Zero Waste Holiday Gifts

Let's get right to it: the star of this blog post is someone who doesn't even really like blogs.  And, she is also closely related to me.  If you haven't guessed by now, I'm talking about my sister Anna.  Her holiday gifts this year were 100% reusable and waste free.

My birthday is in December.  This has always been the case.  This year, Anna gave me a homemade beauty product that also happens to be delicious (the base is honey) but don't eat it!  Use it to make your lips luscious.  It's a lip scrub:

Fifteen days after my birthday comes a big holiday that has the potential to spiral out of control with its waste-producing abilities.  Hint: it starts with chopping down a tree just to keep in the house for a couple of weeks, and plugging in heaps upon heaps of tiny lights, or as well call it in the business, vampire electrical load.  That's right, I'm not talking about Kwanzaa.

This year for not Hanukkah, my sister gave Sergio and me the following awesome gifts:

1. Homemade lavender scented beeswax candle in a reusable jar.

2. Yoga mat cleaning spray.  If only photos could be smelled.  This spray smells like a wonderful perfume! Also in a reusable container.

3. In my opinion, the chef d'oeuvre: a huge assortment of reusable snack bags.  We have some serious snackers in our house, and these are not only cute, but Anna made them herself in such an array of shapes and sizes.  Wow!

I really appreciated all of the thoughtfulness that went into these zero waste gifts, and am quite inspired to make this my gift giving practice in the future.  Garbage cans the world around would be a little lighter if we all did.

One Month Anniversary

We did it!  We went a whole month without taking out the trash.  At the end of the month, here's what we had generated:

Let's look inside:

What do we have here?  At least what's visible from the top includes...

1. A dog food bag (curse you, plastic liner!)
2. A yogurt wrapper (yes, we have a machine.  I am going through a paranoid pregnancy phase and not making it from home, "just in case"...whatever that means).
3. A popsicle wrapper (from when I got the stomach flu.  Yuck, bad memory).
5. A worn-out sock.

In actuality, not taking out the trash for a month was not too hard.  We have made incremental changes, and bit by bit, are producing less and less waste.  However, there was one surprising down side to not taking out the trash for a month:

Fruit fly invasion!  No good.  We fashioned this vinegar contraption to catch them, and it has worked wonders.  Sergio suggested that we take out a really, really small bag of trash once a week to avoid this problem.  It's probably the best solution.  Part of me wants to be able to walk around saying, "I haven't had to take out the trash all month!" Somehow the words, "I take out a very small bag of trash once a week," sound less like a badge of honor.  But, I know the important part is not generating a lot of trash, and no matter how you slice it, we're on the right track.

Zero Waste Christmas

Last year, Sergio and I decided to have a live pine tree for Christmas instead of a cut one or an artificial one.  We got one that was about eighteen inches tall in a little birch bark pot at the local nursery and hung a tiny strand of lights on it.  Santa only gave the girls one gift each, so the little gifts fit nicely under the tiny tree. 

We kept the tiny tree outside on the deck all year, where it flourished.  However, this year, Ruby is especially enthusiastic and was begging to bring the "Kissmas tree" into the house to decorate right around Halloween.

So, against our better judgement, we brought the little pine tree inside.  It did well for the first week, and then started to look sad, and then very sad.  A little research yielded the following:

1. Live pine trees like direct sunlight
2. Live pine trees do best with indoor temperatures for about a month, at maximum

Nuts.

Currently, the little pine tree is back out on the deck and my fingers are crossed.  Please, mother nature, bring him back to life!

In the meantime, I searched for another zero waste alternative to a cut Christmas tree.  After some creative Internet searching, here is the result:

 

Ta da! Fabric tree. The fabric panel was on sale for $4.99/yard at Ikea, and for two yards, I got the whole tree.  It's hung in the hall, from the line where we usually display the girls' artwork.  It has a few ornaments pinned to it, and if you look closely, you can even see the tiny strand of lights that I salvaged from the little pine tree.

 

 

I know some people pledge their allegiance to Traditional Christmas, and therefore, this wouldn't work for everyone.  But, I never really have, so I think this works great.

Home Stretch to Goal Number Two

Goal number two is to not take out the trash for a month.  Goal number one was to get down to one bag per week.  The biggest hurdle to goal number two has been smell, but I figured out that carefully rinsing potentially smelly items prior to putting them in the trash solved the problem pretty fast.  I last took out the trash on October 28, and today is November 18, so we are in the final ten-day stretch to meeting goal number two.  Things look very promising.

