Progress, Live during one month without producing any garbage. This idea is finished, check out the end result.
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Maarten, posted On March 5, 2012
Ok, I'm ready to leave it for now.
I know February has passed and March has already started. But after making a little video and writing a little something I'm finally ready to let go of 'One month without garbage'. It was a fun/exhausting/challenging/exciting month, and this is my finish. Check it out here!
Does this mean I'm going to stop with 'no garbage' and start flushing plastic down the toilet? Of course not silly!!! Making trash feels very strange, so I'm in a transition phase in which I'm figuring out which things I keep and which not. I'll keep you posted, but first I'm going to enjoy some midnight cruesli...
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Maarten, posted On March 1, 2012
I gotta admit, the first bread with cheese does make me smile :-)
Hey Maarten, it sounds like bread and cheese was producing garbage. Please teach us: why couldn't you eat this for a whole month?
Hey Kasper! Well actually the bread isn't producing so much garbage, of course indirectly yes, but not directly if you get it in your own bag. But the dutch cheese is a little bit more difficult since the crust around it is made from plastic. You can't eat it! That's why I didn't eat any the whole month and since I'm a little bit of a cheese fan, I missed it sometimes.
Btw. You do have cheeses where this is not the case, for instance with Parmigiano you can eat everything, because the outside is just a dryer version of the inside. Also feta should be possible if you would get it at the Turkish store/market and put it in your own tupperware. Smoked mozzarella (really delicious! :-) also has an edible crust... But dutch cheese not, even though I wondered how they did it in the old times, it must have been wax or something...
Yep, it was wax :)
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Maarten, posted On February 17, 2012
So what am i going to do with this now?
great thing with paper is you can go all creative with it. envelopes can be used for posting another letter. just make a little drawing over the 'gemeente' print. write a new address. a little stamp (oh shit, what about stamps?) et voila! and boring papers from the gemeente can be turned into beautiful origami. or use the backside to write the letter you will put inside the envelope. fold it into a little gift box. if you had a wood heater, you could use it later to get your fire going. or soften it by crunching it and use it instead of toilet paper. but then you are stuck with it i guess...
or make your own paper by using your letters as a base: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Rlr8Xtpcwg&feature=related
Hehe, lot's of ideas you have as usual!! Nice! Maybe I can make my 'business cards' from them, I don't have any yet and many people find http://www.iwanttomaketheworldabetterplace.com a little long to remember :-)
Terug naar afzender
business cards?!!!
If you ask everyone who comes to the next hangout to bring (some of) their wastepaper, you could organize some paper-making right there and create a big stack of business cards maybe ;)
@sara, remembering the domain name cards?
@verena, might be a good idea! But maybe i try it out first before i'm stuck with everybodys paper :-)
maybe someone else has got some experience doing it? wise thinking though! is it okay btw if i bring my sister to the next hangout? i kind of infected her with following your progress and she lives in den haag :)
Of course Verena! Everybody is welcome, it's good you remind me because I should probably make an invitation again, cause it's a short month!
nah, what is that??? ;)
i guess you'd better wait til another month before creating business cards. -
Maarten, posted On February 16, 2012
Good morning day 16!
Where did you buy the deodorant? Would love to check it out
This is the one I bought: http://www.lush.nl/shop/product/product/path/166_169/id/364/styling-deodorant-aromaco
It works surprisingly well! :-)
Hi Maarten, I am new here, but really enjoying !
May I just add, as a woooooman, that there is always this special time of the month when most women produce a lot of waste....
One solution is the 'menstrual cup', made of rubber or other...plastic material, reusable for many years, and planet and body respectful!
Just thought I'd make a feminine participation...!
Keep on going, I am watching your actions with great pleasure.
Xx
Great Clum! I hadn't heard of that solution yet (maybe not so strange since I don't have that monthly challenge :-) Thanks a lot, sounds like a good option!
For those ladies out there who may be interested in Clum's suggestion, I know of this: http://www.mooncup.co.uk/
Yes, moon cup, diva cup, luna cup, there is one for each one of us !!!
I ordered some of the above mentioned products online today, so I am carrying on the experiment over here :)
proud mooncup user and can recommend it to all!
and Maarten, nice video about your morning xx
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Maarten, posted On February 12, 2012
This makes me very happy, cotton tissues!! I feel somewhat civilized again!!!
