Figuring out waste

Before I climb onto a soapbox today - I'd like to make a little comment about my last post. My original intent while writing the post was to help myself keep track of what changes I have made - not to give myself a big pat on the back, but to remind myself that my efforts, while small, can add up to make a difference. I tend to get overwhelmed by all of the things that I am NOT doing and I get really down. Seriously, I can get really kooky. I can lay awake at night and feel bad because there are children in Malawi (and all over the world) who cannot remember their last meal and I spent $5 on a drive-thru meal this afternoon because I couldn't wait 20 minutes until I would be home and could make a simple sandwich. Do you know what five-well-spent-dollars could do for a truly hungry person? It's really sickening. And I take so much for granted, you know? I also wanted to show anyone who might read that post that little changes are not difficult to make. In fact, all of our changes so far have been super easy and totally painless. And all of our changes have been really small. I am hoping to make some bigger ones soon, but more on that at a later date. Anyway, I'll move on now.

I thought it might be worthwhile to post about how we think about waste. I've been thinking a lot about it ever since I came across suggestions for reuseable dryer sheets a couple of months back. My initial reaction to reusable dryer sheets was that these very tiny things could not possibly be taking up large amounts of landfill space. I mean, seriously, wad one up in your hand - they get really small. But then, for some reason, I started thinking about how the little buggers are manufactured. I conjured up an image of a giant factory with plumes of black smoke rising into the sky. Whether this image is entirely accurate I don't know, but it is probably pretty close. And what powers this giant factory, anyway? Fields of solar arrays and wind turbines? Right. Then, once they are packaged up (in boxes made in another giant factory), they are put on trucks to be driven all over the country so they can end up on the shelves of your nearest big box. So, even though the dryer sheets themselves are small, eliminating the need for them can have a big impact.



So, I've started to think about all of the products we buy and use in this "new" way. Ask yourself some questions:

1. How does this product contribute to my family's garbage output?

2. How does the manufacture/transport of this product line up with my morals and principles?

3. What kind of waste materials are produced during the manufacture/transport of this product?

4. Is there a way for me to replace this product with something similar, or even superior, with something I can make (and reuse)? Or is it possible for me just to do without this product altogether? (I struggle with this one.) OR is there a person out there offering a sustainable alternative to this product? Check out http://www.etsy.com/ - you will be amazed at everything offered there and you will be supporting the "hand-made" movement!

5. Is there a previously-owned version of this product available? I love Craig's list. Last week I bought a practically-new bread machine for $20 from a woman who lives about a mile away. WOW! Since our family "exploded" on March 2nd when we welcomed three more kiddos, we have been seriously mowing through bread. Now I can make bread for about 1/2 the cost per loaf, I know exactly what goes in it, it takes about 5 minutes to throw everything in the machine, and it uses less electricity to bake a loaf than my oven would. We may be eating twice as much of it now though, because it is definitely twice as delicious!

Just some ideas. A lot of "green" products can be quite a bit more expensive than the traditional alternatives. But a lot of "green" products are really only "greenwashed." That is when the marketing gurus tap into the national trend toward greening up and change their marketing strategy instead of substantially changing their products or the way their company conducts business. Ironically, truly greening up your lifestyle can save you money! Instead of buying "green" papertowels, rip up old baby blankets or t-shirts and you will never have to spend money on papertowels again! Get green and save green all at the same time!
TTFN,
Brooke

Sustaining in Suburbia

Ahhh - Sweet Suburbia - where SUV's reign and your mettle as a mom is determined by the size of the bow in your daughter's hair. Sad, but true. Alas, this is where we are and, given the current economic climate, this is where we will stay for at least a few more years. And so we have realized that our dreams of sustainability will start here in Sweet Suburbia.





To date, our biggest accomplishments involve reducing our trash and reducing our dependence on Wal-Mart. I have turned my daughter's old flannel receiving blankets into "paper" towels that we can use over and over. We joined a food co-op through a local natural foods store, which has been awesome. Unfortunately, we are still supplementing what we get from the co-op with trips to Wal-Mart, but we are trying to cut back. I am hoping that the money we save from using re-usables instead of disposables and from using other less-expensive homemade alternatives will allow us to purchase more local items and fewer Wal-Mart items.





My darling husband made me a compost tumbler for Valentine's Day. He bought the barrel for $10 (it used to hold Dr. Pepper syrup!) and built the stand/tumbler from scraps in the garage. Sounds weird, I know, but it was actually really romantic! This has reduced our trash by a surprising amount. I didn't realize just how much compostable material we were throwing away. Plus, we will not have to visit a big box store to purchase compost or fertilizer for our garden. Oh yes, our garden. We have dabbled in the past, but this year we are serious! I just finished Mel Bartholomew's book and we have big square foot garden plans. His website is full of great info as well. I ordered way, way too many seeds from Baker Creek. They have an amazing selection of organic seeds - that means no genetically modified organisms. Their plants are open-pollinated, so I can collect seeds and keep planting gorgeous and nutritious heirloom vegetables year after year. (Check out this site to learn more about why that is so important.) I just started my seeds indoors yesterday and I can't wait until they sprout!



We've done some other fun things as well. I learned how to make soap from this cool website that also explains how to turn that soap into homemade, all-natural laundry detergent. I also learned more about soap here. What a fun adventure! We've eliminated disposable dryer sheets by cutting strips from tattered washcloths. Currently, we spritz a strip with a mixture of liquid fabric softener diluted with water (2 capfuls softener to about 2 cups of water fills up our spray bottle). About 5 spritzes onto the cloth and the cloth strip goes into the dryer with the laundry. It really works great! Sometimes there is some static in the clothes, but that's not a huge problem. Once we use up the fabric softener, which will take quite a while at this rate, I am going to experiment with some homemade softener recipes I've found online. That way we can eliminate some more chemicals from our home environment.

Well, this post has gotten quite long and, since it's a bit self-indulgent anyway, I will go ahead and close. Will post new and fun green and thrifty ideas soon!