Zero Waste Challenge: six week status update, "of orange juice and Netflix"

So six week into this thing and I have a few more leanings to share. ( pragmatic take aways are in - bullets :-)

1. This is still a lot of work. It is about 15% less from when I first started, but it is still a lot of effort. However, what I am noticing is this process is starting to become muscle memory of a sort. Now, making my shopping list takes a lot less time and I have become a lot quicker at prepping and making a lot of my weekly basics - bread, granola bars, fruit leathers, prepping lunches of veggies, fruits, beans and left overs. But I am still putting time into this daily, at least an hour a day- and I even if I become the most efficient baker guru, it will still take time, so that will always be the trade off. BUT we live in an on demand culture- one I argue that developed out of ready made products to support our excessive materialistic lifestyle - and I want to try to live outside that while still living in society. So if that means I watch a lot less Netflix and give up on my social reading a bit, then so be it.

- Dedicating at least 1 hour a day.

2. I feel like we are eating way healthier. Now I wrote in past posts that our family switched to more organic foods a few years back - we definitely noticed a decrease in flu bugs, some weight decrease, and some energy ups for sure- but believe it or not, we are losing weight eating this way. And we are still feeling healthy and enjoying food that doesn't taste chemy!

- I have lost 15 pounds and am not even trying ( and no, I am not and have never been a skinny girl).

3. I am starting to see excess EVERYWHERE. Not as in I hyperventilate, but like that muscle memory I talk about above. At work, I see how we could swap out the mountains of paper towels for some clothes that can be run through the dishwasher load at night. In the office coffee area, we would save the office money if we went with bulk coffee- and there would be a lot less little plastic packages of freeze dried gut rot ground coffee that we all imbibe every morning. I see plastic everywhere at the more normal shopping centers. When out shopping for clothes or other items, I either use my big purse to bag them or use paper bags should they have them- but I am now in the habit of saying 'no plastic bag please'. Halloween is coming up and I have researched like crazy to find packaged candies to pass out for the trick or treaters ( since we are all warned as good parents to never let our kids have any homemade handouts because it for sure will be laced with rat poison- as some nutzoids actual did in the 70s) and discovered that there almost none- not even organic brands that use compostable packaging- HOWEVER I did learn that those bulk candies at WinCo with the tinfoil covers are recyclable! So boom- there's my Halloween candy.

- I am now starting to move from un-cognoscente consumer to a more cognoscente one, and not just in a grocery store setting.

4. Nearly everything you can want at the grocery can be made. This is because that lo and behold, dispite the end result of food chemists and whatnot, what you actually are to buy from the grocery store is food based. That means, someone had to make it. Truth be told, my Honey Bunches of Oats is a little bit thicker than store bought, my fruit roll ups not as smooth, my bread slices a little uneven and my crackers not uniform- they taste just like the real deal and I know what it is in them and they needed no packaging. A friend told me about a recipe for making your own goldfish crackers! - Karyn Thurston I am coming for you. Another friend knows how to use the magical Kitchen Aid thingy to make pasta and ravioli- Alison Donin, you're up too!

- You can make virtually anything you see at the grochery store, it just may not be the exact same likeliness in texture/color whatnot, but if you like it, and it is super healthy and you know whats in it, and there was no plastic used to wrap it for you- win win.

5. Don't waste your time on things that take entirely too much time when you can get them bulk or in recyclable containers. Example one: tomato paste. I made my own- it took 30 tomatoes, 3 hours to prep them all, and nearly 13 hours in the oven to get a couple cans of tomato paste. Nope, I will get them in cans and recycle the cans. Example 2: granola- yes you can make your own, BUT there are tons of varieties in the bulk section. Leave your hour a day to things like tortillas, breads, sauces, laundry and the like. Granola bars are quick to make, but actual granola take a little bit longer and why bother when it is excess-free to pick it up in bulk. Just like some dried fruits. Some you can get bulk- why not?

- You have to make this zero waste thing something your life can sustain on a regular basis, you get too much into actual urban homesteading, and you will burn out, especially of you have a job outside the home and little one(s) and a house to keep clean and a dog to take care of and ....

A few learnings:

Orange juice- to make your own, this bottle took fifteen oranges/ and about 30 minutes to make.

It was darn good- but keep in mind the amount of oranges. If I find orange juice in a simple cardboard based carton I may go that route when pressed for time.

Granola bars- keep them in the fridge- they last longer and don't crumble as much ( some of mine in the mason jar didn't last a particularly hot day last week- boo.)

On trying new recipes, I almost always mess up the first time- case in point- the first fruit roll ups, the fist crackers, the first corn flakes, the first tortillas- actually all the recipes minus the first two ( bread and granola bars- and the grace behind nailing those first two acted as a great confidence boost when I was just starting). So rule of thumb, try, try, try, again.

Current goal update: Nope, still surpassing that 12oz mason jar garbage can- but usually half the week through but the time I do. So I am still aiming for that.

Next steps: Continuing with zero waste groceries, paper products, but moving onto household products and other shopping items- namely Holiday stuff ( yikes!).

I keep this as a mental picture of someday:

#ZeroWasteChallenge #sixweekupdate #tomatopaste #oj