Climate Challenge, Final Thoughts

Twenty-one days of focused climate action…the results? Mixed, but positive.

It was hard, some evenings, not to consider and take action, but to turn on the computer and record it. For 21 days, I engaged with social media and the internet world every day. Usually, I turn everything off from Friday evening until about half way through Sunday, to give my mind a break. Some days, after work and meetings, I wanted to just cook dinner and read for a bit before bed, rather than being on-line.  It was a more stressful month because of this.

There were times when I felt like I was shouting into the wind. Photos of cats get dozens of likes and comments; writing to your state legislators about climate change, not so much. Maybe December is not the best month for such a serious topic, but, with all of the news, I had to take action.

Overall, though, there were far more positive moments. I’ve checked some of our data and discovered that I walk far more than I drive, unless we are leaving town. We are still focused on local, seasonal foods, although some of our basics are harder to find. We turn off the lights automatically and we are taking fewer showers. It is good to check your daily rituals.

Both Mark and I have goals that are focused on climate action for the next year. Mark is going to take on some nega-watts investigations, like putting a heat pump into our rental so that it is not using electric heat. I am planning to continue my letter-writing campaign, writing at least one letter a week to state and federal offices.   These 21 days of action have informed our discussions all month long.

 I think the best thing that has happened is that people are talking with me about climate action wherever I go. “What are you doing today?” someone asked me before a meeting. The custodian dropped by to discuss moving the staff room fridge downstairs and moved onto my compost bin. I’ve met people at meetings and our letter writing evening who are also working on the same issues.

And so, it was worth it. Walking downtown, clutching the four inch think TSP binder to my chest on a rainy Thursday afternoon, tired from school, meetings, and this work, I found myself humming Pete Seeger’s song once more.

Step by step, the longest march
Can be won, can be won
Many stones can form an arch
Singly none, singly none
And by union what we will
Can be accomplished still
Drops of water turn a mill
Singly none, singly none

Climate Challenge: Solstice

And today, on the shortest day of the year, we will set goals for the coming year, take a long walk, and wait for the returning light. No technology. Peace.

Turning off media is the most profound thing we can do to improve our lives and the lives on our planet.

Climate Challenge, Day 21: cloth bags

            Twenty five years ago, I wanted a salad spinner, but did not have room—or the money—to buy one. So, I made one. I took one of the cloth storage bags I had made for backpacking (why buy fancy ones when you can sew them for free from scraps?), put the washed greens in it, took it outside, and swung it around my head by the drawstring. Voila— clean, dry lettuce with a pre-soaked storage bag for the left-overs. And it was fun.  I never looked back.

            Now, I have a whole series of bags. The old ones finally died, so I broke out the sewing machine last summer and made some new ones. I made several from old—or kind of tacky—dish towels that I was not using. The thicker terry cloth material works really well for salad greens. I have a large one from an old tablecloth with a hole in the middle that holds huge leaves of mustard and kale, as well as smaller cooking greens. And then there are some scraps of cotton cloth bags that corral carrots, beets, and mushrooms from market to table. I weave shoelaces through a tube in the top of the bag for drawstrings so that I can pull the bag closed.

            I have found that these cloth bags work much better than plastic. Greens rot and grow slimy in plastic bags because they cannot breathe. They dry out—or tumble out of the refrigerator at awkward times—when left unwrapped and held together by the wire wrappers, which bruise the stems. But in a dampened cloth bag, greens last for over a week—which is all I ask from a vegetable. Even root crops are happier.  If one does dry out, or grow nasty because it was pushed to the far back corner of the shelf, I toss the bag into the wash and use it again. And then, when we go hiking and I need one more bag to hold the last day’s food—there they are, ready and waiting to hit the trail.

Climate Challenge, Day 20: Meeting with Sara, our state senator

Sara Gelser came to CHS this afternoon to talk with us about climate change legislation at the state level and how to communicate most effectively with our representatives. It was a nice mix f long-term activists and AP Gov students, who came for the extra credit and stayed to ask good questions.

Notes from Susan!

Meeting with Sen. Sara Gelser Hosted by Charlyn Ellis

Wednesday, December 19, 2018, 3:00 PM, Room 232 at CHS

Introduction

Top priorities in the legislature this year include clean energy jobs legislation and education (new generation investment). Climate action is in the governor's budget this session, so her agencies can talk about it and determine what they need. (They can’t if it’s not in the budget.)

