Waste Wednesday update

For anyone new here, I like to weigh my waste every week.  My aim is to one day be zero waste.  I only way landfill waste,  recycling and composting (i use a Bokashi bucket) are not weighed. Monday and Tuesday this week, I moved house – so there’s a lot more than usual in this week’s weigh in!  Let me start with some photos:

Bag 1 coming in at 562g

This was the weekly waste leading up to the move, so meat trays and similar items.
562g

276g for the second bag

The overflow of day to day trash (with some McDonald’s food soiled carboard that STANK!)
276g

987g from bag #3

Things are getting heavy! This was mainly packing tape, with a pair of the BF’s old shoes that the leather had started dying a painful death
987g

Leaving the heaviest to last at 1277g

And the final collection of ‘stuff’ at the old house – there’s a plant in there, and a homemade mozzie trap made form a plastic soft drink bottle, sugar syrup and yeast… what a sticky mess!
1277g

So, the grand total is 562 + 276 + 987 + 1277 = 3102g = 3.1KG!

Wowzers! To think I was down to single digits recently… Such is life.  There’s no ‘everyday’ waste from the new house (such as food, as Bokashi’s on a holiday to my parents to get buried and returned empty).

More on the new house and new lists tomorrow…  And the drama of Sunday and a hospital visit.  Oh yes, I like to keep it interesting!

Waste Wednesday update

It might be a busy week, but I wouldn’t be myself if I didn’t weigh my rubbish.  So, let’s see how things went in the first (partial) week of the BF living at live-to-list-ville:

Waste weigh in for Wed 31 July 2013

That’s the weight for three weeks worth of trash, so, this week’s weigh in is: 548 – 67 -172 = 302g

Not my biggest week.  Just my second biggest week.  And here’s why

• meat trays: with all the moving, I settled for meat from the grocery store, in non recyclable trays
• ice cream wrappers: why does stress come with eating bad things, and thinking it’s ok?
• cheese packets: yes, I used up TWO of the packets in the photo from last week
• apple puree cups: I was feeling ill, so I always go for apple sauce to settle my tummy.  Whilst I can buy it in a jar (with cinnamon), I somehow just got single portions pack, with three cups and three pretend foil lids.
• tortilla bag: I’m not sure I can buy these without plastic, though I could look into making them?
• plastic wrapping from a lamp: this cellophane wrapping was removed to show the lamp’s fabric (like it’s already un-plasticed twin)
• tea bags: yes, I still have a stash.  And I could empty out the tea leaves to the Bokashi, and just trash the string and staple, but I’m not that vigilant (yet)

So I’m not that happy, but it’s not *that* bad.  I’ve got to focus on work, and packing my house/showing my house, so I let other things slip.

I also indulged in a cleaner to do the bathroom and the oven yesterday.  She emptied the bathroom bin (curses – seriously, my boyfriend thinks I’m the only person who’d have a problem with a cleaner emptying bins!).  Thankfully, I found the bin liner and contents in the kitchen bin, so I weighed them.  There’s ‘wet’ stuff still inside, so it’s heavier than it I did it later:

Bathroom trash weigh in

It’s by no means ‘full’ but this is 216g since 22 May – so more than two months.  In this bag we have:

• cotton buds: using the last of the ‘normal’ ones up before buying bamboo ones
• floss: remember that the silk thread as floss was a failure, so I’m stuck with this waste.  Not yet at rinsing it either…
• dish cloths: from the cleaner.  I usually use a microfibre cloth and wash it (in the washing machine) and use a little loo paper for the ickiest of wipe downs.

So there in completes my weekly update.  I’m not sure I’ll have a Wednesday Waste post next week – I’ll certainly trash things in the moving day of Monday without weighing them! I’ll perhaps Facebook post any ‘trashing’ in the move process…

On the rental front: There was only one interested couple to apply after two showings.  The other couple found the balcony too small.  I’ve decided to accept the first couple’s application, rather than lower my rent and see if there’s more interest.  The first couple can move in 9th August, which is just 4 days after we vacate, so that’s better than what I might otherwise get.  So that’s one more thing sorted…

Waste Wednesday update

I almost forgot this riveting installment… Oh, how you would have missed it! (Seriously, there was a bolt upright moment when I realised, and I scurried back to the kitchen to snap some photos).  For anyone new to this, I like to weigh my non recyclable waste every Wednesday.  One day, I hope to have zero non recyclable waste.  That’s the aim!  I do the kitchen bin weekly, and the bathroom and bedroom bin when they get full.  For more details, see the Zero Waste page.

Waste weigh in for Wed 24 July 2013

Blurry picture at 6.30am, sorry, but that’s 239g.  Adjusted (as this is two week’s trash) total is 67g.

That is a RECORD! I’ve never had it that low since I started weighing weekly in April.

Choc chips, last of the bulk bacon (from freezer), mac and cheese packet… 😦

It’s weird, cause I was sure the yucky bacon packet would take me over.

Oh and for people who remember all my cheese grating efforts (to lessen waste), here’s some photos of what happened when the BF’s fridge was emptied into mine this past weekend:

All the ‘inherited’ cheese

The freezer ‘before’

The freezer AFTER the cheese invasion

And to think, this was after I consolidated all his half packets into one package, where possible. If there’s one thing I teach the BF, it’ll be to ‘use it up’ when there’s just dregs in the packet… I mean, who couldn’t handle one more sprinkle of cheese to empty the packet?

So, that brings us to… the best week yet, but some bad weeks anticipated in the new future. Any tips on how to keep the BF on board with my waste minimisation targets?

Waste Wednesday update

Oh, it’s Wednesday again.  Best get my ‘crazy’ on weighing my rubbish!

