I kinda want to stash a phonebook away so that my future hypothetical children can laugh at how silly the concept of a phonebook will seem to them.

Ways to repurpose phonebooks: make into a step-stool, use as a booster seat, cut out the middle pages and use as a safe (this actually still wastes most of the paper, but it’s fun!), donate to your resident strongman, use as kindling, use as wrapping paper, use as source material for found poems.

recyclefreak:

• Every year, 100 million trees are chopped down for junk mail sent to American homes.
• Paper makes up a third of all the waste that Americans send to the landfill.
• More than 9 large trees worth of paper are sent to each U.S. home, the response rate is less than 2%.
• Our local taxes are used to dispose of this junk mail that we didn’t even want in the first place.

I forgot to add a pile of junk mail to yesterday’s list.  There was lots.  It was terrible.  Sidenote:  I’m always terrified that a piece of real mail will get mixed in and I’ll accidentally toss it and never know it was ever there to begin with.

(via recyclableornot)

mothernaturenetwork:

‘The top 10 things I wish didn’t involve plastic’

•   Empty motor oil bottle
•   Paper towel
•   Apple core
•   Yogurt cup
•   Plastic bag
•  Receipt
•  2 paper coffee cups
•  Styrofoam cup
•  Straw & paper wrapper
•  Paper bag

·      2 Post-it notes

·      Plastic bottle

·      Apple core

·      3 receipts

·      Crumpled paper in pocket

·      3 pieces of notebook paper (recycled)

·      Styrofoam takeout container

·      2 plastic sauce cups

·      Plastic yogurt cup

·      Plastic fork

·      Naan plastic packaging

·      Some leftover chana masala

·      Styrofoam plate

·      Plastic fork

·      Plastic knife

·      Plastic cup

·      Fortune cookie wrapper

·      Fortune

·      4 napkins

·      Receipt

·      Brown paper bag

·      Styrofoam cup

·      Plastic lid

·      2 Post-it notes

·      Random scraps of paper/lint that went through the laundry

·      1/10 gallon of fuel

·      Banana peel

·      2 pieces of paper (recycled)

·      Staple

·      Plastic fork

·      Plastic cake container

·      3 more napkins

·      Styrofoam cup

·      Apple core

3/2/11 — A Normal Day:

·      Banana peel

·      Styrofoam plate

·      Plastic cup

·      Plastic fork

·      Receipt

·      2 napkins

·      Paper bag

·      Styrofoam cup

·      Plastic lid

·      1/5 gallon of gas to get to work/school and back

·      Ticket from hourly parking lot

·      4 “eco-friendly” recycled napkins

·      5 paper towels

·      Wax-coated paper cup

·      Straw & paper wrapper

·      Paper plate

·      3 Post-it notes

·      Pizza crust

I got a new job recently.  This is my second part-time job in addition to being a full-time grad student.  As a result, I’m away from home most of the day, eating out a lot, and generally being more wasteful than I should be.

On a personal level, being more wasteful (and spending more money) is easy to justify: even though it feels wrong to unnecessarily toss out a styrofoam cup every work day, at least it gets me through the long days that help pay the bills, pay for my education, and will make me a competitive applicant for a Ph.D. program and ultimately help me get a great job.

The catch is, at least for me, that I’m studying in the humanities.  Lately, I have been getting more interested in ecocritical studies.  It feels pretty hypocritical (especially in the latter instance) to spend 12 - 16 hours a day studying what I’m studying without making a conscious effort to avoid unnecessary waste.  

In addition to taking the bus as often as possible, using my laptop to take notes and read class assignments, and other situation-specific one-time only changes, I’ll also be trying to keep track of the daily waste.  

The first few days, I won’t be making any changes intentionally (though I suspect just being more aware of my waste could change my behavior).  Good thing I’m not trying to be scientific.  After the first week, I’ll pick one common and unneeded source of waste to eliminate and move forward from there.

Hooray!

My goal with this tumblr is to make myself more aware of what I’m consuming.  And more importantly, what happens next to the things I use.  And, even more importantly, try to reduce what I waste.  To do that, I will keep and publish lists of everything I throw out (or recycle) on a daily basis.  

I don’t want to be one of those militant greenpeace self-congratulatory hippie types.  

So why don’t I just keep track of this shit on my own?  Because I’m lazy and I know I won’t actually keep up with this project without pretending that maybe somehow it might matter to other people, too.  

A few stinky hippies swearing off electricity and showering and whatnot won’t change anything, but lots of people doing a little bit can make a difference (if not, then we’re all fucked anyway, so what’s the harm in trying?).  Here is my little bit.