[Challenge] I'm Up to Riding the Winds of Change...
@metametheus has put out a challenge for us - the 'Ride Like the Wind' Challenge - details and submissions here He writes...
Small changes to our normal daily routine can make a difference. Make a small meaningful change in your life and win STEEM, SBI, and LOTUS.
Something that came to mind for this challenge was to be more conscious of the waste that I was producing, what it is I'm throwing in the garbage. I want to cut down on our wastes but sometimes old habits die hard!
I'm grateful for this challenge for it has me setting an intention, making a commitment! As I stated earlier, when this challenge first came out, the change I want to make is to be more conscious of what I am throwing into the garbage, with thoughts of
Is this really necessary, to have this waste or can something be done to remove it from being put in the trash.
Having stated my intention and being committed, I find that this enters my mind more often. I was surprised at how unconscious I am of a lot of my actions, how i was acting out of habit. This challenge is causing me to be more mindful!
It has caused me to stop and think before unconsciously grabbing for the paper towels to wipe up a messy spill. I know they were cheap to buy and very convenient but what is the real cost to the environment and what went into producing those paper towels. I think of the trees that were cut, for what? Simply to wipe up a spill, which I can just as easily use a reusable cloth that can be rinsed and is good to go again - one less thing in the trash!
I was becoming more aware of all the different paper products I was using, like sticky notes. I could substitute those by writing the notes on a small white board instead of throw away paper notes. Or, how many things really need to be printed out or would digital copies be fine?
As I was making some flat breads and the recipe called for wrapping the dough balls in plastic wrap and letting it sit for 4 to 5 minutes then rolling it out in-between two sheets of waxed paper. Considering how to reduce this waste I thought of using my Teflon sheets I had for my dehydrator and used them to both cover the dough and to roll it out in-between. It worked just fine and no trash was produced.
I enjoyed shopping at stores like Bulk Barn, where I thought, by buying in bulk, I was cutting down on the packaging (I am some), but when they had a sale to get 20% off if you bought in your own reusable containers instead of using the plastic bags and containers they supply, I thought this was another way to cut down on packaging and waste. Now I will make it a habit to bring along my reusable containers for my bulk shopping!
On a shopping trip, I bought my granddaughter along and she wanted to go look at the Halloween stuff - that would be fun! We enjoyed looking at the stuff in the store and trying things out, then she wanted to buy some small things to take home. We could afford them, but I stopped and thought "How much fun and enjoyment will she actually get out of them before they are just set aside and most likely going to end up in the dump?" More trash! So instead of purchasing them, I took that moment for a time of reflection and to bring awareness to how things like this can add to our waste disposable problem, making unnecessary waste. My granddaughter was all right with that and set the toys back on the shelf. Check off more saved waste!
Our buying things is really a starting point and I look back at the 3 R's Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, If we don't buy it in the first place, we will be reducing and if we chose reusable items over disposable ones, items that we can use over and over again, we are Reusing. Then if we sort our waste, to have it recycled instead of having it fill up our landfills, that fulfills the last R - recycle. If we can build an appreciation of our natural products it will help not to waste them. Mission accomplished!
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I can't remember the last time I've bought paper towels. I've been using organic cotton rags for so long now. Once you make the switch, you totally don't miss it. All of our food scraps go to the chickens or compost. Our junk mail, cardboard, toilet paper inner rolls, and anything of the sorts go under the woodchips in garden pathways (basically turning them into worm food), we use bamboo toothrbrushes, luffa for bathing which we grow and then compost when we are done using, we bring reuseable bags but if we forget them we get brown paper bags at the grocery if we forget our re-useable bags and then we use the paper bags as sheet mulch in the garden. The area I need to improve on is bringing my own glass jars to put my bulk items in. We bring canteens with us wherever we go (no plastic bottled water). We also replaced our shower curtain from vinyl to organic cotton that can be washed instead of replaced when it gets yucky. So many options for people to find ways to reduce waste....and every single step is a step in the right direction. Thank you for posting this and for taking a step to reduce waste. :) Upvoted and resteeming.
Love all your ideas for reducing your waste - it's an inspiration and I've got some new ideas to try too - thanks for sharing!
Awesome! I'm glad I was able to help inspire! :) It's awesome that you are making changes and doing what you can! So happy to hear it.
Upvoted for goodness ;>)
I still have a lot of areas to improve on ( especially with the waste management ), but I've got a wooden tootbrush, always bring my own bags, bring my own canteen along for drinking water when I'm not at home, ask for a glass of water instead of buying a bottle when I eat out and there's probably some more things I'm forgetting about.
I also started to not throw away things that I usually would throw out easily, telling myself that my niece and nephew might play with it when they come over.
I like the paper as worm food thing. I will definitely think about a way to do so, although I don't have a garden.
P.S. @porters This comment on a comment could also be a comment on your post. Love how you're being aware and spreading awareness.
P.P.S. we only recently got a big container out here, in the village, to recycle glass, plastics and paper. The year before that, I had to throw everything in one bag / container and I felt pretty bad about that. Nevertheless, the step from this kind of recycling to reusing and creating even less waste is awesome and something more people should think about.
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Great going! I have managed to be more mindful and find alternatives for paper towels and plastic wrap. Now I trying to reduce my water consumption!
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Ah yes! Water consumption is a big one - such a precious life giving resource!
Some great points here about just being even 1% more aware of what we use and how we can either reduce, reuse or recycle can make a huge difference! Thanks for sharing your experiences here
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Those are all good innitiatives. I'll see if I can write my own post about this subject. Unfortunatelly, many of the changes we have made, that can traduce into less pollution, were not the result of a concious decision, but of financial restrains. Interestingly, though, it isn't until you have no choice but to stop buying plastic bags, for instance, because they are too expensive (yes, a simple shopping plastic bag), that you realize that you can actually live without them.
Interesting! Sometimes we need those extra restraints to realize we just plain don't need a lot of those things we consider so convenient!
A great lesson here my friend and one becomes aware of the need to become more careful of the wastages.
A very good post.
Blessings!
Small changes like this add up... individually, they aren't that much but when multiplied over many times a week and across many households. It makes a difference... of course, there are also large problems that require a different approach, but doing the little things also can't hurt!
yes! As @@@metametheus said in his original post for this challenge it's a way of starting with making some small changes that can be most effective to break us out of our routines and bring about change than we can expand them and move on to bigger changes!
I know just making this simple change to stop and think before I use or buy disposable items made me more aware and I actually made the changes quite simply!
@porters - all those are excellent suggestions - I especially love how you got your granddaughter on board with putting the toys back. When I look at the "toy room" and see all the things that will end up in the trash, I am definitely going to promote this idea and lean more toward creative ideas for play time instead of disposable toys!
Some excellent tips. We try to cut out as much waste as we can too
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So much waste. We’ve been focussing on reducing plastics, luckily we can get things in bulk easily enough, although there is still so much more we could do in our household.
This is a great challenge to set yourself, and inspiring also!
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