We are heading into the half way mark of our waste-free project and I am very pleased again with how little trash we created this past week. I feel we are creating less and less waste as the weeks go on. It is becoming second nature and I I believe once the project is officially over- it will not be difficult to keep going. I mean, we will at times have slip ups, but that is normal.

I have learned so much the last 24 weeks about how to reduce our waste, and lessen our environmental impact. I am happy knowing our footprints are slowly leaving less of an impression now, no matter how small that may be! I have small feet you know.

I think everyone must know by now how much I adore Chipotle. Therefore, it makes me extra happy that most of their restaurants are now serving organic cilantro. Can we all say “yum!”

1-PURCHASES

Whole Foods

Bulk items

• Fair trade bananas (9.28  lbs)
• Apples (3.72  lbs)
• Walnuts (2.20 lbs)
• Cinnamon (0.71 lbs)
• Fair trade peppers (2.72 lbs)
• Dates (3.66 lbs)
• Vegan chocolate chips (2.78 lbs)
• Almonds (3.68 lbs)

Non-bulk items

• 1 bag of tortillas (Non-GMO)
• 2 glass bottles of kombucha
• 1 pint of blue berries
• 1 glass bottle of sunflower oil
• Dill pickles in a glass jar
• Almond extract in a glass bottle
• Lemon extract in a glass bottle

Sub-total: 186.44

For my mom and step-dad

• 1 load of  bread
• Red rose tea
• Granola in bulk
• Cheese
• Cookies
• Milk

Sub-Total: 24.19

Non-food items

• Toilette paper (100% recycled paper!) Any one know where they sell TP wrapped in a box or something and not plastic?)
• Tour of Dallas Cowboys Stadium 40.00

Sub-Total: 45.99

Restaurants

• Wednesday: J.P had his weekly lunch at Chipotle 9.65 and I also treated my mother and step-father to Chipotle after picking them up at the airport 20.30
• Saturday: J.P and I went to Spiral Diner to celebrate Valentine’s Day and our anniversary which is coming up this week. Free  (J.P’s parents so graciously offered to pay for our anniversary meal! Thanks, Granny and Grandpa!)
• Sunday: We all wet to Chipotle for dinner (we were treated my mom and step-dad to dinner) Free Thanks!

Sub-Total: 29.95

Total: 286.57

2-COMPOSTING

Our composting trip to Whole Foods went very smoothly this week again. All I had to do was hand them my 3 bags of compost in my biodegradable bag and that was it. We had significantly more compost than usual. The reason being, we keep getting squah in our CSA basket and can’t keep up with eating them. I wanted to donate them, but charities do not take fresh produce from random people like me.

The total weight of our compost was 20 lbs.

3-RECYCLING

We purchased 2 pints of blueberries this past week that of course came pre-packaged in plastic.  We do not have that much recycling actually- most of our recycling consisted of junk paper.

4-TRASH

Our trash basket this week was pretty much empty just like last week. This made me very happy. We are definitely on the right track to becoming clean bin converts. Seriously, it really is not as hard as you think. Anyone could do this with a little effort at the beginning!

Our garbage bin comprised of some receipts, 4 pieces of plastic from my Kombucha bottles, and 1 piece of plastic wrap from the tempeh.

I would like to add that little E’s sticker album is coming along just nicely. We are on page two of the album! Looking forward to sharing once it looks presentable.

5-TRAVEL

This week we travelled to the little gym, Whole Foods in Arlington, the Dallas-Fort Worth airport, Chipotle, and around Fort Worth. The last few weeks we have used our car more than usual because we have had visitors, but once things get back to normal we will be traveling with the car much less.

The total distance traveled on the TDI was 526.3km ( mi) and we filled the tank with (10 gal) for 40.00.