Zero Waste (Well not quite) Wrap up

I thought I would pop in at my blog quickly tonight and show you the landfill waste from our month. Oh, I bet that just fills you with excitement!!! (Grinning) Just what you have always longed to see. Not! Oh well, It doesn't feel like I would be truly finished with last months challenge if I didn't show you the results.

   This picture above of trash in an ice cream bucket is my personal trash bin of the month. Everything that I threw away all month except for 3 little creamer containers from the gas station that I unthinkingly threw in their trash can and 1 straw from the restaurant. Another exception is that I did clean a few times at other peoples houses and I did throw their trash away in their own trash cans. My trash contained various business related plastic packaging, a couple of canning lids that were not good enough to use again, a cheese wrapper (from some cheese that my sister gave us that was very yummy) and a couple of food wrappers from some birthday foods that my October birthday boys requested. I think there were a few other odds and ends that I couldn't compost when I was cleaning out my office storage closet. Also there were a few things from the silk wedding flower order that I put together. I was actually amazed with how little trash I was able to create with that job.

This is pretty much all the household trash that the rest of my family created this month. There was another little bag as well and I think they may have thrown a couple of things in the big outside trash bin. They also totally threw things away at their jobs and other places they were at. The bag on the left was the House trash and the wastebasket is what is from activities in our garage. I was pretty impressed with how little was created since most of them weren't really trying. I did look into the trash cans (though not really the garage one) pretty regularly to take stuff out to go in the compost or recycling and I also used a lot of the paper products for fire starter.

   So, not Zero Waste but way closer to that then we would have been if we (I - though Megan was pretty on board as well) hadn't been attempting it.
 

The 31st Day of Attempting to Live with Zero Waste

So it has been a month. It has been fun this little challenge of trying to live with Zero Waste. Naturally the zero is not really an attainable goal (rather like the "Be perfect, for I am perfect" sort of thing) but it was something to aim at. Tomorrow I plan on taking trash pictures and giving you a run down on how the month went. I think over all it was pretty good but I will share more details tomorrow. :-)

   I have missed several days of blogging for this series. I rather hope to go back and fill in the empty days but we shall see. 

  The next few weeks look to be pretty busy. We have decided to do a "Handmade Christmas Sale" on the evening of Black Friday and then on Small Business Saturday. I have been looking for ways to earn a little more money just now and we are going to try this out. So I will be very busy working at creating.

Mittens re-purposed from sweaters is the project I am currently working on. This activity isn't completely zero waste but it certainly reduces the amount of waste that needs to go in the landfill. And if I can make some money from it as well - that would be pretty sweet.

   Many of you are familiar with things I have made in the past (and if you are not you could just click on the "Handwork" button on the side bar) and I am curious what you might suggest would be a good item for us to work to make and sell from what you know that we make. And whatever you make you can be pretty sure that I will be keeping it as Zero Waste as possible. :-)

   

God's Encouraging Word

A view of summer which is now past. I should have taken a picture of the beautiful snowy trees that we have been enjoying lately.

I just wanted to share a section of scripture today that I have been enjoying lately. I wrote it up on our blackboard door so that I could see it and meditate on it regularly.

  "Do not forget: thin sowing means thin reaping; the more you sow, the more you reap. Each one should give what he has decided in his own mind, not grudgingly or because he is made to, for God loves a cheerful giver. And there is no limit to the blessings which God can send you- he will make sure that you will always have all you need for yourselves in every possible circumstance, and still have something to spare for all sorts of good works." 2 Corinthians 9:6-8

I love both the reminders to me of what I should be doing and then also so very much I love the promises that God has given to us. Followers of Jesus Christ are so incredibly blessed!

