Silverware

Everyday, as so many people do, I pack my lunch to take to work. I've got about 10 different lunch boxes to choose from. Today, a Xavier Musketeers lunch box given to us for having season tickets to women's basketball games. I usually take one frozen dinner and a snack of some sort.

I am always recycling anything I can such as the box the lunch comes in. Or I am reusing anything I can like the plastic tray that the food comes in. I just wash it in the dishwasher and it becomes a small plate to have a snack or a small meal in. In thinking about the lunch though I realized there is a lot of waste in it. Take for example today's lunch: Green Bean Casserole and a snack pack. Sure I can recycle the box the green beans came in but that is about it. I have to throw out the cup the pudding came in as well as the plastic wrap holding the casserole with which I cook it in the microwave.

There is however one thing I can reuse and not have to make waste of. The Silverware. I realized that every day I go and get a plastic fork and spoon and then just throw it away when I am done. Of course plastic cutlery is not recyclable. It has to go to waste. So I thought "Why don't I just bring my own. Why don't I use real silverware?"

I was trying to find some statistics on the amount of garbage created by plastic utensils and couldn't find anything. I did however come across an article talking about the Great Pacific Garbage patch. It is an area the size of Texas in the North Pacific that is filled with plastic floating garbage. They have found all kinds of dead animals in and around this patch. Upon opening their stomach they found the birds and fish were eating plastic bottles, caps, and Utensils.

Now I have no doubt that my plastic utensils here in the midwest would end up in a landfill and not in the middle of the ocean. But perhaps if I stopped using them then others will too and maybe that will prevent some plastic from hurting our oceans. Not to mention the energy saved in making them as well as the decreased use of petro-based material and less waste going to land fill.

So here is to actual silverware. Let it be the first step to reducing my waste and becoming just a little more sustainable.

The Blog is Here!!

Well I have been thinking of this project for a couple months now and never got around to it. It started in October 2010 when I received my new City of Cincinnati recycling bin. My old bin was a very small green open bin with a crack down the side (from garbage men throwing it) that could hold maybe 12 cans a couple of milk jugs and 4 broken down boxes. This is basically what it looked like.

The New Bin came and it was Huge! It could fit 96 gallons. This thing was 5 feet tall!

Needless to say I no longer had to worry about an overspilling recycle bin.

On top of that they offered this new program where they would weigh your recyclables and give you points based on how much you recycled. You could then take those points and turn them in for gift cards or discounts to stores or other things. BONUS!

Suddenly I started recycling everything I could get my hands on. More points = More money.

There was an anticipated side effect to this: Less trash. I noticed that I didn't have to take the trash out as often. So I had the idea. What if I made the entire house as sustainable as possible?

As you know this is a big undertaking. It means using little to no non-renewable energy, it means no trash, It means living off the land and giving back to the land. Now that's going to be hard. No doubt everyone is thinking what I am thinking. "There is no way you can do that unless you have an abundance of cash." Well I am here to tell you, you are probably right. But I am going to try anyway and I am going to record each small step I take here.

So here goes. My goal is to follow the R's. Reduce, Recycle and Reuse. I will cut down on energy consumption and waste as much as I can. I will find ways to reuse anything I can and I will recycle what I can't reuse. Let's see how it goes.