To the Recycling Bin On Rollerblades!

.. & it's great exercise too!! :)

I took the tins to the recycling bins (on rollerblades, lol!) & had a nice chat with one of the Mums from our street. She says her hubby likes to drink beer in cans, & then she fishes them out of the trash! The Grandma of the family LOVES to recycle the cans too, as she's heard or read somewhere AIRPLANES get made of them! :)

Not sure if it's true, but it's a lovely inspiration!

They don't wash & recycle the yogurt pots & such, I said we do wash them.. Maybe they'll get inspired too? hm, we'll see..
I did tell her that waste companies say yogurt pots & tetrapaks are recyclable & the other company says they don't take 'em.. not sure if this would inspire her, though.. Still not sure about all this & what would be best (except avoid all yogurt pots & tetrapaks too, as much as possible! I told her we get milk from a farmer & make our own sour milk/yogurt..)

There was too much plastic bottles to carry by rollerblades, we'll probably need the car (the bags are too big & too full!!) We almost don't buy new plastic bottles anymore, these are old ones or our relatives'!

Also carried two (quite heavy) boxes of paper to the neighbours! Who needs weight-lifting? ;)
They have a kid in primary school & next year the kids would collect paper at school, so they agreed to store the paper in their barn attic. (The paper recycling bin was quite full so this was an overall better solution!)
We were decluttering this week, & it was handy to get rid of the paper!

Dad & I had a huge row re: recyclables earlier this week - I demanded a CLEAN bag & CLEAN hands when sorting them, can you imagine?
I told him Mom & I would take over all dealing with recyclables (to prevent further misunderstandings or bad solutions) & now they need to be sorted more frequently, to avoid Dad's on-the-spot decisions of dubious nature & impatience, or misunderstandings.
If you take them to the bins more frequently, it's easier to carry them without a car!
I also put the 'questionable' recyclables in separate bags, so we can at least recycle more often what we know gets recycled for sure.

PS Still experimenting with blog layout, if I messed some things up I deeply apologize! (Had no idea changing the layout might cause some changes & stuff to disappear!) I may experiment with the layout some more, so that it's easy to comment even for friends with older computers! (Apparently some blogs are easier to read & comment on! If you know which, do tell!)

Zero Waste Report #7: Got the flu?

Mum & I went potato-weeding the other day last week, & Mum got the fever.. 39°C & more! at first we thought it was just the sun.. but Sis was down with the fever too...!

So we were quite scared..

We were joking around with the pig flu over at MyZerowaste the other day, but let me tell you, if your family has 39°C + fever, you don't exactly laugh about it!

(& Mum *DID* hug an American last week!)

What to do?

I looked online & got scared - they had all the 'official' signs (almost) - though surprisingly, those were 'just flu' signs too!!

& then I read 'just flu' had killed more people than 'pig flu' & that Rumsfeld (?) was in charge of the Tamiflu company (conspiracy theories etc) - & how Tamiflu had killed 14 kids in Japan or something?

I printed out some of the info & didn't know what to do...

Mum said defiantly she would have no Tamiflu anyway!!

Cousin (another one) said potatoes on the head & on palms of hands can reduce temperature... So we tried this..
Mum drank beetroot juice...
Still, she had 39°8C at night, & that is no joke!!

So she & Sis took the 'official' get-the-fever-down/anti-pain drugs... (see pic above)

They are over-the-counter & readily available in pharmacies.. but still.. there's no recycling sign on the packaging, so...?
Mum did ask if at least the aluminum-only packaging of probiotics (far right) can be recycled?

Also, a by-product of the flu (or whatever it was) was a lot of - TRASH!


You can't deny ill people their hearts' desires, can you?
(& traditional cures for.. stomach trouble!)


Sis & Mum insisted on 'overbaked bread' & butter cookies!
(Sis also wanted unhealthier things & didn't get 'em!!)

I got the more expensive 'overbaked bread' labelled with PP #5 recyclable plastics sign.. (who knows, is it really recyclable & does it get recycled?!)
One could get 2 cheapie ones (non-recyclable) for the price! (& they wished for 'plain one' - didn't complain over what I got 'em though! so I guess it was 'plain enough'!:))
Probably the see-through cellophane-like inner wrappings are - cellophane? (& non-recyclable?)
The cookies are not labelled recyclable in any way!!
/Mum seems slightly addicted to them though!)

I also cooked them a lot of thyme tea & blueberry tea & such.. & eventually they did get much better - I think yesterday Mum had more energy than I did!

So:


So now we have quite a lot in the bin! (Remember, this is Week 6 though! - Oops, week 7!! WOW!!:)
we did let it slip a bit, so hopefully next week we'll get back on track & start anew!
/There is some small trash in the bathroom bin too, including some not-so-pleasant stuff! What can I say? Sis can't be persuaded to go for cloth pads or a mooncup or such! She still swears by plastic throwawayables! /sigh/)

I was bashed & trashed at a Slovenian forum, how unhygienic cloth pads are etc - but I was the healthiest one at home at the time?! (Dad had a bit of a cough/cold/flu before Mum & Sis did! He was quickly over it though!)

& now I can say - flu, indeed (any kind) *IS* creating a lot of rubbish!!

& we all need an 'emergency plan' for zero-waste policy when anyone goes ill!!
/not sure exactly how that plan would look, I am envisioning zero waste overbaked bread - & cookies! - somehow! :)/

But could I (or anyone?) make 'em like they are in da supermarkets?
& how would they keep? (would one freeze them? or eat every week/month?)