Traveling Zero Waste

Ken and I got to go on a quick trip down to Iowa this week. An insurance company that he represents invited him to come down for an event they were having and he is wanting to work with them more and they were paying for our motel (with a breakfast) and supper out the night we arrived and then also lunch for him the next day so we thought it sounded like a kind off fun and productive outing so we went. I was also able to go visit a friend (and her children - 2 of whom I hadn't met yet as I hadn't seen them for over a year).

Anyway, we had a good time and it was also a fun time for me to see how well I could stay zero waste while being away from home. It added to my challenge and I had fun with that.

  To live zero waste I have discovered there is definitely a certain amount of planning ahead. It isn't hard but it does need to be done in order for things to work out very well. It is similiar to saving money (and actually these things often do both - create less trash and save money) - you just have to change your habits a little but it really isn't that hard. You do also have to sometimes be willing to be a little different. 

  My goal was that not only would I make this trip with zero waste but that Ken would as much as possible as well. So when planning ahead I tried to think about what I would need to do that as well as what Ken would need. It isn't always the same. I don't drink or want coffee - he does. I don't care if my water is cold or not (in fact I kind of like warm water) but Ken does. If I wanted to prevent him from buying bottled water or iced coffee then I better have a substitute available.

  So the special items that I brought along particularly because I wanted to stay zero waste were:

• Water bottles
• An ice chest with plenty of ice
• cloth napkins
• a few plates
• silverware
• Ice coffee that I made myself in some old Starbucks bottles. It wasn't perfect, I was experimenting but Ken was game and drank it and gave me tips on making it better next time.
• Hot coffee as we started out.
• Car mugs for both of us.
• A packed homemade lunch

Things went fairly smoothly.

  At one of the first towns we went through however Ken decided that he needed more hot coffee, that he wasn't quite ready for iced coffee that day. So he stopped at a filling station to get gas and coffee. I suggested that he use his coffee mug and fill it up inside. He had never done that before and wasn't sure if that was appropriate (he hasn't been drinking coffee that long and doesn't usually buy it at gas stations) and we embarrassed to do it. I had never done it before either (I don't drink coffee) but I volunteered to do it for him while he pumped gas. He said sure. So I took the mug in and sure enough it was fine to fill it up and it also cost less that way. We saved around 50 cents and didn't waste a throwaway cup. Woohoo! However in my excitement of using the coffee mug I put creamer in for him and used up 3 little plastic packets of creamer and just threw them in the gas station trash without thinking about it. I don't know that I had any other options for making the coffee the way he likes it but feel I felt a little silly for getting excited over avoiding other trash just to make some in another place.

  We at the lunch I had packed on the way. We didn't have to stop anywhere besides rest stops on the rest of our trip down.

  That evening in DesMoines we were taken out for supper. Thank-fully it was a sit down restaraunt with reusable dishes and cloth napkins. No waste happened there except when I ordered a cup of juice I forgot to say that I didn't want a straw. So they had one in my juice. Oops! I did remember to ask for it without a straw when I got another one.

 At the hotel I was able to get some coffee from a machine in the lobby and put it in the bottles that were now empty to use for our return trip. I filled them up the night before and put them in the fridge in our room. The next morning I added cream (from the breakfast area) to it along with sugar and we were good to go. I also got more ice from the ice machine at the hotel to keep our ice chest cold.

  I had packed my own toiletries so I didn't need to use ones that they provided but I was impressed that they had them in dispensers in the shower. That is so much more practical and makes much less waste than all those little bottles.

  The next morning we went down to the continental breakfast. This is where I did have to go outside of my comfort zone and be a little different but I don't really know that anybody noticed. They only had disposable plates, cups and silverware available but thank-fully I had brought my own. So I used them. I may have looked strange but it worked fine and really I much prefer using a real fork to a plastic one any day! My mug worked well for drinking apple juice (from a dispenser) out of.

  That day Ken went to the insurance company's office and I went to visit a friend. We were both fed lunch. Mine was zero waste (I don't think Ken's was but I didn't grill him on that).

