The Zero Garbage Challenge

Living in Cville: green tidbits and other information

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 07:11:13 -0500

Here is a place to share more of your great suggestions, ideas and hints about how to “live green” in Charlottesville. What are your tidbits?

You asked for it, and here it is… the easiest bread recipe...

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:08:00 -0500

You asked for it, and here it is… the easiest bread recipe (and delicious too!)

Basic Bread Recipe (one loaf):

Mix 3 cups bread flour, 1/4 teaspoon yeast and 1 1/4 teaspoon salt in a bowl. Add 1 5/8 cup water, stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at about 70 degrees.
Dough is ready when surface is dotted with bubbles. Turn dough onto floured work surface and fold once or twice. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking, gently and quickly shape into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or corn meal. Put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours.
At least 30 minutes before dough is ready, heat oven to 450. Put 6 - 8 quart covered pot (cast iron, enamel, or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, it will be more than double in size and will not spring back when poked with a finger. Slide hand under towel and turn dough over into the hot pot, seam side up. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake for 15-30 minutes, until loaf is browned. Cool on a rack.

Options:

- If you don’t have a covered pot, use a bread pan and lower oven temp to 400
- To make a whole wheat loaf, use 1/2 whole wheat flour and 1/2 bread flour
- To make an olive loaf, add 1/2 cup chopped olives when adding water
- To make a health nut loaf, add to flour mix:

1/2 cup wheat germ
1/4 cup millet
1/4 cup flaxseeds
1/4 cup sunflower seeds

Thanks to everyone who attended the zero garbage workshop on...

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:56:01 -0500

Thanks to everyone who attended the zero garbage workshop on Sunday. It was such a pleasure to mingle with so many like-minded and supportive people!

Zero Garbage Workshop

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 20:25:00 -0500

If you would like to learn more about the challenge, ask questions, and have some garbage-related fun, then come to the Zero Garbage Workshop on Sunday March 7, from 1-3pm, at Ivy Creek Natural Area. Don’t worry, attending the workshop does not mean that you have to take the zero garbage challenge! If you can make it, please RSVP to zero.garbage.challenge@gmail.com.

Happy New Year! My 2009 zero garbage challenge is over. Thanks...

Sat, 02 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0500

pile of my 2009 (non)garbage

my 2009 (non)garbage in a bag

Happy New Year! My 2009 zero garbage challenge is over. Thanks to all of you who supported me and cheered me on during this fun and educational experience!

I worked all year to reduce my garbage to nearly nothing, and learned a lot in the process about priorities, compromises, and how to make changes without feeling like I was sacrificing.

The garbage items that I did accumulate are in the pictures above (with my cat and dog, for perspective). This pile weighs about half a pound. The average American throws away about 4 pounds of garbage per day. That’s more than 1400 pounds per year.

And as we enter 2010… will I go back to throwing things away? No way! This has become too fun to turn back now. And there is lots more to learn about landfills, recycling, and how to best use my consumer powers.

Holiday non-garbage: My friends and family have been very...

Thu, 31 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0500

Holiday non-garbage:

My friends and family have been very supportive of my challenge. But still, some of my gifts were wrapped in disposable packaging this year. This is a grey zone for me (see more about this in my Grey Zones entry). One gift that I received for Christmas is an Autoseal travel mug, which I had featured on my blog in February as an alternative to disposable coffee/tea cups. It turns out that the Autoseal came with a plastic wrapper. So in hindsight, it’s probably best to buy travel mugs from a local coffee/tea shop, where you can get them without packaging (see more about this in my Online Purchases entry).

October through December non-garbage: Here is a group shot of my...

Thu, 31 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0500

October through December non-garbage:

Here is a group shot of my non-garbage from October through December (excluding holiday garbage, which is in a separate entry). More of the usual bits of plastic.

Online Purchases It’s easy to end up with unexpected...

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0500

Online Purchases

It’s easy to end up with unexpected garbage when making online purchases. One way that I avoid this is to buy from local stores, where I can inspect the packaging before buying. If I have to order online, I email or call the company before placing an order, and ask specifically about the packaging. Most of the time, companies are willing to package an item in recyclable material upon request.

Grey Zones Over the course of the year, I’ve discovered...

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0500

Grey Zones

Over the course of the year, I’ve discovered four major grey zones - parts of my challenge that were particularly challenging because it was difficult to make a definitive decision.

