Trash Talk - part deux: days 10-12

Hot Topic
Wow – a sudden interest from the local media. My guess is that the timing of our little project fits in with what’s hot in the news right now. After all, Al Gore was just in Seattle this week, and he has become synonymous with conservation. The great thing is the increase in traffic on the blog! I am glad to see the great comments, suggestions, resources, experiences people have sent. Because one of the frustrations I encountered was the limited amount of plastics recycling in Seattle, I am happy to see the focus on recycling, trash reduction, renewable resources – and involvement!

I’ve been thinking a lot about what this experience means to me.

**climb up on soapbox**
I don’t know how much of what I’m doing now I’ll continue in the long term. But I think quite a bit of it. I have also realized two things about myself that I hadn’t really conceptualized before. I believe that conservation is one part of being a responsible world citizen, along with working to improve everyone’s quality of life, worldwide, by sharing wealth, ensuring healthcare, and reducing violence. They are all intertwined. The second thing is that I although I always talk about these things, I don’t take a lot of action. Now that I’ve taken this step, I’m hoping I’ll keep the momentum and expand my actions to support my beliefs. We’ll see.
**back to earth**

A few random observations from the past 10 days:• I’m actually enjoying this experiment – not as difficult as I expected, kind of fun, and I feel like I’m doing something worthwhile in increasing my awareness of my own behavior (always a good thing).
• You cannot buy cloth diapers or handkerchiefs in the grocery store – only disposable.
• Leaving electronic AC chargers for cell phones, etc plugged in uses up a lot of power. Using a power strip with an on/off button can reduce power waste when the cords aren’t in use. But so much effort!
• I’ve been surprised by people, even some friends, who just don’t care – but then, I’ve also heard from a lot of people – friends and strangers – who are already taking action to be better caretakers of their environment.
• Trying to “do the right thing” is complicated. Lots of actions that seem like the right thing actually have their own negative consequences that are not immediately obvious. You have to look at the entire “lifecycle.” But, I think it’s all part of the learning process. Hopefully, we’ll get better at this.

~Linda