Noitalever: Planning

I think that trying to live life "less plastic" builds character, just as maintaining any kind of diet or exercise regime does. I think that these things all promote self-discipline, responsibility, and vigilance. Today, I want to write about just one manifestation of this: planning.

Sometime in fall of 2006, I saw a poster that changed my life. It was trying to sell me a University of Idaho Sustainability Mug (To-Go mugs, branded with our Sustainability Center's logo), and it said "Last year, UI students and faculty threw away (astronomical number) of paper cups," and had lots of statistics. As a drinker of a daily latte, I stopped and said, "Woah." As soon as possible, I bought a to-go mug (not a UI one, because they actually leak...) and started carrying it every day.

Now, as many of you know because you have probably tried to use a to-go mug at least once in your life with varying degrees of success, to-go mugs come with their own set of problems. I foresaw the cleanliness issue, and never let my mug sit with a few drops of coffee in it. I also foresaw it making a mess in my bag, so I learned to wash it out before I tossed it in. I still maintain this habit: I wash out the mug as soon as I'm done with the coffee (or during the first available class break, etc). This does most of the cleaning for me, actually, but I also wash the mug out with dish soap and often let it sit overnight with soapy water inside. Phew!

I never forget my mug. Maybe I used to, but it has become such a habit to keep it clean and available that I am always good to go. It is now, two years later, much loved (read: battered), but I have decided that I will use it until it dies. Another issue that I had to think about was that it has a plastic exterior, but how environmentally-friendly would it be to toss it now? Instead, I decided to make it last as long as possible and then repurpose or recycle the parts somehow.

So, the life skill that I have refined is "planning."

Here is another example: next semester, I will not have a place to buy in bulk within a ten minute walk of me. Instead, I will need to plan so that I can make one trip to the bulk foods store every two weeks. This will mean planning a vague range of meals in advance, etc. Also, not buying convenience foods will mean learning to cook...

...and I am sure that I can overcome even this greatest of obstacles, and I will be healthier and happier for it.

What have you learned from your own brand of environmentalism?

Noitalever: Less-Plastic Christmas 3

Alors, I said that I was going to make my own Christmas wrapping in the form of drawstring bags. I took it one step further, in order to trim the costs and energy involved. I decided that I could be more economical and environmentally-friendly if I re-purposed something. I went to Goodwill and found The Perfect Thing - an old Christmas tablecloth, made from beautiful fabric. It was way cheaper than buying beautiful Christmas fabric at the store right now, and...well, beautiful. I bought two, but the by-far-prettier one is a dark green with darker green embroidery.

Then, I busted out the sewing machine when I was in Oregon and finished nine bags of varying sizes in about an hour and a half. I didn't touch the second fabric because I was done with bags for the night...unfortunately, I forgot to do any sewing until the last night that I was there. Sad day. Maybe I'll have an opportunity later, but I suspect that I won't actually need more than nine bags. I could also use the other fabric for Furoshiki. Oh, the options!

When I was at the Co-op buying gifts, a woman asked me if I was the one who wrote the article! WOW! She recognized me from the picture, I guess, or maybe my basket tipped her off (but I can't elaborate, because some of you are getting gifts from that basket...), but it was super cool. I was infinitely glad that I had no plastic in my basket. :)

Noitalever: Fast Food? Really?

Hello, all! I have very pleasant news, though it's a bit taunting to those of you who do not live in the Pacific Northwest.

Burgerville has long been my favorite fast food restaurant. It's puzzling, perhaps, because I'm a vegetarian and yet I harbor this love affair with a fast food restaurant with "burger" in its name. However, Burgerville has two (TWO!) amazing vegetarian burgers. One is a simple garden burger with all of the goodies, and the other is a black bean burger with chipotle sauce.

Burgerville is expensive, averaging $4-6 per sandwich and $3-4 per milkshake. What it has always had going for it, though, is that all of the food is local. The onions are Walla Wallas, the cheese is Tillamook, and the milkshakes are always made from in-season nuts or berries (chocolate hazelnut, anyone?). Basically, great ingredients.

On Tuesday, Jesse and I went into Burgerville and I kind of had a very sad moment as we walked up. I realized that this would be the first time that I could not have a milkshake because this is the first time I've been there since becoming hardcore-no-plastic. I sighed, and accepted this as we walked in.

As we ordered, the straws caught my eye. The wrappers said "100% Compostable." I scoffed, thinking it was the el-fake-o "biodegradable" plastic that isn't really biodegradable at all. The cashier, however, assured me that they were made from corn. He told me that Burgerville was "going green."

And then, I challenged him. Rapid-fire, I examined the restaurant. Cups? (Corn) Lids? (Corn) To-go containers? (Biodegradable - he showed me one) Wrappers? (Paper)

(At this point, I got teary and ordered a milkshake. I actually cried a little...)

All Burgerville restaurants are powered by wind, he told me. (I looked it up - they buy wind credits that equal 100% of their energy use!)

Okay, I said, gearing up for the ultimate challenge. Here is where many people fall short: they wrap up their compostable goodies in plastic trash bags and send those to the landfill, where even food will never break down if it isn't exposed to wind and rain.

"And your trash bags?"
"Corn."

GASP!!!

Okay, okay...I only had one more question...

"Do you have a composter?"
"Not yet," he said, "As we're the farthest south. We get everything last. But half of the Burgerville locations have composters, and we should be getting one soon."

---

I am going to write a letter to Burgerville, thanking them for giving me a reason to love them. I went ahead and got a gift card for my cousin (plastic, but really...that would have been too good to be true, right?) in order to support the company and give Vaughn tasty foods.

Burgerville only has locations in Oregon and Washington, so it is unfortunate that plastic-free fast food is not the norm for all of us. However, as Burgerville continues in this business model, we can lift them up as an example to the other "Burger" chiefs of the world.

Noitalever: Guest Column

I was featured as a guest columnist this week for the university newspaper, The Argonaut. You can see the online version of my article here.

I wrote this article in order to give the students here some easy options to transition to the "less plastic" lifestyle. I wanted to present concrete ideas, along with some of the deeper philosophy about consumption. I'm eager to hear from you as well.

It's funny - they changed two of my usages of "Aquafina," but left two. Silly newspaper people - did they think Aquafina would be so threatened that it'd sue us?

Noitalever: Less-Plastic Christmas 2

I just had an epiphany, and I wanted to share it with you guys.

In my last post, I talked about the waste that wrapping Christmas gifts entails. Jeanie recommended using gift bags that can be reused, and that still wasn't sitting well with me - those bags are paper, lined with plastic and just not truly sustainable. For the past few days, I've been trying to figure out how I was going to present everything in such a way that my friends and family weren't like, "Um, you forgot to wrap this."

Then, I saw this set of bags on Reusable Bags, and I got excited for about two seconds. First of all, the idea is great - use cotton bags to replace paper or plastic ones. However, I wasn't so keen on the idea of some company determining what patterns of fabric I'd get, and what sizes. Also, I know from experience that it doesn't cost that much to make cotton bags.

Do you see where this is going?

And then it hit me: Hello! I can sew! I don't know why I was considering another bit of consumerism when I have everything at my disposal to make bags myself. And, if I make them myself, I can pick the sizes and patterns that fit my needs. And (and!), it's more meaningful if I put my own sweat and blood (well, hopefully there won't be blood...) into it.

So. That's that. Hooray.