The beard is gone. I now have only a moustache.
Two weeks ago i quit paper towels. Everything we buy comes in packaging. The amount of trash i make on a daily basis is astounding. It would be nice to make a big dent in that waste. I felt like paper towels was a big part of it, but it's not really. My level of trash hasn't been noticeably smaller in the past two weeks. My level of laundry has... I wash way more rags now. Also i've taken to using dirty t-shirts as rags. (you have to wash them anyway, right?)
The other day i cleaned the kitchen in the new van with all the OCD i could muster using only rags, and sponges. The stove was disgusting, at a level i'm really embarrassed by. It was a huge step to letting go of the idea that i needed paper towels for good. I dirtied two rags and ruined one sponge.
It's a small step for man. [sic]
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Hey Andy! So the rule of thumb I've heard and use goes something like this: If you're in a place with an abundance of space, but a shortage of water (Texas, Cali), then disposable towels, diapers, even plates is a more conservative use of resources. If you're somewhere with plenty of water, but little space (Europe, most of the American east), then washable items are optimum. It's kind of interesting how sometimes our efforts to minimize what looks like our personal day to day "impact" actually puts more stress on our local resources. It seems like such a simple thing: make less trash. But, devil, details, etc. Also, I think it's cool that the largest US export by a far cry is paper garbage. It's harvested from Western US dumps by a chinese company who ship it home and recycle it, turning it into packaging for their major exports. So much of that packaging you get, you've gotten before. That's in this book about trash that came out this year. I can't remember the title, I listened to a Ted talk about it :-P.
ReplyDeletecya soon I hope!
<3 TED talks.
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