Posts
Today's Haul:
- 1 plastic pasta bag - recycle
- 2 styrofoam plates - recycle
- 2 plastic mesh bags from silver chocolate coins - garbage
- 20 mettalic chocolate coin covers smooshed into a ball by my daughter - garbage
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Day 74 - Saturday 3/15/08
Day 73 - Friday 3/14/08
Today's Haul:
- 1 museum addmission stub - worms
- 1 piece scrap paper - worms
- 1 cardboard cookie box - recycle
- 1 plastic cookie holder PP 5 - recycle
- 1 plasticoated fish wrapper - disposed of for health reasons
Day 72 - Thursday 3/13/08
Today's Haul:
- 2 tea packets- worms
- 1 business card -worms
- 1 cardboard product backing - recycle
- 2 plastic bags - recycle
- 1 piece chewed gum in wrapper - garbage
- 1 paper sleeve from gum -worms
- 1 baskin robbins cone wrapper - worms
- 2 baskin robbins ice cream cups - garbage
- 1 glass bottle salad dressing - recycle
- 1 plastic top from salad dressing - recycle
- 1 plastic backing from ups label - garbage
- 1 boxed OJ juice - garbage
- 1 plastic smart dog package with stickers- garbage
Day 71 - Wednesday 3/12/08
Today's Haul:
- 4 paper sugar packets - worms
- 1 packet cocoa mix - garbage
- 1 plasticy tea bag packet - garbage
- 1 metallicy saline packet - garbage
- 1 tissue - worms
- 1 driveway shopping circular - worms
- 1 cardboard/paper plate - recycle
- 1 set film sides - worms
- 1 call sheet - worms
- 1 metal staple from sides - garbage
Day 70 - Tuesday 3/11/08
Today's Haul:
- 1 set of film sides - worms
- 1 staple from sides - garbage
- 1 film call sheet - worms
- 4 envelopes - worms
- 4 packets sugar - worms
- 8 receipts - worms
- 1 sticky back name tag - garbage
- 4 studio passes - worms
- 1 mettalic saline packet - garbage
- 1 car windshield flyer - worms
- 3 pieces paper from mailings - worms
- 1 heavily taped thrice re-used packaging envelope - garbage
- 1 plastic bag pre-made potato gnocchi - recycle
Day 69 - Monday 3/10/08
Today's Haul:
- 3 doorknob menus - worms
- 4 envelopes - worms
- 3 reciepts - worms
- 3 envelope inserts (those ads you don't want that come with your bill) - worms
- 1 cardboard cereal box - recycle
- 1 wax cereal bag - recycle
- 1 coffee bag - garbage
- 1 emergen c mettalicy packet - garbage
- 2 tissues - worms
Kids
Ya know what i love the most about having kids?
GETTING REALLY SICK FOR THE THIRD TIME IN JUST UNDER WEEKS!!!!!!
Really getting tired of this. It seems like our house has become some sort of germ pinball game where the stuff just mutates and then heads back to the next person. Some friends suggested it was the trash, but it appears that our house is not alone in this. Just seems like a bad season.
Anyhoo, catching up tonight and hopefully tomorrow night I'll be able to respond to some comments, but I'm working so it depends on what time we finish.
On that note, as the film industry slowly gets back to a start, you'll begin to see some other stuff listed that hasn't before. Chief among them are sides (a shrunk down version of the days script pages so that you can easily glance at them) and call sheets (a double sided list of the next days work with scenes, cast, personnel, start times, etc). It's beyond me why in this day and age call sheets can't be emailed. I have a similar problem with sides, but as a camera operator they are necessary at times when you need to follow dialogue. That said, most of the crew do not need them, nor do they use them, yet many are printed up each day. Big waste.
Dave
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the deal?
From January 1 2008 to December 31 2008 I kept all of my garbage and recycling in my basement.
So you're insane.
Well I guess that would depend on your definition of insanity, but actually I don't really see anything insane about it. Out of the ordinary? Yes. Abnormal? Most likely. But insane? Probably not.
Why are you doing this? Did you lose a bet or something?