Green Energy Jobs Legislation

The green energy jobs bill was introduced last year, too late for action then, but it was a “marker in the sand” for this session. It mobilized climate activists all over the state around a single focus. In addition, the legislators found new ways to talk to new people, especially low income people and those interested in the natural resources economy. Important theme: How can we use dividends from carbon to help with some of the issues those people face?

A joint carbon committee has been meeting and working on the bill introduced last session. That committee, separate from other environmental committees, includes both House and Senate.

Sara's big fear is that the alliance around clean energy jobs legislation is so broad that no one will like everything. There will have to be compromise. Implementation of offsets and credits might be a big issue. [Susan’ note: This might be one of those “don’t let the desire for perfection destroy the chance to do something good” concerns.] The tribes lead (indigenous people); they have some ideas we need to hear. The tribes want to do reforestation—looking at the timber industry and calcu­lating loss of absorption from trees that are cut. This might be a hard sell.

They are not using the term "tax." We don't know for sure what it will be called, but “offsets and credits” is a possibility. The idea is that over time, total emissions decrease. In explaining “offset,” Sara said that money could be returned to citizens or invested in other things less carbon intensive.

The bill number isn’t known yet.

There is bipartisan cooperation, and corporations are involved too. We need nuance and a level of detail that can’t occur when voters vote on something. If Oregon can pass its own climate legisla­tion, we'll be ahead when national policy is implemented.

Question: How do we help with clean energy jobs bill? Sara said to pay attention, keep writing letters, and making calls. All information about the legislation can be found online, as it becomes available.

Question: Do legislators have a sense of the climate emergency? Sara replied that some do, but not all. Many understand that it’s a problem, but they don’t feel the urgency.

Warning: Tax measures for schools and carbon reduction are sure to face opposition, with lots of outside money pouring in to influence decisions.

Surprise diversion: The legislature can't find an additional 2 or 3 billion dollars for anything without a tax increase. They are going to try to increase tax equity (reduce the inequity between low-income individuals and incorporations).

Jordan Cove: Someone asked about the legislature and Jordan Cove. Sara explained that the current situation is about permitting. The legislature doesn't vote on it.

Land Use and Building Codes

The conversation turned to land use issues and building codes for increased efficiency. House Speaker Tina Kotek is a fierce advocate for affordable housing. A big question: Are affordability and energy efficiency in opposition to each other? Also how does transportation efficiency relate? Sara wasn’t sure who knows the most about these issues—possibly Sen. Lee Beyer from Eugene.

New legislation would require cities to allow for non-single family homes on a lot—such as four small houses built around a common area. There could be single family and multi-family houses on the same lots. These strategies would allow for a lot of infill. It's false that "no one would be allowed to build single-family homes, ever."

Strategies for Letters and Email Messages

For those form messages, or even original ones, put in the subject line: [name] from [city] opposes (or supports) [bill number]. This allows staff to easily count and file messages.

A good strategy is to view the committee pages on legislative website, in order to write to all committee members.

You can sign up to get emails giving information about bills, their public hearings, etc.

How to find out what a bill’s number is: enter a keyword and the system will bring up related legislation. Remember to check both the House and the Senate.

Letter from organizations might be more effective than individual letters.

Related National News: On Wednesday, Sen. Jeff Flake (R - Arizona) and Sen. Chris Coons (D – Delaware) co-introduced the U.S. Senate’s equivalent of the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act.

Climate Challenge, Day 19: Small Fridges

We have a small refrigerator. Not a mini-fridge, like in a dorm room, but the size of appliances in the 1950s, when stoves were big and refrigerators were small. Because our house was built in 1931, the space to hold a refrigerator was small, with built-in shelves above. It is lovely, and, through all of its years as a rental, no one ever cut up the shelves and pushed a larger appliance into the space. We are lucky.  Small fridges are nice.

First, they use less energy, and cooling food is a huge energy suck. In fact, improving refrigeration is the number one action in Paul Hawkin’s book Drawdown. He’s’ not thinking on the household level, but still, we are more energy efficient.

Second, it takes up less visual space in the room. Our kitchen is small; we do not need that big blank wall of white.

Finally, and most compelling, food does not get lost in it. When I had big fridges, I’d lose leftovers in the far back corners. Tucked into an old yogurt container and they were gone. We threw out a great deal of food when we had extra space. Now, everything for the week fits in neatly and everything is touched and seen. If I am looking for the mayo, I have to move the canning jar of beans. Reminder—eat the beans!

