January 2018 - Plane Packaging

This January I had the pleasure of attending my cousin's wedding in the Dominican Republic! It was quite the adventure and while I've done pretty well traveling while being zero waste, I did accumulate some waste on the trip including a few straws, a plastic bag, and some wrappers.

I also had a really weird exchange with an airline host. I asked if he could fill up my reusable mug about half way with the tea they were serving. He gave me all sorts of excuses of why he couldn't:

Host: "That'd be way too much tea!"

Me: "You don't need to fill it all the way, it can be equivalent to the cups you normally use"

Host: "Well what if I poured it into one of our cups then into your mug?"

Me: "... that sort of defeats the whole purpose, why don't you just pour it directly in here?"

Host: "Well there could be something weird in your mug"

Me: "There's not ... This is pretty routine, coffee shops do this for me all the time!"

Host: "No, no..." as he not so slowly makes his way down the aisle away from me "it definitely violates a health code..."

Well, the hostess on the last flight did this for me with no issue! At this point I just stopped, I was exhausted from an overnight flight and didn't have the energy to fight this guy over some mediocre tea. I don't know where the line is here between holding your ground and making a scene. Navigate this as best you can!

I also totally caved and got some of my favorite bagged tea because I wasn't feeling so well for a few days. It's Yogi Tea's Throat Comfort Tea and I have not been able to find a loose leaf alternative that does it for me. I may need to try mixing my own soon to prevent me from buying it whenever I have a sore throat!

October 2017 - Cheese life

This month I produced 29 grams, or 0.06 lbs of trash.

This is a 0.02 lbs improvement from September, which I am pretty pleased about. 

I feel like I've definitely reached a pretty sustainably minimal level of trash production. By changing a lot of my consumption patterns, habits, and methods, I've eliminated a lot from my day to day life. 

In my trash jar this month was mostly tea bag packages, wrapping from a prescription of mine, fruit stickers, and the wrappings around some cheese. I think there were some other random pieces of plastic from price stickers, and the tops of bottles. 

I've become a bit complacent recently. I've been able to produce very little trash the past few months, an amount that seemed incredibly difficult to achieve earlier this year!  But now that I've attained this level of trash production, I think it's time for me to reevaluate and set new goals. Probably before the new year, but definitely by then!

September 2017 - Sample Struggles

This September I produced 37 grams or 0.08 lbs of trash.

The biggest item in my trash this month was a bunch of sample spoons from our local ice cream joint. This amazing local creamery actually serves ice cream zero waste (which is why I go there). However when my friend and I went there to celebrate her getting a new job (yes we went for ice cream over wine, it was hot out, and it was awesome), the very kind gentleman on the other side of the counter just started giving us a bunch of samples w/o us asking for them! I didn't have the heart to tell him that I didn't want the plastic.

I sort of struggle with situations like this. I want to educate people, and at least feel ok telling them what I'm doing and why. But I also don't want to present it in a way that would insight any resentment. If someone is being very kind, you may make them dislike the whole zero waste movement by not handling that moment correctly. 

I usually just don't say much, but I think I'll need to come up with a better way of handling these moments when they happen.

Oh well, on to October!