Sometimes I get these crazy ideas in my head, like going sugar-free or eschewing caffeine or spray-painting... anything, that I MUST DO NOW.
This morning, it was OMGTHEREISTOOMUCHPACKAGINGINTHEWORLD and I'MBEINGCONSUMEDBYMYCONSUMERISM, as I drank my Starbucks coffee out of a Starbucks cup (with the sleeve!) while eating a muffin out of its paper liner which came in a plastic container.
*sigh*
So, then I started thinking...
Could I go waste-free? Like no trash? And for how long?
Speaking of my breakfast alone, there's the coffee*:
- + okay, duh. I could have brought my own mug.
- + I could have made it at home, in my own mug.
- - If I put cream in there, it has to come from a package, right?
- - Homemade coffee still has to come in a bag, also, or is there some magical place where you can do coffee like bulk food stores? Dear God, IS THERE A HUGE BIN OF COFFEE SOMEWHERE THAT I COULD HAVE ACCESS TO?*
Then there's the pumpkin muffin:
- + The paper muffin liner is probably compostable. Someone back me up on this.
- + Some fantastic cities will let you recycle a lot of the plastic abominations that exist. Alas St. Paul is pretty strict and limited with its recycling program (take my damn yogurt container, 651!).
- + I could make the muffin myself, without the liner, in my own muffin tin...
- - That would require buying pumpkin, in a can, and a bunch of other packaged goods. And baking.
Realistically, I think it's impossible to go waste-free. BUT I could make a valiant effort to get compost-crazy, recycle-city, and super-conscious about buying/using/reusing.
For instance, Danne at 12 Months of Lent went waste-little in 2009 and lists some great resources on trying it yourself. (Even if you're not of the Catholic sort, her blog is pretty cool. She challenges herself to try something new for 30 days [from eating locally to wearing 6 pieces of clothes to feeding the homeless] and tells you all about it.) Plus, there's a bunch of other hippies out there who post their trash diaries online. I'll soon be one of them. Yay!
Since I'm one of those people who can't remember to bring their reusable grocery totes in from the car, I think this might finally give Al Gore a reason to like me.
One year ago: A Truly Glorious Food, timely since the subject matter is currently waiting to be cooked into a "hashbrown" casserole.
*UPDATE: Clearly, I'm back on coffee, but only one petite normal-brewed cup a day instead of the ye olde four-cup cold-brewed [that's double-strength, people] thing. ILOVECOFFEE!
