Break from War and Christmas on the Horizen

It seems as though the excitement over a waste war has declined in our house. It has become second nature to ask for no straw at a restaurant  using reusable grocery bags at the store, bringing a zero waste lunch to school, however when my boys are at a friend's house, they seems to overindulge and not mention the waste they accumulate. We sat down, had a long talk whether they wanted to continue the waste war. They all agreed they did, but asked if we could continue December 1. They promised they would be cautious over their waste, but did not want to keep track of it until the end of the month. 

With that being said, Christmas is around the corner, and as we all know, produces a lot of waste. In fact, last year about 4 million tons of waste was accumulated in wrapping paper and shopping bags alone. I wondered, how could I continue a waste war at Christmas and still celebrate the holiday. Then I read an idea of experiences vs presents on a blog.  At first my idea of experiences, instead of actual presents, was immediately rejected by my 6th grader. After I explained in detail what this would entail, my 6th grader started to warm up to the idea. I'm not sure if my house is like others, but it seems that 2-4 weeks after Christmas, their new toys get thrown in the toy bin, never to be played with again. With each toy comes a lot of plastic packaging and waste. Instead of wasting money, resources and plastic on toys, which we will donate to Goodwill in the spring, family experiences would give us a life time of memories. 

Now, before you think this is border-lining on child abuse, like my co-worker does, they will enjoy a few gifts that can actually be opened. I asked them to make a list of experiences and I love how creative they became. This is my 6th graders list: rock climbing, Air and Space Museum, Jumpology, movies, water park, WWE Wrestling Match (not going to happen), NY Giants game (I wish), camping, obstacle courses and laser dodging. I haven't ironed out all of the details and how many experiences I will choose, but we will be able to enjoy Christmas all year round. 

Week ending Oct 25 and Nov 1

 

 

 

 Week of October 19-25

 

Week of October 26- November 1

 

Our two week count:

 

Week 19-25

Maggie- 1, plastic wrap. I had a perfect week until the last day of the week. I went out on a date with my husband and the restaurant brought out our silverware in plastic wrap.

Aaron- 4, dentist bag (2 items inside with plastic) and small plastic cup

Noah- 2, hot chocolate cup and a soda (not pictured)

Trey- 2, rice crispy treat package and hot chocolate cup (both not pictured)

Community Trash: Package and 3 milk tabs

 

 

Week 26-1

Maggie- 1, twix package

Aaron- 4, Game package and candy wrappers

Noah- 3, candy bar wrappers

Trey- 5, candy bar wrappers and 2 plastic bracelets

 

I predict that this coming week we will have a lot of candy wrappers in our waste count.  I won the first week and as our fun activity we went back to Carter Mountain. We remembered that the staff at Carter Mountain are willing to put fresh donuts in containers that people bring from home, which eliminates using their plastic packages. I came prepared and brought my own glass container for donuts (picture below). We also brought our own bag to collect apples. I won the second week as well and have not decided where we will go for our fun activity. It will depend on the weather this week. We are hoping this great weather will last a few more weeks before we see snow.

 

 





Vacation is Over and Zero Waste Toothbrush/Tooth Tabs

 

 

 

 

 

Due to a trip to California with my husband, and my children being spoiled by their grandma back in Virginia, we paused the war for 2 weeks. Although I was very cautious during my trip of daily waste and processed food intake, the boys went a little crazy. They consumed Doritos, marshmallows, school lunches etc. Because this is such an infrequent occurrence, I tried not to become overwhelmed by their eating habits that week. I am just grateful that my mom spent a week with my boys and took great care of them while I was gone.

Now that I am home, it's a different story. We spent the day today making granola bars, bread, dinner for most of the week, pumpkin muffins and chocolate chip cookies. Although it is time consuming, I do enjoy cooking with my sons and spending quality time with them in the kitchen.

The picture above is of the 100% compostable toothbrush and plastic free toothpaste we use. The toothbrush works great. It is made of bamboo and when we are finished we can throw it in our compost pile. The toothpaste took a little time to get used to. At first, it tasted a bit salty and it was strange to chew a tablet. Now if I use regular toothpaste it is too strong and burns my mouth. There are no toxic ingredients in the tooth tabs compared to regular toothpaste. I am glad there are companies such as Lush that care about our health and the environment.

