21-Day Earth Day Challenge

After reading Colin Beavan's book "No Impact Man" last year, I decide to do a 21-day Earth Day Challenge. I thought and thought about what to do and decided to give up plastic for three weeks. It was a difficult challenge and I found myself making a lot of exceptions (Ziploc that I already had was fine, corn chips in a paper bag with the little plastic window was fine, and so on). But, in the end, I became much more aware of how prevalant plastics are, how much plastic can't be recycled, and the energy and effort is expended to repurpose even recyclable plastics. The ultimate benefit was that I began religiously washing and reusing my produce bags and, whenever possible, I began selecting items at the store based upon how little plastic-packaging there was. During this same time, my best friend, her husband, and their son gave up electric lights for three weeks. While they use their lights now, they frequently don't use lights, are more conscientious about turning lights off, and only turning those lights on that are truly needed. The goal of each challenge is to increase one's awareness, therefore resulting in changed behaviors.

As Earth Day approaches, I have contemplated what my personal commitment to the earth and our environment will be this year. Ultimately, I should commit to taking the bus, but I'm just not selfless enough to add 3 hours to my commute...maybe next year :) So, this year, for reasons that are also related to household budgeting, I've decided to focus on food waste.

According to The Scientific American, US households throw out 14% of their food purchases. In our house, I couldn't guess a percentage, but I can tell you that there are two sad half-used bunches of celery in our fridge, a gross-looking bunch of cilantro, and a few containers of leftovers whose stays of execution are drawing to an end. I can also tell you our pantry, freezer, and fridge are loaded with food, yet, we spent over $150 this week at the grocery store. How much of that do you expect will wind up in the compost bin at some point? How much do you want to bet that there are a few things in my pantry that are past their "use by" date?

Wasting food in this day in age costs resources we don't have, be it our own financial resources or society's precious water and fuel resources; not to mention whateve goes into the packaging. Meanwhile, lots of people in our country and all over the world are underfed or hungry. I'm really using this attempt to examine my own morals more closely and to see if I can get to the root causes of how and why food gets wasted in our house. While I don't think we're anywhere near 14%, any food wasted is a waste on so many levels.

I am lucky to have had the values of frugality bestowed to me by my grandparents, who lived through the great depression, and my mom who raised a child as a single-parent. I am fortunate to have learned the concepts of thrift from them and I'm excited to participate in my self-made challenge. I'll use the time to reflect on my choices, behaviors, and relationship with the earth and hopefully come out with a few ideas for how I can continue to lessen my impact on the environment.

My 21-day challenge starts today (technically, I started yesterday) and will involve:

1. Taking an initial inventory of our food at the starting point.

2. Using only foods that are currently on hand or that show up in our produce bin.

3. Arranging our meal plans in a way to best utilize fresh ingredients and leftovers.

4. Refraining from eating out (except for those events that are already scheduled).

5. Keeping a log of all food that gets thrown out, when it was purchased/cooked and why it was tossed (this doesn't include peelings, pits, and other non-edible parts).

I'll be bringing back my Compassionate Living blog to detail my efforts. Last year, I started my challenge on Earth Day, this year I'm starting 21 days ahead of it out of sheer necessity. My husband, the ultimate non-activist, has grudgingly agreed to go along with me (I did concede to letting him stock up on booze and chocolate first). I invite you to follow along with my challenge or, preferably, come up with a challenge that resonates with you and helps you to build a stronger connection with the earth.