Waste weigh in

A heavy week at 172g.  Third week in a row on the increase – bad Sarah!

There were some unrepairable sunglasses.  There was gluten free macaroni a friend gave me in its plastic bag (she’s so on board with what I do and don’t eat, it’s lovely).  There was a *cough cough* garlic bread wrapper from IGA – yes, me the gluten free pasta girl had a gluteny garlic bread.  Sigh.  There were block cheese wrappers, and band aid wrappers.  Really usual stuff mostly.

How I’d curb this rubbish?  Plastic sunglasses are probably always going to be a curse.  Pasta can be bought at the coop, but I won’t deny the gift.  I could make my own garlic bread (as the bf suggested) but this was a ‘I’m starving, I need lunch NOW without eating out’ purchase – if I was to buy bread, then butter it and garlic it, I feel like I really am putting a lot of effort in.  Of course, he’s right, I should make it at home… I make sweet chili sauce now, and grate cheese, garlic bread really isn’t a stretch now is it?

Short and sweet today!

Zero Waste & dental floss

*sorry to anyone who got this before it was ‘finished’!*

For regular readers of this blog, it’s a weekly obsession of mine to aim for zero landfill.  Each week I weigh in, but there’s some recurrent items in my waste.  Today I’ll look at whole I’ve conquered dental floss.

Floss

Whilst floss is negligible in weight, it’s still something I was regularly adding to the trash heap.  The only solution I could find was silk thread.  Given I’m not a vegan, I don’t have a huge concern with this option, and it can be composted.  So from plastic box, wheel and nylon floss (I assume it’s nylon), I’ve gone to silk thread, of course on a plastic spool.  Ah well, you win some you lose some.

In practice? It was a FAIL.  The thread is too thin, and it tears.  And at $6.70 a spool, it’s not cheap!

Lucky I got it in a colour I like, I should be able to find a use for it.  Oh well, you have to try to know!

This week’s weigh in:

Waste weigh in on Wed 10/7/13 (total for two weeks)

220g – 95g = 125g. Not too shabby, as the bf’s nachos was made again, complete with foil chip bag & meat tray.  There was also turkey & salami packaging from my road trip meal.   I’m ever vigilant – in buying the salami I asked about BYO containers, and we talked about the logistics.  It seems possible, but difficult.  Another deli made it seem simpler, but it’s more of a walk.

Zero waste & cheddar cheese

Pregrated cheese packets were a repeat offender in my landfill trash, so I thought about how I could cut that down. So my first step was to grate the cheese myself. One day, I’ll find a deli that’s not already wrapped the cheddar in it’s own plastic raincoat, and I’ll liberate it to my house, where I’ll grate it and provide it with a reusable ziplock bag!

So, with my wonderful food processor, I was sorted:

Here’s what you need to grate/shred your cheese

And in no time, I had this!

Grated cheese (bless that food processor!)

The solid cheese block wrapper, and the grated outcome (seems more than the 1kg pre grated bag)

A $1.38 saving in grating my own – though slightly different cheeses.

Weekly weigh in

This week’s check in is GREAT! (95g) I did a lot of cooking Thursday week ago, and that tided me over for meals until Sunday. Then my cooking on Sunday was homemade pastry for a leek pie – all minimal packaging (though the feta cheese wasn’t all used, to there’ll be plastic to come from that). I also had a belt fall apart (cheap = useless). There’s also some wrappers from choc chips and almond meal in there.

95g weigh in on Wed 3 July!

And last week? 297g.  Thanks largely to fabric of indeterminate type, so trashed.

Weighing in at 297g of choc wrappers and fabric

I’m thinking I’ll create some sort of graph, and add it to my Zero Waste page so you can see how I’m going!

Zero waste & tissues

The hankie stash!

Remember a while back I was sickly but I had a miraculous recovery thanks to a nasal spray, which incidently has knocked my allergies for dead. I couldn’t be any happier. Plus, I had the nasal spray in my medicine cupboard, which means the ‘new’ spray I bought, I took back to the pharmacy and got a refund on!

Before the revival of the magic spray into my life, I was churning through boxes of tissues. There were tissue boxes by the sofa, on the kitchen table and on my bedside. Then a box at work, and a box or two around the BF’s house.

A little while ago, I spent the better part of a day making hankies. I bought two baby wraps and a sheet from the thrift shop (for a huge sum of $5 I think), and cut them into smaller squares (or rectangles/oblongs/weirdly shaped squarish things). All in all, I made more than 90 hankies! Every single one was double hemmed (as I didn’t have an overlocker). To make it simpler I ironed the hems, to make my sewing that much easier. Now I have a (paper) bag of hankies at my bedside, and by the sofa. The last lingering box of tissues is on the kitchen table.

So the loss? Well, the nasal spray is in a plastic contraption, so one day, it too will be in the trash pile.

Here’s some close ups:

A hem – done with two folds, so I didn’t have the overlocker and sewing machine to do these.

The pink is from a bedsheet, the white from a baby wrap

When I did away with tissue boxes, I swapped in some swanky paper bags 😀 (my mother or brother bought something there, not me!)

To be honest, they aren’t yet as good as tissues.  For incidental use, tissues are soft.  And they ‘stick’ together nicely, which my hankies don’t. (TMI? Sorry!).  Anyhow, I’ve used these hankies to wipe up spills too, so they really are replacing tissues, but they are washed and reused.

Usually, on waste Wednesday, I check in with my weight of non recyclable rubbish for the week.  I forgot this morning.  No idea why, it was just a normal morning.  Anyhow, if you read this before I get a chance to go home, and weigh it, and photograph it, and update this post, count yourself lucky! (I’m pretty sure it’s not the highlight of anyone’s weekly reading :p)