I would love to report that we got through our first week entirely rubbish free, but alas it wasn’t to happen. Last night I went to an awesome sale at a surf shop and ended up getting a new wetsuit. The labels are made from card, so are easily recyclable, but unfortunately attaching them to the wetsuit was one of those little plastic tag things, (I have no idea what you call those), which is about 2 inches long, 2mm wide, probably as light as a feather and it is now our first official piece of rubbish!
It has been an amazing week. On Tuesday night Campbell Live screened an article that they had done on us with the result being a massive outpouring of support, encouragement and advice from a diverse range of people. We feel like we have been given an awesome send off on some epic journey, and it will certainly be of benefit in the depths of winter when it all feels a bit silly and we want to order in some takeaways that come in styrofoam! Thank you so much to everyone who has in someway passed on messages of goodwill and support. Another interesting outcome of the publicity has been finding out that our epic journey isn’t quite as epic to a number of people who have already been doing this without any big fanfare or fuss. Chris and Hern only used one bag last year and were able to provide the sage like advice “If it (waste) doesn’t come into your lives it won’t need to leave them.” Also, Nick in Dunedin has made an armchair out of the little waste he created in two years. You can find him at – http://www.rugbyheaven.co.nz/4217245a6568.html or his blog at http://nickbionic.blogspot.com.
In many ways this first week at least has been easier than expected. The preparations for the year were somewhat demanding, but now that we are in the swing of it, its all good! I’ve made muesli bars twice now and can see that I won’t be needing the recipe soon and in one of the comments we were given a link to a great bread recipe. A small challenge of the week was when buying sandpaper (we’re currently preparing our weatherboard house for painting) at a large home hardware store. Ducking the plastic bag they wanted to put my two rolls of sandpaper in was relatively simple, but we then had to dodge the ‘SOLD’ plastic tape that they wanted to put on the items. Still we managed to get through unscathed and rubbishless.
Thanks again to everyone for your comments and support – cheers.
Those little plastic things are a bugger! Perhaps a small collection of such things can be made into a piece of art work to commemorate your year!
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Hi
I have a queation.
I have been hunting thoughtout this website to find out what you do with waxed paper, if you by it. I use it to wrap the kids lunches so it’s often soggy and ‘dirty’. do you know if I can burn or compost it?
Thanks
Julie
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You should buy some Tupperware sandwich keepers. They will last for ever (lifetime guarantee) and the keep sammies fresher than the waxed paper.
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Wonderful website and blog – good luck with your inspirational journey!
We buy rolls of Mono waxed paper from the supermarket to use instead of Gladwrap.
We find the GE free cornstarch bags from Edengreenz are the greatest for rubbish disposal and food storage. Ecostore has litre containers of shampoo, conditioner, detergent etc. In some organic shops these are refillable. Love the idea of taking along a reusable container for takeaways. Our local Thai always gives us rice in a plastic container so another alternative is to cook the rice ourselves.
Look forward to reading more about your journey.
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If you buy element label clothing they have tags that are usually attatched with a wee saftey pin and ribbon 🙂 Oh and those wee thingys are just called attachments
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Thanks so much for your inspirational, iniative. It really motivates and heartily reinforces all my small iniatives to recycle and avoid waste.
Jenny
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