Day 39: Rubbish
Ive been following an amazing blog... its a 365 but the actual 365 is up and I'm sorry I missed following it at the time. Its a guy who challenged him self, probably very much to the horror of his wife and teenage daughters to not dispose of any waste for a year - to understand something more of the impact that has on our world. He said it was the realisation as he threw a plastic bottle away that all he was doing was getting rid of it - away from his responsibility essentially - out of sight out of mind I suppose... but actually its not going any where really. He cleared out his basement to make way for what he would accumulate and I can't remember now what his decision was about human waste! Its absolutely crazy but now since that year he is still passionately posting up information daily about environmental issues.
Its an amazing way to decide what you buy... to look at a multipack of crisps and think of it in terms of taking on ownership and responsibility of each of the packets at the end. Instantly you work out that you could easily buy the biggest pack possible and share it out instead, saving money as well as conscience.
I want to incorporate this way of thinking into my own. I am resourceful and creative so I do generally find it really hard to throw any thing out - arty people always have messy houses- or at least an area full of a bizarre collection of imported fabrics, interestingly shaped toy packaging or just a big bag of wool and sequin waste! I'm always looking at things before I put them in the bin to see if it could be transformed into something amazing. Its also the reason I have hundreds of magazines I just can't throw out in case there are pictures that inspire me to a sketch book moment. But now I feel more inspired to think about refusing to buy certain things based on the amount of packaging unless I can do something with it - for example I once bought one pack of those variety biscuits (you know where you get a couple of custard creams, some pink wafers, jammy dodgers, chocolate digestives and some boring ones) simply because the tray that they come in makes a good pretend laptop/ telephone for a toddler!
This sort of mind set really works to support the economic one too - 2 reasons to make biscuits instead of buying a packet, or to buy a value bag of potatoes and plan out your meals not to waste anything.
Link to this blog is http://365daysoftrash.blogspot.com/ todays post is a REALLY bizarre video on fairtrade - Yeah - that other day I was really excited to see that that Gold Label/ Red Label tea are now all fairtrade - which is brilliant - just thinking how its so socially acceptable for companies not to make fairtrade products when they can, or for people to buy fairtrade when they can (which basically means when they are available- choosing NOT to is just not an acceptable option really - If I cant afford fairtrade coffee, then I can't afford the luxury of drinking coffee. Simple)
Its an amazing way to decide what you buy... to look at a multipack of crisps and think of it in terms of taking on ownership and responsibility of each of the packets at the end. Instantly you work out that you could easily buy the biggest pack possible and share it out instead, saving money as well as conscience.
I want to incorporate this way of thinking into my own. I am resourceful and creative so I do generally find it really hard to throw any thing out - arty people always have messy houses- or at least an area full of a bizarre collection of imported fabrics, interestingly shaped toy packaging or just a big bag of wool and sequin waste! I'm always looking at things before I put them in the bin to see if it could be transformed into something amazing. Its also the reason I have hundreds of magazines I just can't throw out in case there are pictures that inspire me to a sketch book moment. But now I feel more inspired to think about refusing to buy certain things based on the amount of packaging unless I can do something with it - for example I once bought one pack of those variety biscuits (you know where you get a couple of custard creams, some pink wafers, jammy dodgers, chocolate digestives and some boring ones) simply because the tray that they come in makes a good pretend laptop/ telephone for a toddler!
This sort of mind set really works to support the economic one too - 2 reasons to make biscuits instead of buying a packet, or to buy a value bag of potatoes and plan out your meals not to waste anything.
Link to this blog is http://365daysoftrash.blogspot.com/ todays post is a REALLY bizarre video on fairtrade - Yeah - that other day I was really excited to see that that Gold Label/ Red Label tea are now all fairtrade - which is brilliant - just thinking how its so socially acceptable for companies not to make fairtrade products when they can, or for people to buy fairtrade when they can (which basically means when they are available- choosing NOT to is just not an acceptable option really - If I cant afford fairtrade coffee, then I can't afford the luxury of drinking coffee. Simple)
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