Taking Steps Toward Zero Waste

When I was in England in December, I found myself wandering into a lot of bookstores. By that point in my trip, I had read all of the books I'd brought with me several times each and was in desperate need of a new read. It was comforting to once again browse through a bookstore where the books were actually in my language.

At a bookshop in London, I came across a book called Zero Waste Home. This book totally struck a chord within me, and--after standing in the store reading it for a good twenty minutes--I had to buy it.

Zero Waste Home by Bea Johnson

For those of you who have never heard of the zero-waste movement, it's exactly what it sounds like. You basically minimize the amount of garbage that you produce, with the goal of working it down to no garbage produced.

Sounds pretty extreme, and I have to admit that zero-waste seems like a pretty high bar to meet. But I've begun to notice just how much garbage a single human produces in a single day.

According to the EPA--yes, Mr. President, we actually DO need this federal agency and it would be great if you didn't try to annihilate it--in 2014, the average American generated about 4.43 pounds of garbage per day. That means that each person living in the US of A makes 1,618 pounds of grabage per year, for an annual grand total of 258 million tons of American garbage!

As a result of this personal awakening, I have personally been striving to reduce my negative impact on the planet, more so lately than ever before. But I was never really sure how to go about it. I mean, I've always been a recycler. But zero-waste goes way deeper than recycling.

The strategies for reducing waste can be grouped into five broad categories, nicknamed the 5Rs: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Rot (and only in that order).

Today, I'm just going to focus on that first one: Refuse.

Refuse means saying "no" to things that you don't need. Sounds pretty easy, right?

But it's hard to say no to free pens, free samples, free notepads. It's hard to tell the cashier, "I don't need a bag," after they've already started loading your items into a plastic grocery bag. It's hard to call the junk mail companies up and tell them to take you off their mailing list.

But if you don't genuinely need those things, they're just going to clutter up your car, your house, your office, and end up in the garbage eventually anyway. So just say "no." 

Saying "no" also decreases the demand for those cheap pens, those plastic bags, those promotional postcards, which means that fewer will be made in the first place. 

Those plastic bags suck anyway.

So my challenge to you, dear reader, is to take a moment--right here, right now--to think of some opportunities in your near future when you might be offered free stuff. And then visualize yourself saying "no, thanks." Sounds very cheesy, I know, but if you think about it ahead of time, you're less likely to automatically accept those freebies when they are flung your way. 

I seriously recommend that you get your hands on a copy of Zero Waste Home yourself. (You can borrow mine, if you want.) It's full of all kinds of tips and tricks.

And if you have any questions about zero-waste, leave them in the comments. I'm just beginning to embark on this zero-waste endeavor, and I'd love to know that I'm helping others to do the same. 

I'm not asking you to drastically change your lifestyle in one fell swoop. I'm just asking you to take these baby steps with me. If a lot of people each make a little change, it adds up to a big impact. 

About Me - 2017

Welcome to my blog!

I'm Jess, and I'll be your author for the duration of this journey. Please keep your hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times. Exits are located at the front, at the rear, and on either side of row 14.

A little bit about me: I am an elementary school teacher in the Baltimore area, and in my spare time, I love going new places and trying new things!

I got started blogging in 2016 when I backpacked around Europe for 4 and 1/2 months. Since I got back, I've been more of a weekend adventurer/day tripper, but I've been using my school breaks to really indulge my travel bug. 

I'm a dog person, a lover of large cups of coffee, and a recovering Type-A personality. 

I hope you like reading my blog, but even if you don't, I'm going to keep writing it! If you do like it, though, please let me know by commenting. ☺

Trivia Nights and the Camping Trip That Wasn't

I've always been a bit of a sucker for trivia. I was one of those weird kids that watched Jeopardy every evening and did the Washington Post crossword puzzle with my dad. I still am one of those kids, if I'm honest.

On any given Thursday night during my college years, I could be found sharing a table with four friends (y'all know who you are), spouting random factoids in the hope of winning a gift card and a witty t-shirt.

Well, two Thursdays ago, I made my trivia comeback: Rachael, Taylor, Evan, and I went to Homeslyce, a Baltimore-based pizza chain, for their trivia night. It was my first night in Baltimore since my Europe trip, and it was well worth the wait. The pizza was good, the beer was better, and our fifth-from-the-bottom finish was something we were not at all ashamed of. I was especially proud of my performance in the '80s movies category. (Abe Froman, Sausage King of Chicago, anyone?)

The debut of The Rookies Rollin' Up
(great team name, we know)

Since the weather was freakishly un-February-like, Evan's and my plans for the following evening included a one-night camping trip. We loaded up Evan's new CR-V with camping supplies, and as we were about to walk out the door, Evan pulled out his phone to make a game-time decision as to where we were going to camp that night.

As it turned out, we weren't going to camp anywhere. Because even though the weather screamed May, the calendar steadfastly insisted that it was February, so the campgrounds at the local state parks weren't open yet.

So we unloaded the camping supplies and invited friends over to a bonfire in Evan's backyard instead. We couldn't let perfectly good s'mores makings go to waste, now could we?

After we'd stuffed our faces with marshmallow-y, chocolate-y, graham-cracker-y goodness, we moseyed on over to our friend Brad's house, a few backyards over, to make use of his hot tub. Because if you can't go camping, a hot tub is the next best thing.

The next morning--instead of the camp-stove-cooked pancakes that we'd originally planned as our Saturday-morning breakfast--we went to The Original Pancake House in Rockville. Evan had been telling me for months that I had to go there for breakfast, so we finally made it happen. I ordered strawberry pancakes, eggs, hashbrowns (duh), and coffee (double duh), before making my trademark mistake: forgetting to take a picture of my food before I scarfed it down.

I bought this card in Edinburgh because it basically summed up my travels.

So you'll just have to take my word for it: it was all pretty dang tasty.

Monday night found most of the usual suspects at Pub Dog, which we had recently discovered also has trivia night.

We tried our hand at shuffleboard in between rounds, and--despite a little bit of self-sabotage *coughcough* Outlander *coughcough*--we managed to place third, scoring a $10 Pub Dog gift card! I credit my parents with the victory. We had no clue what that Duran Duran song was, nor did we realize that Hagrid had been a Bond villain.

Yep, I'm the cool kid who brought her parents to trivia night.

Oh, and I bought a car!

#adulting

See? I can still do fun stuff without traveling the world.

But dang, do I miss those croissants.