Actually believe it or not, this was an idea that a friend and I came up with (although it is hardly a unique one) that I really wanted to try. We were talking about the idea of throwing things "away" and how "away" is just that, somewhere other than here. It occurred to us that it is easy to waste because we are not confronted with that waste since it goes "away" and then began to wonder how our choices would differ if we had to keep everything in a pile in the backyard. So the idea is to keep everything for a year and in doing so, be able to see how much waste I create and how much I can avoid.
What do you do with everything?
Right now everything is going in the basement. Each day I tally up what waste I created for the day, what it was (to the best of my abilities anyway) and what is going to happen to it (garbage, recycling, etc.) and then it goes in the appropriate place downstairs.
Doesn't it stink?
This is probably the question I hear the most from people. When you think of what goes in your garbage, what is it that usually smells? For most of us, it's food, leftovers and scraps from prep. That's where our worm composter comes in. All of my food scraps go in here and as for leftovers, I rarely have any that need to be tossed. You can't put dairy, meat or fish in there, but I don't eat meat and fish and dairy i just finish. It works great. Everything else that needs it is cleaned before it goes down there, so there is really no smell, and no tiny (or larger) livestock to speak of. Hopefully it'll stay that way.
What about your family? How do you decide what's your and theirs?
I am undertaking this project on my own but not without the support of my wife and two daughters. As for determining what's "mine" I thought long and hard about this and wrote up these rules which i have pretty much stuck by.
I've been following your blog and it doesn't seem like you are eating enough based on your waste. Are you changing the amount you eat so you don't waste more?
There are a few answers to this question. For starters, and I've mentioned this on the blog, I'm not a great eater to begin with. There are many days when I don't eat breakfast and sometimes will not eat lunch either. I know this isn't really good for me, but it's what happens when i get busy so there's that. Secondly, if I do eat lunch, it's usually something like a peanut butter sandwich. We have a huge thing of peanut butter, so while you may not see it in there for a while, the jar will eventually show up. We also tend to make large helpings using foods that may not be packaged (veggies, fish from the market, beans, rice, etc.) so those will last a while and not show up on the basement list. Finally, I have made a concerted effort to neither increase or decrease my eating habits. That said, i have passed up junk food on occasion due to the waste associated with it, but i figure that's for the best.
How can you be sure you don't miss anything?
Honestly, I can't. Living in a family of four where I am not there all the time, there are bound to be times that something gets finished when I am not there. Anytime I use something for the first time (or it's used in a meal) my initials go on the box/bottle, but mistakes are bound to happen. And of course, I'm honest about the fact that when I go out to dinner, there is waste that I cannot account for. That said, I'm doing my best and hopefully very little will fall through the cracks.
What about the toilet?
What about it? I'm keeping my garbage in my basement, I'm not crazy. Seriously, this is a question everyone asks and my bathroom habits are outside of this little experiment. At some point i will pick a week and keep track of numbers of flushes, etc, to try and extrapolate how much water I waste, but that's it. Oh yeah, and I do save tp rolls.
Why don't I see boxes and packaging in the basement? Don't you ever buy things online that are shipped?
Yes, as a matter of fact I do, but I suspect much less than the average person. We usually keep boxes and packaging in the back room for re-use. At the end of the year, anything that hasn't been re-used will be noted, but for now, it didn't seem like it fit in since it wouldn't be staying down there.
How do you know what's recyclable? That always confuses me.
To be honest, I'm doing the best i can with the little I know at this point. As soon as i can, I'll be meeting with a recycler and asking about the things that I am not sure of. At that point, I'll post the info and change the basement list to reflect the new info.
What's gonna happen to everything at the end of the year?
As of right now, it'll all end up where it would have otherwise, in the landfill or the recycling center. Having said that, it will be a heck of a lot less than it would have been otherwise as I am slowly whittling away at the amount of things I am getting rid of.
What's the point?
The point is to better understand and therefore limit my footprint on the planet as far as my waste stream is concerned. It's my belief that we are all so far removed from things (waste, oil, water, consumption) that we don't see the consequences, but if we did, we would change our ways. It's my hope that by going through with this project, others will begin to think about their own consumption/waste streams and learn from my experience, and that I will in turn learn from theirs.
Why don't I see mail and receipts in your daily lists?
