10 Simple Ways to Cut Waste

Reducing waste doesn't have to mean completely revolutionizing your lifestyle. Here are 10 simple ways to cut waste:


1. Use re-usable shopping bags. If you drive to the store, keep them in your trunk so you don't forget them.


2. If you live in a city that composts, do it! All paper products, food scraps, anything that was once alive can go in there. You don't need a fancy compost bin, just put the compost in a used paper bag and toss the whole thing in your city's green compost bins. (If your city doesn't compost, you can start your own, but I don't think that qualifies for my "simple" list.)


3. Go fresh! Fresh veggies and meat will always come with less (or no) packaging. Buy meat from your grocery's butcher instead of those horrible styrofoam and plastic containers. The butcher will likely wrap your meat in paper (compostable!). Put your apples, potatoes, broccoli, etc. all directly in your shopping cart instead of in a plastic bag and then in your shopping cart.


4. Eat delicious dairy. Organic milk, such as Strauss, is often sold in re-usable glass bottles. Yes it's more expensive, but it's better for you, better for the cows and better for the earth. Same goes for cheese. Buying cheese at a specialty shop will offer amazing flavors and much less packaging.


5. Shop the bulk aisle. Bring containers such as Tupperware or jars from home. Put the empty container on the scale at the store to get the tare weight of the empty container. Then fill it with flour, sugar, beans, granola, pasta, chocolate covered raisins, anything! Just tell the cashier what the tare weight of your container is and they'll subtract it from the price.


6. Carry around a re-usable water bottle or travel mug. You'll get a discount at most coffee shops for bringing in your own cup! 


7. Forget paper towels. Yes they're handy, but a sponge or cloth could do the same thing. We keep a "food sponge" a "counter sponge" and a "floor sponge" because my husband is a sponge Nazi. You can also re-purpose worn out clothes for cleaning cloths and rags on that note.


8. Shop second hand, vintage and consignment stores for almost anything!


9. Plan for meals at home to avoid takeout waste. Consider cooking an art form, not a chore! 


10. Cut down on impulse purchases. Go for quality and only buy things you absolutely love. Don't be tempted by sales if the items are just OK. A mediocre top on sale for $5 isn't going to look any better on because of the price! Chances are you'll buy it for the sale and it'll just sit in the back of the closet. 

What I Learned from Steve Jobs

I just finished the Steve Jobs biography (on my iPhone, appropriately). What a fascinating man. And honestly? A real jerk. But there's a lot I took away from reading the biography. Jobs built a company of A-players. Purity was everything to him. One B-player at Apple was enough to bring down all nearby A-players. This was true of both employees and products. Jobs was committed to just a handful of perfect products, rather than a slew of mediocre offerings (cough... Microsoft....cough). Jobs understood purity in function and design could only be achieved by focusing all his A-players' attention on only his A-products.


I found myself thinking of Jobs yesterday as I was purchasing cheese at Cowgirl Creamery. Yes, the cheese is going to be more expensive than your typical block of packaged cheddar from Safeway. But one delicious bite of Cowgirl cheese, and suddenly you understand product purity as much as Jobs did. I didn't need to buy a huge bag of shredded cheese for the baked mac n cheese I had planned for dinner. Instead, a smaller chunk of heavenly Cowgirl cheese would provide a better flavor, because it's perfection in a product.


I also followed Jobs' philosophy throughout the rest of the house. Jobs was a huge proponent of beauty in design working seamlessly with function. I thought of this as I went through my closet and stripped out all my B-player items. What remained was a small set (2 drawers and 15 hangers) of an A-player wardrobe only. Not only did this simplify my routine each morning, I also feel great in every outfit I put together, without being mired down in abundant but mediocre options. My empty closet is also much more navigable as well!


Same goes for decorations, wall hangings, curtains, tchotchkes, bathroom products, and stuff lingering in the back of kitchen cabinets. If it's not perfect, out the door it went (to a thrift shop of course).


Steve Jobs taught me that life is too short for B-players, be it cheese, an old sweater, or a weird statue of a man I had on a shelf because I didn't know what the heck else to do with it. By paring down my life to A-player items only, not only am I appreciating the purity of the products I am keeping, I'm also simplifying my life and clearly defining my priorities. Jobs never settled for anything less than exactly the life and products and company he wanted to build. So why should we?

Easy Waste-Free Shepherd's Pie Recipe

I have a strange obsession with "peasant food." Whatever an impoverished 19th century European housewife was whipping up to feed her growing brood, I want to eat: Boeuf Bourguignon, Pot Roast, Ratatouille, Ribollita. Necessity is the mother of tasty meals. None, however, fills my need for hearty goodness like a Shepherd's Pie. 

