Last year, November 2018, my husband and I (mostly me) decided to take on
No Waste November. The goal was to not buy, and therefore not discard, any unrecyclable packaging. It was a challenge, but with a lot of thought, ingenuity and reusable mesh produce bags, we did it. It meant giving up many beloved products from my "can shop there without a brain" favorite store,
Trader Joe's. While TJ's has lots of unpackaged produce, their pre-washed items in plastic bags are so easy to use, it's hard to resist them.
So for last year's challenge, I bought lots of loose produce from the bigger stores I normally avoid when I'm busy, namely
Raley's,
WinCo Foods and
Sprouts Farmers Market. It felt good to fill our bellies with healthful food while not topping out the garbage can with packaging headed for the landfill. No Waste November 2018 was a success!
This year as November approached I geared up mentally to repeat last year. No sweat, this challenge isn't that hard. It was amazing to see how little waste we produced last year by simply refusing to purchase "one-use only" packaging.
And then November came, on the heels of the sudden death of a lovely woman we worked with for years on volunteer building projects. She was much too young, much too vibrant, much too full of life to even imagine her now dead. I stumbled into the eleventh month of the year, feeling like someone punched me hard in the middle of everything that counts.
A week after Mindy's memorial service, which was attended by 480 people who were equally stunned to the core, our dear friend Dal died. He was about the kindest, most soft-hearted man I've ever met, with a melodious voice that matched his well-chosen words of support and love. Any corner of me that didn't feel devastated, well Dal's death found it and set up camp. This was a hard month. Very hard.
And so our No Waste November became a Just Get Through November. I'm sure our buying habits and garbage production rates still are well below the average for our area, but yep, I caved and bought some treats. Treats in plastic. Salad kits from Trader Joe's with innumerable little bags of add-ins, in even more plastic. One shot eating, with the trash to prove it. Maybe next year, November, maybe next year.
So while we weren't perfect, and November pretty much stank, I'm going to count up the victories, which surprisingly were quiet orange and came in their own compostable packages.
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| A needed trip to Yosemite was squeezed in early November. |
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| Soup is good for the saddest of souls. |
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| Ginger Bear did his best to cheer me up. |
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| Persimmons did their thing, looking all perky and cute. |
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| Trader Joe's ingredients, every last one. |
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Sweet Potato Chocolate Pie!
At least the sweet potatoes weren't packaged. |
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A free pumpkin from my husband's work.
Comes in its own wrapper! |
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I invented Pumpkin Rice Porridge.
Baked in the shell.
Looks awful, tasted great. |
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Thus ends November 2019.
Eat well.
Tell your friends you love them. |
