London to San Sebastian part 1: Reducing the stuff

I have not been able to post as often as I wanted lately because I got absorbed by a bigger project: moving from the UK to Spain. And this took quite a bit of time and energy!! But it has also been an interesting way to reflect on my new lifestyle goals.

One of the concepts often associated with zero waste is minimalism. There are different ways and motivations to approach it, but the aspects that I am interested in are:

• stop always wanting to get more stuff
• having less stuff to worry about
• knowing better how to take care of the stuff I have to make it last longer
• having more time and space to focus on what really makes me happy

Zero waste progress: and out of the office?

Read the first part here.

I have also re-started to get a weekly veggie box. Organic – check, seasonal – check, local – hum they are a bit vague, but guarantee zero air miles, zero waste – well I generate much less waste than if I went to the supermarket. The cardboard box goes in front of the door to be re-used, but is the plastic wrap around the tomato, the cabbage and spinach leaves very necessary? On the plus side, it prevents us to buy the same veggies over and over again and forces us to try new recipes which make cooking more fun!!! If I was not moving to another country soon, I would try to lobby them toward zero waste.

We also tried Tiny leaf, the first zero waste, organic and vegetarian restaurant in London. The chocolate-courgette brownie was definitely worth the trip to Notting Hill. I took a few pictures, but they are terrible. You better have a look at Green Travels‘ review.

I also started to carry a ‘berry’ bag with my everywhere (merci Nonna), brought back my egg package for refill at the farmer’s market and refused lots of potential rubbish (plastic bags, leaflets…).

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This doesn’t seem like much, but it’s a start and I don’t want to become a hardcore zero waster (yet?). ZW is merely a tool to reflect on the impact of my life style choices. I like the reflection of My Minimalist Baby on how zero waste might not always be the best choice. I want to start with what is easy (and FUN – I guess I am a sustainability nerd) and see where it leads me. Changing one habit at a time…

Zero waste progress: The office

Month 1. It’s been only two weeks since we took the garbage out and today the kitchen bin is full again, like clockwork. One week the garbage bin, the other week the recycling and so on. This seems to be the baseline to move away from, but it hasn’t changed yet. So what have I been doing for a month???

Weirdly enough it is in the office that I made the best zero waste progress to date. Probably because I have spent all my time there in the past six months. But hey it’s not a bad place to start from. Since there is less stuff, it is somewhat easier to manage. It is also the place were we tend to generate the most food-related waste with all the takeaway tea/coffee/lunches.

Drinks

• Use cup for hot drinks and glass for water. Ok this is not new, but it sill counts.
• Take a reusable bottle for lunch (the university restaurant offers only plastic cup for water!!! Boo).
• Replaced tea bags by loose tea.
• Replace sugar by organic honey in a glass jar.

Food

• I have a set of cutlery, a plate, a bowl, and even chop sticks to be prepared to refuse disposable versions.
• Bring a box for lunch to put the left overs cause the portions are too big for me. At the end of the week, I have an extra meal for FREE.

Paper

• I use two old printing paper box lids (upcycling!). One for paper that can be re-used as draft, another one to store paper waiting to be put in recycling bin outside my office once it is full. It first filled up after two years.  This is not new either, but counts as well. Because I say so.

Mail

• I started to delete useless mails when they arrive instead of archiving them ‘just in case’. Because each mail stored on a server consume a bit of energy.

 … and out of the office? The rest of my first month zero waste actions to follow soon…