Author Topic: Less to Landfills 2021  (Read 10877 times)

slackmax

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Re: Less to Landfills 2021
« Reply #100 on: July 22, 2021, 07:39:31 AM »
I buy wine in the 5 liter box.  It's just cardboard and a plastic bag inside.  I recycle the cardboard, and I also recycle the plastic bag with the curbside pickup, although I'm not sure if the bag is recycled, since it has 2 different types of plastic together.

And I always refuse the store bag they want to give me at the wine store. I don't care if people know I am a box wine drinker, as I walk through the parking lot with my Franzia chardonnay, lol. 

lazycow

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Re: Less to Landfills 2021
« Reply #101 on: July 26, 2021, 12:38:18 AM »
This Plastic-free July I challenged myself to not buy any packaged snacks at all (ie chocolate or chips are the main culprits). I made it till the 25, but caved spectacularly over the weekend (block of choc, packet of crisps and sour chews). My excuse was that our oven was broken and the planned cake I was going to bake couldn't happen. Of course, all the plastic packaging can be recycled through RedCycle but that wasn't the point.

To make up for it, I am planning a day trip once lockdown is over, to the nearest big bulk food shop (an hour's drive), combined with a local mountain hike and lunch. I'm going to ask 2 of my like-minded friends what they would like me to get for them as well. There is a big online company called The Source (Aussie-wide) but I'd like to support a smaller provider, and avoid excess packaging - even though it is paper - and air miles.

draco44

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Re: Less to Landfills 2021
« Reply #102 on: August 15, 2021, 06:44:27 PM »
My work place did a reorg recently and we had to go back in in shifts (still regularly teleworking due to the pandemic) and pack everything up. There were some older communal supplies that were designated to be thrown out, but I took them and posted them on the Craigslist free section and re-homed them this weekend instead.

Zikoris

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Re: Less to Landfills 2021
« Reply #103 on: August 25, 2021, 11:28:37 AM »
I'm trying out a new ugly produce delivery service this weekend. $25 for 10-12 pounds of god-knows-what produce, delivered. I've been seeing a lot of people rave about it in my local zero waste group, so i decided to give it a try. Looking forward to seeing what I get!

MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Less to Landfills 2021
« Reply #104 on: August 28, 2021, 03:05:24 PM »
I have two teens playing competitive soccer. If we volunteer, we get a bit shaved off the club fees. I signed up for a cleat exchange today, which basically helps keep usable cleats in circulation. Kids outgrow their cleats often before they have no more wear left. It was so great to see things stay out of the landfill, and help out.

When the exchange was over, I offered to take the 150+ pair of too worn cleats to a local sports store that recycles them. I also took the two pair of baseball cleats that were inadvertently donated, and I'll post them on Buy Nothing.

msministache

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Re: Less to Landfills 2021
« Reply #105 on: August 28, 2021, 10:17:33 PM »
ptf

Zikoris

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Re: Less to Landfills 2021
« Reply #106 on: August 29, 2021, 07:13:20 PM »
Ugly produce update: it went really well! I was really surprised to see a giant delivery tricycle outside when I went down to get it, but hey, that is super eco-friendly and I'm totally into it. It was $25 and I got:

- A bag of rainbow carrots
- A lot of loose potatoes, maybe 5lbs?
- Cherries
- One head of lettuce
- One really big yam
- Four big peaches
- Three garlic heads
- One grapefruit
- One cucumber
- One head of broccoli
- Three huge green peppers
- One big tomato
- Four lemons
- Green onions
- One avocado

It was about 50-60% organic. I did bulk meal prep for the week, using almost everything:

- Peach pie
- Two different styles of tofu stir fry
- Lemongrass chicken bahn mi filling for hot sandwiches
- Empanadas
- Calzones
- Deep dish pizza ready to bake later in the week

I'm going to use the lemons for lemon water throughout the week, and the lettuce/tomato/cuke/avocado for salad. I have some carrots and potatoes left that aren't "reserved" for anything, but those should keep no problem, or I can roast them up for my boyfriend if he's running low on snack foods. Or I can make carrot cake.

