With 4 days left in Virginia and 2 days left of the school year, we have been running around with school activities, packing, moving and trying to catch our breath. Our waste war has been pushed to the back burner; however we are still very conscious of what we buy and throw away. We are visiting my mom in NYC four our annual summer visit on Monday. We will compete during the week and will challenge my mom to join in.

We have been keeping track our Spunky Avocado Challenge. It was easier than I envisioned. It was nice to ignore all the emails I get daily from clothing stores. We made do with what we had and did not feel deprived in any way. Now that we are getting ready to move, I am ending the challenge today so that I can start buying items we need for our new house. Once we are settled in, I will see if the boys are willing to try another month. Below are our monthly totals:

Me: 1 book, 1 pedicure

Aaron: 0

Noah: 0

Trey: 1 pair of shoes (used clothes allowance)

One Month Challenge Starts Tomorrow

As if asking 3 teenage boys to eliminate trash from their lives wasn't enough, I have decided it would be fun to commit to Spunky Avocado’s Facebook challenge of not purchasing anything during the month of May. I have been inspired by reading different blogs about families that do not purchase any material items over a one year period, 6 months or a month.

Why a month? Honestly I am not ready to tackle a 6 month or year commitment at this time. We are moving 3,000 miles in June. We will need to purchase bedroom and living room furniture for the new house.  After we are settled, and if all goes well in May, we will then reevaluate and decide if we want to make a longer commitment.

The only rule is to not buy any material items. Here will be our modifications:

     1) Buying food will be allowed

    2) Bathroom items are allowed, such as shampoo, toothpaste, medication,     sunscreen, etc. We will be mindful of these purchases and only buy if           necessary.                           

     3) Repairs or replacement to appliances or vehicles are allowed

     4) If an emergency arises we will purchase item at a second-hand store or     website, such as Goodwill, Craigslist or Freecycle.

Why are we doing this? One of the reasons is to be more appreciative and aware of items we already have in our home and to use the clothes, toys, books, etc. we already have.  We de-cluttered our house a year ago, giving away hundreds of books, board games, and clothes to Goodwill. Slowly, over the year, our house is becoming cluttered again. This will stop us from bringing anything new into our house.  We are also doing this to lessen our carbon footprint, since purchasing new items uses valuable environmental resources and energy. Lastly, to save money. Extra money will allow for more of our family adventures and lasting memories.

Earth Day

Tomorrow is Earth Day. Can you commit to make 1 or maybe even 2 changes in your household to becoming less wasteful? Even small changes make a huge difference. 

Here are some ideas:

1) Saying no to a straw in your drink at a restaurant 
2) Making a switch from paper napkins to cloth napkins
3) Reusable water bottle (we LOVE Thinksport)
4) Reusable grocery bags
5) Mesh produce bags
6) Switching from paper towels to dish rags
7) Composting
8) Buying bulk and storing in glass jars
9) Recycle 
10) Refuse
11) Cancel junk mail, magazines and catalogs 

Aaron's Win and Ice Skating

Aaron won waste war this past week. This is only his second win, so I was  very proud of his efforts. Aaron chose to go to Panera Bread. I was impressed with some small changes Panera's has made in the past few months. They have eliminated disposable plastic cups for water and serve reusable cups. Panera's also changed their ‘to go’ containers from plastic to paper. This has always been a company that strives to recycle, compost and conserve resources. Trey decided he would write to the company and ask them to stop serving plastic knives for their cream cheese, since they serve stainless steel knives for their other dishes. I love when the boys take their own initiative toward our waste war. 

Our Christmas in March activity was ice skating.  Although we were all terrible at ice skating, we had a fantastic time, stayed completely zero waste and made many fun memories. In April, we are going to Universal Studios in Orlando and Naples, Florida for a week. We are starting to plan now on how to best keep our waste down when we are at the parks.  Key to traveling waste free is pre-planning. 