Mum & sis are much better, still it's better if they don't go shopping & such.. Dad is not to be trusted to go shopping alone though!!

Today he brought home this (& chicken breast not-in-a-container! /sigh/):

Old non-eco non-fairtrade bananas in a plastic bag WITH HOLES!! - cause they were on DISCOUNT! (cheaper)
Why on earth do they need to be in a plastic bag WITH HOLES?
Doesn't this defeat the purpose? (if they got rotten, the bag would leak.. & they'd still get rotten sooner, cause they were put in a bag-?!)

Ah well!!

I've never seen this done before, usually you'd just take 'em - the packaging industry must really be going crazy - ugh?!!

Which brings us to the point: is it better to be ill with the flu - or - packaging crazy? hmm!!
(Not sure if there is a cure for that!)

The Bathroom!! - & Some Evil Thoughts!! ;)

Today I bravely ventured where no man has gone before: Our Bathroom.

ugh!

Honestly, I was mostly using my own bathroom, because of so many iffy chemicals & suspicious-looking little bottles present in the main bathroom!

I mean, we're just an average family. Perhaps slightly health-conscious in some regards (at least the kitchen).

But until a while ago, we were just very average with regard to bathroom chemicals.

I did start a REVOLUTION in my own bathroom (where I had the liberty to do so!) - but The Main Bathroom is a different affair!

I'm perplexed by all the different contents and containers.. Very few are clearly labelled on all parts, & while some have the recycling sign or at least 'the green dot' - many are not labelled enough!

The forage was useful: now at least Mum doesn't think any more that The Green Dot is a recycling sign!!

Often, The Green Dot is very lonely though!!

Maybe she just has one friend, the PAO symbol which indicates best to use 'period after opening' (with written number of months or years).


She would be much happier with more of her friends, like this:


It would be GREAT if especially the resin identification code were always present!!

If they can put it on Tic Tac boxes, surely they could put it everywhere!!


Just 'The Green Dot' means very little! Only that a tiny fee has been paid by the manufacturer for another organisation to collect it. It doesn't guarantee that it will get recycled!
How could it get recycled if they don't know what it is?

But, I fear that currently there is little real interest in recycling more!
The company that collects packaging in Slovenia for recycling has put this on its website: they are asking for a 'temporary' change in legislation to allow 'waste to energy' as a priority ahead of recycling!! Grr!!
Just because of current temporary low prices of recyclables...
/I do wonder what other packaging recovery organisations are saying..?/

& why are little kiddies in schools still given containers for tetrapak recycling? Greenwashing, I guess!!

Does recycling still make sense then?
Well, I think if they are asking for this change that must mean that currently they are still obligated to sort for recycling! So yes, it does make sense.
It's also a message that we, people, want to recycle and don't want to just trash things!

But MINIMIZING is more and more important..

I'm still half-exasperated and I didn't even make it through 1/4 of our bathroom!!

/I remember I was equally - or more! - exasperated in my own bathroom, a while ago.. & it's pretty low-waste now.. So hopefully the main bathroom will be doable too!!/

Mum is willing to try washing her hair with the soapnuts, we'll see how it goes..

I finally told Dad about the zero waste week for Earthday, and he's not happy. Not at all. (And this is an understatement!)
Well, nobody was when I told them! Mum's gotten used to it by now, hopefully Sis & Dad will too-?!

I am not really sure if a 'full' zero waste week will be doable for Earth Day, but at least I'll try... Difficult to do it all by oneself though.. If packaging recovery organisations are not helping!! :(

I barely managed to convince Sis of importance of recycling, & now this - of course next thing I know some clearly-labelled packaging was in the trash again.. aagh! /&I couldn't keep quiet about it, sorry!!/

I wanted to ring the packaging recovery company up & ask about what is and isn't recyclable, but with these news, I'm not sure if they would tell me the truth??!!

Still, I can at least try..

On a happier note, garbage was in the news: an article saying 'Waste is gonna be EXPENSIVE'! So Mom came rushing up: "You could write an article & tell 'em to all go zero waste! And how to do it."

Yeah right. Like I can tell my own family - if even my Dad & Sis won't really participate fully..?!! hmm..!!
They say, 'We're much better than most other families anyway'. And they are right. We are. (Still, Sis saying that is a bit funny, she's sort of the 'main polluter', at least in the kitchen.:) And she's not willing to give up her bagged toast or other stuff. Though she was slightly shocked when I told her how much of the stuff was actually okay and reusable/recyclable, in the ideal climate.)

We're still left with quite a bit of cellophane (non-recyclable) & some other things. I also probably can't make Sis go to cloth pads or diva cup in a month, so let's keep fingers crossed it won't happen at that time!!
(Or can I just not count bathroom/toilet?!)

I even had an evil thought to just hide all bins and they can keep their garbage in their room if they wish!! /Is it too evil?? Or not?? ;)/

And when I started writing an article, it got really looong. So I wasn't sure which to focus on: the 'How?' or the 'Why?' - cause for me 'Why?' is even more important. It makes you wanna discover & DO the 'How'!!
But would they even publish the whole truth?! Hm!!

In fact, I'm a little bit burnt out. I may take it easy for a day or two and start saving the world on Monday. (?)