It’s now definitely December, and VeganMoFo is over for now. I’ve spent most of the last week catching up on VeganMoFo posts that were delayed while I waited for the photos to be uploaded, but now, I’m ready to start on something new.
In November, Alistair and I attended a 5th birthday party (lots of yummy vegan cookies and fair trade coffee!) for a youth environmental organization called The Otesha Project. I’ve been casually following their projects over the last few years since I was introduced to them by a friend who is the brother of one of the founders. The first event of theirs that I went to showcased the presentation that they do in schools which demonstrates ways that anyone can make simple changes that will impact the environment positively. The vibe at their events, on their website and in their book is incredibly upbeat and infectious. It’s gotten me thinking about what more we can do around the house to limit our impact on the environment. So, my plan for December is to come up with a reasonable list of things to be included in my New Year’s resolutions.
The first change that we’ve made to our habits actually came about before we went to the Otesha party. Alistair and I don’t produce all that much garbage between us (1 kitchen garbage bag every 7-10 days). We have a composter in the backyard and have been using it all year round for a couple of years now. We also recycle everything that is taken by the city. When I had a quick look through our garbage a few weeks, I noticed that the majority of the stuff in the garbage was either plastic bags/package wrap, plastic coated paper or tissue/paper towels. I had heard that you can put tissue and paper towels in a backyard composter, so I went searching online and found that it was true. It’s taken a while to automatically go for the compost bin instead of the garbage when throwing them out, but we’re getting better about it.
I guess the next thing to think about is how to reduce the amount of packaging we bring into the house. For the last several months, we’ve been taking our cloth bags to the grocery store and not bringing home any new plastic bags (including the ones from the produce section). We still do buy some convenience foods, however, and they seem to be the big garbage culprits; things like crackers, (soy and regular) ice cream, cookies, bagels and chips. I make our bread in the bread maker, so we could give up bagels and only eat toast, I suppose. The other thing that I could make at home instead of buying is cookies. I just can’t get my head around how time consuming it can be, though. I’ll have to do a trial for a month to see if it’s doable in the long term, I think.
Our last big source of garbage is doggy pooh bags. I’ve been concerned about this one since we got Marley a year ago. Right now, we’re using biodegradable pooh bags to pick up after Marley. I recently read an interesting article on how to mitigate some of the impacts of owning a pet. They suggest flushing dog pooh down the toilet. My problem is how to get it there. It’s one thing if she goes in the backyard. While I don’t relish the idea of tramping through the house with the pooh on a trowel, I would consider doing it. If she goes when we’re out, what then?
Okay, so possible changes to reduce the amount of garbage that we produce:
- Make all bread products and cookies at home to reduce the amount of packaging we are saddled with,
- Find out if ice cream containers can be recycled, and
- Flush Marley’s pooh when she goes in the backyard.