  Occasionally, the space is filled, but that happens when we get a big old bag of greens from Sunbow Farm and I make a batch of soup.  When that happens, we put the extra food in the larder, an outside air cooled, heavily insulated space half way down the stairs. There’s already squash, fruitcake, and onions (as well as garden seeds and potatoes) in the space, so we will not forget about our greens.  Before we built the larder, we left the soup pot in the back hall.

I love the small fridge. In fact, when the big one died in our rental, we replaced it with a smaller unit.

Options: 

Clean out your fridge. A clean fridge wastes less food.

Use clear containers so that you can see what's in them.

Menu plan!

Does it NEED to be in there?

Do you NEED all of that space?

Climate Challenge, Day 18: Hopeful thoughts

"The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is to live inside that hope. Not admire it from a distance but to live right in it, under its roof. What I want is so simple I almost can't say it: elementary kindness. Enough to eat. Enough to go around. The possibility that some day kids will grow up to be neither the destroyers or the destroyed. That's about it.Right now, I am living inside that hope, running down its hallway and touching the walls on both sides." (299)

I am living in the hope that we can solve this climate crisis.

Animal Dreams, Barbara Kingsolver

City Council also endorsed HB 7173 last night.

Climate Challenge, Day 17: State policy

It is rainy and dark outside; a perfect day to dig through documents relating to state policy on climate change!


https://www.oregon.gov/gov/policy/Documents/Governor%20Kate%20Brown%20Climate%20Agenda.pdf

Climate Challenge Day 16: canning jars and plastic bags

Canning Jars

When I started canning, I discovered an excellent general food storage container. We use canning jars for everything—leftovers, extra cooked veggies and grains, yogurt, all of our dried goods.

Why use canning jars:

1.       They do not leak, even upside down in a backpack.

2.       They come in three sizes, half pint, pint, and quart.

3.       A pint is the perfect size for soup for lunch.

4.       They are easy to clean, even if something rots.

5.       You can see what is inside, lined up in the fridge.

6.       They are cheap and easy to find.

7.       They are infinitely reusable. We have jars from 1976.

8.       They can go into the freezer with pesto or cooked squash.

9.       Old blue jars from the 1930s store all sorts of beans, grains, and dried fruits and look beautiful.

10.   They store neatly.

11.   No more annoying plastic containers and mis-matched lids. This one is HUGE!

Plastic Bags

We also reuse our plastic bags. Despite my efforts, they do wander into the house from the autumn CSA, from our tortillas, from an occasional sliced turkey purchase. A few years ago, Mark’s mom gave us a shirt sized box full of various ziplock bags and we are good for the rest of our lives. We wash the bags and hang them to dry in the back hall. Some have been around for years.  When we bring home a plastic grocery bag, we use them to cover larger items, like a casserole left over in the pan or a big bowl of fruitcake prep. We never buy plastic wrap. When the bags die, we gather them into an old chicken feed bag for recycling.

Climate Challenge, Day 15: Take Away containers

The Climate Action Advisory Board subcommittee on working with other plans-- I know, it is a mouthful-- met for two hours after work today to wrestle with proposed changes to building code for more efficient residential buildings. I am counting this as "over and above" what I usually do because it is such a steep learning curve.

As a small reward, we are going out to dinner; we are taking a couple of canning jars for the planned left overs.  Mark is Ready To Go.

Climate Challenge, Day 14: Iterations

One of the things we have learned in the process of making our lives and homes more sustainable is that we are never done; there is always something that could be improved or changed.  For example, Mark is working on rewiring our old stove. Because it is an old stove, rewiring is pretty straightforward. While thinking about the stove, he began to think about insulation. The oven, he is convinced, is our biggest energy appliance and he would like to improve that. And, in the process, it might make the kitchen cooler in the summer, a common lament in our house. Today, he began researching increasing the insulation around the oven, especially at the top. This work will take a bit of time, but, in the next month or so, he will add the insulation and complete the rewiring as well. And then, there is a gasket for the oven door, although the door is not built to hold one...how to do that?

I spent some time talking with our custodian about refrigerators and composting systems at CHS, as well.

Step by step.

Climate Challenge, day 13: Low Flow Showerheads

Years ago, I had the last cheap apartment in Portland. When I went to take a shower, there was never enough hot water to wash my hair; the hot water heater was too small to handle the full on showerhead. After a week of cold rinses, I went to Fred Meyers and purchased a sturdy reduced flow showerhead for ten bucks. Voila! Hot water.  That was twenty five years ago. The showerhead is in our greenhouse tub right now, still in use.

