Day 7 A Few Answers

I have gotten several questions about things that people have emailed me so here are a few things I probably need to expound upon a bit.

I am not insane
I think that one's pretty self explanatory but i thought I'd put it out there. The ironic thing is that now that this is becoming "normal" for me, I'm beginning to realize even more so than before that what I was doing before was insane. By societal standards of what is expected of us all, I am a bit odd, but that said, if you take out the fact that we are used to doing so, the thought of taking your trash, putting it in a bin where some guy you don't know comes and picks it up and takes it to be dumped in some hole in the ground, is pretty insane if you think about it (not to mention that it's a horrid run on sentence).

Why My garbage Totals Don't Seem To Be Evidence of Much Food (yet)
Good one. For starters I eat atrociously and rarely have three meals a day as I forget a lot. That said, I tend to eat stuff that is not pre-made more than often so my guess is over time, we'll see ebbs and flows in this. For instance for dinner tonight the kids and I had bean burritos so at some point when we work our way through them, there will be packaging from the tortillas and cheese (the beans were bulk bought with a bag we re-use) that end up downstairs.

I Don't Have All or even Most of the Answers
My favorite emails that I've received have been from folks who think that I am doing this because I know what i am doing. While I probably spend more time on this than most people do (come on, you all blog about your garbage right?)I'm actually doing this because I don't know a lot about it - or at least as much as I''d like to. So for that reason, I will definitely have moments where I stumble and fall, but hopefully not down the stairs.

On a non-answer note, I had one of those "duh-huh" moments today as I was looking through the fridge trying to figure out what I had used last night for dinner. Now i have a sharpie near the fridge and anytime I take something from ANYTHING my initials go on top so it doesn't get tossed/recycled. I'm sort of shocked I didn't think of this before.

I spent some time in line at the grocery store today and am absolutely shocked at the waste that goes into all the packaging. I know this sounds weird but grab yourself a cup of Joe and head to your local "supermarket" and just spend ten minutes watching what people buy. It's a huge eye opener.

As far as all my mail that I had to recycle, for starters, that's over two weeks worth. Greendimes has severly diminished what I get, and the rest is split between things I need to get (statements etc) and solicitation from charities, which I understand but hate. So what Ive started doing is calling them up and asking for a supervisor. Then I kindly explain that I will no longer accept paper mailing from them and that furthermore, I will not donate to any cause that sens me paper mailing, but will be glad to have them contact me via email, which I give to them. They seem to be responsive so far, but we'll see what becomes of it.

Dave