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

Old Clothes

                With the coming cooler days, I spent a few minutes yesterday shifting clothes around, putting summer shirts in the other closet or up on the shelf, bringing out the flannel and sweaters. The exercise confirmed my suspicions:  we have way more old clothes than new clothes.

                Part of the problem is our definition of too old to be worn: seriously torn in revealing places. If it still covers us, it is ok. Mark has several pairs of jeans that are somewhat worn in the crotch and thighs, but he saves them for hiking and painting. At least one of my shirts is thin under the arms, but I still love it.  Until the garment is too frayed to be put on in the morning (think, leg goes through hole) it sticks around on the shelf and is worn, at least on a muddy trail.

                Part of the problem is style. We are both fussy about fit. Not in the constantly changing way people who watch fashion are, but in a not too tight, not too loose, not too heavy or thin way. It is not easy to find clothes that fit right, especially when you are sturdy and five feet tall, not thin as a rail and almost six feet, like models. When I do, I hold onto them—for decades. And fashions change. Some years, t shirts are long and thin. Other years, they are hefty and boxy. It is hard to replace the perfect shirt.

                Part of the problem is how much we hate to shop. Malls are overwhelming. Trying on clothes is distressing. We are cheap—why pay so much for a shirt? We are far more likely to scan the racks at the local thrift shop than we are to enter a department store, which leads to already worn clothes with a shorter respectable shelf life.  When I find something that I like new, I buy two or three in different colors.

                All of this adds up to a pile of older t-shirts, jeans, and plaid flannel shirts. I divide my closet into “wear to school” and “home” but the balance is off and leads to moments around ten AM in the girl’s bathroom when I think “What am I wearing?!”  It can be a real challenge, some days, to look presentable and professional, even in a fairly casual environment.

                Goodwill does not want our old clothes. They are too old. The rag bag does not want our clothes. They are not old enough. We need to sort, to set aside some garments to wear out before we bring out others. But even so, we have more t-shirts than we can wear out in our lifetime unless we leave society behind for years.

Salvaged Wood

No wood heads for the landfill from our backyard: It is all salvaged on site. For years, this has not been an issue, but, after a major tree pruning winter and two fence replacements, we have piles. Several Large piles.  I’ve been working through them, now that the food processing season has slowed down. 

            The first step is sorting. There are three categories:

1. Reusable: Dry and not rotting.  All nails pulled, piled in the wood loft of the shed. Used for garden beds, fencing, art, signs, trellises, shower stalls, boxes, shelves, repairs to the coop, stakes, crib slats….etc.
2. Firewood:  Dry, with some rot or small pieces. All nails pulled, cut to size, piled in the basement, preferably in size and dampness piles.
3. Compost: Clearly rotting, breakable by hand. All nails pulled, broken down to compost fast, and piled in the back corner to be eaten by pillbugs. Later, it moves into the pompost pile.

Nail pulling is a key step for all wood recycling. I don’t like tetanus shots so we have to be sure that no nails turn up in the firewood ash or the compost piles years later. It’s a peaceful task, once I have the station set up. I bring a picnic bench back under the hazelnut trees, find the large and small crowbars, the paint can half full of nails, and a hammer, and set to work. There’s something satisfying about wrestling pieces of old fencing apart, reducing them to their original boards, and sending them over to Mark to be cut down with power tools.  Bunzilla and Lucy look on while the chickens root through the old boards for new bugs. I’m about done with the nail pulling project, so we just need to saw and sort before the rains begin.

Spicy Slaw:

Several people were dismayed to find a large cabbage in their CSA box this Tuesday evening and the trade box was overflowing with rejected heads. So sad...we were thrilled. Mark immediately lobbied for this slaw, best eaten with local Indian Woman beans, wrapped in large tortillas. Fastest dinner ever, if the the beans are cooked.

Slice the cabbage very thinly.  Perhaps slice a carrot or two as well, for color. Mix some mayo, a chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, sour cream or yogurt, salt, pepper, and a little cider vinegar together in the bottom of the salad bowl. Toss the cabbage in. Taste and adjust. 

Eat dinner. 

Household Waste Stream

Where does all of our waste go? Mostly to compost...

Composted by Mark in his bins:

·        Branches and tree trimmings

·        Christmas tree branches (we burn the trunk as the “Yule Log”)

·        Leaves

·        Pompost

·        Rotten food

·        Trimmings from veg.

·        Paper towels for cleaning up cat barf

·        Clothing, cotton and wool

·        Cardboard

·        “compostable” plates, glasses, silverware, as well as all food soiled paper bags and napkins

·        Newspapers

Composted in the Gardens:

·        Grass trimmings

·        Leaves

·        bunny and chicken poop

Recycled through the chickens:

·        garden trimmings, like oversized kale leaves

·        household veg trimmings

·        stale bread ends and old muffins that have not molded

·        old beans and tofu

·        thousands of bugs

Recycled curbside or otherwise:

·        Glass

·        Plastics with appropriate numbers

·        Cans

·        Newspapers

·        Milk containers

·        Films and plastic wraps, plastic bags

·        Batteries, lightbulbs

·        Occasional packing peanuts and bubble wrap

Reused:

·        Cloth napkins and real plates, even for parties

·        Canning jars—for everything!

·        Clothes  into  cleaning rags

·        Plastic bags are washed and reused

·        Plastic containers are washed and reused, or brought to the co-op for others to reuse

·        Magazines have several readers, then the Senior Center

Yet another recipe for kale….

It’s been a good few weeks for the kale plants—the leaves are bigger than my head.  We’ve had Kale and tomato soup, kale and tofu with rice, greens over toast, and this one. I like to say cous cous over and over again while it is steeping.

Kale with Cous-Cous            From Recipes from the Root Cellar

1.5 cups of cous cous, cooked

One lemon, zested and juiced mixed with about .25 cup of olive oil and a teaspoon of mustard, whisked together and stirred into the grain.

About six cups of chopped kale, quickly cooked and cooled, then well drained. I gave it a good hand squeeze.

.25 cup of crumbled feta, some olives

Mix it all together and eat still warm of cool for lunch the next day.