Obviously I can't expect people I don't know to be considering their plastic bag usage, and I can pack up the bags and bring them with me for reuse, but I already have more than enough!
Day two of sore ankle was less successful in terms of not wasting plastic bags. A guy from the hostel very kindly offered to buy whatever I needed when he was going to the shop, I got 5 different vegetables which came in 5 plastic bags.
Obviously I can't expect people I don't know to be considering their plastic bag usage, and I can pack up the bags and bring them with me for reuse, but I already have more than enough!
0 Comments
I twisted my ankle as I was getting down off the curb to get into a taxi, and because of the urgency of the situation (we were on the way to the bus station) I sent Ciarán running for ice! while he was away I pondered that I shouldn't have been so hasty and given him a bag to carry the ice back in! But while I am still in serious pain I am happy to report that the bag the restaurant gave him did not look new!
Day one into my 3 week trip and I managed to lose the lid of my one water bottle!
I retraced my steps looking for it to no avail, toyed with the idea of drinking out of an airtight drinking glass shaped lunch box I brought with me, managed to use my bottle while keeping it upright, and finally got a bottle that someone else was about to throw out. This has basically the same ingredients as jam. Not exactly my favourite treat, but each indvidual portion comes wrapped in leaves so it is one of the only long life high calorie snacks available that doesn´t use an excess of foil wrapping! And so my new throw in the bag when I am going off on adventures snack (I suspect this means that I will be snacking less)!
I never noticed how many restaurants have had these before! Now I see them everywhere! And while I am used to asking waiters not to give me a napkin (under my cutlery) as they put it down, I have not yet worked up the courage to ask them to take the place mat away! My reasoning is that I am not causing them extra work by refusing the napkin, but the place mat is there so they don´t have to clean the table between customers, so if I ask them to take it away they have to come back with a cloth and wipe the table after me...is it ok for me to cause extra work for other people, or should I just avoid these places?
Before I leave the house I need to make sure I have my water bottle with me. No big deal! But now I also have to look around during the day for places I can fill up my water bottle, so I don´t get stuck without and have to buy another plastic bottle. I find myself questioning how cheeky it is to ask for my bottle to be filled up in restaurants and debating the relative wastage of a water bag (non reusable) compared to a water bottle (more plastic).
I have a keep cup in Ireland, and a spork and more than one metal water bottle, but for one reason or another I didn't bring any of them to Colombia with me.
Now if I want to go for a coffee in the sun I have to bring a mug with me, and I would feel more comfortable carrying a spork than cutlery, but I guess this year is not about comfort! The volunteaching programme I am doing here requires a 24 page participation agreement, which I printed, initialed, signed and delivered before Christmas.
Unfortunately the person processing the applications has changed and now they want me to sign the participation agreement again. They are saying that there are changes to the document, but I have looked through both documents and could not find any differences. Which leads me to believe that this paper wastage is being caused by one of three reasons: A) They lost the participation agreement that I gave them. B) They are too lazy to go and get the documents from their colleague. C) They accidentally sent me the old version of the agreement. Whatever the reason is, it is wastage I will not be participating in. I noticed when I was spraying my windows with fake snow before Christmas that the can said remove with methylated spirits, and if this had been any other year, that is what I would have used to clean the windows.
But since I have none around the house, and I don´t know what else I would use it for, I couldn´t justify buying a bottle. Having tried a few different methods, I found soapy water and a scouring pad made an impact and voila 2 hours and 1 ruined manicure later, I have clean windows! One of the things I have had to cut out are cereal bars, very handy for throwing in you bag if you are heading off on a hike or away for the weekend and and especially if we are getting up really early (to go bird watching in the wilderness) and have no idea when we will next see food. Also handy to grab between meals, or if you get up too late for breakfast (7 am classes still hurt).
The problem is that six bars come individually wrapped in foil and then in a cardboard box, so I tried to make flap jacks! My options are pretty limited since I only have a toaster oven, a microwave, a two ringed stove and a cupcake maker, the toaster oven is what I use to toast my oats for muesli so I started there, deep down I knew it wouldn´t work because when I make muesli I have to mix it half way through so it will cook evenly and I add in the raisins afterwards otherwise they burn to a crisp, as expected brown on top, white on the bottom and not stuck together (I had to take them out after 7 mins otherwise the top would have burnt) my other option was the cupcake maker which was slightly more successful with some sticking together but not enough. It has made me optimistic enough to try making thinner ones in the cup cake maker, but even if they are successful, because you have to cool them in the tins I will only be able to make one batch at a time, so the effort to reward ratio is not favourable! Let me know if you have a suggestion for a transportable long life high carb snack! Not even two weeks in and today I purchased a lunch in a Styrofoam soup bowl with lid, two Styrofoam plates (one as a lid) cling-filmed together a plastic cup with more cling-film plastic cutlery in a plastic packet with a napkin all in a plastic bag...right next door to my house!
It would seemed that I have failed in my plan for 2016, and maybe I have, but I am justifying it because it wasn´t for me (although I am planning on only buying music downloads etc. as gifts this year), and I didn´t have time to plan this purchase! Usually when I am going to a supermarket (in this case to buy my zero packaging ingredients for lunch) and I see someone homeless outside, I ask them what they want. Today the lady asked for money for a hot lunch, I explained that I didn´t have cash but could get her anything she wanted from the supermarket. She asked fora fried chicken meal with soup, and since we weren´t sure if she would be allowed in, we ordered it take away! The way I see it I have two options, stop feeding the homeless or create rubbish, so I´m allowing this slide! I spent the first week of 2016 travelling in Venezuela, with all my accommodation (and most meals included prearranged). This meant that I had less control over what my food was served in, meaning I got cutlery wrapped in a paper napkin, one time a plastic knife, fork and spoon in a plastic package with a napkin when all I needed was a fork, disposable cups, disposable lids, straws in my drinks and over packaged packed lunches.
I had to resort to small victories like reusing my cup or filling my bottle, not taking a straw or not taking sugar because it came in a sachet. The plan is to be more confident so I can ask in restaurants that they bring me my drink without a straw (I am on the fence about frozen drinks...I may have to stop ordering them) or to get me cutlery that hasn´t been wrapped yet, but this will come with the added challenge with requiring that they understand my Spanish! |
For 2016 I am not going to be a waster!I am going to try to buy nothing new: clothes, electronics, home wares, gadgets, souvenirs etc. Archives
December 2016
Categories |