foods to supplement those I grow in my garden, have reusable shopping bags, a reusable coffee cup, a reusable water bottle, save lidded plastic food packaging to store left overs of future meals and compost 100% of my food scraps.

....so what's with all this waste?

Monday, May 10, 2010

Day 1: Waste Tally

Transportation:
  • Got dropped off on the way back east. NIGHTMARE! 23 miles in 1.25 hours!
Am I crazy to think that every major freeway in LA should have a train, or at least a designated bus or carpool lane down the middle?...come on LA!
  • Carpool with 3 others to Pasadena (Lake Street Gold Line Station) and then train back to Highland Park. About an 1 hour door to door, same as if I drove directly home by myself.

Solid Waste:

Reuse

  • 1 16oz waxed paper cup

Ruined by a blood sugar crash on the way home. Lesson: Carry a snack

Recycle

  • 1 mochi package

Look at all that packaging!

Compost

  • 1 tea bag
  • 1 paper tea wrapper

Trash

  • 2 paper towels
  • 1 small chip bag
  • average amount of TP
Which brings up a question, what is an "average amount" of TP? Guess I'll be counting squares in the coming days.

This could get revealing.
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3 comments:

  1. UnknownMay 11, 2010 at 8:20 PM

    I use 2 squares per restroom excursion...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Fiona EllisMay 13, 2010 at 11:00 PM

    My old neighbours had a note scrawled on the back of their outhouse door: "buddha says, use less and you will be happy...1 is enough" I think 2 would be my limit...1 is getting tricky!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Kristy BMay 14, 2010 at 10:01 AM

    I agree, 2 is point break for me too.

    ReplyDelete

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