Reducing trash – even though it will all be recycled…

I’ve been feeling a bit guilty lately about the amount of trash I create, after I read recently about the girl, Lauren Singer, who is one of the guests on this radio show about how to live a greener life – one of her blog posts, about not producing any trash for two years. (the photo below is of her fridge…)

Having a daughter who likes yogurts, and the both of us being diabetic, we’re always going to generate plenty of plastic – unless I get a keg installed at home, I’m going to keep buying cans of beer. I can’t calculate how much plastic and metal we put in our recycle chute here.
But I have been buying packaged veggies in the supermarket just because it’s quicker than waiting in the lines for the veggie stalls in the old fashioned market downstairs, which is terrible, since I’m sure the veggies are better for me from the market, and I love the fact that here in Spain these old markets still exist and want to support them.
I have just come back from a trip to said market and went to the stall which sells veggies mostly grown right here in town on a small farm… and they gave my daughter a free strawberry (yeah… they still sell strawberries in December, but they’re from southern Spain, not Chile…) AND they gave me an extra courgette that wasn’t in great shape just to not waste it. I feel great about myself again and will hereafter make the effort – during the week the queue wasn’t even long.

 

Then again, listening to the show, I can see my carbon footprint is huge because I don’t’ live at home any more. I can only hope all my cycling will one day make up for flying home twice a year!

http://onpoint.wbur.org/2014/12/11/cop20-united-nations-energy-efficiency