1) Gifts: If someone gives me a gift, I try not to let my zero garbage challenge overrule my gratitude. If a gift contains some disposable pieces, I generally try to accept it with grace and then decide what to do with it later! Sometimes I regift these items, sometimes I donate them, and sometimes I decide to keep them and add the disposable parts to my pile of collage material.

2) Rental house: I rent my house. Sometimes I make household purchases (such as the toilet float that I had to replace) and my landlords reimburse me. Technically, these household purchases are not mine, but so far, I have accepted the resulting garbage as part of my pile. If I owned a house, I would probably have to make similar purchases.

3) Eating out (and bulk grocery shopping): When I eat out, I never throw anything away from my meal (napkin, food scraps, etc). However, I cannot overlook the fact that in the kitchen of the restaurant, my meal is created using some disposable items. Similarly, when I buy in bulk, those big grain and bean containers are filled using bags that are probably thrown away. These are compromises that I’ve been willing to make this year, because, well, it would take some extreme measures to avoid this garbage. But I will continue to investigate the wiser choices, and I’m also open to suggestions!

4) Friends and relatives: When other people make me a meal, I do not expect them to adhere to my challenge (although some of my friends do). This is similar to receiving gifts - if someone is making food for me, I try not to let my challenge overrule my gratitude. It’s an interesting issue. When I go to a friend’s house, they make a vegetarian meal for me because they respect my choice to not eat meat. This is because it is relatively easy for people to incorporate vegetarian cooking. Perhaps one day it will be easier for everyone to avoid trash, so my friends can more easily respect my choice to not add to landfills.

Thanks to Ecelso Zanato from Brazil, for sending me this picture...

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500

Thanks to Ecelso Zanato from Brazil, for sending me this picture of another great way to reuse plastic bottles.

A creative use for plastic bottles, and a touching story:...

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:56:00 -0400

A creative use for plastic bottles, and a touching story: Indra’s Cloud

Here is an article that lists 75 more items that you might not...

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:53:00 -0400

Here is an article that lists 75 more items that you might not have realized you can toss into your compost pile. One that surprised me is Cellophane, a clear packaging that is still sometimes used for food.

Here is yet another cool family, who spent 18 days in Newcastle...

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 18:54:52 -0400

Here is yet another cool family, who spent 18 days in Newcastle Australia, picking up beach trash. Read their blog (and see their line of garbage) here.

Here is a website called My Zero Waste, about a UK family of...

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 18:42:54 -0400

Here is a website called My Zero Waste, about a UK family of three (plus a cat) who are creating one dustbin of trash (100 litres) this year.

September non-garbage: A few of the usual items. Nice shiny...

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 18:28:46 -0400

September non-garbage:

A few of the usual items. Nice shiny gold and silver to go into the collage!

I recently visited my friends Kate and Matt. They have reduced...

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 08:13:00 -0400

I recently visited my friends Kate and Matt. They have reduced much of their garbage by recycling and by putting a compost pile in their back yard. They compost food scraps, paper towels, napkins, bunny bedding, cat litter and more (note: they do not use this compost on a veggie garden).

Another tip that they shared is that they have stopped using garbage bags. Since they compost all organic materials, their garbage is not messy or stinky. They just pile their garbage into the can without the plastic liner. When it’s time to take the garbage to the dump, they load the garbage can into Matt’s truck.

August non-garbage: Sometimes you just have to have butter! The...

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 08:04:57 -0400

August non-garbage:

Sometimes you just have to have butter! The temptation was a biscuit at my favorite breakfast restaurant. And it was worth it. As for the bullion wrappers… soup season has begun. I hadn’t planned ahead, or I could have made my own broth. So at the store, I looked at my options: I could buy broth in a can, but it’s expensive and does not taste nearly as good as bullion. I could buy bullion in a box, sealed in a plastic bag - or in these little silver paper cubes. I prefer the silver for my garbage collage.

Check out the Green Garbage Project, a website about a couple in...

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 07:54:00 -0400

Check out the Green Garbage Project, a website about a couple in Oregon who started a year without garbage in July.

Go to Rubbish Free Year, a website about a couple in New Zealand...

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 07:53:00 -0400

Go to Rubbish Free Year, a website about a couple in New Zealand who completed a year without garbage in 2008.

July non-garbage: More of the usual… little pieces of...

Sat, 05 Sep 2009 07:57:00 -0400

July non-garbage:

More of the usual… little pieces of plastic.