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Why zero waste?

Zero waste is a philosophy advocating for the indefinite cyclical reuse of materials and resources, often in a way that mimics how resources are reused in nature (e.g. composting). The idea of zero waste has been around for a while, since the 1970s, but has recently been adopted as an individual lifestyle, thanks in large part to Bea Johnson of Zero Waste Home. The goal of a zero waste lifestyle is to produce zero waste.

However, “waste” is rather ambiguous in this context. It can refer to garbage sent to the landfill, or garbage and recycling, or sometimes garbage and recycling and compost.

Additionally, I don’t like the phrase “zero waste”. It’s unreachable, depending on how waste is defined, and thus misleading. And it encourages perfectionism, which is exclusionary and off-putting. I prefer to talk about “waste reduction” or a “low waste” lifestyle, which everyone can adopt to some extent.

So the question becomes:

Why would anyone want to adopt a low-waste lifestyle?

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10+ easy things you can do to produce less waste

It can seem really daunting to try to reduce the amount of waste you produce. The extremes are so extreme: hoarders at one end, and the (unreachable) goal of zero waste at the other. Instead of trying to be perfect right from the beginning, make small changes that will have a big impact in your life! You’ll likely find that a majority of your trash is generated from just a few activities; if you can reduce the waste associated with those activities, your overall trash production will go down a lot!

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Banana Bread recipe

The recipe for the banana bread seen in J’s previous post is from the Cook’s Illustrated cookbook (not sure what year, but it’s kinda old).

Banana Bread

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup toasted, coarsely chopped walnuts

3 very ripe, soft, darkly speckled large bananas, mashed well

1/4 cup plain yoghurt

2 large eggs

6 Tb butter, melted

1 tsp vanilla extract

Mix dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking soda, walnuts). Mix wet ingredients (banana, yoghurt, eggs, butter, vanilla). Mix wet and dry ingredients together until just combined. Batter should be thick.

Bake for ~55 min (knife inserted into center should come out clean) at 350°F in greased loaf pan.

Modifications

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Dinner Rolls

We made dinner rolls following N’s secret family recipe. We baked them for too long, but the texture was very good. Super fluffy!

You start by drawing a circle.
Then you fold it into this shape.
And then you’re done! Just three simple steps!
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Groceries

We really like the selection of bulk goods at our local Whole Foods. This time around, we got everything in a reusable container except for the butter. Whole Foods needs bulk butter…

The bags contain: whole wheat flour, popcorn, chocolate chips, and mochi. The jar contains almond butter.
The bulk mochi was really good! The cashier seemed quite surprised that we put it in a cloth bag though.

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Garbology Book Review

I recently finished Garbology by Edward Humes. Basically, it talks about some interesting stuff, but has problems staying on topic. The book jumps back and forth as if it forgot to add some important detail before. The different sections don’t connect well and don’t build on each other. The author never really reaches a conclusion (what are we supposed to do about this problem?).

Additionally, the author doesn’t use that many citations (certainly much fewer than I expected, considering how many claims he makes), and I saw one incorrect statistic which made me doubt the veracity of the others.

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