Thar She Sprouts!

As you can see, we have been spending a lot of time over at the garden.  The tiniest little sprouts are already popping up!  That's one small sprout for plots 6 and 7, one giant step for gardenkind.

The Trouble with Trash

This past week, I took out three bags of trash.  My short-term goal is to get down to one bag of trash per week.  In my own defense, I cleaned the girls' room over the weekend and that alone generated a whole bag of trash (I'm horrified to admit, but it felt great to trash some of their dog-chewed odds and ends!  I was able to donate to Goodwill much more than ended up in the trash, too).  In other words, we are currently a two-bags-of-trash-per-week family.

Of the non-cleaning-related trash, by my own account, over fifty percent of what went into the dumpster was compostable.  This was so upsetting to me that I called the waste hauling company immediately to ask why our condo complex doesn't have compost service while single-family residences in Union City do have compost service.  I was given a really polite laundry list of reasons why multi-unit residences are exempt from compost service, including logistics regarding shared parking lots, difficulty in getting residents to take ownership of proper sorting, and a lack of buy-in from homeowners associations.   Her argument was pretty concrete, so I decided against opening up a more philosophical train of thought about decisions based on societal good.  This choice proved to be a wise one, and I was able to negotiate the company rep into looking into running a pilot for our complex if I could get our HOA board to approve it.  So, as soon as I hung up the phone with her, I dialed the property manger and asked to get on the agenda for the next board meeting for a presentation about compost starring Sergio and Rebecca.  Fortunately, Sergio is an award-winning composter (that's how we pay the bills!) and we hope to use his knowledge to our advantage in convincing the HOA board that this is an awesome idea.

The property manager was a really good sport, and quite enthusiastic, albeit a bit behind on the times.  She asked me, "Now, just to clarify, is compost when you put your food scraps in the ground?"  I took her interest as a good sign, and she put us on the agenda for the May 30 HOA board meeting.

Wow!  Just imagine the headlines:

MISSION VILLAGE FIRST CONDOMINIUM ASSOCIATION TO ADOPT COMPOSTING PROGRAM IN UNION CITY

One can dream.  Wish us luck at the meeting next week!

Serendipity Strikes

When we first started looking, Sergio and I were bummed that we couldn't find a grocery store within reasonable driving distance from our house that has an extensive bulk foods selection and bulk personal hygiene products selection and a full deli with meats and cheeses.  In fact, we couldn't find a grocery store that has any of those, so we have been shopping at the Raley's in Fremont, which at least has some bulk food items and a decent organic selection.

However, when we were driving home from Raley's this week, we noticed that the dead Barnes and Noble just around the corner suddenly has some action in it.  After a little Internet searching, lo and behold! Sunflower Farmers Market is opening a store in Fremont in June.  June!  Just a few weeks away!  I hadn't heard of Sunflower before, but it seems to be a store that specializes in organic and bulk items.  This is good news. 

Internet searching further revealed that a Whole Foods/Paycheck is also slated to open in Fremont sometime during 2012, but details about this opening are much sketchier than those regarding the Sunflower store.  In my experience, Whole Foods is just about as divisive as opinions about Justin Bieber's talent.  It's either love him or hate him, and those who hold the opposite opinion are fools.

Say what you want about the weird CEO of Whole Foods, the lack of union for employees, and the ridiculous prices, they do stock a lot of bulk items.

Regardless of where we shop. one aspect of bulk food purchasing that we are struggling with is the wastefulness of brining the items home in plastic bags with twist ties.  We have been brainstorming like crazy to try and come up with an alternative, and would love any suggestions about how to proceed. We need a method of conveyance that is light, reusable, and lableable.  Currently, my best thought is Ziploc bags.  This isn't the best solution; however, it is light enough to be weighed without causing an issue at the store, reusable to a certain extent, and could be pre-labeled with a marker to indicate the bin number of the bulk item inside.

Any better ideas before June will be eternally rewarded with a neverending good feeling in the heart.

Navarros versus the Community Garden

The Union City community garden is hands down my favorite new place.  Ruby can roam around like the free range chicken that she is, and it basically fulfills my  yard yearning.  Even Isis is welcome there.  On her leash, of course, and we have already met similarly-sized Tinkerbell and Lily, so she is in good company while we work.

The garden has an incredible amount of really good puttering energy.  Ruby actually puttered there today all morning before her nap and all afternoon after it.  Mostly, she still has the attention span of a hummingbird (mom loves you, little hummingbird) so it was impressive to see her content in one place for so many hours on end.

