REUSING
On Sunday I brought a small brown paper bag of fruit to rehearsal for the actors. Once they had consumed the fruit, I folded the bag back up, put it in my bookbag and took it back home with me. Its now under my sink with my collection of bags.
On the same table with the crumpled brown bag, there were also two zip lock bags from the week before that had been filled with almonds and cashews. The bags were now empty and ripe and ready for the trash. Instead of tossing them, I put them back in my bag, took them home and washed them, dried them and put them with the rest of my ziplock bags.
On this same Sunday, we ordered Thai food. (I ordered Spicy Basil with Tofu. It could classify as vegan. It contained no dairy) The container that the food came in was definitely reusable! So dirty container and all, I stuffed that in my bookbag too and took it home, washed it and then used it to store my left over vegan black bean soup in. (vegan except for the scoop of yogurt i added into it. oops)
What have you extended the life cycle of lately?
ECO CONSCIOUS EATING
In considering my carbon food print, the waste I produce, and intriguing leaning towards a vegan lifestyle...today I did some things differently.
I walked past this candy bowl a BILLION times today. This one and one other one that is being kept around the office in preparation for our Oktoberfest this Friday.
What I like, since participating in the No Impact Project, is that even though I ate the pear, I wondered if it was even in season. It's not in season in Illinois but it is in one of our bordering states...Missouri. (Honestly, I wouldn't have even asked myself if the fruit I was eating was even in season a week ago. Before I would have thought, I'm eating fruit so shut up and be grateful its not a pop tart. But now, with what i know, I find that I wonder beyond that. Knowledge really is powerful. Now I'm sounding like a freaking PSA)
This morning I also really wanted a nice cup of coffee. We have this K cup machine at work with lots of flavors and I was planning on mixing Mocha Nut Fudge with Rainforest Nut. Then I was going to add sugar, cream, whip cream and caramel. I was going to do it big. But then I thought about the Low Carbon Calculator Diet and I didn't make the coffee. Instead I had Sweet Ginger Peach Tea. I added honey instead of sugar since I didn't feel like generating more trash with little sugar packets. (However the tea comes in individual boxes that are wrapped in plastic. Really! So I thought about bringing my own loose leaf tea in from now on because that's even less trash. My loose leaf tea is purchased from Teavana and various tea vendors that I come across at street fairs and green festivals. Again, these are not things I even gave thought to before last week.) I realize now its not just about eating healthy and organic, but its also about eating with an eco-conscious mindset. Sure, the coffee is fair trade but have you considered the water it took to produce it? Have you considered how far it needed to travel? Asking myself these questions is growth and I'm glad its all circling through my mind.
WATER
I recently wrote about my struggles with finding ways to reduce my water usage and a dear friend, Erin gave me a very helpful suggestion. My problem was letting the water run for a long time in the mornings to warm up before I brush my teeth and wash my face because its ICE COLD! Erin suggested instead of letting it run, that I microwave it and use that. She suggested rinsing my mouth with the water that was left over. Honestly, I thought that was going to take too much time and take too much effort. And while I want to help the world, the selfish part of me doesn't want to be inconvenienced while I do so. Well ERIN....
What the hell is that, you ask!
Well the clear bowl is the water I heated up in the microwave for two minutes. It was enough to brush my teeth, rinse my mouth, wash my face and water my plants. It worked Erin! And I didn't waste any water!!!!! Thank You for giving me advice!!!!!!
What's that other stuff? Well the cream cheese container is actually full of my homemade tea tree face toner. The little bottle on top is full of my left over homemade face wash that I made the other day. I need to find a recipe for an all natural face moisturizer equivalent to the one I get from the Body Shop.
(Which by the way in the tally in how much I spend on my facial line from the body shop, I left out two things. The moisturize which is $16. And the make up remover which is $14.50. Which brings the total to $81. I spend $81 on all the stuff I used to buy for my face. WOW!)
TRASH
I noticed this at the end of the day today.
What is that, you ask!
That is one piece of trash in my garbage at work! That is a personal record. Usually my trash is overflowing so much that I sneak and throw stuff in other people's trash too. Usually its full of misprints from printing too much. Its full of wrappings from candy and gum. It's usually full of sugar packets from all the ones I put in my coffee. And I can't even tell you what else. Its just usually full of crap. And today, I almost threw a bag away but realized I could still reuse it and as I looked down I thought, "Holy crap! There is only one thing in my garbage!"
Its a piece of tissue that I used as a coaster because my reusable water bottle was sweating on my desk next to my iPhone and I was too lazy to find an empy conference room that might have coasters. I looked around me and saw a number of people using napkins as coasters and so I started looking for some coasters to order to keep around people's desk. The bag that I decided to keep...
What are you latest granola tendencies? Any suggestions on further steps I can take?
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