http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwSAdE2keXY
Doing the Zero Waste Challenge was pretty exciting for me actually! I’ve always been interested in composting and cutting down on my waste and I knew that I normally recycled more than I threw away but the great thing about this was that it made me consider what I was consuming on the basis of packaging size and if I REALLY wanted to carry it around with me for the rest of the day. It was an interesting exercise in that you had to think about schlepping your waste around with you from place to place instead of just throwing it into the garbage and being done with it. It’s a bit of a ball and chain, in that sense which I found positive because it really made me rethink my food/consumption choices.
What I also found interesting were some of my friends’ reactions to this. I had a friend visiting over the weekend in a lull between dental school interviews and she’s by far one of my most conservative friends both socially and politically and environmental issues do not factor heavily in her day to day life. We’d go out to eat somewhere (I admit that I didn’t bring by Ziploc bag o’ trash into Chinatown with me….) and I’d save my paper napkin to add to my “collection”. What I thought was great was that she started questioning her own decisions and whether she REALLY needed that extra napkin or a plastic fork or if she could do with out. She made several comments about how it was making her think and she sounded frustrated by that—if anyone doesn’t like changing her ways it would be this girl.
My housemates just laughed when I told them I was doing this. When I started to collect my compost in a Tupperware in the kitchen, however, I was surprised that NO ONE wanted to add their food scraps to it. I’d have to ask people point blank to please put their foot waste into the composting. They’d just look at me slightly annoyed and confused but they would do it. Their theory seemed to be that I was doing the Zero Waste Challenge and that they shouldn’t have any part in it. Also, one of my housemates asked if I could compost in a container that wasn’t see-thru because it grossed her out too much to see the old food scraps. This I couldn’t understand However, come Thursday night’s The Office it became abundantly clear that I’ve pigeonholed myself into the role of Dwight Schrewt. An identity that I am less than thrilled by, I’m sure you can imagine…..
I was surprised by how little an issue doing the challenge really was. I thought I threw away a lot more stuff than I actually do—or maybe in a normal week I just DO waste more, I’m not sure. The one thing I noticed was the abundance of paper towel and napkins that I kept collecting. I’d never thought about just how many paper products I use in a week but that was pretty horrifying for me.
I think I’m going to try to continue going zero waste….or less waste than normal…by continuing to compost and watch the things I buy.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Eco Rep Symposium
It killed me that I was unable to go to the Eco Rep Symposium this Saturday. Originally I was meant to be at a full-day interview for Green Corp but sadly that didn’t happen either. Instead swine flu happened in a VERY big way. Thankfully, and finally, it’s out of my system (I hope and pray) but it was a very un-fun and very cabin-fever-y week of bed rest, nose blowing, and sleeping. I fear that my opinion of the Symposium has been colored by my fever and the hassle this caused while I was trying to get things done.
I was in the group in charge of ordering food. I thought the group worked very well through the email chain as we tried to figure out pricings, where to order from, where to serve food, etc. I also thought the group dealt well with the many hurdles and hassles that come along with these types of events – we were able to stick our heads together and brainstorm new ideas when roadblocks got in the way.
Dallase’s suggestion of Stone Hearth Pizza, I thought was great! So thanks for that!! I’d never heard of them before. And I think that spurred the main of questions of how “local”/advertized local do we want this event to be. We ended up going with Dave’s as it’s a very local and community supported business. When I had initially talked to them they seemed hesitant to commit to doing local and sustainable produce but Dave seemed confident that they’d be able to do most of the work in-house and was able guarantee that most ingredients would be organic and local (vegetables became a bit of an issue…). This was a great lesson for me, I think, in that while it may not be marked and advertized as local, it very well may be all the same.
Maybe I would have felt differently if I’d been able to attend the symposium after all the planning but as it stands I don’t feel that this experience gave me any significant feeling of accomplishment or education. I’ve planned events and organized people before and it’s the same issues and frustrations of communicating issues to a group of people and getting X number of people to sign onto Y number of decisions. A lot of what my group was in charge of seemed to be busy work. I appreciate how these sorts of things incorporate into planning and organizational skills as a whole but I don’t feel as though I learned anything new through the process. I just found it frustrating to be responsible for this along with the work of two grad level courses, two undergrad courses, an internship that teaches me the same organizational skills, and a captainship where I’m implementing said organizational skills/doing busy work on a far too frequent basis. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I felt bogged down with unnecessary busy work when I already have a lot on my plate and because I was unable to attend the event I felt like I got very little out of it which is a big shame.
I did appreciate working on this issue in class last Monday as it gave me a chance to see what other groups were doing and how everything was going to fit together in the end. Based on that it seems like it was going to be a GREAT event, and I hope it was and that people were able to come away from it with a greater feeling of accomplishment.
I was in the group in charge of ordering food. I thought the group worked very well through the email chain as we tried to figure out pricings, where to order from, where to serve food, etc. I also thought the group dealt well with the many hurdles and hassles that come along with these types of events – we were able to stick our heads together and brainstorm new ideas when roadblocks got in the way.
Dallase’s suggestion of Stone Hearth Pizza, I thought was great! So thanks for that!! I’d never heard of them before. And I think that spurred the main of questions of how “local”/advertized local do we want this event to be. We ended up going with Dave’s as it’s a very local and community supported business. When I had initially talked to them they seemed hesitant to commit to doing local and sustainable produce but Dave seemed confident that they’d be able to do most of the work in-house and was able guarantee that most ingredients would be organic and local (vegetables became a bit of an issue…). This was a great lesson for me, I think, in that while it may not be marked and advertized as local, it very well may be all the same.
Maybe I would have felt differently if I’d been able to attend the symposium after all the planning but as it stands I don’t feel that this experience gave me any significant feeling of accomplishment or education. I’ve planned events and organized people before and it’s the same issues and frustrations of communicating issues to a group of people and getting X number of people to sign onto Y number of decisions. A lot of what my group was in charge of seemed to be busy work. I appreciate how these sorts of things incorporate into planning and organizational skills as a whole but I don’t feel as though I learned anything new through the process. I just found it frustrating to be responsible for this along with the work of two grad level courses, two undergrad courses, an internship that teaches me the same organizational skills, and a captainship where I’m implementing said organizational skills/doing busy work on a far too frequent basis. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I felt bogged down with unnecessary busy work when I already have a lot on my plate and because I was unable to attend the event I felt like I got very little out of it which is a big shame.
I did appreciate working on this issue in class last Monday as it gave me a chance to see what other groups were doing and how everything was going to fit together in the end. Based on that it seems like it was going to be a GREAT event, and I hope it was and that people were able to come away from it with a greater feeling of accomplishment.
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