While she puttered, we actually worked quite hard to get our little plots from barren wasteland to glorious rows of planted seeds.  Drumroll for the list of produce we planted:

1. corn
2. peas
3. string beans
4. lettuce
5. cantaloupe
6. watermelon
7. cucumber
8. bell pepper
9. zucchini
10. jalapeno
11. tomato
12. cilantro
13. basil
14. spinach
15. swiss chard

My new favorite person, John, who runs the garden, told us, "when it grows, you're going to love it!" and I am certain he is correct.

Below are photos I took to chronicle our great day, and one of many efforts toward moving to the zero waste model.

That last shot might just look like a bunch of watered dirt. but if you look carefully, you can see the love in there, too.

Creating a Baseline

Transitioning to zero waste is overwhelming.  As soon as I admitted to myself that I wanted to commit to this goal, my mind began racing with a million different questions.  What if guests bring waste to our house? What if I am out and I need to make a purchase in a pinch? How can I live without x y z items?

I realized that the first things I needed to do were:
1. Make the transition slowly
2. Go easy on myself if I don't always get it right
3. Honor intentions
4. Create a baseline - what do we already do right?

A baseline allows me to focus on the positive and provide a structure for what still needs to be done.

So, what are we already doing right?

1. We only have one trashcan in our entire house, and it is really small (one and a half feet tall, half a foot across).  We use compostable bags in it.

2. We just signed up for two plots at the community garden.  We are planting fruits and veggies this weekend.

3. We buy the milk that comes in the reusable glass containters.

4. Here are our cleaning supplies.  The light cleaner is dish soap mixed with water and the heavy cleaner is white vinegar mixed with water.  We use microfiber cloths instead of paper towels.

5. This might look like an ordinary jar of trail mix from Target (I know, I know, healthy choices) but we actually have refilled it a zillion times with different mixes. It is the bottomless trail mix.

6. We *intend* to make our own bread.  We have been lazy about making it lately, as evidenced by the store-bought, single-use plastic-wrapped loaf sitting on top of the bread machine.

7. We make our own yogurt, and we are actually consistent about it.

8. Here are our reusable water bottles, coffee cups, and my lunch bag is squeezed in there, too.

9. We only use cloth naplins. We also only use handkerchiefs to blow our noses, but that would be a gross picture.

10. All of the things for inside of the lunch box are also reusable.

11. Ruby wears cloth diapers.  We do use disposable ones on the weekends if we go out.  I'm not sure I can give up this one luxury.  Fortunately, she is almost ready to use the potty.

12. This printer paper is 100% recycled.  You can get it at any Kinko's, you just have to ask.

13. This is our reusable bag full of reusable bags. Baggers at the grocery store routinely say, "Wow! You sure have a lot of these!" I do appreciate the support, but really, they aren't that expensive or difficult to remember to bring.

While many folks consider thirteen to be an unlucky number, it was our apartment number at the place where we lived when Ruby was born, and I had a very healthy baby.  Therefore, I am quite content that my baseline list turned out to have thirteen items in it.  However, there is clearly a lot of room for improvement, beginning with what we bring home from the grocery store.

All Who Waste are Welcome Here!

Despite the various times I've blogged about falling off my bike or Jello wrestling (in my past lives) this blog will most likely be the most embarrassing.  In order to eliminate waste from my life, I will have to examine, well, the contents of my own trash can in order to be born anew into a less wasteful, more mindful way of living. 

I have given myself permission to take up to two years to transition to a totally waste-free household.  Yes, we will still recycle, but our goal is to try and minimize the amount of refuse of any sort that leaves our residence.

We have an unfair advantage in terms of attemptig a zero waste lifestyle because our house is only 700 square feet, with no yard and no garage.  There isn't any room for anything nonessential!  In addition, we only have one toilet and one shower using water, and a place for one trash can (in the kitchen) in the entire house.  There isn't a lawn to water or a yard to light up a night.  Because we live on the second story, our house stays pretty warm all winter long, and we rarely turn on our own heat (unless our neighbors downstairs go on vacation...).  I wasn't that surprised when I recently learned (at a work-related seminar) that the CO2 emissions produced by automobiles pale in comparison to what is produced by physical buildings.  Alas, so many years of so much effort in biking/carpooling/public transit, when I really should have been examining my HVAC, lighting, and water use practices.

I first decided I wanted a zero waste lifestyle when I discovered the Johnson family.  The Johnsons live practically in my own backyard, in Mill Valley, California, and have become icons for the zero waste movement.  Anyone who is struggling to figure out how to begin eliminating waste from daily life need only visit the Johnsons' website to be inspired:

Zero Waste Home

What I like the most about this family is that they are totally normal!  I definitely had some reservations that a zero waste lifestyle would be fraught with overly abstemious, patchouli-scented choices that would surely make the children into repressed oddballs well before they made it to eighteen.  The Johnsons reassured me that no such fate looms large.  So, my confidence fortified by the experience of this good-looking family, I set out to tackle my first zero waste task: creating a baseline.