Zero Waste Week 2017: Monday

This week is the tenth annual 'Zero Waste Week', the brainchild of Rachel Strauss, a blogger, campaigner and all round good egg.  She's been on my radar for a while, and after signing up for her newsletter last month, the time has come.  What's it all about?  Rachel explains:

"What happens when you throw something away? Away isn't some magical place; it's landfill, an incinerator, the bottom of the ocean, litter or the stomach of an animal....Zero Waste Week is a grassroots campaign raising awareness of the environmental impact of waste and empowering participants to reduce waste."

"Awareness raising" is all too often an empty gesture, but not here.  The awareness to be raised is your own.  How much do you waste, and why?  Can it be avoided?  Where does what you waste actually go?  "Away", indeed is not a magical place.  It's just somewhere else.  "Out of sight, out of mind"?  No.

Can it be avoided?  That is the question.  It might seem that to be human is to waste, to some degree.  We consume, we excrete.  We have an impact.  A "footprint".  Various footprints: a carbon footprint being only one of them.  As with any environmental issue, the strict practicality of the matter is only part of the point.  There is a wider context, too, always: a human - dare I say "spiritual" element - to things.

But we must begin with the practical.  There are and will be plenty of excellent blogs that look exclusively at the practical.  I've decided to approach things a little differently.  Realistically, you might say, which I mean in no way as a criticism of any other blogger.  I'm not really a "practical" person, though I do try to be.  Anyone who's successfully transitioned to a genuinely zero waste lifestyle is a hero in my eyes. It isn't easy, and though it gets a little easier all the time as the idea of zero waste nudges into the mainstream, it's still a long way off. Those who have already made it are pioneers.

I would like to focus on and acknowledge the difficulties of going zero waste in everyday life.  To what extent you can live up to ethical standards is determined not only by motivation, but also by the environment and circumstances in which you find yourself.  A struggle between things you can control and things you cannot. Too often in social media and the internet we are given the impression of others living "perfect" lives. We present idealised versions of ourselves. It can be alienating, as well as inspirational.

I'm trying to avoid this. A few months ago, in a short-lived burst of enthusiasm for the ideals of zero waste, I posted about "taking the plunge" into zero waste, and how using the approach to food shopping and eating could have some pleasant side effects.

It wasn't long before I lapsed back into convenience.  The "thrill" of avoiding all and any packaging was fleeting, and was swamped by the inconvenience of it.  This morning, I bought these:

A box of washing powder (cardboard), a bag of coffee (plastic/foil), a bag of sugar (paper) and a bag of sweet potatoes (plastic).  Zero waste report: C minus.  Could try harder.  I know already that Strawberry Gardens, only a mile's walk away, sell sweet potatoes loose - but the Co-op just across the road sells them in plastic bags, and cheaper.  Market forces.

I wonder why only sugar, off dry foodstuffs, comes in paper bags.  Why not pasta, rice, dried beans?  Seems like it's just traditional.  Coffee, too.

The cardboard box of washing powder is biodegradable, but what of residual chemicals, traces of powder?  Is this something I should put straight onto the compost heap when it's empty?  Perhaps not.

The plastic bag from the sweet potatoes?  OK, well that can go into the sofa.  But I can't just keep doing that.  More creative ways of using waste might be something to consider.  Perhaps the empty coffee packet as a plant pot?

Yes, why not?  After lunching on the sweet potatoes, I nipped off to the park for some more herb cuttings.  The sage is beginning to yellow into autumn, and the mint and chives have recently flowered.  I nabbed a few sprigs of each.  At home I emptied the coffee into a mason jar, snipped a few holes in the bottom, filled with compost and added some mint sprigs.  I hope they take root.

I ate the sweet potatoes for lunch.  The packet indicates they came from the USA.  What a ridiculous distance for food to travel, but there it is.  I want to try growing sweet potatoes on my allotment, but I'm not sure if they're suitable for the climate.  They're one of my favourite vegetables, but if zero waste is to go hand-in-hand with ethical environmental living, perhaps buying them un-packaged isn't really enough.  Something else to consider.  The same questions come up when considering coffee.  Could I live without sweet potatoes or coffee?  Well yes, obviously.  But would I?

Perhaps an approach to take might be this: to waste as little as I possibly can this week: to grapple with issues as they occur to me, rather than strive for any kind of perfection.  Take stock of what I have wasted seven days from now: what I have used, could re-use, and could not.

Seems like a good start.

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Related posts

Taking the Zero Waste Plunge
Zero Waste Eating is Good For You
My First Zero Waste Weekend
Landfill/Sofa
Sitting on a Landfill (Waiting for the End to Come)


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