The charts and graphs will not be present this week. I'm not even sure if I'll ever need them. Still, I will tell the story of the accounting process, and the trends that immediately stuck out.
My "holiday gift" from Monticello High School was this black faux-leather notepad and pen holder. It's a bit more than anybody would want to carry around, I expect, for just the ability to make notes on a steno-pad. I acquired it on Friday, though, and it was exactly the thing I needed for the job...for this week anyway. Today I'll start using a tiny flip pad that I can stash in my pocket.
So I only kept up with my trash for the weekend (Friday-Sunday). Still, this was enough to establish some basic trends. I'll transcribe what I wrote for each of these days, and comment on them as needed.
Friday, 1/7/2011--I threw away a teabag (but recycled the wrapper), banana peel, plastic knife, and apple core.
This could have easily been a no-waste day. I know peels and cores can be composted, and I'm pretty sure teabags can be too. The plastic knife was used to put cream cheese on a bagel (there was a plethora of free food at school on Friday). I already have a "to-go" kit of reusable silverware--I just need to make sure I carry it around with me.
Saturday, 1/8/2011--I threw away an orange peel, and the plastic top to a cream cheese container. I reused some napkins that had been taken from school on Friday to wrap up some leftover bagels and things.
I also cleaned up my car trunk today, as well as a bit inside my room. The rules I posted on the last blog entry still apply here.
I heard somewhere that citrus peels could not be composted. I need to confirm this. "Tops to things" is a category of waste that might be one of the trickiest--while beer bottles, soda bottles, and plastic containers are often able to be recycled, the things that seal them up are not. If I were to seek to cut out these types of waste, I would need to look into recyclable tops, buying in bulk, or making my own.
Sunday, 1/9/2011--I threw away 2 orange peels and 1 tissue. At a friend's house, my contribution to dinner was the salad. The veggies that I bought, cut up, and threw away pieces of included tomato, cucumber, and lettuce. I also bought some halibut which was in a plastic wrapper which got tossed. Additionally, the little plastic pull-off tab on a milk carton was thrown away, as well as the top to a tub of gelato.
The halibut was pre-packaged and frozen--the fresh seafood cuts at Harris Teeter did not include this fish, which was needed for my friend's recipe. While dinner was being cooked, I realized that there is a fine line between throwing away food scraps that you have purchased, and being involved with a dinner and the food scraps that others have purchased and are throwing away. Sure, I didn't pay for that food, but I pitched in both money and time to making the dinner, so I participated in all of that waste (it was a delicious and lovely evening, though, and I would still hesitate to change a thing).
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Here are the take home lessons:
- start a compost pile (for personal reasons, I won't benefit from the compost pile, but that's not the point)
- be prepared with ways to eat and carry food when on the road or on the go
- I need to know whether our local recycling still only does #1 and #2 plastic types, or others (especially #5). Many plastic containers and tops are #5
- Frozen items are often boxed, but also shrink-wrapped in some way (like the halibut, and frozen pizzas, and lots of things)--can these types of plastics be recycled?
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