Thoughts on One Year of Reduce our Waste Living
January 6, 2019Happy New Year! My family and I have survived our 52 week challenge of reduce our waste living, and no one was (really) hurt in the process. The following outlines some of my key observations and learnings this past year: I was actually able to resist shopping for a year. Despite the skeptics (including myself),…
A Reduce our Waste Christmas
December 26, 2018I love Christmas. For me, Christmas is the most magical and exciting time of the year. Strangely, I have maintained my childlike love of the holiday season. I love the music, the decorations and the food. Even though we weren’t particularly well off, my mother and father always managed to make Christmas special. Our tradition…
10 ways you can reduce your impact on climate change
December 16, 2018Like many of us, I work for a company and spend more hours than I might like stressing over deadlines, mulling over project roadblocks and anticipating office politics. Yes, I have to earn a living but is that what life is really about? Now that I am off the consumerism train, I realize that all…
Oil: It’s not just for cooking anymore
December 2, 2018Have you looked at all the ingredients in the commercial face cleanser or moisturizer that you buy? Do you find propylene glycol, butylene glycol, sodium lauryl sulfate, triethanolamine, butylene glycol, EDTA, methylparaben, propylparaben, diazolidinyl urea? Doesn’t sound particularly healthy, does it? Searching for a more wholesome alternative for cleansing and moisturizing my face and body…
Exploring Minimalism and Reducing my Stuff
November 19, 2018“Love people. Use things. Not the other way around.” – Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus, The Minimalists While I haven’t focused much on it, simplifying my life by reducing what I own is one of my objectives in this 52 week experiment. The quote from the Minimalists really spoke to me. How many times have…
The Truth about Plastics and Recycling
November 14, 2018On November 3rd and 4th, there was the second inaugural Montreal Zero Waste Festival. I am so proud of our city for hosting this event for another year. The popularity has increased and with that, so have the lines: Even at 10 AM on a Sunday morning, the line snaked three blocks. The movement is…
Making Luscious Lip Balm
November 5, 2018As fall is upon us and bringing drier weather, my need for lip balm has increased. Unfortunately, much like deodorants, the packaging for lip balms is pretty discouraging: It consists of a lot of plastic and very little lip balm. In reviewing the commercial formulations, I learn that lip balm is typically made of petroleum…
Reduce our Waste Halloween
October 28, 2018Zero waste halloween: quite the oxymoron. Bea Johnson,the priestess of zero waste, tells you to simply refuse the holiday. But since my goal is to reduce my waste while still having fun, I decided that I would look for ways to partake with minimal impact on the environment. My decorations have always been rather simple:…
Reflections on 9 months of Reduce our Waste Living
October 17, 2018Fall is now in full swing: On October 1st, I reached a milestone: 9 months of “reduce our waste” living. I don’t like to call it zero waste living because that still seems too daunting. We have not been able to keep our garbage small enough to fit into a jar. That being said, we…
Thanksgiving: Hug a Farmer
October 8, 2018As mentioned in one of my earlier posts, I started a small garden this year. I was quite pleased with the some of the successes and disappointed with the failures, although it taught me a lot about gardening. As it was a hot summer, I had to water the garden every day. I gave fertilizer…