WIPMND: Day 6 Sustainability is a Buzzword
CHALLENGES SO FAR
How has life been for you since our first day of talking about the plastic-free, zero-waste movement? Is there anything that resonates with you? If so, in what ways? What has been challenging for you? I encourage you to write your thoughts and reactions down, either on paper or let me know in the comments below.
Writing is a great way to weed out the constant barrage of information that we're subjected to daily. Fun fact: writing your goals down increases the chances of you accomplishing those goals by 42%! Nothing is guaranteed; you gotta do the action to become the noun. One of my mentors, Marie Forleo, talks about this in her new book, Everything is Figureoutable. Great, inspiring read! Anyway, I digress.
Back to the question about challenges. For me, it's my take-out/delivery/restaurants-that-use-disposable-ware consumption. I've recently been dining out: a Corner Bakery, two Mendocino Farms, a coffee shop, and takeout from Thai Basil. Note to self: if ordering delivery, call the restaurant to ensure no plasticware is delivered. (Last time, our delivery came with chopsticks, forks and napkins, even though we unchecked the box and wrote in "no plasticware please".)
I'm honestly a little surprised by how many establishments are still using disposable plates, cups, and straws. The use of plasticware doesn't seem to be slowing down, and I'm slightly alarmed. What about you?
SUSTAINABILITY AS A BUZZWORD
How can we talk more about being eco-conscious? Doing things that aren't producing unneccessary waste. How about reducing our output as much as possible? It's still so wild (limited vocab much, Krystal? Sorry, can't think of another word to describe it); the amount of products in the world. Where will they all go? The answer: the air, oceans, digestive systems of all species, taking space within our earth.
A lot of restaurants seem to throw the buzzword sustainability around, but then serve their food in waxed paper and provide plastic cups for water. exclamationpointquestionmark?!
I started a job somewhere that involves coffee. The amount of cups used per day, milk cartons, plastic sleeves, plastic stoppers, gloves, packaging material, I mean, the list goes on. Stickers to put on the cups. If you need stickers to sell your business, you're doing it wrong. Unless you're in the business of selling stickers of course.
WHAT'S AN ECO-PRENEUR?
Anyway, I wonder if I could become an eco-preneur. To be a consultant or point of contact when a business wants to be more eco-conscious. In our current state of affairs, being eco-conscious is of utmost importance! If you want to be a business for the future, legitimate, wholesome eco-preneurship is going to take your business far.
I recently signed up for the Plastic Pollution Coalition, and I hope to find more info about this new venture of mine. It's easy for me to go in and critique the plastics epidemic in your home/business, but I also needed to take a good hard look at my own life. This is where the 7-day challenge became an experiment that shed a new light on my consumer habits.
How has life been for you since our first day of talking about the plastic-free, zero-waste movement? Is there anything that resonates with you? If so, in what ways? What has been challenging for you? I encourage you to write your thoughts and reactions down, either on paper or let me know in the comments below.
Writing is a great way to weed out the constant barrage of information that we're subjected to daily. Fun fact: writing your goals down increases the chances of you accomplishing those goals by 42%! Nothing is guaranteed; you gotta do the action to become the noun. One of my mentors, Marie Forleo, talks about this in her new book, Everything is Figureoutable. Great, inspiring read! Anyway, I digress.
Back to the question about challenges. For me, it's my take-out/delivery/restaurants-that-use-disposable-ware consumption. I've recently been dining out: a Corner Bakery, two Mendocino Farms, a coffee shop, and takeout from Thai Basil. Note to self: if ordering delivery, call the restaurant to ensure no plasticware is delivered. (Last time, our delivery came with chopsticks, forks and napkins, even though we unchecked the box and wrote in "no plasticware please".)
I'm honestly a little surprised by how many establishments are still using disposable plates, cups, and straws. The use of plasticware doesn't seem to be slowing down, and I'm slightly alarmed. What about you?
SUSTAINABILITY AS A BUZZWORD
How can we talk more about being eco-conscious? Doing things that aren't producing unneccessary waste. How about reducing our output as much as possible? It's still so wild (limited vocab much, Krystal? Sorry, can't think of another word to describe it); the amount of products in the world. Where will they all go? The answer: the air, oceans, digestive systems of all species, taking space within our earth.
A lot of restaurants seem to throw the buzzword sustainability around, but then serve their food in waxed paper and provide plastic cups for water. exclamationpointquestionmark?!
I started a job somewhere that involves coffee. The amount of cups used per day, milk cartons, plastic sleeves, plastic stoppers, gloves, packaging material, I mean, the list goes on. Stickers to put on the cups. If you need stickers to sell your business, you're doing it wrong. Unless you're in the business of selling stickers of course.
WHAT'S AN ECO-PRENEUR?
Anyway, I wonder if I could become an eco-preneur. To be a consultant or point of contact when a business wants to be more eco-conscious. In our current state of affairs, being eco-conscious is of utmost importance! If you want to be a business for the future, legitimate, wholesome eco-preneurship is going to take your business far.
I recently signed up for the Plastic Pollution Coalition, and I hope to find more info about this new venture of mine. It's easy for me to go in and critique the plastics epidemic in your home/business, but I also needed to take a good hard look at my own life. This is where the 7-day challenge became an experiment that shed a new light on my consumer habits.
Without further ado, here's day six's inventory.
DAY 6'S INVENTORY
DAY 6'S INVENTORY
- 2 dailies
- 2 pet waste bags
- nightly floss
- plastic cup from take-out establishment (In-N-Out), no lid OR straw!
- tape for UPS packaged to be shipped
- styrofoam package for family-pack chicken thighs
- plastic bag that housed shishito peppers (Sprouts)
- plastic bag with handles that housed green beans (Sprouts)
- Organic cucumbers that went bad (individually wrapped, and THEN wrapped as a unit)
- plastic box that contained butter lettuce and its roots
- 1 small Gatorade bottle
REFLECTION
In one of Plastic-Free's chapters, Beth Terry talks about the irony of organic produce being wrapped in plastic. No joke, why do companies do that?? I mean, peeled oranges in plastic containers, peeled and sliced apples in plastic bags with additives to prevent them from oxidizing, English cucumbers wrapped individiaully, and THEN wrapped as a unit? SO unneccesary.
People, let's do better!! :)
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