Day 4: Waste Tally

Transportation:

• walk to train to carpool with 2 others
• carpool with 2 others to train to walk home

Solid Waste:

Reuse

• 1 plastic 1/2 gallon milk jug

Check out my nifty little upcycle project! (right)

Recycle

• a few scraps of plastic milk jug
• 1 12oz glass bottle
• 1 metal bottle cap

Compost

• 2 teabags
• 1 paper tea bag wrapper
• 2 18" square pieces of deli paper?

Composting deli paper is an experiement. Not actually sure it will work. The deli paper I have is thin, has no obvious wax coating and easily takes on water, so I have high hopes. Stay tuned for test results!

Trash

• 1 waxed tea bag wrapper
• 2 paper towels (oops!)
  

Hmm? How to get rid of those? One solution I found today is the People Towel. Their slogan: CHANGE IS AT HAND says it all. Unfortunately, they don't list a shop that carries them locally, so I'll probably just grab a small towel from home and pack it around for now.

Day 3: Commuter Cup Conundrum!

I didn't have my reusable cup this morning and REALLY wanted a coffee for the road.....so.....after learning that neither the Gelson's nor Oak's Gourmet Market on Franklin have commuter cups for sale.....

I totally caved! I bought a coffee: paper cup, plastic lid....all of it. Crap!

M. E. FRUGAL: Well, I guess I can reuse the cup as a seed pot, but the lid is just a single use item for the recycling bin.

M. E. REALIST: Now wait a minute...this is exactly how the laundry room got the be a clusterf #&k. WILLPOWER! Just don't buy it.

M. E. DEFLATED: The coffee didn't really taste good anyways. It was flavored with too much guilt. *sigh*

Day 2: Waste Tally

Off to a moderately good start. I got up a few minutes early to be sure I had time to make lunch. Finished off a loaf of store bought bread and used the outer bread bag to pack up my lunch.

BTW: When did bread start coming in TWO bags?

Composted an entire pound of raw cat food I forgot about in the microwave :(

I didn't get the glass bottle situation taken care of for trash day this morning, so we'll take care of that next Monday.

Tonight is the Old LA Farmer's Market right off my train stop so I picked up some tomatoes, fresh bread and a few other things. Most of it is only "natural" or "pesticide free" and not certified organic, which is disappointing, but at least it's local and supports small farmers.

Transportation:

• walk to train to carpool with 1 person to work
• carpool with 2 people to train to walk home
  
• Train to Hollywood/Vine to meet friends for dinner at Thai Palms.

Unfortunately, Thai Elvis (pictured right) was not performing.

• carpool (got a lift) to friend's house in Hollywood

Solid Waste:

Reuse

• 1 plastic grocery bag

Recycle

• inner plastic bag from bread

Compost

• 1 tea bag
• 1 lb raw cat food

Trash

• small ball of plastic tape
• average amount of TP (about 18 squares)

Day 1: Food and Eating

Culprit numero uno: the Standard American Diet aka S.A.D.

PACKAGING AND STORAGE
1) Glass and Plastic Bottles: We (me and my BF) don't drink a lot of bottled beverages in my house other than beer and an occasional Mexican coke (made with sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup), or a bottled water in a pinch. When I first moved to LA, I was putting all these directly into the recycling bin to be picked up by the city...more times than not, these items would be hauled back out by an enterprising person with a shopping cart.

Concerned for the safety of these folks, I started to sort out the items with a cash redemption value and put them on the curb separately on trash day. Ok. Good, right? Except, I've gotten lazy and haven't set them out in about a month.

WHAT TO DO: For starters, I need to get these puppies to the curb and to the folks I've been hoarding them for. I have been wanting to quit drinking soda anyways and I can make sure to always have my reusable water bottle.

But what about the beer bottles? We like to host little cookouts for 4-6 people almost every weekend, which tends to make things add up pretty fast. This one requires more thought. Mircrobrew? Growlers? Homebrew?

2) Paper Coffee Cups and Plastic Cold Cups: Don't forget all those plastic straws and lids! Yes, I know I said I have a reusable coffee cup, but we only have one commuter cup, which I only pack around on weekdays and is too small for cold beverages. Generally in my house...hot coffee is small, iced coffee is large.

WHAT TO DO: Get another commuter cup and take both along on weekend outings for hot and cold beverages. Lately, we have been saving our extra morning coffee in a glass jar in the fridge to use later as iced coffee. I think keeping this jar full is probably a simple solution considering that we are usually coming from or heading to home when we buy coffee.

3) Paper Board and Cardboard Food Packaging: Generally this includes six pack carriers, an empty tea box or two, cereal boxes, a pasta or cookie box, an egg carton and one waxed paper milk carton per week.

WHAT TO DO: I could buy more bulk bin cereals, pasta and tea. I can get milk from a local dairy that sells their milk in reusable glass jars. Unavoidable paperboard packaging might be good addition to the compost pile as "brown matter". I definitely want to confirm that the printing is not done with petroleum ink first.

4) Styrofoam Take-Out Boxes and Portion Cups: OMG! This is the worst. I'm not sure where you live, but in LA Styrofoam is the go to material for take out food containers and lately, we seem to only be ordering from the places that individually package each and every item in it's own Styrofoam package. While the municipal recycling has started to accept "clean Styrofoam packaging" for recycling. I'm not convinced that the box my chili relleno and pad thai from last week came in will ever be clean enough to fit that description.

WHAT TO DO: Eat at home. Pack lunches. Not only do I save money when I cook on a regular basis, but I save an incredible amount of packaging. Generally it takes 45mins to an hour to get food delivered in my neighborhood. In that amount of time, I could easily go the the grocery store, get a few items and make a simple and healthy meal. Double whammy...less waste, more healthy.

5) Aluminium and Tin Plated Steel Cans: Not many of these right now. Probably would have more of these and less of the above if I had been cooking lately. Generally these are from canned tomatoes or beans.

WHAT TO DO: I have planted extra tomatoes this year in the hopes of reviving a family tradition from my youth and canning my own tomatoes for winter use. In the mean time, I can use fresh tomatoes and dry beans can be a bulk bin purchase.


FOOD WASTE
1) Compost and Worm Bin: I compost everything (even meat and diary). Greens and herbs for worms, coffee and citrus for fruit trees and the rest for the pile, but I must admit I still waste more food than I like. I feel especially bad when I see food that I have cultivated for weeks go to waste. As I said above, I haven't been cooking much. I have one full time job, a revolving slate of freelance projects as well as a number of community projects I support and volunteer for. I tend to be pretty busy.

WHAT TO DO: Slow down. I think if I have more time at home to cook and enjoy my food I will be more willing to make the complicated (and by that I mean, not a sandwich or cereal) meals that I really enjoy.


So here's the list for this week:

EASY(ish) STUFF
-Buy a second commuter cup
-Carry a commuter cup and water bottle at all times
-Cook more / pack lunch
-Take the cash redemption bottles to the curb
-Keep the iced coffee jar full
-Stop drinking soda
-Go the the bulk bin for grains, beans, cereals, etc
-Keep fresh tomatoes on hand
-Get milk from local dairy with reusable glass jars

HARD(er) STUFF
-Slow down
-Be aware of choices
-Think about ways to use fewer beer bottles. Microbrew? Growlers?
-Find out contents of packaging inks and compost if possible

Hmm? Seems manageable. Here I go!