Using less water in a shower serves two functions for reducing greenhouse gases. Much of our water comes from the Willamette River and needs to be cleaned before it enters the system. Then, it is dumped back into the river, after being cleaned once more and cooled. This takes energy. Heating water at home also takes energy, even if you have a very efficient hot water heater.  Using less water is an obvious way to shrink your footprint.  The second benefit is that it will save money.

We timed our showers—Mark takes about nine minutes, I am in and out  at twelve (I have more hair). If we want to reduce our overall shower time, we have two options:  Jump in and out quickly while using the shut off valve on the showerhead or take fewer showers.  Two a week allows me to enjoy the process, so that’s my plan.

Options:

Replace your showerhead.

Don’t flush!

Take shorter or less frequent showers.

Climate Challenge, Day 12: Letter writing

I baked cookies and lit the fire in our Kimberly stove so that the dining room would be warm for letter writing tonight! Contact your elected officials, folks!  At the state level, all it takes is five or six people to start a file on a topic.

Climate Challenge, Day 11: Farls

One of my goals for the month of December was “full ovens.” Because we bake all of our bread at home, this is ca be tricky for timing. We were not out of bread yesterday when I made a casserole and cookies, but we are tonight, because we are having soup. Normally, I’d throw a loaf into a half empty oven and call it good. Rather than breaking my vow tonight, I made farls, a stovetop biscuit. It’s a quick mix and slow cook in my cast iron pan and I perfected the technique on car camping trips, when we are ovenless.

Farls:

3 cups of flour (I like half whole wheat)

1.5 t of baking soda

.5 t of salt

1.25 cups of buttermilk or soured milk (a splash of vinegar into good milk).

Mix the dry ingredients together, then add the milk. Knead a bit on the counter, cut into triangles, and cook slowly on the stovetop. I cook one side, then the other, then stand the farls up like Stonehenge to catch the edges.

Eat with honey and butter.

.

Climate Challenge Day Ten: Just Walk

I have been thinking a great deal about the power of walking lately. Walking keeps me healthy; when I have a headache or a cold, a few miles in the open air, moving steadily but slowly, always makes me feel better.   Walking keeps me in touch with my community; I pat cats and talk with neighbors as I move through the neighborhood. But it is a political act as well. Consider the Montgomery bus boycott, where African Americans stayed off the buses for 381 days, walking to work, church, school, and social events every day. Some had cars and organized carpools, but they were so targeted by the local police that the carpools halted and they just walked.  They believed in the cause, so they walked.

We could—can—do the same thing. Corvallis is not a big place. I know—I’ve walked it for years. I can get anywhere in town, either walking or on bike, in about half an hour. For me, it is faster to walk to work than to drive, when I take scraping windows and hunting for parking (and car keys) into account.  I worked out at CV for five years and biked there, every day, for four and a half, peddling up the hill in the dark so that I was off the road before the kids were on it.

 The question is: do we believe that climate change is enough of a real and present danger, as the residents of Montgomery believed that discrimination was in 1955, that we will take direct, non-violent action to avoid it?

Options:

Walk, don’t drive, to the grocery store. How long did it take?

Set a goal: walk more miles than driving for the next week.  I walked 25 miles last week. Mark drove the van to Albany (twice because of poor communication) for a total of 54 miles.

Climate Challenge, Day Nine: Lucia Day

Cold, dark rain. Warm mug.

Leaning on the warm oven door.

Lucia Morning.

Every year, we gather at Bald Hill at eight AM for Lucia buns, hot cocoa, and conversation. After breakfast, we walk to the top of the hill and look out over the valley. Every year, we grumble about the hour—and rejoice, once again, that we are out in the world so early.  Lucia Day reminds us, in the middle of dark times, to go outside, breathe in the air, take the far view.

Rather than driving, we rode our bikes. Really, it’s only a couple of miles. Even with the pan of buns and jars of cocoa, not that far.

Options:

  

Take a walk, even if its raining.

Create a seasonal ritual that is about friendship and the beauty of the world, not presents.

Climate Challenge Day eight: HR 7173

House Bill 7173

I was done with work a little early today, so I spent some time looking at house Bill 7173 and considering whether city council, as a body, should endorse it. I am in favor of cap and trade (or fee and rebate) systems as one of the best ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; it focuses attention of the real cost of carbon and encourages people to reduce use. A few years ago, when gas prices shot up, people bought smaller cars. The same principle is at work here.

