Sunday, January 19, 2014

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. 

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

The Waste War Continues

After a long break, our Waste War resumed this past Saturday.  Since November, we have experienced a lot of changes to our living situation. We sold our house, shipped all of our belongings across the country to California and moved into a temporary fully furnished house.  While finding a fully furnished home during our transition months was a perfect situation, the kitchen was not set up for a zero waste life style. I could only leave behind what I absolutely needed for six months, since we are flying and limited to one suitcase each. I shipped all of my pantry containers and scoured local Goodwill’s for new ones. I was very fortunate to find several and at very inexpensive prices. At the end of May, I will donate them back to Goodwill. It took a few weeks to turn our new home into a properly functioning zero waste home. The boys missed the war and are excited that we have started again (although I think they really missed all of our fun outings that the winner choices). 

I am happy to report that having Christmas experiences, limiting the amount of presents they opened was happily accepted by the boys. We have several trips planned for the future, with our first one to The Great Wolf Lodge. They view this as Christmas that lasts all year.