LA Recycling and not knowing how good i have it

As I posted a few weeks back we were back east visiting relatives for a bit.  As is often the case, you can learn a lot about your specific environment simply by being out of it and this trip was no different.  

I was helping my mom make dinner one night and as she was opening some plastic containers I noticed that she was throwing them in the garbage.  I pulled them out (in order to bring them home with me, but also as a way of making a point) and in a way that only a son who thinks that he is always right can say to a mom who is used to a son who thinks that he is always right said "Mom, you have to recycle these things, you can't throw them in the garbage, it's horrible."  At which point my mom said, in a way that a mom can say to a son who thinks that he is always right but rarely is "Of course I know that but those are not number on or number two and we don't recycle those here."

And that's when it hit me.  I sort of stepped out of myself for a second and watched as the virtual cinematic camera that can be my brain zoomed into my shocked expression as the music from Psycho payed in the background.

It suddenly made me realize how lucky we have it here in SoCal.  Ya see, recycled numbers 3-7 go in the garbage back where they live, not because they are not being cognizant, but because the government doesn't recycle anything but 1 and 2.  Quite shocking.

Here in LA, we are blessed to have the following things be taken from the curb for recycling (and in one bin might i add):

• Clean styrofoam and other polystyrene products
• glass bottles and jars
• aluminum beverage cans
• tin and metal food cans
• aerosal and paint cans (empty and dry)
• all plastic marked 1-7
• all plastic bags and film bags
• all clean paper
• cardboard and corrugated boxes
• metal and plastic hangars
• aluminum foil and trays

I've always taken this for granted but having stepped outside my surroundings for a bit realized how truly easy we have it compared to most.  Quite an eye opener.

For more info on LA recycling, check out this site.

Dave

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Travelling

As some may have noticed I just back posted about two weeks of garbage after being silent for a bit.  I was on vacation back east with my family and didn't have a ton of internet access (very frustrating) but did manage to save everything i could and bring it back with me.  A lot of stuff that I'll hopefully be able to post on in the next few days, but here now are a few tidbits I can think of.

• It was very interesting for me to look back and see what waste I (and the girls) generated over the past two weeks and why.  It was concrete evidence that limiting waste is relatively easy once you get the hang of it and are in your routine, but the second you step out of that environment, it's a whole new ballgame.  For instance, as a guest in my inlaws and parents house, I can't really tell them what to buy and what not to buy and therefore i had a bunch of things I'd never buy - bags of celery, egg white cartons, 2 coffee bean bags, etc.  Kind of fascinating to be thrown back into how bad things can be (not that they are that bad, but it's just different).
• We flew on a red eye and when i got in I bought a cup of coffee as i had a drive ahead of me.  The lady behind the counter refused to take my coffee mug saying it was against airport policy.  Since I needed the jolt for the drive, I accepted, poured the coffee into my mug, and put the cup in the side mesh pocket of my bag - what a waste.  As i was exiting the airport, I asked another vendor if they could fill my mug up and she had no problem with it.  Just goes to show you huh!
• As far as the worms and food scraps, i thought long and hard what to do and finally came up with a good solution.  Part of the time we were out in the woods (went camping one night with the girls and I bet you can guess which night by the waste we generated) so while we were there, i took each days worm scraps and walked into the woods where I dug a small hole and buried the compostables.  Sort of using nature for natures sake.  The second half of our trip which was a little more suburban was handled the same way except I spread the stuff out under bushes (burying it still) in my moms garden.
• As for garbage and recycling, well I had a bag full and almost had to pay extra (oh the irony) but figured out how to fit the bag it was all in into another bag.

More to come on recycling back east and the Museum of Trash!

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Backposting

For those of you reading along at home, you may notice that i just backposted the last 7 days. It's not because I was lazy (I am) or that I forgot (I didn't) but rather because we were out of town for the week and due to time availability and the desire to not let the world know that I was gone from home for seven days, I just caught up now.  Having said that, I came home with a tidy bag of refuse and am glad to say that unlike the last time I took such a trip, no one stopped me and snickered at the airport (or at least to my knowledge).

We were in Seattle for a wedding and I must say it is quite the beautiful city.  I was extremely happy to see 4 bangar recycle/trash bins EVERYWHERE (paper, plastic, aluminum, and garbage) and to see that people actively seemed to be separating their waste.  Saturday night they held a parade downtown and afterwards, the recycle bins were overflowing while many of the garbage bins I saw were not.  It was very cool.

As usual, traveling as a trash hoarder with wife and two kids in tow is an odd experience, but even more oddly, a liberating one.  Since I am not preparing food, for the most part, all refuse that i can account for pretty much comes down to packaging of one sort or another and relatively little else, save for tickets, transfers and receipts (which will show up sometime next month when i finally get to them).  Since i didn't have access to a compost bin I had to keep a pretty strict eye on what i ate as well.  I had a few tupperwares with me in case, but nobody wants to have to explain a week old banana peel to the TSA guys, trust me, I know from whereof I speak.  I must admit that i did have a peach and threw the pits in the woods, but otherwise did fairly well.  I also have a lovely little pile of edamame shells sitting next to that i can hear the worms screaming for, so I'll do some more catching up tomorrow.

Dave

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Traveling and trash

One of the things that has smacked me in the face quite a bit over the last few weeks was how tough it is to travel with a light impact. Forget the problem of carbon footprints from an airplane for a moment, the simple act of entering an airport means you either need to think ahead, go without, or simply accept that you're going to create a fair amount of waste. Here are a few things that I learned from my little jaunt last week.

I always carry a water bottle and coffee mug with me in the side pockets of my bag. It's interesting to see when and if they are inspected upon going through the security area, but once on the other side, the can save you a fair amount of waste....most of the time. The water bottle is obvious, drink it down before you hit security, and fill it back up from a water fountain (yes, water fountain water in almost every state is fine to drink contrary to popular belief) on the other side. Same goes for the coffee cup but with the following potential for conflict. I have run into several starbucks in several airports over the years who say that "for security reasons" they cannot fill my mug, but will be glad to fill a cup, I can pour that cup into my mug, and they will dispose of the cup for me. I've asked many times what the security breach involved with them handling my mug is and apparently this is on a need to know basis. That said, in almost every one of those cases, including last weeks, I have found an independent company in the same terminal that has not had a problem with it. Perhaps they are terrorists in disguise waiting for the moment to fling coffee mugs at unsuspecting passersby.

In the airport, you're pretty much stumped on food unless it's a $5 piece of mealy fruit. Everything else is going to be either packaged or come with plastic eating utensils. Mmmm, doesn't plastic make everything better?

On the plane you really only have one choice and that's to think ahead. Anything you are going to get to eat is going to be so shockingly packaged that you really have no option but to waste. That said, i have found most flight attendants to be fairly eager to fill my mug or water bottle, but of course the water is coming from a plastic bottle to begin with, so I always try to fly with mine full.

As far as hotel staying, it seems like the big trip up I found was soap and shampoo. I totally forgot to think about these and had to use the little tiny bottles that they had there (coming to a basement near you soon). That said, I used the shampoo for washing myself as well as my hair, so at least I cut down on the soap packaging. Had we been in a metropolitan area I guess I probably would have bought large sizes of each and then brought them home to use normally which would have cut down somewhat. Another thing I've gotten used to is specifically asking them not to give me a straw with drinks. It seems that these come even with water these days and I've forgotten several times but am getting better.

Anyone have any other good travel/waste eradication suggestions?

Dave

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