The Garbage Experiment

I was thinking about all the re-use and repurposing we are doing with the Garbage Experiment.  And, how thinking about these things results in real changes in your household consumption.  I believed that I had gotten pretty good at buying for reduced packaging when I ran into something.  I ran out of salad dressing and wrote it on the shopping list because that is what I have always done and it is convenient.  Really?  What will I do with the bottle?  And, in fact, I had 4 clean bottles awaiting some sort of repurposing. Oops.

It is not hard and does not take long to make your own dressing.  Why had I not already figured that out? I made two bottles of dressing and took one, with a salad, over to dinner at a friend's house.  Now, I am on the hunt for stellar recipes.  Sorry, Annie and Paul!

If you want to recycle more, or use less plastic, or live more sustainably, it is about making conscious decisions and small changes over time.  It is a learning curve.  To learn what we really need. To appreciate the value of something. To question the notion that everything is disposable.  So, I am learning as I go and making my own dang dressing!

Salsa is next!

Chris Jordan's is a photographer who does large scale works depicting mass consumption and waste, particularly garbage. (Video)   These images are from the series, Midway: Message from the Gyre.  The photographs depict the rotting carcasses of baby Laysan albatrosses filled with plastic. These birds nest on Midway Atoll and are being fed plastic by their parents, who find floating plastic in the middle of the ocean and mistake it for food.

Mixed Recycling, Seattle 2004 by Chris Jordan

We have been recycling dutifully for years. With the garbage experiment we knew that we would be forced to get  more serious about our trash. Our rules (can't throw out or recycle at the curb) mean that there is a tangible consequence for every one of our consumer choices.  If it can't be composted, made into paper mache or repurposed?  Indeed, what do you do?   Beyond a review of ingredients or country of manufacture, everything we buy or bring into our home now demands careful consideration of the packaging and how it will end up.

I initially obsessed on some extremely small details.  What are we going to do with all the sticky labels off the fruit and vegetables?  Dryer lint? Thread detritus from the embroidery?  Shrug.  Well, the labels end up in the compost because we are lazy.  The lint is being saved but I don't know why yet.  The  embroidery floss is stacking up in a vintage jar and looking lovely.

In seriousness, I think of things in three main categories: paper, glass and plastic.  Paper and cardboard are things that we know we can repurpose in the paper mache.  Glass is trickier.   You can reuse glass bottles for storeage.  You can make delicious refrigerator chutneys and pickles for your friends.  But, the quantity would soon overwhelm your storage needs and canning output. Also, we do not believe you are all clamoring for sawed off bottle glassware for Christmas.  So, we have pledged to buy less glass.  That means no beer.  Really.

So, what are we doing about plastic?  Some plastic can be used in paper mache pieces.  Hands down, it is the area that needs the most reduction.  While we have never purchased bottled water,  stopped using plastic shopping bags and I have started reusing all the plastic produce bags, there is still a lot of plastic in our lives.  I may start making my own dish and dishwasher soap to avoid plastic bottles. It is going to take some thought and planning to really attack the plastic volume.

I did some reading.  It is not pretty.  We need to buy less plastic and find alternatives.

The Pacific Garbage Patch
Say NO to Plastics
Plastic Pollution Coalition
Campaign for Recycling
Life Without Plastic (buy plastic alternatives)
Marine animals and birds die.

I understand that I can't avoid plastic in my daily life.  But, I can use less of it.  Because all of this makes me sad.