Conference crashing

Pernilla: Not sure about this one, but anyway:












Instead of buying lunch, me and freelancer E just stole all the leftovers from a unguarded conference at the hotel. Very sustainable to eat it instead of making them throw it all away.

Felt cheap and a bit embarrassing? Yes. Was it because of time pressure and no veggie sandwiches at the bar? Yes. Was it replacing proper lunch? Not really. (But please notice the Macarons.)

Leaving the hotel

Pernilla:
Sordid. Seriously.
This is my weekend of garbage produced, and you know what, I refuse to bring it with me! I also refuse to convince the french piano teacher lady to sort and recycle it for me. (Perhaps she does, yes, actually let's pretend she does that. Eh, haha.)

This is not like a lot of garbage compared to, lets say Americans that use disposable plates and cutlery for every meal, but still I felt very unsatisfied. Sloppy. Not taking my responsibility. I have been avoiding things like taking every flyer, broschyre and so on that people want to give you. I've browsed through free magazines and decided not to take them BEFORE i actually take them with me. Etc.But still this is how much I threw away. (NOT counting any food leftovers which are the main part.)

I was a bad tourist.
One thing on my plus account though: I needed shampoo. I went into a pharmacy and the only travel sized shampoo they offered came in a 3-pack, in a little PVC transparent bag. I debated with myself for 10 minutes what to do (drove my boyfriend crazy as well) and then decided NO. I just really hate PVC. So now I'm washing myself with the free stuff you get in the hotel - it's body gel, not even shampoo. I now smell like a salesman of cheap copying machines. And my hair looks like Ronjas'. Oh, the Sacrifice.
And just realized, all those little bottles of body gel... I guess I have to keep them then.

Shopping = Throwing

Karin:
So obviously our trashing habits are directly related to our shopping habits. The only way to control what we trash is to control what we buy. One thing that I always claim to live by is quality instead of quantity. For example, buying one high quality garment/object that will last for years rather then low quality and having o constantly replace. In the long run my believe is that it's both financially and ecologically more sustainable. Easy in theory... but as a "poor" student reality sometimes look different. However, Pernilla and I had a very good discussion the other day about how you should cosider everything you accuire your responsability from then on. Considering what will happen to it after you get it, how long the lifetime will be and what will happen to it when you no longer want it. Going through that chain in the head one extra time before making a decition to buy something.

I have been looking for a blazer for quite some time and today I found two! One wich was 39€ and another at 125€. My non-paid-internship-wallet told me that the 39€ one was the way to go and I felt that I couldn't argue the extra 86€ even though the other one was nicer. I estimated how many times I would be able to use the cheaper one before it would start looking dodgy and guessed that it would most probably be in the charity-shop-dumpster before next summer. Also style wise it wasn't love, and it has to be love! So I went ahead and got the all-natural-material-well-made one. I have adopted it and I will take care of my baby. Hoping to look smart at client meeting tomorrow and many times to come...


Pernilla: Wow! Nice jacket, plus good moral choice. I hope. I think. Let's hope the quality thing pays off then!

Take away or eat here?

Karin:
Went to the awsome sallad/sandwich bar "Dean & David" for lunch on thursday with some colleagues. We were going to eat there but it was totally full so we decided to take the food back to the office. Fine, apart from the fact that it left me with this:

Napkin, wrapper, bag, plastic cup and straw... Lots of waste for one lunch! And if we would have been able to eat there it would have been none. So I'm going to try to avoid this when I can, from now on it's all about eating out!

So I ended up throwing the paper out at work but I couldn't bare to throw the cup. So I brought the cup and straw home and washed them out. I thought I could use this straw for my morning smoothies since it doesn't have the little "bend" that other straws have it's easier to keep clean. And this morning all of our glasses were in the washing mashine so I used the plastic one again! Yey, second life!

Pernilla, I can totally relate to you on feeling sorry for products when they don't get to do what they are supposed to. The cup looked proud to do it's job again this morning! :)

In swedish the word for disposable is "engångs-" wich means "one time use". So many disposable products can be used more then that!

Toilet paper

Pernilla:

I told my boyfriend that we're doing a "no waste"-project. He looked at me with big eyes, then just kind of exploded:
"Yes, fine, good but I'm not gonna not buy clothes for a year! And I want to use toilet paper! And toothpaste! Don't make me not do that!"
I told him he could use toilet paper and toothpaste.
(But actually - isn't flushing stuff down the toilet sort of cheating?)

And being a responsible non water when travelling...
is just so hard! It's completely impossible not getting my handbag full of little wrapping papers.

I think flexibility - still being able to be spontaneous, is a key thing here. And guilt.

At Madames

Pernilla:
I'm staying at B&B in Paris. The apartment is fantastic. The lady who has it is a piano teacher. There are french kids having piano lessons outside. I feel like being in a movie. (Oh, but not THAT piano teacher movie. A nice movie.)

And when it comes to waste control, zero. What can I do if she insists on serving me portion packs of yoghurts? (Eh, probably something like telling her not to, but it's a bit embarrasing, isn't it?) No to mention going around the city all day. Chewing gum, wrapping paper, paper cups - hard to avoid. I'll do my best.
Anyway, I was sitting there with my single portion yoghurt this morning and observing her collection of vintage packages. And somehow I came to wonder what happed with appreciating your things and keeping them forever because you like them? I imagine people loved and appreciated their stuff more when they had less, can that be right?

Imagine if you would tell your kid once a year that you'd go to a toy store, carefully pick one single toy, and that's it! That's the doll you'll be playing with for the next year, so you better be good to her!

What if we always had the intention of whatever I buy, I will have to stick with until it's totally, totally worn out and broken and gone!? There is no "buying a new one just for the fun / convenience / sake of it?"

Plane trash

Pernilla:
So I'm travelling. And while Karin is setting up composts, I feel a bit limited.

It started on the plane.


I was offered a newspaper that I kind of already read online, but paper papers are just so - nice. And it WAS very nice to read it.
Then this coffee was offered and I thought hell yeah. One cup, one paper wasted in less than a few minutes.

The spoon, sugar and napkin I hadn't even used, but before I tucked them down the cup to be trashed unused I realized they could be "good to have". I feel somehow sorry for stuff that was produced and shipped et alles, then just wasted without even fulfilling their life purpose of stirring my coffee for five seconds.

So now they live in my handbag waiting for a purpose to use them to come up. Uh, this "good to have" will become a dangerous one, I can tell already.