Tuesday 2 December 2014

Zero Trash Girl- An Inspirational Story

Wow-ee... I found this article and thought I would share it with you all.
I really love this idea.

My name is Lauren. I'm a 23-year-old girl living in NYC and I don't make trash. For real. No garbage bin, no landfill. Nada.
I know what you are thinking. This girl must be a total hippie. Or a liar. Or she's not real. But I assure you, I am none of those things. Well, except for real.
I didn't always live what some call a "zero waste" life.
But I started making a shift about three years ago, when I was an Environmental Studies major at NYU, protesting against big oil, and president of a club that hosted weekly talks on environmental topics. In my mind I was super environmental, or as my grandma called me, a real "treehugger." Everyone thought of me as the sustainability girl, so that meant that I was totally doing my share for the earth, right?
Wrong.
In one of my classes, there was another student who always brought a plastic bag containing a plastic clamshell full of food, a plastic water bottle, plastic cutlery, and a bag of chips. Class after class I watched her throw it all in the garbage, and I got so angry! I scoffed and sneered, but I never actually said or did anything. I just got mad.
One day I was particularly upset after class and went home to make dinner and try to forget about it, but when I opened my refrigerator I froze. I realized that every item I had in there was wrapped or packaged, one way or another, in plastic.
This was the first time in my life that I felt like I was able to look at myself and say, "YOU HYPOCRITE." I was the green girl, not the plastic girl! What had I been doing my entire life? It was in that moment I made the decision to eliminate all plastic from my life.
Quitting plastic meant learning to make all of my packaged products myself.
This included everything from toothpaste to cleaning products, all things I had no clue how to make and had to learn by doing a lot of online research. One day I stumbled across a blog called Zero Waste Home. It followed the life of Bea Johnson, wife and mother of two children who all live a zero-waste life in California.
By that point I had already eliminated almost all plastic from my life. I thought, "If a family of four can live a zero-waste lifestyle, I, as a (then) 21-year-old single girl in NYC, certainly can." So I took the leap.
How did I go from zero plastic to zero waste?
First, I stopped buying packaged products and began bringing my own bags and jars to fill with bulk products at the supermarket. I stopped buying new clothing, and shopped only secondhand. I continued making all of my own personal care and cleaning products. I downsized significantly by selling, donating, or giving away superfluous things in my life, such as all but one of my six identical spatulas, 10 pairs of jeans that I hadn't worn since high school, and a trillion decorative items that had no significance to me at all.
Most importantly, I started planning potentially wasteful situations; I began saying "NO" to things like straws in my cocktails at a bars, to plastic or paper bags at stores, and to receipts.
Of course, this transition didn't happen overnight.
This process took more than a year and required a lot of effort. The most difficult part was taking a hard look at myself, the environmental studies major, the shining beacon of sustainability, and realizing that I didn't live in a way that aligned with my values.
I realized that while I sincerely cared about a lot of things, I wasn't embodying my philosophies. Once I accepted that, I allowed myself to change and since then my life has been better every day. Here are just a few of the ways life has improved since I went trash free:
1. I save money.
I now make a grocery list when I go shopping, which means being prepared and not grabbing expensive items impulsively. Additionally, buying food in bulk means not paying a premium for packaging. When it comes to my wardrobe, I don't purchase new clothing; I shop secondhand and get my clothes at a heavily discounted price.
2. I eat better.
Since I purchase unpackaged foods, my unhealthy choices are really limited. Instead, I eat a lot of organic fruits and vegetables, bulk whole grains and legumes, as well as a lot of seasonal, local food, since farmers markets offer amazing unpackaged produce.
3. I'm happier.
Before I adopted my zero-waste lifestyle, I would find myself scrambling to the supermarket before it closed, because I didn't shop properly, ordering in takeout because I didn't have food, always going to the pharmacy to get this scrub and that cream, and cleaning constantly because I had so much stuff.
Now, my typical week involves one trip to the store to buy all of the ingredients I need. This trip isn't just for food, but also for cleaning and beauty products, since all of the things I use now can be made with simple, everyday ingredients. Not only is it easier and stress free, it's healthier (no toxic chemicals!).
I never anticipated that actively choosing not to produce waste would turn into my having a higher quality of life. I thought it would just mean not taking out the trash. But what was at first a lifestyle decision became a blog, which became a catalyst for chatting with interesting, like-minded people, and making friends.
Now it's blossomed into my quitting my great post-grad job as Sustainability Manager for the NYC Department of Environmental Protection to start my own zero-waste company, The Simply Co., where I hand-make and sell the products that I learned to produce over the past two years.
I didn't start living this lifestyle to make a statement — I began living this way because living a zero-waste life is, to me, the absolutely best way I know how to live a life that aligns with everything I believe in.


