Michelle Britton

Yesterday marked the end of the 30 day ‘Reduce Challenge’ and we still only have the garage bin a little under a 1/3 filled. Which is very remarkable for us. There are still a few areas we need improve on – paper towels seems to be our largest contribution to the bin. Here is a summary of what we did to reduce;

• Purchased a Compost for Food Scraps (still working on the Pet Waste Compost)
• Tried to improve our purchasing choices ensuring the materials could be recycled
• Items not picked up curb side, found recycle drop offs within the city (such as items as plastic, styrofoam, milk cartons, and tetra packs need to be dropped off)
• Stopped buying bottle water (see http://mymindsink.com/kill-bottled-water/)
• Use cloth bags for all purchases – including clothing – most retailers also give a small discount off your bill when you use your own bag
• Stopped using paper napkins – this is different from paper towels
• Return metal hangers to the dry cleaners

It was an interesting 30 days and it did not seem to effect us too much – just me picking through the garbage a few times to pull out compostable and recyclable items – then lecturing my husband and niece.

I think we are on the right path and will continue this new Green way of living – I just hope they will not kick me out of the house.

It is now 17 days since we started the ‘Reduce Challenge’ – and we had to take the garbage out for the first time. The good news is that it was only half a bag. The bad news is that it was mostly paper towels and the dog has a bladder infection.

I know what you are thinking – what are we doing with the dog and cat waste. Right now, I am embarrassed to say, we have not picked up the dog poop in the yard. As for the cat, we have two bags sitting outside. I have been procrastinating if we can actual compost the waste.

After some research I found you can compost both just don’t use it with your vegetable garden, which could contaminate your home grown produce and land up in your (very unhappy) belly. If you have room in your backyard, you can bury an old garbage bin (note: far away from your vegetable garden) to use as a pet-waste composter. Composting cat-litter is also a responsible way to keep potentially hazardous parasites and waste — like e. coli, toxoplasmosis, ammonia, and nitrate — out of our landfills and waterways. That’s also why pregnant women and people with immune deficiencies should never clean a cat box.

Whether you’re scooping for a kitty or a pooch, composting your pet’s waste will prevent it from polluting waterways and from taking up space in landfills.

We are doing a 30 day ‘Reduce’ Challenge, the main idea is to become more eco-friendly. I got the idea from a news clip I saw on TV about a couple that is doing a 365 day challenge to reduce waste. They do not buy clothing; they make their own bread and yogurt; they even take there own containers to the grocery store to purchase meat.

To reduce waste, we have now purchased a compost, it is very slick. Once the activator is put in (that is a fancy word for manure), you simply add the food and give it a good spin. The main area we, well, Dirk and my niece Nicole, needs to improve on is actually composting – I seem to spend a little too much time sorting through the garbage – pulling out items to be recycled or composted. It is actually really gross. I even found a fork in the garbage – how did they think that was an item to be thrown out?!

BUT, with that being said, we have yet to throw out the household garbage, with all bins being less then half filled.

NOTE: For those that are partaking in the challenge, please post your comments below so I know how you are doing – maybe someone has a great idea to share.