The Trash Heap Has Spoken - Woe, Woe, Woe

Do you remember the Trash Heap?  The oracle, Marjory, who guided the Fraggles in their trials and tribulations?  She knew what was up.  Probably because she had a little bit of everything in her.  I think I've been channeling the wise and soulful Trash Heap lately, because my natural inclination - without any major visible home ec improvements lately - has been toward curtailing the waste that my son and I generate. 

In little ways, that I think about as I'm doing them, I am making small changes in the greening of my home life that I think will add up to a decent-sized impact when taken all together.  Some of them may stem from my recent financial snafu, and a renewed consciousness about wasteful spending.  So maybe that all happened for a reason.  At the very least, I got something good out of an unpleasant event.

For instance...

I am cutting down on my trash generation and recycling things in ways I wouldn't have bothered with before. I never buy water bottles anymore, using travel mugs for ice water instead. I'm squeezing every last drop out of soap dispensers and adding water when I'm down to the last to stretch it even further. And I never throw them out - they're good for everything from oil to lotion to kids' paint.

I use towels as often as possible instead of paper towels and napkins.  I only do my laundry when I can run a full load and I use cold water unless my son has had an artistic moment with his diaper and I need to sanitize. 

And I've almost completely stopped using plastic bags to preserve leftovers. Not to mention that due to the financial situation a la previous post, I have been super-inventive with leftovers and food on my shelves to make interesting new dinners. Chicken breasts become chicken salad with dried chives and roasted red peppers from a jar in my fridge. Nutritional yeast and soy milk combined with leftover hamburger meat and elbow macaroni becomes cheeseburger mac. And it's a great way to relieve dinner ennui.  You know, when you find yourself making the same three things over and over because it's easy and fast.

I am very proud of my progress and give myself a gold star.  Well, nobody's going to do it for me (not since 3rd grade or so).  Of course, being green is rewarding in itself, and I get to feel like I'm stemming the tide a little against the onslaught of refuse aimed at Mother Earth every day.  It's not much, but every sandbag helps.  As always, viva la home ec revolucion!