Chicago

I went to visit Melissa in Chicago last weekend. Melissa had asked me what she needed to do to help me out in trying to generate no trash. I said that I was sure it wouldn't be that big a deal - maintaining constant vigilance was something I needed to work on as mentioned previously. Well, it turns out it is way easier to be vigilant in Ann Arbor than in Chicago. The first night I was there, we went to a nice looking bar to eat. I ordered soup with Irish soda bread, and failed to anticipate the butter in little packets that came along with the bread. When ordering my beer, I assumed that since the beer was local, it would be a draught beer. I ended up with a bottle. When we went to eat deep dish pizza, napkins, totally unused, were whisked away because they were a little "wet" and were promptly replaced by other napkins. Indeed, I learned (again) that I need to be very upfront with everyone about what I am trying to do. It was hard convincing a Pakistani man on Devon Avenue that I was sane after I asked him to make me paan (after-dinner mouth freshener) without any wrapping around it.

Have you heard about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? Here's a picture of an albatross chick (a marine bird) that died because it was fed plastic.


In the next post, I'll post about the the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly restaurants in Ann Arbor regarding trash, and some tips for all of you on how to avoid trash.