Nice oldskool colors
i have flowery ones! thought of sending you some but i see you got it sorted. i was amazed to see how many people shrug their nose when they see me using a cloth tissue ('do you wash those at least'?), just like when i use my foldacup instead (and i insist on having my water on the flights and to go coffees inside it) of a throw away cup. it just goes to show how the behavior of consumerism is what is considered just and legitimate, a familiar and comfortable habit, just like any other pattern that needs to be broken. similar to the misconception that you have to wash your hair every day, otherwise you'd be pretty disgusting (i assume a few people have a hard time to swallow your choice of not washing your hair daily or at least a few times a week)
hats off to you being the labrat and an example rather than just preaching about it.
Thanks girl! Actually washing my hair hasn't been such a topic yet, even though it's getting more greasy at the moment. Most people are more interested in the toilet paper debacle :-)
I remember your foldacup! Such a handy attribute... I'm very happy lately with my tiny foldable bag, now I always have one with me! -
Maarten, posted On February 11, 2012
Day 11!!
I'm proud of you!
Goed bezig jongen! Wat betreft shampoo/zeep, bij Lush kun je stukken zeep kopen; organisch en in brokken. Dus moet je denk ik ook zonder verpakking/bon kunnen krijgen. Deze shampoo gebruikt Bernadette bijvoorbeeld http://www.lush.nl/shop/product/product/path/147_148/id/87/haar-vaste-shampoo-seanik . Succes!
Thanks Sven!! I even see that they have a solid deodorant!! That would be a great solution, because my dad told me today I do smell a little :-) Thanks, thanks, thanks!!
It's great that you're collecting your organic waste! To turn it into fertilizer for the garden you do need a bit "brown" matter, like newspapers and dead leaves, whereas all the veg scraps are "green" matter. Have a looksie: http://www.howtocompost.org/info/info_composting.asp
Also, if you have baking soda and apple cider vinegar in your pantry already you can use that instead of shampoo.
Good luck!
Thanks for the tips Shazade, it's nice to learn more about composting...
Not using any shampoo is actually an experiment on it's own, since they say your hair will get used to it and start producing less grease after a while. So I'm curious when that moment will come :-) More about that here: http://blog.seanbonner.com/2010/02/01/ive-given-up-using-soap/ -
Maarten, posted On February 4, 2012
Only not lonely
I'm on the road with Zinnebeeld, three days in the snow! And this is me eating my prepared lunch in the cold... (it was actually really tasty! Paprika, tomato, eggplant mush) Of course I don't make much direct garbage if I go to a restaurant, but I didn't want to make it to easy for myself. And also try to decrease the indirect garbage I would produce. So I brought lots of my own food...In the evening I did have a nice dinner with the whole group, I couldn't resist the tasty gnochi...
Wish me luck for the coming days!
good luck and enjoy!!
in my opinion you did a great job this weekend! I hope you didn't feel lonely outside in the cold.
Thanks guys!! Doing my best! :-)
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Maarten, posted On February 2, 2012
So how am I going to do this?
That's what I kept wondering the past period. At first I though this idea would be challenging but doable. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized you can consider everything to be garbage.
With everything you use or consume, garbage has been produced in the production of the product. And most of the things you use will degrade and become unusable at some point. So isn't using these things not also producing garbage? Someones asked if bodily waste is also garbage, then isn't the air I exhale as well? This was my line of thought yesterday, which as you might understand made me feel a bit lost.
How will I survive this month?
I will take this challenge step by step because I can't be completely 'garbageless' from one day to another. The first step is to limit and hopefully stop any direct garbage I produce without increasing any indirect garbage. With direct garbage I mean all the things that I would personally put in the trash and throw away. Indirect garbage I understand as all the garbage that other people produce for me.
For instance, at this moment I want to cook with ingredients that I bought without me gathering any plastic, paper and glass. But currently I think I accept the fact that the carrot I buy, might have been packed in a box while it was traveling to the shop.
Then step two would be to start limiting also the indirect garbage that is produced. To start buying carrots closer to the farmer, or grow my own carrots!
Right now I'm at step one. Which is fun, because today I managed to buy a lot of vegetables from a tiny little organic shop in rotterdam. I <3 An-dijvie!!
Ik weet dat indianen hun tanden poetsen met speciaal hout, waarvan ze eerst op het uiteinde kauwen zodat het zacht wordt. En wassen kan idd met wasnoten (nooit geprobeerd) of met bijv. een ecowasbal (http://www.ecowasbal.com/) Ik heb een andere variant, maar kon die zo gauw niet vinden op t net. Werkt heel goed, behalve als je kleren echt heeeeel vies zijn. Uiteindelijk produceert t natuurlijk wel iets aan afval (na 1000 wasbeurten), maar veel minder dan de conventionele wasmiddelen :)
Oh, en beetje flauw, maar er bestaat volgens mij in theorie ook zoiets als een vrouwencondoom. Alleen van gehoord, nog nooit gezien en blijft natuurlijk discussiepunt wie het afval dan produceert ;)
Thanks a lot, especially for the idea of using a special ball to do the laundry. A friend of mine was using one a while ago, maybe I can ask to borrow it from him. If that works it would be great.
