Oh, what a crazy week – up and down the highway visiting family! Now, we have a few days to relax and we are back on a plane to Fort Worth. It will be nice when we are back on a schedule and buying food plastic bag free. Pretty much all the produce at my health food store is wrapped in plastic and it drives me bananas, and nothing is sold in bulk. I will be checking out another store a little further from home, and I am hoping they sell things in bulk and not wrapped in plastic.
I feel all in all, we had a pretty great week while traveling and making sure to stay true to our waste-free colours. You be the judge- how do you think we did?
Here's to a new year full of fun while limiting our impact on the environment one piece of trash at a time! This is the year to make a green difference!
1-PURCHASES
La Moisson health food store
- Almond butter in glass jar
- Peanut butter in glass jar
- Raw coconut butter in glass jar
- Tahini in glass jar
- Lemon extract
- Chickpeas
- Quinoa
- Raisins
- 2 large glass bottles of kombucha
- Oat bread
- 4 bunches of bananas
- 1 container of strawberries
- 1 head of romaine lettuce
- 1 head of hydroponic butter lettuce
- Flax seeds
- 5 pears in bulk
- 5 apples in bulk
- 6 sweet potatoes in bulk
- Apple cider vinegar in a glass bottle
- Organic conditioner for my hair
- Cranberries
- Vegan date squares
- Cucumbers
- Chips
Sub-Total: 163.45 minus my 100.00 gift card I received for Christmas! 63.45
Restaurants/Entertainment
- Tuesday: JP ordered chicken from his all time favorite restaurant. All the packaging was made from 100% recycled paper which is pretty awesome! This particular restaurant does not use any styrofoam and only plastic for the lid to the coleslaw. Now to get them to buy free-range local organic chickens. A girl can dream you know! 7.95
Sub-Total:7.95
Gifts
We celebrated with my dad and stepmom on new years day. Therefore, we received a few gifts. Little E was given some organic clothing, and a book. JP and I received a gift card for a natural heath store and a vegan book with some recipes.
We gave money to our two nieces who have birthdays coming up (80.00) and another 80.00 to some friends to take their kids to the bio-dome in Montreal as a birthday/Christmas gift.
Sub-total:160.00
Total: 231.40
2-COMPOSTING
This week we continued to compost, guerrilla composting that is (not sure how legal that is though). However, we did not weigh the compost since we were moving around- we were just happy we could compost. Over the last few days it has been great to see family members join us with our composting!
3-RECYCLING
We most definitely had more recycling than usual. It was more difficult to buy food plastic-free and package-free- which was frustrating. This week we had plastic bags from vegetables and fruit(I know, I knowโฆ), plastic containers from fruits (annoying), paper from mail, cardboard from JP's dinner, tags on clothing, some random plastic and newspaper used as wrapping paper (thanks grandpa and grandma!)
4-TRASH
The trash this week comprised of: veggie/fruit stickers, plastic banana wrap, receipts, tie wrap from different veggies, chip bags and probably a few other random things. I cracked over the holidays and bought chips. I can give up chocolate and have because of the caffeine, but chips, is the one processed food that I have struggled with since we began our waste-free journey.This is the second time I have fallen off the wagon! Oh well, I will do better next time!
We did not keep all of our waste, like we do in Fort Worth. It was rather difficult while traveling around.
5-TRAVEL
Since being home, we have been driving my mom-in-laws SUV to get around. It used way more gas than we are use to, but it does the job while we are home and we are appreciative. We travelled 440.6 km (mi), and filled the gas tank with 61L (gallons) costing 80.00. I am looking forward to driving my diesel when back in Texas.
We just go In the woods, not on someone private property and place our scraps! We usually compost non-food items but when guerilla composting you don’t want the animals eating tissue paper! ๐
Thanks, Jenn! Oh I love composting, it really is addictive!!! ๐ the amount of trash you have is better than one large bag filled weekly. In Texas the people below us have a large bag filled each week with food scraps, recyclables and trash, even though they offer recycling. All you have to do is put it in a blue bag, I think they are just lazy and don’t care! I am so happy that you care! Yay!
I think you did great. We try to compost as much as we can. One year I swear we had pumpkins starting to grow from it.
Happy New Year!!
Mary
Thanks! Lol about the pumpkins!!! ๐
I have been thinking about tracking our trash. I am ashamed at the things we throw out even though we do recycle quite a lot. I had never heard of guerrilla composting either! That’s sort of what I do, except I take it out to our own land to dump!
You would be amazed at how easy it can b e to eliminate trash. It is now second nature for me to not to create trash. Start off little by little and you will see how your trash decreases! ๐
Plastic on organic produce really pisses me off. Why why why does it need to be wrapped in plastic when its non organic counter part isn’t???
Me too! I dont get it either, Jen!
It really is amazing how much produce is wrapped in plastic when there really is no need. I am very impressed by how well you did while traveling. I love that you guerrilla composted-what a cool concept! My chocolate lab would be very happy following you around and cleaning up all the compost!
LMAO Lori!!! It’s crazy how much stuff is wrapped in plastic! I would to meet your lab, I love labs! ๐
Guerrilla composting – LOL!!!
Staying green while traveling is tough – but it sounds like you did a great job!
And don’t be too hard on yourself for the chips – you are a thousand times better at avoiding junk than me! ๐
Happy New Year!
Thanks Micaela! I am always too hard on myself! We guerilla compost a lot when not at home!!