At an all-staff meeting during my first week of work, many of my new colleagues had brought their breakfasts to eat during the beginning of the meeting. The woman across the room opened up a dish of yogurt and granola. Next to me, a man opened up a cloth kitchen towel to reveal his yummy looking egg sandwich. As I scanned the room, I realized that I needed to invest in more reusable to-go dishes. I felt embarrassed that earlier in the week, I'd brought a sandwich in a Ziploc bag!
I've started becoming much more aware of what I'm throwing away. One of the first things I've embarked on in my efforts to become a more sustainable household is throwing away less trash that goes to the landfill. When I lived in Malawi, during my time in the Peace Corps, trash was an ever-present issue, probably because there weren't any landfills in the villages. When I would travel around the country, people were constantly throwing their little plastic food sacks out the window so the streets were always lined with blue and green plastic bags. We quickly learned that there were only two real options for trash - bury it or burn it. I experimented with both. I found that I didn't want to do either and it was helpful at times to try and reuse as many things as I could since my living stipend didn't allow me to purchase much more than necessities. Ziploc bags were precious and were washed and reused often. Toilet paper rolls could be used to start seedlings. A broken plate could be turned into a makeshift litter box for my kittens. It's helpful to remember these experiences now, even though throwing things away or recycling is so much easier here.
Since I've been cooking more at home since we moved to Austin, I've started realizing how many food scraps we throw away that could be composted instead. But I don't know much about composting and sometimes I think it's hard for me to get started with something like this if I'm not sure how to do it perfectly. We decided to give it a try anyway. I bought a five gallon bucket with a lid and put it next to our trash can in the kitchen. At a garden training I learned that all food scraps can be composted except for meat and dairy products. So, that's what we're doing. (We still can't figure out what to do about the egg shells... are they dairy? are they meat? It's a real chicken and egg kind of question.) Luckily, Austin is a very compost friendly city. There is a local group on the East side of town that will come pick up kitchen scraps for a small weekly fee but since I'm a part of a community garden, I've been taking it to the garden compost pile.
I've noticed that changing these little things in my life makes me much more aware of my actions. My husband, Eric and I, grabbed a quick bite one night before going to see a movie. We were in a mall so the food court was the only real option for our budget and time limitations. Unfortunately, the food court is filled with various fast foods which aren't great for healthy choices but we're still starting on this journey so we're going to have these little slip ups from time to time. Anyway, when we were finished with the meal, it was a little painful to throw away the trash and leftover food into the trashcan. It was clear to me in that moment that there was a lot of paper product that could have been recycled had there been bins for it and a lot of food that could be composted as well. Instead, our food scraps and paper products will end up being buried.
I've been talking a lot about food but we've also been thinking a lot about diapers. An estimated 18 million disposable diapers thrown into landfills each year. And, unless they are the "green" friendly type of diapers, they will most likely be there for many years since it takes so long for them to decompose. Certainly, cloth diapers take their toll on the environment as well, given the amount of energy used to wash them but this family is definitely going to give the cloth diapers a solid try. More on that in a few months!
As I delve deeper into this sustainability journey, I think one of the biggest lessons is in raising awareness and accountability. I may have never thought about the impact of using plastic baggies to carry my lunch but now I can't stop considering it because my work culture has helped me see the difference. No one even had to tell me to stop using plastic bags because their actions were enough to help me understand. If more of us made the switch, I think it would encourage others to join in and maybe we could change the way we see trash forever.
No comments:
Post a Comment