Shepherd's Pie is one of my all time favorite dinners to make. Unpretentious and honest, it's pretty much as meat and potatoes as you can get (with an Irish twist). It's a rare combination of gluten-free and a dinner my husband actually asks for (that puts it in a list of one: itself). And it's cheap! Many of the ingredients you probably have on hand (milk, broth, garlic, salt, pepper, butter, flour). At Whole Foods, my ground beef cost $3.76, my split peas were 65 cents, my potatoes were $3.45 and my carrots were 70 cents. The rest I had on hand, which brought my total to a whopping $8.56. 

To top it all off, Shepherd's Pie is also surprisingly easy to make waste-free.

Here's my disclaimer: I've never actually looked at a Shepherd's Pie recipe. I love the dish and I've based my recipe solely on what I've had in pubs and my own imagination. So if you're a Shepherd's Pie purist and I've desecrated something holy, well monsieur, you've completely missed the point of a Shepherd's Pie: to clear out the leftover stuff in your fridge, to be hearty and filling, and to be delicious. Feel free to expand and experiment with this recipe. It's pretty hard to get it wrong, but very easy to get oh-so-right.

Disclaimer over, here's my waste free version of a Shepherd's Pie (serves 2 plus leftovers):

• 4 potatoes (put straight in the shopping basket, no need for bags)
• 4 loose carrots (straight in the basket)
• 1 onion 
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 cup dried split peas (I bring a mason jar to fill up in the bulk section)
• 1/2 lb ground beef (bought from the butcher, wrapped in compostable paper)
• 1 cup veggie, chicken or beef broth (I like to make my own when I roast a whole chicken. I don't feel too bad buying a can of broth though, as steel is 100% recyclable. Avoid stupid Tetra packaging, as they're not compostable or recyclable.)
• 3 T flour or corn starch (I bring mason jars to fill up and keep in bulk)
• 2 T butter (paper packaging is all compostable, just get real butter with wax paper wrapping, no margarine in plastic tubs or foil wrapping)
• salt
• pepper
• fresh rosemary (I steal from my mom's backyard, but I think Whole Foods sells it package free)
• 1/2 cup milk (I buy Strauss milk in a re-usable glass bottle)

Instructions:

1. Bring 2 cups of water to a boil and add peas to soften. Cook until soft and drain. 
2. Meanwhile, chop onions into small bits and cook in 2 T butter in a large skillet. Add ground beef and cook, breaking up into small bits.
3. Chop carrots.
4. Once beef is mostly done on the outside and still pink on the inside, add carrots, peas 2 cloves minced garlic and rosemary to taste. Cook over low heat.
5. Peel potatoes and chop into 2" squares. Boil in water until soft. Add milk, salt and pepper to taste and mash.
6. In a small saucepan, mix 1/4 cup broth with 3 T flour smooth and thick. Slowly add the remainder of the broth while stirring and cook about 5 min.
7. Stir broth mix in with beef and veggies.
8. Pour veggie/beef mix into a casserole dish and spoon mashed potatoes into a thick layer on top.
9. Bake 30-50 min at 400 or until mashes potatoes start to look slightly crispy on the peaks. It's pretty hard to overbake this sucker.
10. Remove from oven, cool for a few min, and EAT!

If Dr. Bronner Had a Kool-Aid, I'd Drink It

Dr. Bronner was a psychotic, lunatic, genius. He literally escaped a mental institution, and his theories on religion (The Moral ABCs) are sometimes crazy ("Eternal Father, Eternal One! Exceptions eternally? Absolute none!"). But his soap? Genius. Pure castile. Pure genius. 


As I've been moving my zero-waste focus onto other parts of my life (namely: the bathroom), I started to get a bit discouraged. A quick inventory of my shower, for example, brings up 4-5 plastic bottles of shampoo, conditioner, body wash, face wash and shaving cream. Then in the cabinets, there's makeup bottles, deodorant, toothpaste, mouthwash, nail polish, nail polish remover, face masks, et cetera. And then there's the shower scrub spray cleaning stuff and the tile spray cleaning stuff and the other spray cleaning stuff. There's a lot of stuff. 


While Dr. Bronner hasn't solved all my toiletry needs, he's certainly condensed them with his 18 in 1 pure Castile soap. I had used my roommate's Dr. Bronner's soaps in the past, and Aaron and I even watched the psycho documentary Dr. Bronner's Magic Soapbox. Dude was weird, no doubt about it. But the documentary highlighted all the uses for the soap. It seriously cleans everything:

• body wash
• laundry detergent
• dishes
• pet shampoo
• human shampoo
• floor cleaner
• tub cleaner
• face wash
• toothpaste

The soap itself is pure Castile soap, which means it's totally plant (not animal fat) based. Its ingredients are coconut, jojoba, olive and hemp oils. It's also certified free trade and 100% biodegradable. AND the bottles are made from 100% Post-Consumer Recycled (PCR) Cylinder Bottles.

