Those phone books shouldn’t count. Not your fault, even a little. Aren’t they considering some kind of regulation about how many of these darn phone books are produced? It’s hard on merchants too who are supposed to take ads in every darn one.

Aside from that, your pile is pretty tiny.

There is, however, one itsy bitsy item you could eliminate with ease. It’s that Kleenex ball. Ever since I read No Impact Man’s tortured prose about using tissues, I have given them up. Hello — it’s called a hanky. Really easy to wash (just throw it in with the other wash and it really doesn’t take extra soap or water) and much nicer on the nose. I now always have one in my pocket. Sweet.

Fran: I’ve heard rumor that Qwest will not be automatically handing out phone books, and that you’ll have to opt in, but what bothers me is that I already got my Qwest books for the year – these are the Super Pages, and then Verizon dumps a bunch on my door step as well and… ARGHHHH! And even though maybe it’s something I didn’t actually go out and buy, I’m still the one stuck throwing it out. As to the hankies – I carried one all day today and used it! It’s an old, silk one that my grandpa had.

I switched to bandannas (hankies) about 20 years ago… it’s not un-sanitary if you own enough of them and remember to switch them out often enough- I’ve probably kept 500 Kleenex boxes out of the landfill over that time. Sure there’s the impact of laundry, but you’re already washing your clothes anyway…
The phone book thing could be a problem at some point…. we get about 5 of them per year we didn’t ask for. If we had a wood stove it’d be ok, but for now it’s a tradeoff between the time and energy to “opt out” with each individual company and the energy required to recycle them. (opting out doesn’t always work, since the folks delivering these books don’t always check addresses and/or speak english)

Hey I think it is great that you are doing this. You are an ispiration! I am now thinking about ways I can reduce my garbage ie. getting a reusable filter instead of throwing away coffee filters every day and etc.etc. Also your writing style is fun to read; entertaining as well as informative. Looking forward to tommorrow. I do have to admith, though, I love the way Jason thinks! V

Guess what? The Yellowpages will give you a list of each phone book company’s contact information so that you can tell each one to stop delivering them to your house:

http://www.ypassociation.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Environmental1&Template=/CustomSource/ZipSearch.cfm

One step closer

And, you’ve both inspired me to start carrying a hankie, which I’ve been meaning to do for a while.

Wow! Thanks for all these *great* comments, tips and links, guys! I really think you and they are all awesome!

Peter: I agree – if you have 8 bandanas (hankies) that’s one per day plus a spare. I plan on putting together a collection and simply dumping the day’s hankie in the laundry basket.

Victoria: I’m so glad you are feeling inspired! I’ve used a gold metal reusable coffee filter in my Mister Coffee for about the past ten years. I simply got sick of maneuvering wet soggy coffee filters around – I love coffee, but the wet filters always kind of grossed me out. I think I got mine at PCC. Anyway, good for you!

Jessica: Thanks SOOOOOO much for that link! You have no idea…

Yelloow Pages are evil. I went for years safely cocooned away from them, though — the phone companies never noticed my MIL apartment existed. One year, I actually had to call and ask them to please deliver me a phone book, since the one I had was five years out of date!

I’m afraid handkerchiefs won’t cut it for my allergies. But I have a solution to the packets of sweetener. I buy mine in bulk and keep a small supply in a little Tupperthing container.

I’m enjoying your blog — and also enjoying the irony of the impact of
your flying on your “go green” efforts since you used to just H-A-T-E
it and did almost none. I’m thinking you should amortize your current
flights of fancy over your lifetime… I’m sure it’s still minimal.
Also, check out this month’s Sunset Magazine which has an article on
one family’s reduce-reuse-recyle approach to garbage. Which is to say,
they have virtually none.

Splenda… sugar sub, right? You shouldn’t be using it as it is not a healthy product. If you want a good sugar substitute try Xylitol (we can buy it in bulk up here in PT).

It was developed during WWII in Scandinaviaas they couldn’t get sugar. It is made from birch bark and (drum roll) it
is good for your bones and teeth, plus one does not need insulin to digest it. The draw back is that it cost about $6/lb. and it isn’t good for baking.

Also, your little experiment made me very appreciative of our local Co-op up here. We have endless bins for grains, spices and much more. And a year or two ago the Co-op had an “Eat Local” campaigned. One could take the “Local” challenge and try to eat within a hundred mile radius of the store. Even now many products have the “L” for local on them.

I buy local eggs and they are several dollars cheaper, plus people bring back their used egg cartons which are available for the local eggs. I want to get a tupper ware type receptacle to put my eggs in and just carry back and forth from the store. I also want to get permanent carry-out receptacles for stuff from the Deli (at the Co-Op).