a successful friday zero waste road trip (have you seen the video (above)?
- carpool
- 33+ mpg
- all food in reusable containers = no packaging
but after a first ever attempt at a road trip was waste free, i made the same mistake..
DAY 6 = fail. why? because i let a friend get me a glass of water at a bar and forgot to say “no straw.” i got a straw. it was 12:15 or so am… the earliest fail ever. but it was a great party in LA. had the chance to reconnect with some friends who i havent seen in years! for one friend, it had been close to 6 years since we last spoke! there’s something amazing about reconnecting with people. seeing how your paths diverged, but then brought you to the same place in ways unforeseeable. i know you read this blog for zero waste adventures, but this was an adventure for the soul too. such a fulfilling weekend with old friends, great friends, new friends, and some real characters down in hollywood (aka ‘hollyweird’)
back to the challenge. talking with my boss today - who is taking the zero-waste-at-work challenge - was insightful. he called my attention to the second dimension of the challenge, which i had experienced, but never really articulated: getting your own behavior to change is hard, but manageable… the next step of the challenge is affecting others…
he was telling me that the hardest part for his challenge is overcoming our society’s propensity (7$) for garbage: anywhere he goes, he was frustrated that he had to make extra effort to make sure someone didnt give him garbage (wrappers, napkins, plastic anything…). do you look at the world differently now and see garbage everywhere? have you talked to anyone about zero waste?
so, summed recap:
day 5, success
day 6, fail
day 7, success
day 8, fail - dont get me started. the guy at the coffee shop didnt know how to not overfill a mug, so he thought he had broke it… so he put my coffee in a paper cup. without even thinking about it… “oh, it’s no big deal,” he murmured… “ive got a cup for you.”
… oh, but it is.
have a great day!
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if you’re still reading this, thank you. please visit http://ran.org/campaigns/freedom_from_oil/spotlight/tar_sands/ to learn more about the horrific atrocities taking place on our continent. this is what american/canadian oil looks like —> the most destructive project on the planet. poison, toxic, deforestation, contamination, violated treaties with natives, etc - all to feed our country’s oil addiction. what are you going to do to stop the tar sands?