There has been one painful setback, but I don't think it will prove fatal.  I got the flu and forgot to call the diaper service to ask for four more weeks' worth of compostable diapers.  Fortunately, I am no longer sick, and the diapers will arrive on Wednesday.  We have three compostable diapers left to get through maybe half of Monday, but the second half of Monday and Tuesday loom large.  So, I sent Sergio to the store tonight to get a small package of regular disposable diapers to get us through until Wednesday.  Gulp.

Are we terrible people?  I don't think so.  But, this small setback made me realize how bad I have come to feel about generating trash in cases where I know we can avoid it.  The last time we thought we were going to get close to the month mark, the trash filled up at just past two weeks and we took it out and restarted our count.  But this time, even with a few diapers headed to the trash, I still smell victory.

SPUD Continued

Reading back through earlier posts, I realized that I promised on multiple occasions to post photos of the bulk bins at Sunflower Market, but never did.  Perhaps it was because my romance with Sunflower was too short.  I still think Sunflower has a great personality, and I hope we can stay friends.  It's just, well, I met someone new.

SPUD has been so amazing that we haven't been back to Sunflower once since we started getting our groceries from them.  Here's what the food looks like when it arrives:

Unlike the single-use plastic bag Hell of Safeway delivery, SPUD groceries come in reusable crates.  (And also unlike Safeway delivery, you can't choose any delivery window you want.  You get what you get, and you don't throw a fit.  Remember, this keeps the routes sensible and eco-friendly.  Also, I know these two delivery services aren't entirely serving the same audience.)

Here's what comes inside:

Note that it's just normal people food.  You don't have to switch to a diet of carob chips and lentil patties (no offense whatsoever to either of those foods or the people who enjoy them) in order to reduce the trash in your can.  Note also that every piece of packaging inside the crate can either be reused by SPUD or recycled by them (see next photo for more details).

Next time I place an order, I'll try to remember (how's that for honest) to take a screen shot about the points system associated with making purchases.  Basically, every item has a point value based on how far it had to travel from the place where it was grown or manufactured to the SPUD warehouse. The lower you keep your total mileage number for your order, the more points you get.  And points are redeemable for free food! There's a built-in incentive to be mindful about making local choices.  The one thing on that list I can't wait to recycle is corks.  Ahhh, a glass of wine sure would be nice.  I'll pencil one in for about eight weeks from now.

The Incredible Shrinking, Stinking Trash!

We hit the two-week mark with a single bag in our tiny trash can!

Here, for size reference:

11" x 8" x 15"

It feels fantastic not to have taken the trash out for two whole whole weeks! Not a single time!  And, there's still room for more stuff in the bin!  I bet we could actually go another whole week before we need to take it out. Except for one little thing...

It really starts to smell after a couple of weeks. 

Eww! 

Gross!

As excited as we are with this major reduction in household trash-- thanks primarily to composting food and composting diapers, in addition to making smart shopping choices-- it hadn't occurred to us (obvious though it is) that the longer trash sits in the house, the stinkier it gets.  

Mostly, what's left in the trash at this point is wrappers. 

And, fortunately, most wrappers don't smell too bad, like packaging from toys or a bag of cereal.  However, some food packaging smells really bad, like meat wrappers.  What it boils down to is a need to refocus on even smarter shopping choices.  We are really happy with SPUD groceries, especially the limited use of food wrappers that the company uses (all produce wrappers are recyclable, and there are very few wrappers at all compared to a traditional grocery store).  However, the meat does come in single-use plastic (at least it's not styrofoam) and tackling this problem may prove to be the next big challenge, especially if we are to continue to be successful to the extent that we can go a month, or upwards of that (imagine!) without taking out the trash.

A Farewell to Diapers

Today we took another significant item out of the trash forever: diapers. We have always used some disposable diapers (weekends, outings, overnight) although we have primarily used cloth diapers.  And, as of late (as in the past month or so), we have exclusively used disposable diapers due to:

a. Ruby's bigger toddler body
b. my personal fatigue regarding the never ending laundry
c. cloth diapers starting to fall apart after 2+ years of hard use.

We enrolled in compostable diaper service with Tiny Tots, and for $80/month, we receive pickup/delivery and composting service as well as four packages of diapers.

Today was the maiden voyage, and Ruby did number two within five minutes of putting on the first compostable diaper.  Apparently, to her, this new diaper felt just as comfortable as any.  And really, the diapers do look like ordinary disposable diapers.