I'm definitely going to give it another go next week.

MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Less to Landfills 2021
« Reply #107 on: August 29, 2021, 07:32:17 PM »
Your meal planning options sound delicious!

Zikoris

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Re: Less to Landfills 2021
« Reply #108 on: September 05, 2021, 05:14:49 PM »
Week two of the mystery box of ugly produce:

- Strawberries
- One mini watermelon
- A crap ton of loose carrots
- One lettuce
- Green onions
- One daikon
- Two yellow and two green peppers
- Two oranges
- Four Roma tomatoes
- One apple
- One big yam
- One zucchini

My bulk Sunday Meal Prep:

- Tofu scramble with peppers and roasted potatoes
- Strawberry crisp
- Spicy crab stir fry
- Korean beef bowls
- Lemongrass chicken stir fry
- Roasted vegetable wraps
- Chili
- Pot pie

I still have the oranges, watermelon, lettuce, and tomatoes, which will be good for snacks and salad during the week. I also have some carrots left since I got SOOOO MANY of them, but I intend to make more carrot cake or carrot muffins once we finish the strawberry crisp.
« Last Edit: September 05, 2021, 05:19:02 PM by Zikoris »

Wolfpack Mustachian

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Re: Less to Landfills 2021
« Reply #109 on: September 10, 2021, 08:42:32 PM »
Week two of the mystery box of ugly produce:

- Strawberries
- One mini watermelon
- A crap ton of loose carrots
- One lettuce
- Green onions
- One daikon
- Two yellow and two green peppers
- Two oranges
- Four Roma tomatoes
- One apple
- One big yam
- One zucchini

My bulk Sunday Meal Prep:

- Tofu scramble with peppers and roasted potatoes
- Strawberry crisp
- Spicy crab stir fry
- Korean beef bowls
- Lemongrass chicken stir fry
- Roasted vegetable wraps
- Chili
- Pot pie

I still have the oranges, watermelon, lettuce, and tomatoes, which will be good for snacks and salad during the week. I also have some carrots left since I got SOOOO MANY of them, but I intend to make more carrot cake or carrot muffins once we finish the strawberry crisp.

First of all, that all sounds delicious! I am wondering if this roughly $2-$2.50/pound of food is standard for these sites. I am curious because I've considered this kind of thing because it sounds cool, and who doesn't want to save food that's going to waste. However, I tend to aim for getting fruits and veggies (not organic of course) at a price point of $1/pound. Since this was $2/pound and it was miscellaneous where you have to make a concerted effort to meal prep, that would be hard for me to take on the meal prep and pay roughly double what I'm paying now. However, if there are other options at a lower price point with no need for it to be organic, it would probably be worth a look for me, so I was curious if you or anyone knew of anything of that nature. The admittedly small amount of research I've done tends to be heavy in organics, and I'm sure at least some of this is geographically specific, so this question may be totally pointless :-).

Zikoris

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Re: Less to Landfills 2021
« Reply #110 on: September 10, 2021, 10:24:15 PM »
First of all, that all sounds delicious! I am wondering if this roughly $2-$2.50/pound of food is standard for these sites. I am curious because I've considered this kind of thing because it sounds cool, and who doesn't want to save food that's going to waste. However, I tend to aim for getting fruits and veggies (not organic of course) at a price point of $1/pound. Since this was $2/pound and it was miscellaneous where you have to make a concerted effort to meal prep, that would be hard for me to take on the meal prep and pay roughly double what I'm paying now. However, if there are other options at a lower price point with no need for it to be organic, it would probably be worth a look for me, so I was curious if you or anyone knew of anything of that nature. The admittedly small amount of research I've done tends to be heavy in organics, and I'm sure at least some of this is geographically specific, so this question may be totally pointless :-).

As far as I can tell, this is the only service like this in the lower mainland, maybe even in the country, so there really isn't anything to compare to. I think the next price-point down for this type of produce would probably be buying from the discount rack at the store, and then below that would be gleaning/dumpster diving. I believe this company is introducing a non-organic box as well which I assume would be cheaper, but I'll have to wait a week or two to find out. They've only been operating for a few months now.