After a little poking around, I learned that the Corvallis City Council passed a resolution in 2015 supporting general cap and trade legislation at both the state and federal level. I also saw that individual councilors could endorse this specific measure. I did so and I will see how my fellow councilors want to proceed. If we take action as a whole group, that could be more powerful.

If you have an opinion on the endorsement, contact the mayor and the city council via email. It is, in my mind, more effective to email the whole group rather than just your councilor on city wide matters.

Climate Challenge Day Seven: email to Jeff Merkley

Climate Challenge, day Seven: email to Jeff Merkley about my pressing concerns on climate change. I know, this ones not as big a deal. But its eight o'clock and I had a two plus hour council meeting focused on economic development. I am tired.

On Tuesday, we are having a letter writing group session at my home. If interested, bring addresses, ideas, postcards....There will be cookies.

Climate Challenge Day Six: Peter Defazio

As researching climate offsets took considerable time last night, today my action was to write to our federal representative, Peter Defazio, asking him about his plans for the next session to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  This is a tricky issue for him; he area includes wide swaths of rural Oregon, which tends to be more conservative and dispersed in population.

Climate Challenge Day Five:Carbon Offsets

Carbon Offsets

As we work towards being carbon neutral, we purchase carbon offsets, which pay for projects to reduce the amount of carbon being used or  in the atmosphere. Large scale solar installations (like the solar panels on CHS) qualify. Replanting deforested areas qualifies. Purchasing small, highly efficient cooking stoves for people who have been cooking on open wood fires qualifies.  The projects are often global because the organizers are looking for the largest reduction for the least money, which is not a bad plan.

Carbon offsets are good idea, especially if you have done all you can in your own home to reduce your consumption or if you have to fly for family emergencies or business requirements. However, they do come at a cost—you may expand your ecological footprint or the amount of land needed to support your lifestyle—while you reduce your carbon footprint. It is a tradeoff.

We have purchased offsets for years. Mark set up an automatic withdrawal from our account so that we made a monthly contribution.  A few months ago, he realized that the system had broken down, so he is in the process of researching and evaluating various projects. There are dozens of options—and questions.

How are organizations certified? Is the certification meaningful?  Are the projects effective? Can we sign up for a monthly donation? Are we interested in more local or global projects?  We created a chart, which we found very helpful.

name	certification	monthly	Global/local
Native Energy	Not clear, but they are in Vermont. Reputable businesses work with them.	Have to call them, so, not really	global
Terrapass	Gold Standard, Verified Carbon Standard, the Climate Action Reserve, and the American Carbon Registry	yes. Actually, the site was very difficult to use. It was totally down one day.	global
Gold Standard	The Gold Standard	no	global
Green e	Green e	No—they do not sell offsets, they just certify	global
Carbon Fund	·         American Carbon Registry ·         Climate Action Reserve ·         Climate, Community & Biodiversity Standard ·         Gold Standard	Pre-set options for households, houses, cars, gifts….not monthly	Global
McKenzie River Trust: Faith Community Fund	No, but works with One Percent for the Planet and Earthshare	yes	Eugene, Oregon

The Corvallis Interfaith Climate Justice group   is working on a fund for  local carbon offsets so that we can see the direct impact of our purchases while we are out and about in the neighborhood.

If you are just beginning and you have Pacific Power you can purchase Blue Sky energy, which supports community solar installations and requires that all of your energy come from renewal sources. The more people who purchase Blue Sky, the more pressure there is on the power company to find renewable energy. 

Update: After trying to set up a monthly account with terrapass for about a week, we purchased offsets for the year and vowed to revisit a monthly donation later on.

Options:

Blue Sky power or Smart Energy (Northwest Natural‘s program).

Carbon Offsets to become carbon neutral  or negative.

Work to establish local carbon offsets.

Climate Challenge Day Four: Step by Step

Not all climate change actions happen in one day.  Most take time.

For example, we are working to reduce the amount of electricity used at Corvallis High School. Our new solar panels will produce eight percent of what we use; if we can match that with conservation, that’s significant.

We have targeted refrigerators as a starting point. There are two in the staff room; one is going to the counseling office, where it will replace a very old appliance that does not keep ice cream frozen (and yes, sometimes you need ice cream in counseling….). We have also worked with two staff members to remove their mini-fridges, but there are more to go. Soon, they will all be hauled off.