Photo courtesy of the author
Click on this link to read Lauren's story from the website where I found it.The woman who has made zero trash in two years

If only I could do this myself.... But I guess the point she is making is that starting small is a good place to begin...
So I am going to make an effort to say 'No' to plastic straws in my drink and the printing of receipts I don't need...

What will you do?

Thursday 30 October 2014

Carrots, Strawberries and More

This is what we do at gardening group in Papatoetoe Central School. Gardening takes place in Room 18 or in the garden at break 1 or 2. The teacher is Miss Rands-Trevor. We plant strawberries, silver beet, potatoes, carrots, radishes, cucumbers, lettuce, snow peas, lettuce and much more.

We planted carrot and snow peas seeds last term. Firstly, we dig a hole the size of your pinky and then we put the seeds in the holes and we cover the seeds with the soil. We water the seeds with the hose and we wait for them to grow. When they have grown, we can take some of the fruit or vegetables home.

We pull out the weeds so they don’t affect the plants or damage them. We also plant flowers in the beautiful garden to bring the bees. When we get to the garden we rake the leaves out of the way. Everyone in the group has journals to record what we do and we have lists of things that we could plant and when.

So that is what we do at gardening. I like gardening because we get to take the fruit or vegetables home. Danica enjoys gardening because it’s really fun to plant some seeds. Gaylene loves finding and tasting the red, ripe strawberries when we go down to the garden.

By Joanna L, Danica C and Gaylene E.

Thursday 9 October 2014

Recycling in Auckland City

Auckland City Council have just started a new campaign to help residents learn how to recycle properly. They have enlisted the help of a computer animation team to create a series of ads around the correct way to recycle.
Plastic and Tin Can are the stars of the Council's new "Make the Most of Waste"  animated characters who make their debt in "Intruder". Plastic and Tin Can plan to help you recycle right and teach us what can and can't go in our recycle bins.
The Council aim to educate people about waste in order to reduce the amount of waste being sent to landfills each year.  They have the aspirational goal of having Auckland waste free by 2040. The Council claim that of the 160kgs of waste each household on average sends to landfill each year 65% of it could have been avoided or recycled and put to better use.
It is really great to see the Council thinking outside the box to find ways to engage the community in taking responsibility for our environment. These cute and likeable animated characters are sure to be a marketing hit for the local government and a positive for the environment, too.

