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Today's Haul:
- 1 glass drink bottle - recycle
- 1 paper plate and napkin - worms
- 1 candy bar wrapper - garbage
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Day 252 - Tuesday 9/9/08
Monday, September 8, 2008
Day 251 - Monday 9/8/08
Today's Haul:
- 1 plastic juice bottle HDPE 2 - recycle
- 1 paper sandwich wrapper - worms
- 1 chips bag - garbage
- 1 glass soda bottle - recycle
- 1 piece chewed gum in wrapper - garbage
- 1 simple green refill bottle HDPE 2 - recycle
- 1 compostable fruit holder - worms
- 1 shrink wrap from fruit holder - garbage
LA Recycling and not knowing how good i have it
As I posted a few weeks back we were back east visiting relatives for a bit. As is often the case, you can learn a lot about your specific environment simply by being out of it and this trip was no different.
I was helping my mom make dinner one night and as she was opening some plastic containers I noticed that she was throwing them in the garbage. I pulled them out (in order to bring them home with me, but also as a way of making a point) and in a way that only a son who thinks that he is always right can say to a mom who is used to a son who thinks that he is always right said "Mom, you have to recycle these things, you can't throw them in the garbage, it's horrible." At which point my mom said, in a way that a mom can say to a son who thinks that he is always right but rarely is "Of course I know that but those are not number on or number two and we don't recycle those here."
And that's when it hit me. I sort of stepped out of myself for a second and watched as the virtual cinematic camera that can be my brain zoomed into my shocked expression as the music from Psycho payed in the background.
It suddenly made me realize how lucky we have it here in SoCal. Ya see, recycled numbers 3-7 go in the garbage back where they live, not because they are not being cognizant, but because the government doesn't recycle anything but 1 and 2. Quite shocking.
Here in LA, we are blessed to have the following things be taken from the curb for recycling (and in one bin might i add):
- Clean styrofoam and other polystyrene products
- glass bottles and jars
- aluminum beverage cans
- tin and metal food cans
- aerosal and paint cans (empty and dry)
- all plastic marked 1-7
- all plastic bags and film bags
- all clean paper
- cardboard and corrugated boxes
- metal and plastic hangars
- aluminum foil and trays
I've always taken this for granted but having stepped outside my surroundings for a bit realized how truly easy we have it compared to most. Quite an eye opener.
For more info on LA recycling, check out this site.
Dave
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Camping
As you may have gleaned form the odd assortment of trash & recycling from this weekend, my wife and I took the girls camping. This is a twice yearly event for us with a large group of really cool, slightly eclectic, and ever growing set of folks who have been kind enough to include us in there bi-yearly outings.
I really love camping for a lot of reasons. There's the smell of course, campfires, the fresh air coming off the ocean, and the general two day funk that one gets from kicking up dust clouds all day every time you take a step. There's the wildlife - our friend Bob caught a frog, a coyote pup serenaded us for a few good hours last night, and my youngest caught a stink bug and proceeded to show it to EVERYONE who would look. The camaraderie is of course great as everyone sort of shares what they have and then, after the kids settle down, the adults all gather around the campfire to sing songs that really are as bad as they seem, but now, 20 years after they were hits, they seem much better (the beer helps a little too - Macarthur Park as a squeezebox/guitar arrangement anyone?). And of course, there's getting to sleep in the tent with Biscuit which brings me full circle back to the smell, but I'll leave that one alone for now.
This trip however, I discovered something entirely new and altogether amazing, at least for me. I hadn't seen a number of these folks for a year since the last trip was when i was home with my Dad's accident, so of course, the subject of 365 came up. As i explained what i was doing over and over (i don't mean that to sound tedious as I actually enjoy explaining it to see peoples reactions and thoughts) I was struck by an interesting and altogether enlightening concept.
Here we were north of Malibu camping and we were packing up to leave. Now i've always been taught that as a good steward of a campsite, you need to leave it in the state you found it, pack out what you pack in, and generally be responsible for all of your waste stream and impact on the site so as to leave no imprint. And it suddenly occurred to me that this in essence is a microcosm of sustainability, or at least one facet of it. Here were all these various and sundry people - government employees, stay at home moms, visual effects artists, kids, rock climbers, actors, photographers, filmakers, opera singers, stage combat veterans, and even a trash hoarder and his awesome dog, and they were all, in this little microcosmic setting, abiding by the rules that we should all be doing with our entire lives. They were packing out what they packed in, to a point anyway. How cool would it be if this was how we all lived our lives on a grand scale. It's really William McDonoughs Cradle to Cradle in a nutshell - you show up on this planet with nothing, use what you need while you are here, but use it in a way that it leaves no negative imprint when you are gone, leave nothing behind. A bit stark I'll grant you, but interesting nonetheless.
I honestly don't really know where this goes from there, and wish that it had left me with some big "aha, I get it moment". Perhaps some of the folks who were camping will add something i may have missed. Nonetheless, it was fascinating to think that there are areas of our lives where the rules do apply as they should. Perhaps we just need to look at them a little farther and take them into our daily routines.
Food for thought...
....mmmm....marshmallows......
Dave
Day 250 - Sunday 9/7/08
Today's Haul:
- 1 pizza box - recycle
- 1 plastic table from pizza box - garbage
- 1 paper liner from pizza box - worms
- 1 cookie bag - garbage
- 1 chips bag - garbage
- 1 beer bottle w/top - recycle
- 1 tofu tub HDPE 2 - recycle
- 1 box frozen artichoke hearts - garbage
- 1 bag of bread - repurpose
Day 249 - Saturday 9/6/08
Today's Haul:
- 1 chips bag - recycle
- 4 beer bottles w/tops - recycle
- 1 marshmallow plastic bag - recycle
- 1 large ball of used tin foil - garbage
- 1 tetrapak milk container - garbage (dirty)
Day 248 - Friday 9/5/08
Today's Haul:
- 2 paper parking passes - worms
- 1 piece tape - garbage
- 1 chips bag - garbage
- 3 bottles of beer w/tops - recycle
- 1 cardboard beer six pack holder - recycle
- 1 cardboard backing from camping utensils - recycle
- 1 plastic cover from camping utensils - recycle
- 1 styrofoam mushroom packet - recycle
- 1 plastic wrap from mushrooms - garbage
- 1 rice box - recycle
- 1 packet from rice box - garbage
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