 

Just like SPUD, our diaper pickup day is Wednesday.  What luck!  So far, the Tiny Tots customer service has been amazing.  The first drop off went smoothly, which is pretty impressive considering almost every driver who has delivered pizza to our house has called multiple, exasperated times because our front door doesn't face the actual street where our address is listed.

With any luck, Ruby won't be in diapers too much longer, but she is providing much needed research for little brother's diapering, which looms long and large ahead.  And even a few months' worth of diapers diverted from the landfill is absolutely worth it.

SPUD

Today our first batch of groceries from SPUD arrived. 

SPUD, or Sustainable Produce Urban Delivery, is a company based in San Francisco which provides grocery delivery.  SPUD offers primarily organic and locally harvested or manufactured food, and keeps costs low because the business operates out of a warehouse.  It's a great business model, and we have been meaning to try it out for months!

Unlike Safeway delivery, you don't have a choice about when your order is delivered.  For example, if you live in Union City, you get your food on Wednesday.  This also keeps costs low (go affordable organics!) and allows the delivery vans to operate according to the greenest delivery routes possible.  Also unlike Safeway delivery, SPUD uses no bags whatsoever; everything comes in reusable crates.  And there isn't a delivery charge for orders over $40!  Who with a family of four spends less than $40 on groceries per week?  At least where we live, that would be nearly impossible.

Usually, for a week's worth of food, we spend about $180 at the store (yes, even at Sunflower with the amazing bulk bins selection).  However, our total bill for the first week of SPUD delivery was $140, and we got a $20 coupon toward our next order.  $20!  That's a lot!  And they carry Strauss milk in the glass bottles.  I could go on and on.

You can also build a locally farmed produce box into your order; however, we still get a lot of stuff from our garden, so we aren't ready to commit to that yet.  But it's enticing enough that we will probably try it at some point. 

The only thing SPUD does not carry that we buy regularly is diapers.  (Ruby has officially outgrown her cloth ones and we are too close to potty training to buy new ones...and too pregnant to care for washing them all the time right now, let's be honest).  I actually consider this serendipitous because we just found a great compostable diaper service and plan to start it within the next couple of weeks.  That, however, is another story.

Down to One Bag

We're down to one bag of garbage a week!  Fanfare of trumpets!  We met our short-term goal for waste reduction.

How did we do it? 
What is our secret? 
No secret at all. 

As we suspected, over fifty percent of our garbage is compostable material.  We got ourselves a little counter top compost station, put a compostable liner inside, and started filling it up instead of the trash can.  The most glamorous (and yes, kind of too-bad and inconvenient, but only a little bit) part is that we can't recycle it here at our condo in Union City. 

Why is that glamorous? 

We take it to a covert location.  I can't reveal exactly where we take it, but it is helping to keep methane-releasing refuse out of the landfill, so I feel good about the choice.  It's more of a good Samaritan choice than an Earth First type of choice, and with any luck, is only a stopgap measure until Union City decides to let us boldly go where no condo complex has gone before.

Zero Waste Baby

Sergio and I have received the news that we will be having a baby boy in January, and the even better news that he is growing properly and looks very healthy in utero.  Our plan, had the baby been a girl, would have been to use all of the hand-me-downs we have left from Ruby's (and even a few still from Amanda's) younger months.  However, modern as we try to be, the majority of the clothing we have is decidedly for girl babies.

So, instead of rushing out to Target (ack - the more I go there, the more I just see SINGLE USE PLASTIC everywhere I look) or the mall or even the cute organic eco baby stores all over the peninsula, we are going to try and get everything secondhand.  Which is not to say that we are going to settle; rather, we (or more accurately, I, the one with the nesting hormones) will be combing the bay area for exciting places to shop secondhand for the frijolito.  I'd love any and all suggestions!

One Down

I was able to successfully remove one item from our trashcan forever last week: my deodorant.  For years, I have been using Dove Clinical Protection deodorant and, with the exception of the time Safeway delivery substituted pomegranate scent for original scent, I have been very happy with it, especially insofar as it has kept my underarms nice and dry at all times.  However, I have never liked:

a. what goes into it
b. the non-recyclable container it comes in

But I didn't think I could make the switch to one of those deodorant-rock things that real zero waste people use, because I need (well, I believe I need) antiperspirant, too.  I tried the regular Tom's of Maine deodorant once, and the cotton-based Trader Joe deodorant another time, and both times Sergio told me I smelled "French" for the entire duration of my use of either product.

