Buying Oil and Vinegar in Bulk
September 16, 2018While Bulk Barn and Papillon have a lot of the things that I need for our Reduce Our Waste lifestyle, it has proven more elusive to buy canola oil and vinegar in bulk. I had to head to beautiful downtown Montreal and “The Main” aka Boulevard St-Laurent to find a store that offered what…
Adding Spice to my Reduce our Waste Life
September 9, 2018Did you know that most of the world’s mustard comes from Canada and that 80% of it is made in Saskatchewan? Being Canadian, of course, we are sure not to brag about the quality of our mustard. While the French and others have tried to grow mustard seed, our dry and sunny Prairie climate is…
Reduce our Waste Vacation Travel to France
September 5, 2018Anyone who knows me knows that I love France and in particular, love Provence. What’s not to love: the weather, the vines and beautiful countryside: Unfortunately, in the past, France was not really there when it came to recycling and composting. I am pleased to report that things are changing. In March of 2018,…
Reduce our Waste Business Travel
August 17, 2018Hello dear reader! It has been a while since I have written, however, I have still been busy looking at ways that I can reduce my waste, even during a recent business trip. I had the very good fortune to travel on business to the beautiful town of Vevey, Switzerland on Lake Geneva: But even…
A Sticky Situation: Making Strawberry Jam
July 26, 2018Nothing captures the essence of summer fruit like jam. When I was growing up, we had a large garden in our backyard and we grew strawberries. I have many happy memories of my mother making strawberry jam, however, I never seemed to have (or be able to find) the time to make it myself. As…
Weighing In on Waste
July 14, 2018As we have now reached the 6 month window of our year of zero waste, I wanted to know if we have further reduced our garbage. Facing a weigh in of garbage, I am a little nervous. I am not sure that we have made a significant improvement in our waste reduction recently. It is…
Reflections after 6 months Zero Waste-ish Living
July 2, 2018Happy Canada Day and 6 month Zero Waste Anniversary! We have made it to the half way point of our zero waste-ish experiment. For me, it has been a life changing yet enriching experience. Thank you to everyone who has given me positive feedback on this project and encouraged me to continue. While I routinely…
Shopping to Reduce Our Waste
June 24, 2018People are often curious about how I shop zero waste. It certainly is a big change from last year at this time. The major difference is that I rarely go to the traditional grocery store. When you look at today’s grocery store, you see packaging, packaging and more packaging! Here is a high- level review…
The Sad State of Glass Wine Bottle Recycling in Quebec
April 22, 2018I like, I mean love, wine. And like many people here in Quebec, I dutifully put my empty wine bottles in my blue recycling bin. I was recently horrified to learn that much, if not all, of the glass in the recycling bin ends up in trash. Why? Cross-contamination. When glass bottles break, the broken…
Zero Waste Jar Envy
April 17, 2018My brother has joined the zero waste movement and he recently asked me how much I had reduced my garbage. He has already reduced his waste 80%! Since we were already composting, I expected that the waste reduction that I would see after 3 months would be negligible. Plus, we have a cat (really not…