February has come and gone which means it’s time for me to take another look inside my trash jar. This last month has been a little frustrating because I ended up with a lot of from my graduate program that I felt like was pointless. It can be really difficult when you’re in a semi-medical field so professors require you to use certain equipment that is disposable. And most of the time I can understand the health reason behind it so it doesn’t bother me. But this quarter I had a professor who just blatantly disregarded the environment by purchasing enormous amounts of packaged food, baby bottles, and plastic spoons that we used once and then tossed out (sometimes not even using at all!). So, you’ll notice some very odd items in my jar this month from all that pediatric feeding practice…
The Nitty Gritty:
1 apple sauce lid
1 hair tie
1 broccoli tag
1 concert wrist band
1 cough drop wrapper
1 valentine’s day card package
1 infant bottle (trying to find someone who might need this!)
1 elk meat package (hunted by a friend who gifted some meat to my parents)
1 broken plate (not featured in picture)
2 vitamin seals
2 receipts
2 staples
2 gloves and respect packaging
3 plastic jar seals
Numerous bus passes
Unfortunately the broken plate weighs quite a bit so my total for this month is much higher than usual (16.5 ounces – over a pound!) and it looks like I’ll be breaking some more things before the year is up. I just broke a cup last week that will count in March’s jar….urgh. Even so, I continue to move forward and find different things to replace with reusables! A lot of the waste that ends up in my life at this point is accidental and I may never be able to eliminate that completely, but I won’t stop trying!