    On our way back home we did buy supper out. I had hoped that possibly we could go to a sit down restaurant both for fun and because it is better for being zero waste but that didn't work out. We had been slowed down by rush hour traffic and then were driving in to a blizzard and it was time to just get home. So we went through a drive-through.  Ken did get some stuff with a little bit of waste that wasn't recyclable or good for fire starter but I just ordered a burger that came wrapped in paper (and used my water bottle for a drink) and so I was able to use that paper for a fire starter when we got home.

  So that was our low waste and low cost trip. We had lots of visiting time and it was fun to go somewhere together.

  

Handmade Birthday Candles

 Personally I am not a huge fan of birthday candles on cakes. In fact I find it a little gross to have someone blowing (spitting) all over my food. But alas, my family doesn't completely agree with me. In fact some of them find them pretty important. Mara is one of those. So though I think I got by without candles for Jonathan's birthday in August, Mara announced that wasn't happening for her birthday.

  Well, we were basically out of birthday candles. Even though we save them and re-use them over and over they do at some point get rather short and aren't usable any more. So this time we decided to make our own. We had candle wicking on hand and we also had beeswax that I had processed from the cappings that I had to cut off the combs of honey when I was extracting honey.

 We melt it down by putting wax chunks in a large tin can (I have a couple that I save to use whenever we feel like candle making) which then goes into a kettle with water in it and is put onto heat.

 We had cut our wicks to the desired length and then dipped them in the wax many times letting them dry a bit in between times. We made the spot above to hang them while they were drying. It was a fun little project that all of my kids were interested in and lent a hand from time to time.

 The kids wanted candles for Ken's 40th too.

 Aaron just turn 14 this week and he got to use our new candles as well.

Here they are in the jar that we are storing them in between birthdays. As you can see we will re-use them (probably quite a few times) again.

Have you ever made candles?

Naturally making something using things that we already have on hand rather than buying it is pretty much always a way to create less waste. 

Buying in Bulk Reduces Waste

 Fall is the time that not only do we put up hundreds of pounds of produce from the garden but we also make a little trip to pick up a half a beef and grain for the year.

  We made that trip not long ago and came home with a van and trailer full of food. I was also hauling some for both sets of grandparents so that made it even fuller.

  Our beef does come in packaging but when we get it from the farmer and then processed at a butcher it isn't packaged in all the plastic and Styrofoam and I appreciate that. It is in paper that I can stick in the stove or the compost afterwards.

Our wheat, oatmeal, brown rice and rye come in either 50 or 60 lb bags. Mostly the bags are either reusable or recycle-able (or fine for fire starter). As far as the Zero Waste movement is concerned anyway - even if I do have to deal with a little bit of waste that those that just buy in bulk bins don't we are still creating the same amount of waste by buying these products. Bulk bins are going to be filled with bags just like these. I just prefer to buy the large amount all at once and have it done with.

  Some of the reasons I like to buy in bulk:

• It saves me a large amount of money. (Just for interest sake - I paid $9 for 60 lbs of wheat, $8 for 60 lbs of rye, $25 for 50 lbs of Oatmeal and the same for the brown rice. None of them are organic. That would be nice but it isn't in the budget right now. The beef is grass fed and finished with no hormones or antibiotics but it isn't super cheap either - but neither is meat at the store. I don't know the exact price per pound on that. )
• It saves me time as now I just have those things on hand for the year and don't need to shop for them again until next year.
• It saves a lot on packaging. To keep them free from bugs or potentially mice I do store them in 5 gallon buckets, ice cream buckets or stick the bags in a clean metal trash can that seals well.
• I like to have some food security. Certainly anything could happen and if our house should burn down pretty much all of our stored food would go with it. However if we get into extreme financial troubles - we already have a lot of food. If we have a bad snow storm (We already started getting snow today!!!) and can't get out for a month we will have plenty of food anyway. 😊 

Do you like to buy food in bulk? Do you stock up for the winter?