I can’t say I’m not surprised by what happened today. Somehow along the way to class, I end up looking for beeswax candles (I never knew how hard it is to actually get them here in The Hague), get stood up by the bus and end up chasing the exact bus half way through my route to the train station (I might as well have walked the whole way). Karma has struck again.
It didn’t start out that bad actually. I had home-made bread since I’m apparently giving up all plastic packed foods 😦
That reminds me, the following are things I intend to do or not do (at one point or another during the No Impact Week):
- No electricity other than for charging my mobile
phone and laptop (so say good-bye to TV and hello candles). - Not using tissue or paper towels.
- Try using baking powder as toothpaste, body wash
(soap), shampoo and etc. (I’m a little scared to do this one). - Not buying or consuming anything new or with a
plastic wrapper (so no shopping and junk food, baking bread everyday and
hitting the market on Wednesday). - Walking or cycling to Webster (or until the
train station-whichever method that doesn’t kill me).
Anyway, regarding the exercise I didn’t really make a lot of trash. Most of it was paper like from ticket stubs, pop corn bag, post-it notes and some peach seeds. I’m kind of surprised. I thought I’d have more but since I’ve already cut down on paper towels, I guess there really isn’t much to throw away. Looking back, it does kind of scare me that most of the items that I threw away (before this experiment/project) consisted of a lot of paper towels and tissue paper. Knowing that you only used those items for five minutes (or only once) and just chuck them out is ridiculous. To think that society has openly embraced this ‘throw-away’ culture is crazy. I can’t even imagine (nor do I want to) the amount of tissue paper (among other products) that I’ve thrown away without a moment’s notice or ounce of hesitation.
About the questions:
What did you put in your special trash bag?
Regarding our special trash bag, all I put into it was a paper cup from a smoothie I ordered. I didn’t bring along my water bottle and I was kind of hungry (plus I figured since it was paper, I could recycle it) so that’s what justified my ordering of the smoothie. It was weird because I found myself asking the server if they used paper or plastic cups and politely rejecting the plastic cover and straw. I know that at any other time, whatever the cup was made of (plastic or paper) wouldn’t have mattered. I would have still bought the smoothie. Now, it kind of does matter. I guess when you know
about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and just how much plastic is in there (twice
the size of Texas?), you don’t want to make it any worse.
Why was it hard or easy not to make trash?
I guess (coming into this week with a clear mindset), it wasn’t that hard not to make trash. I think not making trash was easy (provided you know what exactly is it that you want to stop throwing away). I guess most times, you just don’t stop and think as to where and how by throwing away something will this affect the environment (and ultimately you again).
Where was it impossible not to make trash?
I don’t think I found an incident where it was impossible not to make trash unless you count the smoothie incident. I guess that was out of sheer necessity (for food or drink-depends on how you look at a smoothie). Even in that incident, I found myself debating between bottled water (plastic) against a smoothie (in a paper cup).
The five things I’m grateful for are:
- My family and friends
- The foods I can still eat (during this week)
- The beautiful day we had that made it fun to
walk about. - The fact that the bus eventually showed up
instead of not showing up (leaving me with a way to get to class). - The lavender-scented candles that light up my
room.
The Culture of Consumption 