Of course I had to buy some. And lucky for me, Rainbow Grocery even sells it in bulk! I purchased a lovely dark amber glass bottle for $1.50 and filled it up with Dr. Bronner's Peppermint 18 in 1 Magic Soap. Eager to try it, I rushed home to take a shower. 


As it turns out, glass may not be the best choice for the shower. Gets a bit slippery and takes some extra care, although I haven't dropped it yet! But the soap was great: tingly and rinses clean with no residue. So, awesome as body wash. 


Next up, Dr. Bronner's as a kitchen cleaner. Ok, I admit, I didn't do this experiment, it was all Aaron. He scrubbed the kitchen counters and floors with the soap. But I can attest to the sparkly clean kitchen with a light hint of peppermint! 


I also ran out of face wash and instead of running out to by a new bottle, I gave Dr. Bronner's a try. It was amazing! Got all my makeup off and left my pores feeling tight, but didn't dry out my skin. A week later and my face still feels wonderful using the soap as face wash. 


Lastly, our pup Prudence got a Dr. Bronner's bath. She can have really dry, flaky skin, but I haven't caught her scratching once since the bath. I was hoping the peppermint flavor would outweigh wet dog smell, and it definitely helped, but let's face it, wet dog is wet dog.


For the sake of this blog, I just brushed my teeth with the soap. Not bad, actually. A little soapy aftertaste, but my teeth feel clean and my breath is pretty minty. I think I'd add in a little baking soda to get a good scrub. Is it a permanent solution for toothpaste? Hmm. We'll see how committed I get.


Next up... Dr. Bronner's as laundry detergent!

Out of the Kitchen

Ok, so I'm getting the hang of the package-free food thing. Rainbow Grocery and I are besties, and Whole Foods can be great, but their checkers never know how to tare, and it's embarrassing for both of us when I give them instructions for their own cash register. Anyway, while the food situation is far from perfect, I'm getting a solid feel for what works and what doesn't. But what about the rest of my life?

I realize throwing out everything in a package and starting over is not only beside the no waste point, but also expensive. That said, I'm suddenly feeling the need to purge what's now feeling like clutter and extra stuff. My belongings are starting to feel burdensome. Somewhere around 1am this morning, The Great Purge began. I started in my closet. Now, those who know me know the unhealthy relationship I have with footwear. And while I love every pair in my closet, the floral flats I bought on eBay in high school can probably go to a new home. Same with the Christian Dior knock-off gladiator heels I danced in in Miami, the black White House|Black Market pumps I got on sale for $15, and about 4 other pairs I just don't wear. Getting rid of stuff kind of gets addicting, and I moved onto clothes. 30 minutes later, two full shopping bags of clothes are lined up on their way to Goodwill, and my closet is much roomier. It's a little frightening, paring down only to (what I consider) essentials. But the true essential fact is I don't need these clothes. I probably don't need 3/4 of the clothes I kept, but let's not get too carried away.

On to the bathroom, where half used bottles of mystery product just seem to congregate to wallow and die in each other's company. Out went all the unused or mostly used products. It's painful to see all this waste (some of it is recyclable, much of it will be landfill), and it's a great motivator for future purchases. Do I really need this? Will it sit half empty in the medicine cabinet for 3 years? Will it end up in a landfill?


I even moved out into the living room, where I display books on my desk basically to ensure everyone who comes over knows what a shining member of the literati I am. Do I ever read these books again after the first time? If yes, I'll keep it. If no (which it is for most), why not donate so someone else can read them? Down also came tchotchkes, decorative knick knacks, and anything else that suddenly felt like clutter. I say this now, but the clean sweep did happen while my husband was sleeping, so we'll see what goes back up tomorrow.


Cleaning out my closet (cue Eminem) and bathroom is a pretty liberating feeling. I can already feel this waste-free business become less about food packaging and more about simplifying my life in general. Once the clutter is cleaned away, the essentials become clearer. I'm enjoying this emerging feeling of being able to focus on what I really love, like my Miu Mius and Jimmy Choos, without the knock-offs getting in the way.

And the money keeps rolling out...

We've been officially attempting to be "waste free" now for about 3 weeks, and the number one question I get (aside from "are you a nutjob?") is "Isn't it expensive?" That depends, I suppose, on who you're asking. If, for example, you've been living on Costco flats of Ramen and brunching on Sausage McMuffins, then yes, it's expensive. For me, since I usually shop at Whole Foods and buy more expensive gluten-free versions of everything (thanks to my membership to the Celiac Club), it's actually proving to be cheaper.

