The re-usable bag thing

I definitely have a favorite reusable bag. I have used the same set for several years and have given them away as gifts many times over. I keep one in my purse, two in the car, and a couple in my desk at work at all times. It's helped me 'remember the bag'.  We are pretty good (not perfect) at remembering to bring them along for grocery store shopping trips, but as apart of our #zerowastechallenge, we are trying to 'remember the bag' for all of our consuming. No matter the store. They've been getting pulled out more and more for department store and pharmacy shopping, basically anywhere that has the possibility of bagging up our purchases.

As we pull them out more regularly, what I'm realizing is that checkout counters are set up to automatically give you the disposable bag. Think about Walgreens or Target, they scan the item and right next to the scanner is a stack of bags with hooks and they immediately place the items in the bag in one swoop action. It happens in a blink of the eye and is so, so automatic. At Walgreen's they are so fast that I've started telling them I have my own bag BEFORE they even start ringing! It's the only way to stop them. The 'automatic bag' part doesn't surprise me, but what has surprised me is how often we've been getting comments from cashiers about it. "oh how nice you have your own bag", "I like your bag" and "that's smart to bring your own bag". The other day at Target, I literally threw off this cashier's whole world when I said I had my own bags and could help bag the goods. She literally didn't know where to put stuff. We had to have a conversation about Do we hand off items? Or does she just set it over here? Kind of amusing. But what these comments reinforce, is how unusual it is to reject the disposable bags in these spaces. To be clear, I don't point this out to say MY actions are radical or pioneering. I am not. They are not. Instead I point it out to say it is so common place, it is so automatic in our consumption and the very process at the check out line, that when I deviate from the script people are surprised by it and caught off-guard. They notice and they comment. It's worth considering why that is and how it came to be that way.

Today I thought... what about take out? I have a bag in my purse at all time, when they give me sandwiches to go, why not have them bag it up in my own bag?

PS we're also talking about how to live through the embarrassment of bringing our own containers for left overs at restaurants... I'll report on that once we actually muster enough courage to do it :)

PPS oh yeah, you want to know what my favorite reusable bags are? They are EnviroSax, spacious, lightweight and strong: https://www.amazon.com/Envirosax-Tropics-Pouch-Bag-Multicolor/dp/B00IFB2ORS/ref=pd_lpo_vtph_79_tr_t_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=D9WG6RKGKMABKJCQMKP7

Zero Waste Intro

Ok. Rob and I are doing Hennepin County Government #zerowastechallenge. Over the course of 8 months we're tracking and learning to reduce our waste. The first step was to weigh all of your waste (trash, compost, recycling, other) for the first 4 weeks without changing your habits. I generally think we are pretty good about waste, but it's crazy to actually quantify it!!!

We average 2.99 lbs compost per week, 4.5 lbs recycling per week, and 2.57 lbs trash per week.

If you apply those averages to one year that's about 155 lbs compost, 234 lbs recycling and 134 lbs trash annually. In all 523 of WASTE! That's crazy. And we're just a two person household!

We can all do better. I'd like to see our household numbers drop to under 300 lbs per year or less than a pound per day. I'm glad we committed to pushing ourselves to do better.

Waste Tips Part 1

Hey you! As you probably know, our household was accepted to be apart of Hennepin County's Zero Waste Challenge. We've signed up for 9 months of education, training and challenging our own behaviors. I've been really nerdy and sharing tips via twitter along the way and I thought I would compile there here as well. To be clear, it's important that you know your own local area recycling rules - and it's great to research what facility actually processed your waste streams and ask your questions to them for the straightest answers! Most of there are general & applicable everywhere, but some might be our area specific.

#composttip most bathroom waste is compostable, put a compost bin in your bathroom for tissues, cotton balls (chemical free), qtips (paper stem only), hair and fingernails clippings

#recyclingtip don't crush your cans or bottles, sorting machines need 3-D objects to detect or they might think it's flat paper

#recyclingtip shredded paper is too small to go through recycling sorters... put shredded in a large envelop to ensure it travels with other paper

#composttip store your foodscraps in a container in your freezer for less mess and less smell

#recyclingtip black plastic is never recyclable, nope never, don't do it. Optical scanners can't see what kind of plastic it is and can't sort it in recycling facilities

#recyclingtip remember the first of the 3 Rs is REDUCE, the last is Recycle and they are organized that way for a reason #limityourwaste

#recyclingtip leave your plastic soda bottle caps on the bottles but make sure to dump the liquid first

#recyclingtip nope, styrofoam is not recyclable, don't do it. Ever.

#recyclingtip did you know that @Nike accepts and recycles old shoes through their Reuse-A-Shoe drop offs. Google it.

#recyclingtip while plastic bags are technically recyclable they cannot be mixed with curbside recycling because they get caught in the sorting machines, bring them to @cubfoods or @Target instead for recycling

#recyclingtip most plastic food containers are recyclable

#recyclingtip clean aluminum foil is recyclable. Start a tinfoil ball to add on to, a big ball will help ensure it makes it's way through the sorting belts

#composttip line the bottom of your kitchen compost can with newspaper or napkins, it'll help the compostable liner last longer #addsomedry

#recyclingtip put beer caps in a tin can and swish the can closed when it's full. Helps ensure it all makes it through the metal sorting