Auckland Council has an aspirational goal of zero waste by 2040. That means by recycling, composting food waste, re-using items and preventing waste in the first place, we'll be on target to send as little as possible to landfill. This will save valuable raw resources and energy, and help us achieve our goal of making Auckland the world's most liveable city.
We're heading in the right direction – but we can still do more. The average Auckland household sends about 160kg of rubbish to landfill every year. Of this, 65 per cent could have been avoided or put to better use. That's a waste of good waste, right?
The Waste Management and Minimisation Plan is our first region-wide plan for tackling waste. It's a blueprint for reducing the amount of waste we send to landfills. While the plan's vision is zero waste by 2040, it also includes three key medium term targets:
  • reduce domestic kerbside rubbish (per person, per year) to landfill by 30 per cent by 2018
  • reduce total waste to landfill (per person, per year) to landfill by 30 per cent by 2027
  • reduce council's in-house waste by 30 per cent by 2018.
- See more at: http://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/EN/environmentwaste/rubbishrecycling/Pages/ourmission.html#sthash.It8n2XLp.dpuf
Auckland Council has an aspirational goal of zero waste by 2040. That means by recycling, composting food waste, re-using items and preventing waste in the first place, we'll be on target to send as little as possible to landfill. This will save valuable raw resources and energy, and help us achieve our goal of making Auckland the world's most liveable city.
We're heading in the right direction – but we can still do more. The average Auckland household sends about 160kg of rubbish to landfill every year. Of this, 65 per cent could have been avoided or put to better use. That's a waste of good waste, right?
The Waste Management and Minimisation Plan is our first region-wide plan for tackling waste. It's a blueprint for reducing the amount of waste we send to landfills. While the plan's vision is zero waste by 2040, it also includes three key medium term targets:
  • reduce domestic kerbside rubbish (per person, per year) to landfill by 30 per cent by 2018
  • reduce total waste to landfill (per person, per year) to landfill by 30 per cent by 2027
  • reduce council's in-house waste by 30 per cent by 2018.
- See more at: http://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/EN/environmentwaste/rubbishrecycling/Pages/ourmission.html#sthash.It8n2XLp.dpuf
Auckland Council has an aspirational goal of zero waste by 2040. That means by recycling, composting food waste, re-using items and preventing waste in the first place, we'll be on target to send as little as possible to landfill. This will save valuable raw resources and energy, and help us achieve our goal of making Auckland the world's most liveable city.
We're heading in the right direction – but we can still do more. The average Auckland household sends about 160kg of rubbish to landfill every year. Of this, 65 per cent could have been avoided or put to better use. That's a waste of good waste, right?
The Waste Management and Minimisation Plan is our first region-wide plan for tackling waste. It's a blueprint for reducing the amount of waste we send to landfills. While the plan's vision is zero waste by 2040, it also includes three key medium term targets:
  • reduce domestic kerbside rubbish (per person, per year) to landfill by 30 per cent by 2018
  • reduce total waste to landfill (per person, per year) to landfill by 30 per cent by 2027
  • reduce council's in-house waste by 30 per cent by 2018.
- See more at: http://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/EN/environmentwaste/rubbishrecycling/Pages/ourmission.html#sthash.It8n2XLp.dpuf

Sunday 31 August 2014

Spring

It was quiet in the garden last week. We were mainly weeding the gardens and pulling out silverbeet plants. We are going to plant many spring plants, including oregano, capsicum, radicchio, squash and cabbage as well as marigold, phlox and celosia flowers. Our potatoes are growing well and are already quite tall.

Amber V.

Saturday 17 May 2014

Harvest!

Well we have had some fun in the garden lately! After the holiday our garden had grown so much! We have been enjoying cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce, bok choy, spinach, silverbeet and radishes for the last few weeks.
Some of our gardeners made this info page for you to read about our radishes. I absolutely love to see the kids so into their veggies and being so proud of their very own garden.
The PCS gardeners have also been busy planting as once the cabbage and cauliflowers were harvested our garden suddenly looked very bare! The kids really love seeing these tiny seedlings grow into beautiful plants which they are able to take home and share with their families.

Sunday 13 April 2014

Water- Our Precious Resource

When it comes to saving water, a little change in lifestyle can make a big impact.

Tips for Saving Water in the Home:

  • Turn the tap off after you wet your toothbrush
  • Rinse your razor in the sink rather than the running tap
  • When washing dishes by hand, fill a sink rather than letting the tap run
  • Take showers instead of bath (and even takes shorter showers!)
  • Only run the dishwasher and washing machine when they are full
  • Run a sink to rinse vegetables instead of leaving the tap on.