Zikoris

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Re: Less to Landfills 2021
« Reply #111 on: September 12, 2021, 06:01:01 PM »
Week 3 of landfill produce delivery:

- 1 lettuce
- 1 cauliflower
- 8 bananas
- 2 eggplants
- 2 boxes raspberries
- 1 yam
- 2 yellow peppers
- 1 orange pepper
- 1 orange
- 5 mandarin oranges
- A bunch of loose potatoes

Meal prep for the week:

- Tofu scramble with peppers and roasted potatoes (I make this every week for my boyfriend to eat for breakfast all week)
- Banana bread
- Banana raspberry crisp
- Lemongrass chicken stir fry
- Burritos
- Eggplant and lentil curry
- Bacon and potato/yam pasties
- Deep dish pizza

I also made my boyfriend a smoothie with some of the fruit. There are a few odds and ends I can roast up for a nice container of cooked veggies to nibble on throughout the week (a couple of potatoes, half the yam, and some cauliflower). And I'll just have the lettuce with whatever.

nessness

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Re: Less to Landfills 2021
« Reply #112 on: September 12, 2021, 07:23:13 PM »
Does anyone have any ideas for lower-waste snacks for kids sports (when you are responsible for bringing snacks for the whole team)? With Covid, individually packaged snacks are preferred, but I hate how much waste it generates.

Morning Glory

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Re: Less to Landfills 2021
« Reply #113 on: September 12, 2021, 07:38:58 PM »
Does anyone have any ideas for lower-waste snacks for kids sports (when you are responsible for bringing snacks for the whole team)? With Covid, individually packaged snacks are preferred, but I hate how much waste it generates.

All I can think of is oranges and bananas. They come in biodegradable packaging!!

secondcor521

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Re: Less to Landfills 2021
« Reply #114 on: September 13, 2021, 08:03:38 AM »
Interesting thread.  I'm sort of an advanced beginner at this stuff but can always do better.  We have a plastic recycling program locally that goes to power a cement plant instead of coal, which sounds good to me.  I have a small compost / garden area in the back yard.  I just canceled a catalog delivery.

Two questions for folks:

1.  Is it safe to assume that lids and packages are of the same plastic type?  For example, my gallon milk jugs are #1 plastic and are recyclable in the main recycling container.  I've always left the lids on and assumed they were #1 plastic as well, but they could be a different type I suppose.

2.  Sometimes what goes into the orange bag (cement plant power recycling program) is unclear.  For example, I thought toothpaste tubes were OK, but couldn't find it on the list the other day when I finished a tube.  If one is unclear about the recyclability of something, is it "better" (however you define that term) to put it in the recycling stream (and hope not to mess the recycling stream up with a non-recyclable item or cause work for the recycling workers who might be sifting and sorting), or put it in the trash and miss a recycling opportunity?

Thanks!

fuzzy math

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Re: Less to Landfills 2021
« Reply #115 on: September 13, 2021, 08:13:38 AM »
I lessened the load to landfills last week by scoring a box of produce from the Aldi dumpster. I used to only do this if I happened to be out late at night and the store was closed, but one of the local stores has their dumpster in a slightly less visible spot and I've gotten bold enough to walk up in the light of day. I figure if anyone bugs me I'll tell them its for my animals.

Got 12 bell peppers (2 were soggy and went straight to the chickens), 3 mangoes (again kinda gross and straight to the chickens) and a bag of hot house tomatoes. I have sauteed so many peppers this week, and eaten a bunch of raw slices too and still have tons more. The tomatoes got made into pasta sauce.

nessness

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Re: Less to Landfills 2021
« Reply #116 on: September 13, 2021, 05:05:26 PM »
Does anyone have any ideas for lower-waste snacks for kids sports (when you are responsible for bringing snacks for the whole team)? With Covid, individually packaged snacks are preferred, but I hate how much waste it generates.