March 8-14 and Great Wolf Lodge

Mom: 2- chocolate almond package and plastic around a bottle

Aaron: 3- cheese stick wrapper, Jamba Juice: cup, top and straw (so jealous), and water bottle (all not shown)

Noah: 1- candy (not shown)

Trey: ? by Tuesday he already had 6 and then he lost count. He is too embarrassed to pack lunch and is using his birthday money to buy lunch. This gives him on average of 2 to 3 pieces of waste per lunch. The 6th grade science teachers used our pictures and family as an example this month, as they are learning about recycling and living with less waste. When some of his peers commented that they saw our pictures, Trey was mortified. None of his peers teased him or said cruel things, however I think at this stage of Trey's life he doesn't want to be considered different. I am allowing him to buy lunch, although it kills me, so that he doesn't revolt against the waste war completely. 

Community Waste: milk tab and Aaron's allergy pill 

Noah won this week and we all went to the movies on Saturday. We are now home, enjoying our 17th snow day of the winter. Hopefully, this will be our last storm of the year. I hope everyone else on the east coast is staying safe and warm.

For our February Christmas Adventure, we went to Great Wolf Lodge. Our priority on this trip was of course to have a great time, but also to keep our waste to a minimum.  I had never been before and wasn't sure what to expect. I knew our room came with a small fridge, so we packed enough food for breakfast and lunch. Keeping our trip zero waste was pretty simple, since we spent almost all of our time at the water park, playing miniature golf and playing Magiquest.

I forget my tea at home and the hotel had a Dunkin Donuts on grounds. The first morning, I brought my thermos to Dunkin Donuts and asked them to put tea in my thermos since this one only serves coffee and tea in Styrofoam cups. It is very dangerous to drink out of Styrofoam (and it is horrible for the environment). I was directed to ask a manager, who said no but was willing to sell me the tea bag if I could find my own hot water. I had a coffee pot in my room, so I gladly accepted. After 3 days, I had a wonderful vacation with the boys and felt proud of our zero waste efforts.

Dave and Busters...not as Zero Waste as planned

 

 

 

Week 2

For our January Christmas Adventure, we went to Dave and Busters. I wrongly assumed that this would be a zero waste activity. It pretty much was until it was time to cash in their tickets. I was busy playing a game with Noah when Trey cashed in his tickets for "prizes". Unfortunately, I was not there to supervise and by the time I went to the prize room, Trey had already exchanged his tickets for the bag shown above. We had a talk about overindulging. I'm not sure at age 11 he fully understood. I let him keep the bag, although it pained me to watch him eat so many treats with artificial colors and flavors. Since this was a splurge, I let it go. Noah and Aaron also had a bag of treats, although not quit as much as Trey. Needless to say, I won that week. As my fun activity, we went to a Glass Art Studio. We were there for hours and were able to make some great useful objects with recycled glass. I can not share the pictures yet because one is a gift for someone that reads the blog faithfully.

* I will update week 3 and 4 this weekend.



 

Week 1 of the New Year

Yikes...That's a lot of trash for us!

Mom: 5 - running pants packaging, 2 pillow packaging, sock tags (not shown) and salad dressing container

Aaron: 6- Laptop packing, rechargeable battery packaging, cream cheese container (not shown), Starbucks cup and straw (not shown), and envelope

Noah: 5- 2 drinks during school lunch (not shown), cream cheese packaging, rechargeable battery packaging, sock tags (not shown)

Trey: 7- 3 drinks during school lunch (not shown), Gatoraid (not shown), bag of chips (not shown), Starbucks cup and straw (not shown), and cream cheese container 

Community trash: 2- milk rings

We had a slow start but I'm sure there will be improvement in the future weeks. Since Noah and I tied, our decision is to go to The Cheesecake Factory tomorrow after we enjoy our January Christmas Adventure at Dave and Busters. I hope everyone has a fun, zero waste, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.