Tips for Saving Water in the Garden:

  • Keep an eye out for leaky taps- including hoses and pipes
  • When the kids want to cool off, run the sprinkler on a dry patch of lawn
  • Avoid outdoor water toys that require constant water flow
  • Use an outside broom to sweep the yard or patio instead of the hose
  • Water dry spots by hand instead of running a sprinkler system
  • Leave the lawn clippings on the grass to keep moisture in and the ground cooler

There's a a great website called Water Use it Wisely full of practical ideas on how to be more water aware.
http://wateruseitwisely.com/100-ways-to-conserve/

Lovely Lettuce

More ideas from the Gardening Group. This time Amber Le and Jenny have used the iPads to tell us all about gourmet lettuce.
Thanks, girls! We are going to pick some of these lovely lettuces when we head out to the garden tomorrow afternoon.

Friday 28 March 2014

Spotlight on Silverbeet

Thanks Jade and Inaya for sharing about silverbeet. It's great to know that our extended PCS family (Jade's rabbits) are also enjoying vegies from our garden.

Silverbeet is really easy to grow. It is ready is eat at around 6 weeks after planting and grow in almost any soil type.

Silverbeet is fab because it is  a cut and come again plant, which means if you are careful when you harvest, you can continue to harvest for an entire season, if not more. If it does start to flower you just cut it right back to the base and usually it will recover and sprout again.

You can eat the dark green glossy leaves or the wide cream stalks. They are really tasty just lightly cooked in a saucepan with the just the water on them from washing and a little butter. If you add silverbeet to cooked potatoes in a hot frying pan and add lightly beaten eggs, you can make a tasty frittata.

Sunday 23 March 2014

March Miracles!

Well our autumn planting has been completed for a few of our beds. We planted the seedlings in at the end of February and have faithfully been watering them and watching them grow.

We are learning so much about how to look after seedlings like how to plant them correctly and look after them once they are in the ground. We have seen for ourselves how they start off so small and grow so quickly. We even discovered that they take up quite a bit more space than we had anticipated!

The weather here in Auckland has been beautifully warm and as a result our garden is pumping. Here is a pic of what this same bed looked like just four weeks after we initially planted it.

Which meant that last week we were able to harvest some silverbeet and some of our gourmet lettuce! Here we are getting our (biodegradable) plastic bags filled up with our first lot of goodies to take home.

Today, our gardeners were discussing how they had enjoyed the lettuce at home in sandwiches, salads and even burgers! It is so great that this is something the kids have done themselves and are able to share with their families at home.

If you would like to see more of what we have been up to, you can visit ImageShack on this link to see more pictures.ImageShack Our gardens in March

Tuesday 4 March 2014

2014- Another year to watch us grow!

Wahoo! We are back at school after the summer holidays and it is time to get stuck into the garden for the new year.

We have started our Environment and Sustainability Group again for the year with a very keen group of children from Year 4, 5 and 6.

After our first trip to the garden we discussed what needed to be done and started the work. We also had a chat about what we could plant at this time of the year and gave our list to Mr Deed so he could organise the purchasing of plants and seeds for us.

First, we weeded out all the things in the garden beds that needed to be removed. Some of these were crops from last year which were now dying off but other things that needed to go were those pesky little weeds that creep in.

Next, we prepared the beds for growing by turning the soil over and clearing away rubbish.

Then, we had a few sessions in the garden where we planted seedlings (oooh so much fun!) and seeds.

So now, all we have to do is watch and wait for our plants to grow. We planted beetroot, carrots, dwarf beans, cabbage, spring onion, sugar snap peas, radishes, silverbeet and celery.

And when we went to check the garden yesterday, we were thrilled to see everything growing well. Even some of the seeds we planted have sprouted so it is exciting days ahead!

Stay posted to see pics of what we are growing and feel free to post suggestions of other things we might like to try growing at this time of the year.