All I can think of is oranges and bananas. They come in biodegradable packaging!!
Thanks, I'd thought of oranges but not bananas!

MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Less to Landfills 2021
« Reply #117 on: September 14, 2021, 07:35:06 AM »
Does anyone have any ideas for lower-waste snacks for kids sports (when you are responsible for bringing snacks for the whole team)? With Covid, individually packaged snacks are preferred, but I hate how much waste it generates.

All I can think of is oranges and bananas. They come in biodegradable packaging!!
Thanks, I'd thought of oranges but not bananas!

Could you bring a container of homemade granola bars, and tongs, and hand them out to the kids? I'd suggest allowing them to grab their own, but that's definitely not going to be COVID (or reduced germ) friendly. Bananas are a good option. I've also done watermelon slices, similar to the granola bars.

Frugal Lizard

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Re: Less to Landfills 2021
« Reply #118 on: September 14, 2021, 07:43:12 AM »
I have started dehydrating fruit that is starting to attract the fruit flies.  We also set up DS's bar fridge that he isn't using this semester as a fruit and veg overflow fridge.  We try to operate as a one fridge family but it is really difficult at this time of year with harvesting my garden bounty and getting bulk local fruit for canning on Fridays.  It is not ripe enough to can until the middle of the week, and I am still working.  It will hold in the fridge until Thursday or Friday or even Saturday. 

Retire-Canada

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Re: Less to Landfills 2021
« Reply #119 on: September 14, 2021, 06:49:50 PM »
1.  Is it safe to assume that lids and packages are of the same plastic type?

No lids are usually different plastic plus if they are small they will cause issues with the sorting machines so I don't recycle them unless they are about the size of my palm or bigger.

secondcor521

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Re: Less to Landfills 2021
« Reply #120 on: September 14, 2021, 06:59:24 PM »
1.  Is it safe to assume that lids and packages are of the same plastic type?

No lids are usually different plastic plus if they are small they will cause issues with the sorting machines so I don't recycle them unless they are about the size of my palm or bigger.

Thank you.

So I sort of wonder now what they do with my failure to properly recycle.  Throw the milk jug out?  Take of the lid for me?  Go ahead and let it be a contaminant?  :Shrug:

I did happen to find a great book at the library on recycling - what can be, what can't, how to tell, etc.

Retire-Canada

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Re: Less to Landfills 2021
« Reply #121 on: September 14, 2021, 07:05:30 PM »
So I sort of wonder now what they do with my failure to properly recycle.  Throw the milk jug out?  Take of the lid for me?  Go ahead and let it be a contaminant?  :Shrug:

I don't know since every process will be different, but each process will have a criteria for contamination and if it's exceeded the load will be sent to the landfill or a lower quality recycling process if there is one available.

I try not to focus on recycling everything "possible" and focus on putting quality recyclables in my blue bin so it has a shot at being recycled. My GF is big on "aspirational" recycling and puts a ton of stuff in the blue bin that has no hope of being recyclable. I fish it out and put it in the garbage. She knows I do this, but somehow it makes her feel better she "tried".

When I look at the crazy shit other people put in the blue bin I'm not sure what actually happens with it all as the contamination levels a VERY high. I can only control my own little part of the process so I try and not worry about it too much.

hooplady

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Re: Less to Landfills 2021
« Reply #122 on: September 14, 2021, 09:14:56 PM »
I had some leftover fleece and flannel so I made a couple of dusting cloths that fit the Swiffer handle I already have. I think I'll make some that fit the floor duster as well, and relegate the few disposables I have to the car until they're used up. I don't know what caused me to drink the Swiffer Kool-Aid to begin with, but trying to rectify that now.

hooplady

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Re: Less to Landfills 2021
« Reply #123 on: September 28, 2021, 11:44:48 AM »
My city has just suspended its curbside recycling program. They've been struggling to pick up normal trash and yard waste for months, residents have been getting pretty fed up. The solution was to put all of their resources towards those issues for right now. They have set up temporary drop-off locations - one is quite close to me so it won't be too awful. Silver lining is that it's gotten me thinking how lazy and un-Mustachian I've become the past few years; I really need to recover some of the skills I used to have to reduce my environmental impact.

