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Thursday, January 31, 2008

Day 31 - 1/31/08

I had hoped to do an end of month one recap tonight but I'm afraid after last night it's going to have to wait.

Today's Haul:

  • 1 plastic needle protector - garbage
  • 1 pair blue medical gloves - repurpose for worm bin stirring
  • 2 tongue depressers - worms (I can soak em down and they'll brak them down over time)
  • several pieces of gauze and tissues - disposed of for health reasons
  • 2 pieces of paper (I need the rest) - worms
  • 1 rubber toilet flapper with chain (from yesterday) - worms (ahhh kidding - garbage)
  • 1 plastic hospital bracelet - garbage
  • 1 business card - worms
  • 4 pieces of scrap paper - worms
  • 2 used q-tips - disposed of for health reasons
  • 1 paper baking sugar bag - recycle
  • 1 plastic juice bottle HDPE 1 - recycle
  • 1 cardboard tea bag box - worms
  • 1 plastic tofu tray pp 5 - recycle
  • top and bottom of frozen apple juice container - recycle
  • 1 plasticoated cardboard side of frozen apple juice container - garbage

8 comments:

Unknown said...

Just caught your story on KROQ via the Internet. I'm living in France currently, but grew up in LA. I thought I would let you know a few things they do in France.
(1) Plastic bags can not be given away. You must purchase plastic bags at the grocery store, they are cheap about 2cents, but even that helps convince you to just buy one re-usable bag and helps remind you to bring it to the store.
(2) Many people buy their bread at the bakery, and so if you wanted you could get it without any packaging. Again no plastic bag.
(3) Every grocery store has a place to drop off used batteries for recycling, a lot more convenient then what I remember in the US. (Important when you have kids.)

Good Luck.

Dave said...

Hey joseph,
Thanks for listening. It always bums me out because the US is such an amazing country yet we are so far behind on so many levels, sustainable living being a big one. I think i read that in Japan, if you don't turn in a battery before buying a new one they charge you more. Makes sense to me. Ireland imposed a plastax a few years back similar to what you have and it reduced plastic bags by close to 95%. Amazing what a little incentive can do.
Dave

Anonymous said...

I heard you on kroq this morning. Good interview. I can't wait to see how it all turns out after the year ends. I tried something similar this past week. I made a 20 pound turkey, a bag of barley, and mixed vegetables on Sunday. Boiled the turkey carcass and made soup broth. My husband, our two dogs and I ate the one meal I cooked on Sunday for 5 days. Plus, a loaf of bread and mixed greens. We ate turkey sandwiches, soup, turkey salad and so on. It's amazing how much you can conserve if you put some though into it. Best of luck! Dawn post-norm.com

Anonymous said...

you're an idiot!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

So I heard about you on KROQ though I did not hear your story - just your website on the end of show round up. They called you Sustainable Dave and since I have an interest in trying to figure out a way to live in a 100% sustainable environment I thought I would check you out.

I find your concept interesting as an experiment...but what are you going to do with all the trash at the end of the year. It seems like you are simply discovering how much stuff this actually is, rather than taking an approach to trying to be sustainable - but then again maybe that was the point all along.

Do you hope to try and create a more sustainable home?

Dave said...

Hmmm...100% sustainable. Wish i could get there. If you read the first post, I know i'll be throwing things away at the end of the year, the question is, how far can i go towards diminishing that. And yes, it is in the name of sustainability. If you check out my other blog, it's more along the overall sustainability front. Would love to have you enter in the discussion here and over there.

As for the guy who said that I'm an idiot...well, what can I say, we've all got opinions right?

Anonymous said...

Hi Dave
Congrats on finishing. Just heard of the 365 challenge from the kids at Clean Bin, so I'm catching up.
Sorry to be late with this tip, but if you soak your juice containers (easier before you remove the metal bottom), the plastic comes away from the cardboard. Voila, recyclable! Thanks to my uber-recyclist friend Graham in Whitehorse for that nugget.
Cheers from Maple Ridge

Dave said...

Great tip!

dave