Trey and I Win!

Weekly Round Up:

Maggie: 2  Pictured - *black tea packaging, creamer tab

Aaron: 4   Pictured- apple juice, Not pictured- plate, fork, knife (during his band competition)

Noah: 6    Pictured- fork, knife (forgot lunch at home), Not pictured- school tray, 3 sodas (From a school dance, yikes!)

Trey: 2    Not pictured- lollipop stick and wrapper

Community Trash: *3 tea packaging, milk tab and aluminum foil (no one is claiming the aluminum foil so we are calling it community trash) 

* My boys love to drink tea. Until recently I was not aware of the dangers of drinking non organic tea. After doing research, we ordered 4 different types of Numi Tea. It is a wonderful organic tea, which has no artificial flavoring, natural flavors, pesticides or GMO's. 

We are not organizing a fun weekly activity this weekend because I am flying to California on Wednesday and will be gone for a week. My mom will be taking care of them and I am positive they will experience MANY fun activities with her. 

Enjoying New Foods

 

 

Last night at dinner I was filled with pride when the boys inhaled an Israeli salad with Tahini/lemon/honey dressing I made for dinner. Six months ago they hardly ever ate anything related to a salad especially Aaron (17 year old). They moaned and groaned if I tried to hide tomatoes or onions in any dish, let alone eating it straight from a bowl. Last night all 3 asked for seconds and Aaron declared he now loves tomatoes. None of them even minded the onions.

 

Going Zero Waste has changed our lives more than feeling great about our footprint on the environment. They are eating unprocessed foods and enjoying the taste of real foods. Aaron used to carry an epi pen and 2 inhalers for asthma and took 2 medications for allergies. He has not had a single asthma attack since eliminating artificial food coloring and flavoring from our diets 6 months ago. His allergies are minimal and he even told his school nurse he wasn't allergic to anything anymore (she called me very confused). All of us have more energy and feel lighter. I will never go back to processed foods even if we could find them in bulk.

 

***Update on Our Waste Count: This past week I was not consistent in asking the boys for their daily waste count. They cannot remember how much they had but they think about 1 or 2 each. I had 3 pieces of waste and will be added to the monthly count. I will make an effort to ask each day and not let another week pass us by.

Perfect Week!

Maggie-0 (yes really 0 and was easier than I thought)

Aaron - 4 (Pictured: lemonade wrapper and ketchup top, Not pictured: Gatorade and candy wrapper)

Noah - 4 (Pictured: lemonade wrapper and ketchup top, Not pictured: Food wrapper from school)

Trey - 4 (Pictured: ketchup top, Not pictured: 3 airhead wrappers)

Community Trash - 4 (Pictured: 2 milk tabs, vanilla container, *plastic cup)



It was exciting to achieve a true zero waste week for my personal count. We are searching for vanilla extract in bulk or glass, as we go through extracts pretty quickly. If any one has suggestions, please let me know.

I have not decided on my activities yet but I think I see s hike in our future. I will include them on next weeks count. We were not able to go to Jumpology this weekend and postponed for next weekend. We will be caught up on our fun and environmental activities by next weekend. 



*Trey had a minor concussion this past week from falling out of his chair in class and banging the back of his head on the ground. He had a headache the next day and the nurse gave him a plastic cup to drink water out of. He was too embarrassed to respond. I spoke to the nurse and she was very understanding of our lifestyle. She happily agreed to provide Trey with a paper cup if this happens in the future. 

Noah and Trey win

 

 

 

Our Two Week Round Up :

Maggie: 5 (all shown above). Dove plastic, 2 contact cases, medicine and creamer tab. 

Aaron- 4 (3 not shown). 2 plastic bags, plastic knife and plastic wrap above.

Noah- 2 (not shown). Soda and bag of chips from a school dance.

Trey- 2 (not shown). Lollipop wrapper and stick.

Community Trash- 2; brown sugar bag and milk tab


Noah and Trey both won. They chose Jumpology for their fun activity and a litter walk for an environmental activity. I am impressed with how determined the boys are to win each week. It is refreshing to see our zero waste lifestyle is becoming routine and habitual for them more than just a competition.