For example, a typical week of groceries usually runs me around $80 - $100. My post-vegetarian guilt leads me to the free-range eggs and organic meat. I like to think my food had a good life before I demolish its carcass. Gluten-free pasta, flour, bread, etc are usually about 10% more expensive than their wheat-y counterparts. As for the rest of it, who knows what I buy, but the amount always seems shockingly high.

Going waste-free has definitely cut down on some expenditures. Dried beans are dirt cheap, probably 25 cents compared to a $1.50 can. Bulk flour runs me about $3. Bulk rice, pasta and quinoa all clock in around $2 each.

Produce can get a bit pricier buying fresh over frozen, but the taste alone is worth the small expenditure. I bought fresh before this experiment anyway, so nothing has really changed there.

What really gets marked up going waste-free is dairy. Basically waste-free dairy = high quality dairy. Strauss Family Creamery bottles their organic milk in re-usable glass bottles. The half gallon runs about $4, with a $1.50 charge for the glass bottle that you get back when it's returned. Cheese is another tricky one. Cheese at the store is usually pre-packaged in plastic. I could probably bother the cheesemonger at Whole Foods to deposit a chunk of cheddar directly into one of my re-usable containers, but why do that when I work mere blocks from the mecca of all things cheese, Cowgirl Creamery? Cowgirl deserves a blog post of it's own, but suffice to say, it's cheese heaven. Most of their cheese is not pre-wrapped, and they happily shoved my Parmesan and "Wagon Wheel" in a glass jar. 

Anyway, back to the point. Whereas a week of groceries usually runs me around $90, my total bill this week for all my waste-free groceries? $70. That's $100 off my month's grocery purchases! Oh, and I'm shopping for 2, so that's about $35/week/person on groceries. Better for my wallet, better for the earth. Definitely a win-win.

Planning & Preparing

This zero waste business takes some serious planning. Running to the corner store is not so much an option anymore, so I had to think ahead for every ingredient. Here’s the dinner menu I put together for our first five days:

• salmon with bok choy and roasted potatoes
• spaghetti with marinara and asparagus
• quinoa bowl with black beans, bell pepper and salsa
• veggie pizza
• beef pot roast 

Luckily I live in San Francisco and have Rainbow Grocery, mecca of all things bulk, close by, as well as more Whole Foods than I can count on one hand. Aaron and I packed up our reusable shopping bags and headed off to Rainbow to kick start our zero waste kitchen. I was confident they’d have smaller reusable containers available to purchase for my bulk goods. So I was a bit shocked to find the bulk aisles stocked with disposable plastic bags and one semi decent smaller re-usable cotton bag… for $13. I purchased 4 glass jars around $2 each (with more planning I definitely could have found these cheaper elsewhere) and swore to re-use the plastic bags I did end up needing for bulk items as much as possible. Since then, I’ve actually gone a bit Laura Ingalls Wilder and sewed a few reusable bags out of old clean tees for future bulk purchases.

Here’s what I found and purchased in the bulk aisle:

• rice
• dried beans
• spaghetti
• quinoa 
• a huge variety of flours, including tapioca, sorghum, brown rice and millet 
• xanthan gum
• brown sugar
• Hungarian sweet paprika (yeah, seriously)
• granola
• chocolate covered raisins

Heading over to the dairy section, I was a bit disappointed to see all cheese was pre-wrapped in plastic and the cheesemongers had gone home for the day. So I skipped cheese and just bought a glass bottle of Strauss milk. The bottle is returnable for a $1.50 deposit and Strauss reuses 95% of their glass bottles. Later in the week, I walked over to the Ferry Building on my lunch and bought a delicious and affordably priced cheese from Cowgirl Creamery. They happily shoved their unpackaged and fresh cut cheese into my mason jar, warning me to let it breathe when I got home.

Produce was the easiest section to avoid waste. Instead of using plastic bags, I just put everything directly into my basket (except the mushrooms). I bought:

• zucchini
• tomatoes
• fresh basil
• mushrooms
• bell peppers
• avocado
• onion
• fresh cilantro
• jalapeño peppers
• eggplant
• limes
• fingerling potatoes
• asparagus

Over at Whole Foods, I struck out in the meat department. I didn’t have any containers from home to use, so they wrapped up my meat in paper. Next time I’ll try my luck with the butcher and a container from home.

Wine also poses an issue. As far as I can tell, the only way to get bulk wine is from a winery, and I’m not sure the drive to Napa outweighs the negatives of recycling glass. And let’s be realistic. I’m not giving up wine. Who are we kidding here.

All considered, I’m pretty pleased with my first attempt at zero waste shopping for the week. It’s far from perfect, but a vast improvement on our mountain of takeout boxes, not to mention the health and taste benefits of eating a more natural diet. It’s a start!