Monday, March 31, 2014

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. 

Monday, March 17, 2014

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.