parkerk

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Re: Less to Landfills 2021
« Reply #124 on: September 28, 2021, 03:17:52 PM »
Week 3 of landfill produce delivery:

- 1 lettuce
- 1 cauliflower
- 8 bananas
- 2 eggplants
- 2 boxes raspberries
- 1 yam
- 2 yellow peppers
- 1 orange pepper
- 1 orange
- 5 mandarin oranges
- A bunch of loose potatoes

Meal prep for the week:

- Tofu scramble with peppers and roasted potatoes (I make this every week for my boyfriend to eat for breakfast all week)
- Banana bread
- Banana raspberry crisp
- Lemongrass chicken stir fry
- Burritos
- Eggplant and lentil curry
- Bacon and potato/yam pasties
- Deep dish pizza

I also made my boyfriend a smoothie with some of the fruit. There are a few odds and ends I can roast up for a nice container of cooked veggies to nibble on throughout the week (a couple of potatoes, half the yam, and some cauliflower). And I'll just have the lettuce with whatever.

Hey @Zikoris would you mind sharing the name of the service?  I live Vancouver-adjacent and would be interested in trying this!

ETA:  Of course I post that and then immediately get better results on my Google search than I had previously.  I think I found it.
« Last Edit: September 28, 2021, 03:19:29 PM by parkerk »

Zikoris

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Re: Less to Landfills 2021
« Reply #125 on: October 01, 2021, 09:12:49 PM »
Week 3 of landfill produce delivery:

- 1 lettuce
- 1 cauliflower
- 8 bananas
- 2 eggplants
- 2 boxes raspberries
- 1 yam
- 2 yellow peppers
- 1 orange pepper
- 1 orange
- 5 mandarin oranges
- A bunch of loose potatoes

Meal prep for the week:

- Tofu scramble with peppers and roasted potatoes (I make this every week for my boyfriend to eat for breakfast all week)
- Banana bread
- Banana raspberry crisp
- Lemongrass chicken stir fry
- Burritos
- Eggplant and lentil curry
- Bacon and potato/yam pasties
- Deep dish pizza

I also made my boyfriend a smoothie with some of the fruit. There are a few odds and ends I can roast up for a nice container of cooked veggies to nibble on throughout the week (a couple of potatoes, half the yam, and some cauliflower). And I'll just have the lettuce with whatever.

Hey @Zikoris would you mind sharing the name of the service?  I live Vancouver-adjacent and would be interested in trying this!

ETA:  Of course I post that and then immediately get better results on my Google search than I had previously.  I think I found it.

It's called Peko!

parkerk

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Re: Less to Landfills 2021
« Reply #126 on: October 04, 2021, 02:37:55 PM »
Week 3 of landfill produce delivery:

- 1 lettuce
- 1 cauliflower
- 8 bananas
- 2 eggplants
- 2 boxes raspberries
- 1 yam
- 2 yellow peppers
- 1 orange pepper
- 1 orange
- 5 mandarin oranges
- A bunch of loose potatoes

Meal prep for the week:

- Tofu scramble with peppers and roasted potatoes (I make this every week for my boyfriend to eat for breakfast all week)
- Banana bread
- Banana raspberry crisp
- Lemongrass chicken stir fry
- Burritos
- Eggplant and lentil curry
- Bacon and potato/yam pasties
- Deep dish pizza

I also made my boyfriend a smoothie with some of the fruit. There are a few odds and ends I can roast up for a nice container of cooked veggies to nibble on throughout the week (a couple of potatoes, half the yam, and some cauliflower). And I'll just have the lettuce with whatever.

Hey @Zikoris would you mind sharing the name of the service?  I live Vancouver-adjacent and would be interested in trying this!

ETA:  Of course I post that and then immediately get better results on my Google search than I had previously.  I think I found it.

It's called Peko!

That's the one!  Awesome.  I'm gonna give it a try this week.  Thanks!