one.

 is it a birthday or blog-iversary?

it was exactly a year ago today that we started the alter eco project. it's been an incredible year learning how to reduce our waste and live without plastic & packaging. thank you to everyone that reads the blog and supports our efforts to help us "learn as we go". i have to admit that your positive feedback is sometimes the only thing that keeps us from feeling truly defeated. so thank you! today is a good day to recommit to the objectives we set last year. 

we're updating our site so we will have a fresh new look for the next year,  keep your eyes peeled and thank you again! happy birthday to us.

* if you want to reminisce a bit, here is how the whole thing got started: 

first, let me just state for the record that i am not perfect and this isn't some manifesto on how you should live your life like mine. i am wholly imperfect :  i drive a car, have had my share of foreign bottled water &  i've been known to drool over a gucci bag or two. oh, and by the way,  i'm not a writer . . . this little ditty is just my opinion so take it for what it's worth.

yesterday on facebook i posted a little snippet about my husband george & i devising a plan for a no waste and package free kitchen. i got such a great response that i thought i might just take the idea and park it here for a while on my domain that i was planning to develop as a portfolio site. so that's how the idea landed here but the larger question of " how did we get here?"  as in how did we arrive at the idea of a zero waste kitchen or why are we thinking about a package free kitchen is hopefully a little more interesting.

this is the pile that started it all ::

this pile is some of the waste from our weekend. it may not look like much for four people but this is what we created in less than 24 hours and we ate two meals out. it's too much! most of this will actually go into the recycling but we thought "seriously, can't we do better than this ?" 

we're smart - right? my husband recycles like it's his job, we support the local farmers market and ccof, we know about things like our carbon footprint and carbon credits, i have a pink metal coffee cup i drag around with me . . . but stuff like this drives us nuts. And this was definitely fuel on the fire ::

 

thousand layer crackers :: seeming harmless box, then foil :: inside the foil is a plastic tray and individually wrapped crackers :: wtf? :: they should change the name to " a thousand layers to get to your cracker "

we're not radical lefty granola tree huggers but we had already been trying to make small improvements in regards to reducing our consumption. we wanted to make reasonable changes we could live with so my husband rides his bike to work ( 50 + round trip) a couple times a week, and to my occasional dismay, we are very conservative with our heater in the winter (my mother will agree wholeheartedly) and we high five each other when our utility bill is under thirty bucks. it's progress right? it's something...

until this. i have been inspired listening to the audio book by colin beavan titled "zero impact man - the adventures of a guilty liberal who attempts to save the planet and the discoveries he makes about himself and our way of life in the process" you can check it out here.  

... and that was that. we decided to change the way we shop, how we eat and ultimately, how we live. it's going to be an interesting change for us and we will certainly have to be weaned off the teat of conveniencebut the goal is to minimize our families impact on the environment.

our objective:  is to have a zero waste kitchen and no longer purchase anything packaged. maybe as this evolves we will branch out to other areas but in my opinion, our eating habits contribute the majority of our waste... i'm sure this isn't a revolution but for us it's a huge undertaking...have you got any ideas for us?

so now, i am starting with cleaning out the fridge and purging the cupboards

let the games begin ;)

Comments

[Sonchia]

Happy Blog-iversary!

I have loved following along & have certainly changed my pre-packaged ways as much as possible. Thanks for the continual inspiration!

Can you even imagine going back and purchasing things as "before?" I bet you couldn't do it.

Thanks again & congrats!