For the past two weeks, I have used this:





And it had been great!  Yes, it does have aluminum in it, but all of the other ingredients are completely natural, and the container is recyclable.  And, it passed the critical keep-dry-all-day test.  In the spirit of full disclosure, Sergio tried it twice and said it feels like rubbing paste on your armpits, and I agree to a certain extent, but I have no problems with a light layer of paste on my underarms.

The Sweetest Thing

Kid Stuff

I've noticed recently that what is still ending up in the trash that isn't compostable (in other words, actual trash) is kid stuff.  Specifically, there's a lot of stickers, chewed up odds and ends, and diapers in our trash.  Let's see what could be done about each of these problems.

1. Stickers
Ruby is going through a phase where she has a first-class tantrum when I try to put her in the car seat.  Seeing as getting in is non-negotiable, and I generally like to get to work on time, I needed something high value and capable of  providing roughly thirty minutes of entertainment to coax her into the seat.  So, every day, she gets a sheet (yes, an entire sheet.  Amanda was the type of toddler who would have been content with a single sticker as a reward, but Ruby has a tendency to live life with a bit more intensity) of stickers, buckles up, and then sticks them in a wad on her knee while I drive to Palo Alto. Right now, I need these stickers like I need air to breathe.  Therefore, I am hoping this is a phase, and they won't be in the trash forever. That's right; I'm not even looking for a green alternative.  You've got to pick your battles.

2. Chewed up odds and ends
The girls leave their toys on the floor and the dog chews them up.  This is just going to take some vigilance to curtail.  I think we need to do a better job of instilling a sense of the importance of picking up a game when you finish before moving to the next one in the girls, and we also need to keep an eye on our tiny, rascally dog, too.

3. Diapers
Ruby is kind of sort of ready to get potty trained.  But mostly, she's not.  So, we persist with the diapers.  Her cloth diapers are really starting to look like rags, and we are trying to avoid investing in expensive new ones when we know she only has a few more months of wearing diapers ever.  So, we are down to only a few days' worth that are in good condition, and we don't have the extra diapers cushion we used to have when they are in the washing machine.  Thus, more disposable diapers in the trash than before.  It's true that there will be another tiny bottom to diaper before too long, and I have started looking into a compostable diaper service for those non-cloth-diaper times that I know will be coming up soon.  At this point, similar to investing in new cloth diapers, getting a service for Ruby for just a few months feels like a big chore.

In other news, we didn't buy any vegatables at all from the grocery store this week!  All from oour own garden, and it feels great.

New Gifts from the Garden

We have almost more produce than we know what do to with!  It is a wonderful problem.

Nuestra Casita: How We Made 700 Sqare Feet into Plenty of Space

Generally, I don't believe in love at first sight, but truly, we loved our tiny condo from the first time we walked inside.  And let's be honest, in the Bay area, two public employees aren't going to be buying a palace! However, we always wondered if 700 square feet and no yard and no garage would  be something we could sustain as our forever home.  With two adults and two children, the arrangement felt very doable (especially because we love the place so much) but when we started to think about how to pack three kids into one bedroom, we began to doubt that we could remain in nuestra casita much longer--in large part because the nine-month countdown had already started!

I had a moment of clarity when I realized that getting a bigger place would only mean more work, and would be compounded by the fact that we would have an infant to care for, too. So, with a very modest budget, we set out to completely rethink the interior of our house.  Things still aren't totally finished (note the art storage in the hallway and the impossible-to-see mismatched dishes in the kitchen cupboard) but Sergio says that for homeowners, things are never finished, so better just to pick a moment and say "ok."

The biggest change we had to make was switching bedrooms with the kids.  We took the little bedroom, and our queen bed did not fit inside.  Changes cascaded from there, but overall, we are very happy with the results.  This is definitely a house for five! And, our carbon footprint will remain virtually the same (probably a few extra cycles on the washer, dryer, and dishwasher) even though will we add another member to our family.

An eight-year-old recently visited and told us, unprompted, "You know, your house is really small, but it kind of looks like a rich French person lives here." It was actually one of the most fantastic compliments I have ever received, considering how candid the source was, and considering how much we worry about the clutter factor in our little place. 

Come on in and take a look!

Our grand entryway

This is our salon, as we have taken to calling it

As you can see, the library is adjacent to the dining room

This is Sergio's study

For such a tiny kitchen, it has a great layout

The hallway is still no man's land

Boudoir

Antique dresser from parents' house

This is the only art in the bedroom, due to [my] earthquake paranoia

Just got this antique perfume tray!

The washroom

The girls' room is a real mishmash of styles, just like it should be

How cool is having a piano in your bedroom?

There you have it - three beds in one little room!