Monday, April 12, 2010

A new me

On the recommendation of quite a few of my friends, I have started this blog to share my experiences and thoughts over the next weeks, months and years. I'm producing no trash for a year (so then why not for the rest of my life?), and this quest started on 29 March, 2010. The basic rules of this conquest were determined with my housemate Tim, based on my philosophies of consumption. But of course, this is an evolving project, and new situations will throw new dilemmas in my path. The rules will evolve, too.

Here are the first few rules and philosophies off the top of my head:
1) Packaged things that I already had prior to 29 March, 2010 (like canned mango pulp) do not count to this. I should and must use whatever I had and not let that go to waste.
2) Apart from food for myself, and the occasional gift for whatever occasion, I am buying nothing new this year.
3) Recycling is the *last* option. Reduce first, reuse second.
4) Ongoings in my laboratory do not count. Trash is produced in heaps in the lab, with no end in sight. The costs of research? Hmm.
5) If for some reason trash is generated (say the waitress at a restaurant sticks a plastic fork in my food for some reason), I will keep it for the year, and let everyone know about this unintended trash.

2 comments:

  1. Very happy to see this! Can't wait to see how it goes!

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  2. I love your five rules and philosophies of consumption. This seems too simple. What do you think about these five rules looking back 6 years?
    I have been working to reduce the amount of junk mail we get to our house, it seems like everyday we get papers, flyers, credit card advertisements and postage cards that go right into the trash. I started to call the phone numbers on the cards to tell them to please save their resources. I can't even remember the last time i got a letter in the mail from somebody I liked.

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