It has been an interesting and challenging Lent for me. For those of you who observe, Happy Easter and congratulations on making it through whatever sacrifice you chose for these six weeks. Some things I did during my zero waste challenge were new to me; some were things I was already doing (or trying to do). Some things I will keep doing; some I probably will not. All in all, though, it was very educational – I found myself doing research on subjects I hadn’t considered before. I was much more informed, thoughtful, and intentional in my decision-making, which was ultimately the goal.
Before I get into the full-Lent review, I’ll just mention that this week was the worst for me in waste generation for my personal pile (not counting the waste from the party or the dead food processor). Unfortunately I was getting a little complacent this last week – I was not as proactive as I had been previously, and that resulted in some unintentional waste generation – all involving restaurants.
At my sister-in-law’s birthday dinner, the waitress brought us water automatically, with straws. I ordered a quesadilla, not thinking that my salsa and sour cream would come in plastic condiment cups. I had just finished a 20-mile run, and I was not feeling energetic enough to get into a discussion with the manager about why they shouldn’t do that. A few days later, I got takeout from my favorite restaurant – I brought Tupperware containers for them to fill, but I still got one of the sauces in a plastic condiment cup. Overall, it wasn’t a lot of waste generated, but it made a big contribution to my total waste pile.
I also purchased a live mouse trap, which I believe was my first non-food-related purchase (other than gasoline) during Lent. We had a surprise visitor in our living room after strong storms led to a leak in our attic. I can only assume that the wet insulation was no longer a satisfactory lounging area for our mouse guest. The trap itself, though, complies with my guidelines, as the metal can be scrapped and recycled at the end of its life. (I will be talking more about live traps in a future post, so look for that.)
But getting back to my summary, I started Lent with road travel to a conference (energy efficiency in central Pennsylvania), and I am ending Lent with road travel to a conference (brewing in New Hampshire). I was similarly prepared for each trip with various snacks, drinks, and reusable containers, but it feels more routine now.
All of the road time this weekend has given me a nice opportunity to think about the last six weeks – what I’ve learned and what decisions I might make in the future.
Food
I dedicated two out of six blog posts to food because it was easily the biggest hurdle I encountered. This was the topic on which I expected the biggest challenges because almost everything seems to be packaged in plastic. My Lenten adventure has given me the opportunity to explore a variety of topics including cooking for travel and easy meals, shopping to reduce waste, and experimenting with simple substitutions. And for the most part, I was successful, but what I expected was not quite what happened.
The way I had set up my rules, I couldn’t buy any food with packaging, but I could use what was in my kitchen. I envisioned a month and a half of buying new ingredients in bulk, using up old ingredients in my cupboard, and having healthy, home-cooked food in the house.
In reality, I did clear out my cabinets a little, and I did cook for myself a little. I also spent less money (probably because I was eating less fast food and using ingredients I already had in my kitchen). One unintended consequence was that between my giving up waste and Christian’s giving up drinking at home, we wound up going out to eat a lot more. We’re both good at exploiting loopholes, which is exactly what we did. Regularly.
I’m not going to stick with my 100% prohibition on waste. (I am specifically looking forward to getting my free popcorn at the movies once again.) However, I think I will do a better job of buying in bulk, cooking at home, and bringing reusable containers with me when I go out.
Feminine Products
I thankfully had a very light period this past week, which I believe was at least in part because I was at the peak of my marathon training, and my body is in some level of crisis mode. I was able to get though the week with one or two pairs of period panties a day, a distinct change from last month, which was utterly miserable. I imagine I will go back to normal after the race is over, at which point I will probably back up the period panties with tampons on heavy days – at least until I’m allowed to use my menstrual cup again.
Clothing
I did not buy any clothing during Lent, but I think I will try to shift my purchasing behavior moving forward. I need to do more research into how synthetic materials break down as they age, but for the time being, I am going to focus on buying only clothing made with natural fibers. I don’t think I have fully grasped what a huge restriction that will be (eliminating yoga pants, tech shirts, and panty hose), but I will try. If I absolutely have to have something made from synthetic fiber, I will try to buy it used from a thrift store. This decision will mean a huge impact on the appearance of my wardrobe too.
In an ideal world, I would want to get back to sewing my own clothes (which I have done in the past). It would be great to source my own fabric and know exactly what is in everything I buy, but that is even more of a pipe dream than regularly cooking my own meals.
Weekly Recap
- Waste Total
- Personal – apple and banana stickers, 6 pieces of dental floss, “member” ribbon from conference nametag, empty toothpaste tube, #4 plastic ring from glass milk bottle, plastic sleeve from Girl Scout shortbread cookies, plastic wrap from cheese that was about to go bad, plastic wrap from day planner (purchased before Lent), 4 cocktail straws, plastic strip from top of sugar bag, 1 regular straw, 3 plastic condiment container
- Party waste – a small rice bag full of mostly food packaging
- Appliances – a broken food processor
- Personal Victories – making it through a brewing conference without being served anything in a single-use tasting cup.
- Missed Opportunities – not talking to the restaurant manager about not automatically bringing straws in water
- Husband Hardships – none this week, as he was out of town for work
In summary, I am glad I tried this challenge. It opened my eyes to a lot of things that I took for granted, and it made me think about my decisions and their impacts. I would recommend it to anyone in full or in part, depending on physical/financial/health restrictions. If you have tried something like this, tell me about it below!
Thanks for reading!
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