Go Green Challenge: Week one updates

Welcome to our Go Green Challenge: 4 Weeks to an Earth-Friendly Home! Find more posts from this series here. As a reminder, we are focusing on reducing the amount of waste we send to the landfill this week.
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Despite my lack of updates, the Go Green Challenge has been going full force in our home this past week. I was all geared up to share our worm compost bin, all my scratch-cookin’, and other no-waste activities when Baby Lucy reached her eight-month birthday and life came to.a.screeching.halt.

Yup, Lucy has entered the “either I’m in your arms or screaming my face off” phase. I knew it was coming, but I forgot just how difficult simple things, say typing, is with a squirmy baby in your lap. Especially a squirmy baby who loves to pound on the “0” key. (No worries, I know she will detach herself from my person in about ten months.)

Here’s my much-belated update on how we’ve been doing focusing on reducing our waste so far:

Recycle everything — Oh, my. We throw away a lot of plastic that cannot be recycled curbside. It’s like we’re a freaking plastic manufacturer up in this hut. Our little green bin is almost full of items to be recycled else wear and I need to do something with it stat. Do we just put it all in boxes and make a monthly pilgrimage to the recycling place? How do you all fit that into your routine?

My husband, the ever-over-achiever, is putting one inch squares of plastic from his AdvoCare supplement packages in the recycling and bringing home straws that came in his water from the restaurant. I told him to stand down when he picked up a small piece of plastic film from the office floor and asked which bin to put it in. I may or may not have then started yelling to put it in the blasted garbage. I can’t be held responsible for what I say when there’s a teething baby in my lap…

Needless to say, Will gets an A+. I probably deserve a B.

Composting — Our worm compost bin is going strong, meaning we’re putting everything we can into it, but the worms don’t seem to be pulling their weight in our joint endeavor. I’ve decided to stop throwing food in until they start making a visual dent and compost in other ways (they are in worm time-out). I will post a complete worm bin tutorial in a couple of weeks after I’ve worked the bugs out. Until then, check out Queen Bee Coupon’s worm bin compost bin instructions — mine is based off her system.

Our garbage has decreased by over half just by composting. I am not joking. It truly is remarkable how much food we were throwing away.

Package-free cooking — Eh. I’m working on it. We did a big Fred Meyer and WinCo bulk shopping trip and my husband did a stellar job of reusing plastic bags for everything. That man loves his bulk bins.

We ordered pizza on Friday night, but I think this falls under the take-out exception because my friend Melinda can put pizza boxes in her curbside compost bin (gotta love living in Portland) so I made her take them home. We are quickly becoming like the National Park Service — pack out everything you bring in.

Tomorrow, we will start the second week of our challenge — Go Used.

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