This has more to do with my personal habits than the blog. I tend to take care of a weeks mail or so at a time so I don't even go through stuff until then. Then, the excess (envelopes, etc) tend to sit in the box I've put them in until I get around to posting them. That's why you'll see nothing and then see a whole stack all at once. Same goes for receipts pretty much, but many are kept in a separate box for tax reasons. In seven years (or whatever that time period is) I'll recycle/compost them.
So you're insane.
I think we covered that already. Check back at the end of the year.
What do you do with everything?
Right now everything is going in the basement. Each day I tally up what waste I created for the day, what it was (to the best of my abilities anyway) and what is going to happen to it (garbage, recycling, etc.) and then it goes in the appropriate place downstairs.
Doesn't it stink?
This is probably the question I hear the most from people. When you think of what goes in your garbage, what is it that usually smells? For most of us, it's food, leftovers and scraps from prep. That's where our worm composter comes in. All of my food scraps go in here and as for leftovers, I rarely have any that need to be tossed. You can't put dairy, meat or fish in there, but I don't eat meat and fish and dairy i just finish. It works great. Everything else that needs it is cleaned before it goes down there, so there is really no smell, and no tiny (or larger) livestock to speak of. Hopefully it'll stay that way.
What about your family? How do you decide what's your and theirs?
I am undertaking this project on my own but not without the support of my wife and two daughters. As for determining what's "mine" I thought long and hard about this and wrote up these rules which i have pretty much stuck by.
I've been following your blog and it doesn't seem like you are eating enough based on your waste. Are you changing the amount you eat so you don't waste more?
There are a few answers to this question. For starters, and I've mentioned this on the blog, I'm not a great eater to begin with. There are many days when I don't eat breakfast and sometimes will not eat lunch either. I know this isn't really good for me, but it's what happens when i get busy so there's that. Secondly, if I do eat lunch, it's usually something like a peanut butter sandwich. We have a huge thing of peanut butter, so while you may not see it in there for a while, the jar will eventually show up. We also tend to make large helpings using foods that may not be packaged (veggies, fish from the market, beans, rice, etc.) so those will last a while and not show up on the basement list. Finally, I have made a concerted effort to neither increase or decrease my eating habits. That said, i have passed up junk food on occasion due to the waste associated with it, but i figure that's for the best.
How can you be sure you don't miss anything?
Honestly, I can't. Living in a family of four where I am not there all the time, there are bound to be times that something gets finished when I am not there. Anytime I use something for the first time (or it's used in a meal) my initials go on the box/bottle, but mistakes are bound to happen. And of course, I'm honest about the fact that when I go out to dinner, there is waste that I cannot account for. That said, I'm doing my best and hopefully very little will fall through the cracks.
What about the toilet?
What about it? I'm keeping my garbage in my basement, I'm not crazy. Seriously, this is a question everyone asks and my bathroom habits are outside of this little experiment. At some point i will pick a week and keep track of numbers of flushes, etc, to try and extrapolate how much water I waste, but that's it. Oh yeah, and I do save tp rolls.
Why don't I see boxes and packaging in the basement? Don't you ever buy things online that are shipped?
Yes, as a matter of fact I do, but I suspect much less than the average person. We usually keep boxes and packaging in the back room for re-use. At the end of the year, anything that hasn't been re-used will be noted, but for now, it didn't seem like it fit in since it wouldn't be staying down there.
How do you know what's recyclable? That always confuses me.
To be honest, I'm doing the best i can with the little I know at this point. As soon as i can, I'll be meeting with a recycler and asking about the things that I am not sure of. At that point, I'll post the info and change the basement list to reflect the new info.
What's gonna happen to everything at the end of the year?
As of right now, it'll all end up where it would have otherwise, in the landfill or the recycling center. Having said that, it will be a heck of a lot less than it would have been otherwise as I am slowly whittling away at the amount of things I am getting rid of.
What's the point?
The point is to better understand and therefore limit my footprint on the planet as far as my waste stream is concerned. It's my belief that we are all so far removed from things (waste, oil, water, consumption) that we don't see the consequences, but if we did, we would change our ways. It's my hope that by going through with this project, others will begin to think about their own consumption/waste streams and learn from my experience, and that I will in turn learn from theirs.
