- Jenica Barrett
#OneJarChallenge – August 2016
After my one stop trash pit in Mexico, !! , I was looking forward to having a month of relatively low trash production. And overall, it wasn’t too bad! As you can see in the photo and in my list, a fair amount was caused by medicine packages. You should be proud though, I am medication free now! Woohooo!
August ended up totaling 3.4 ounces of trash!
As I do every month, let’s take a look at what I produced and why. This helps me and everyone reading my blog learn from my mistakes and brainstorm ways to avoid the same items in the future!
2 Hair Ties: I haven’t bought any new hair ties since going zerowaste but every so often these do break. You can look into buying wood clips instead or finding a hair tie made out of natural products like latex.
1 Ziplock Bag Seal: In Whatcom County ziplock bags can be recycled in the loose plastics bins as long as the seal is cut off and thrown away. This ziplock has been with me a long time but got melted by the toaster recently!
4 Vegan Cheese Wrappers: As many of you have learned, cheese is my weakness! I had finally found plastic free cheese from the farmers market but when I had to go dairy free for over a month, I couldn’t quite give up cheese. Even if it was just fake cheese.
14 Medicine Packages: Sometimes medication is the only way to get better. Take it. Throw it away. And try to stay healthy for the future!
2 Vegan Butter Wrappers: I didn’t realize that the butter I bought wouldn’t come in the compostable wrappers like my old regular butter. I know now for next time…
1 Spiral Bound: This came from my planner from last year. Ideally, I would go to an online planner or use one on my phone. But I guess I’m just old fashioned because I really need a paper one.
1 Planner Sticker: This was on the front of the new planner I purchased.
1 Tea Bag: I was visiting my parents’ house and forgot to bring my loose leaf tea. This is a case of choosing to refuse, which I did not.
1 Airline Bag Marker: Apparently the airline worker felt the need to place a giant “HEAVY” sticker on my suitcase even though it wasn’t over weight. Flying producing a lot of trash (as well as has a huge carbon footprint) so prepare ahead of time as much as you can and accept that you will end up with a few stickers and bag tags.
1 Airline Sticker: My bag tag from flying to Mexico – unfortunately, these can only be avoided if you don’t fly or choose to just bring a carry on.
3 Jar Seals: With my meal restrictions, I learned some more of the dairy free alternatives I was purchasing had secret seals hidden under the lids. Now though I can go back to what I was using before and have vetted for plastic!
2 Container Seals: Same as above, except for these I could visibly see them before I purchased them. But I had such limited food options that I literally didn’t have any other option.
1 Ice Cream Seal: I bought a Soy ice cream on accident instead of a coconut one and it had a seal…dang it!
1 Licorice Package: My naturopath insisted I eat licorice every day and it couldn’t be in a pill. She recommended Panda candies so I followed her advice on bought some. They work fantastic to ease my stomach when it acts up!
1 PillowPak: The probiotics I am buying have these little pillow packs in them. I know some are toxic and some are more natural but I haven’t figured out a use for these yet.
A few clothing stickers: A goodwill trip left me with a couple price tag stickers.
2 Pieces of Tape: I don’t own duct tape or regular tape in my apartment so I don’t understand where these came from…
2 Pieces of old string: Another item I found while vacuuming the house…I hope one day I will quite finding all these little trash surprises hidden in places!
1 Balloon: I had made a stress ball back in college with balloons and sand. Well one of the balloons wore out and broke.
So that’s it! Another month down. More lessons learned.
If you feel like joining in and showing off your monthly trash, just tag me at @zerowastewisdom on Instagram or on Facebook! I would love to see how everyone is doing!