I am also curious about our new chromebook carts, which hold 36 chromebooks at the ready, fully charged all the time (if the students plug them in).  How much energy does that take? I brought in my kill-a-watt meter to a social studies classroom and we plugged it in. We’ll gather data this week and use it to talk about further actions.

Step by step, we are walking the long march.

Options:

Borrow a kill-a-watt and use it at home.

Unplug.

Climate Challenge Day Three: Full Ovens

Full  Ovens!

How to use your data! We have a smart meter, so I checked our electric usage for Friday, when I was NOT being oven aware. We woke up in the morning to no bread, which means, no lunch. Because I had dough, I baked a loaf, all alone in the oven, and Mark brought me a sandwich before lunchtime. Then, when I finally came home around six, I tossed two sweet potatoes into the little toaster oven we use for small batches. I was able to sort out about how much electricity each used. Both were on for about the same amount of time and at the same temperature.  The big oven used about .9 KWh to bake a loaf of bread, and left its heat in the house. The small oven used about .6 KWh to bake the potatoes and only warmed the back hall.  The small oven is more efficient and should be used for small batches. However, the ideal would be to bake both sweet potatoes and bread in the same oven, saving .6 KWh of energy.

I make our own bread, using locally grown, home ground wheat combined with white flour from eastern Washington State, which is the closest I could find.  Because of this, our oven is on several times a week. My goal, which I am working on this month, is to never bake just bread. Something else has to be in there, too.

Our  Bread Recipe

3 cups of warm water

1.5 T yeast

1.5 T salt

6.5 cups of flour—I usually use half whole wheat, half white.

Mix it all together.  Let it sit, covered, on the counter for a couple of hours, then put it in the fridge overnight.  The next day, take half of it, form it on a ball, let it rise for about 15 minutes, and toss it onto a baking stone on a 450 degree oven. Bake until it sounds hollow—like thumping a dog on the base of the spine with a cupped hand.

You can use the dough for pizza, sticky buns, onion and cheese rolls….anything that wants a yeasted dough.  You can also add all sorts of things to the dough or mix in different flours. I, of course, have a chart.

Options:

Learn to make one food that comes in single use packaging, like bread or yogurt.  Commit to making, rather than purchasing, that food for one year.

Set a goal of the percentage of local, whole, unpackaged foods your family will eat in the next year.

Check your smart meter data! Every day for a week, so that you remember what you were doing when. Make adjustments accordingly.

Climate Challenge, Day Two: Trash Audit

Trash Audit: November 24^th through December 1^st

Kitchen Trash:

·         6 plastic caps

·         4 butter wrappers (firestarter!)

·         2 veggie ties (garden ties)

·         3 teabag packets

·         1 soy milk container

·         1 fish wrapper

·         1 cheddar cheese wrapper

·         2 “weird things”

·         Dirt

Bathroom Trash:

·         TP from a bathroom repair project, not compostable

·         2 q-tips

·         Dental floss

·         1 toothbrush

Compost: 1 two gallon bucket

I did not dump this one out….but Mark gave Mr B. the rinds of a melon and I gave him two apples from school that are not included in the photo (bottom of the page).

Recycling:

·         Newspapers—The  daily GT and a Sunday New York Times

·         About 1 inch of good office paper (council packet)

·         3 cans

·         2 jars

·         2 milk jugs

·         2 film bags, that we will save outside of the city recycling bin

·         Paper scraps and several catalogs

Paper is our biggest toss every week. We could reduce this significantly if I were willing to read the newspaper and the council packets on line.  I am not. The screen bothers my eyes. However, I would like to find a place to turn in all of my good paper for a higher grade of recycling than the bin.

A trash audit can yield some really useful information. What we think we are tossing out is not always accurate. Once everything is sorted, the piles raise questions:  where do I take those spray oil cans when I am done? Or, do I really need the spray oil containers at all? Is there another way to get the same results without generating waste? Finding the answers becomes a challenge.

I was at a meeting several years ago where we were talking trash and recycling. One man described his strategy to reduce non-recyclable materials in his own life. “I let them pile up in a bag,” he said, “until I either find a place to take them or get so sick of the pile that I figure out a way to do without it.” It worked. We all nodded agreement around the table, thinking about our own pile at home.

The Corvallis Sustainability Coalition has created an excellent recycling document. This is the link: https://sustainablecorvallis.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/ReUse-Directory-2016-17_11x17.pdf