A female condom? I guess that's shifting the problem a little... And before you convinced someone to use it the moment is gone I guess :-)
i use the magnetic laundry ball. not always very pleased with the result, but hey...perhaps that is a price worth paying?
and what about lambskin condoms??? sounds slightly caveman but then again not :) even though somewhere along the line of producing them, there must be waste involved. make one yourself ! (...to quote my mother..) and then, lambskin is organic waste which can decompose!
Organic waste is not a problem. These are nutrients to other organisms. Just put it back in the ground after composting. Might take some time though. Fermenting is great as well; google Bokashi. Gets rid of all your organic waste and turns it into green gold.
Another idea; you might get yourself invited for dinners. Your cooks have to cook for themselves anyway and won't really have more waste by adding some more potatoes from the sack they used anyway. That wouldn't be cheating would it? Might depend on how sustainable your host is. Better check that out first.
I have ecoballs from the brand ecozone and as I said, as long as you do not have terrible stains (like chocolate, grease etc) they're really okay. I have just ordered the ones that go for 1000 instead of 150 washes, so if you like, I can send you a set to try out :) I like the idea about inviting yourself for dinner! If you happen to be in Arnhem, feel free ;) And I don't think it really matters if your host is not very sustainable YET, they probably will be a lot more sustainable after talking to you ;)!
@ Sara: does there really exist such a thing as lambskin condoms??? Personally I wouldn't ever trust a selfmade condom to work, maybe you should ask your mother how she got pregnant with you ;)?
@ chantal, Bokashi seems very interesting, I will check it out more. Thanks!!
I like having dinners with friends a lot, it will probably create a bit more indirect waste, so maybe its even better to invite friends over to have dinner with me! eventhough my cooking is limited at the moment since I don't have salt and other tastemakers yet. Hopefully I will at some point this month. Maybe I can make salt from my own sweat.. (just kidding :-)
@verena, thanks for the invite and offering to send the ecoballs. I might be able to borrow one from a friend, which would save packaging etc...
@sara, maybe I will just become a monk, at least for a month :-)
You could use ingredients high on salt, like cheese and (salted) nuts, which you could buy on the market. Maybe you could even buy sea-salt somewhere on the market?
Why not buy soaps etc made entirely from natural products? Then you don't produce any harmful waste, I'd say. Of course you first have to find a shop where they sell this unpackaged..
About the toilet paper, a friend of mine had this book:
http://www.amazon.com/How-Shit-Woods-Second-Environmentally/dp/0898156270
You can just wipe your bottoms with leaves or grass! (didn't test...)
@Joan, yes at least for washing my hands. Showering without showergel and shampoo I'm also doing because I'm interested what the effects will be on my skin, hair, smell, etc...
@Simon, Thanks! Until now I'm managing with good timing, but if I would go camping that will be handy... -
Maarten, posted On February 2, 2012
The morning after (the first day)
I have to be honest and admit that the first day wasn't easy. All of a sudden there are so many things that you can't do if you don't want to produce any garbage. It seems with everything you produce waste, if it's not directly because of me, someone else has produced it in creating the product. When does something become garbage and when is it a functional item? I have more of those questions which I'm slowly getting clear about, and I think tonight I will write a post explaining how I want to become 'garbageless'...
But now I need to find food first! Yesterday I was only partly successful because when I found a place where I could buy rice in bulk, and put it in my own little plastic bag, I still had to put a sticker with the weight on it! I only realized I had done it when I came out of the shop... Silly silly silly...
This is the sticker:
So today again I will search for food, and I will prepare myself for a three day trip with the company I work for. How am I going to be 'garbageless' while being on the road!!
Now a picture of a nail.
can you compost a nail? i read that you can compost an egg shell (if you crunch it into pieces). But what about hair and nails? You can always decide to eat your nails. (i do not recommend eating your hair)
I actually thought you couldn't and I saved all my nails that I cut this morning, but Google says something different! As long as I keep away from the nail polish it should be fine! Also hair apparently is compostable.
http://webecoist.momtastic.com/2009/04/16/22-things-you-didnt-know-you-could-compost/
bought in bulk? If yes, please share. I just love my organic cruesli, but it does come in a plastic bag unfortunately...
Actually this was made by the mom of Thierry. I did find organic cruesli in bulk at 'de Groene Passage', so maybe next time at the Hangout I can get you some?
Hmm, won't say no to that one :) And maybe I will come to the next hangout after all!