Why don't I see mail and receipts in your daily lists?
This has more to do with my personal habits than the blog. I tend to take care of a weeks mail or so at a time so I don't even go through stuff until then. Then, the excess (envelopes, etc) tend to sit in the box I've put them in until I get around to posting them. That's why you'll see nothing and then see a whole stack all at once. Same goes for receipts pretty much, but many are kept in a separate box for tax reasons. In seven years (or whatever that time period is) I'll recycle/compost them.
So you're insane.
I think we covered that already. Check back at the end of the year.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Thinking
So I was thinking about things the other day and something occurred to me. Why is it against the law for some big corporation to dump raw sewage into a river but it's totally ok for them to sell us products in packaging that is poisoning our oceans, our land, and in many instances (as a result) our bodies and minds? I mean I get the whole concept that we are buying this stuff but in many cases, we have no choice. There are many necessities that, living in cities, we have no other choices but to buy. So why is it our responsibility to make sure that these things are dealt with correctly as opposed to the corporations taking responsibility for their actions on the first place and offering us packaging that is biodegradable/compostable?
Is it insane to think that a law should be passed that says within 10 years it will be illegal to sell packaging that is non compostable? Why should we the consumers have to figure out the answers when the corporations that are out there are making bank by selling us packaging that we don't want, that is a pain in the rear to open, and that is turning the planet into a toxic ball?
Am I nuts?
Anyone with me?
Anyone?
Anyone?
Bueller?
Dave
(And JB, don't think I don't think I'm not going to hear from you on this).
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Week 10 Pics
Week 10 and still doing ok. No smell and as you may notice, the worm bin has graduated outside (more on that below)
I know, i keep on promising to clean up but there just isn't enough time!
OK, so the worm bin has made it outside now that it has officially stopped raining here in SoCal. I had them in the basement for that reason but decided that temp and airflow (breezes really) were better outside. The basement tends to keep a little cool and they like a little heat now and again. Also, it was getting a tad stinky from time to time so i was having to stir it up a bit to get air moving. Not a problem, but a pain. Hopefully outside, the breezes will keep enough air moving that this won't be a problem. And hopefully there won't be animal problems either. We'll see. I did take the opportunity to clean it a bit though and got a ton of worm tea from the bottom. Probbaly a quart. This is the water that leaches through the castings and is super nutrient rich. Put it on the lemon tree and we'll see how it does.
Day 68 - Sunday 3/9/08
Today's Haul:
- 1 tin can condensed milk - recycle
- 2 plastic floor cleaner vials - recycle
- 1 plastic peanut bag - recycle
- 3 bullion cube wrappers - garbage
- 1 nasty lollipop/stick/and wrapper in tissue - garbage
- 1 piece scrap paper - worms
- 1 plastic "bag tie" clip - garbage
Day 67 - Saturday 3/8/08
Todays Haul:
- 1 massive plastic dog food bag - garbage (although i'll need to check on this)
- 1 ice cream container and top - garbage
- 1 plastic mayonaise jar - recycle
Day 66 - Friday 3/7/08
Today's Haul:
- 1 sticker from fish market - garbage (I'm actually adding these to a box for the year, stuck on the side)
- 1 cardboard rice pilaf box - recycle
- 1 plastic bag from rice pilaf box - recycle
- 1 tin can artichoke hearts - recycle
- 1 plastic bread bag (8 weeks strong though) - recycle
- 1 plastic hand soap bottle PETE 1 - recycle
- 6 receipts/pieces paper - worms
Day 65 - Thursday 3/6/08
Today's Haul:
- 1 plastic cookie container PETE 1 - Recycle
- 1 cardboard dishwashing detergent box - recycle
- 1 tin can baby corn - recycle
- 1 plastic dish soap bottle PETE 1 - recycle
- 1 cardboard/plastic package from felt furniture feet - recycle
- 2 pieces string - worms (cut up)
- 2 9 volt battery packages - recycle
- 1 plasticoated instruction booklet - garbage
- 2 pieces scrap paper - worms
- 1 gum package exterior - garbage
- 1 paper gum package interior - worms
- 1 piece chewed gum in wrapper - garbage
- 2 studio passes - worms
- 4 napkins/paer towels - worms
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