Wool and Spice

Trash After nearly 10 days on the Zero Waste Challenge, I have mixed results to report. Our house started out strong by segregating all the plastics that can’t be recycled locally. After taking out the plastics, we hadn’t even filled one trash bag by the end of the week, which was about a 3-day improvement. Then came Saturday’s disastrous day and the trash ballooned to include one van rear window.

I do have a grocery sack nearly full of Styrofoam trays and #5 and #6 plastics. I’m estimating that the plastic stuff we can’t recycle adds about 25% to the volume of trash that goes into the landfill each week. And stays there forever.

More Trash I’m overdue in reporting on my special investigation: Toilet or Trash for Used Tissues? This special assignment was Kmkat‘s idea and I’m telling you I’ve never gone so deep into the field of trash in my life. Nor am I sure I ever want to walk this way again.

If I were CNN, I’d be announcing this special assignment with extravagant graphics, loud music and Wolf Blitzer pontificating in grim tones.

Since my name’s not Wolf, I’ll just tell you what I learned about the best way to dispose of used tissues.

Short answer: Nobody knows. There are more arguments about the right way to dispose of a dirty tissue than there is about whether a stimulus package is really a spending bill.

There’s a contingent that says you should throw used tissues in the toilet, but only if you don’t flush them by themselves. And there’s the argument that tissues don’t dissolve like toilet paper (good thing when you have a cold) so they’re not going to disintegrate as easily.  So if you have a septic system, flushing tissues isn’t a good idea because it’ll fill up your system faster.

But if you’re on city water, trash vs flush depends upon how your waste water is processed. This is where it starts to get complicated because you’d have to call your waste water treatment plant to find out how they handle effluvium. Does it end up in the landfill? In what form? How is it processed?

Then there’s the contingent that suggests composting is a good idea if you do that. I don’t. Or burning them along with other trash. Can’t do that either.

Finally, if you want to avoid this whole discussion, which is beginning to sound like a good idea to me, you can lay in a supply of cotton hankies and stop buying tissues all together. I’ve got a few in my drawer but I’d need to buy more to get me through a week. I use a lot of tissues in the winter. A lot.

So it ends up being a personal choice depending upon your own circumstances. In the end, sniff, when my nose, sniff, is running, sniff-sniff, I’ll probably continue to reach for tissue. I’d rather stop buying meat in Styrofoam trays than face a pile of dirty tissues.

Sniff.

Really Trashy If you haven’t seen this wedding, you must at least look at the pictures. It’s so bad, I thought at first it must be a send-up. But apparently my taste is just too conventional. Thanks to Carrie at Strickerin for broadening my horizons. I think.

Other happenings around the net this week:

Vicki at Knitorious is knitting a shawl on 4 straight needles because she doesn’t like to knit on circulars. It sounds like torture to me. And for her, circulars are torture. Viva la difference!

Cathy-Cate at Hither and Yarn has unveiled a stunning Shetland Seas Shawl . The colors blend from the palest green to a shimmering blue and it makes me want to walk along the beach. Any beach.

Courtesy of Knot Much of a Knitter, I found this quote by one of my new favorite authors on a site I’ve never seen before and which I understand only about 30% of the time.

And now to bed, my pretties, since I’m yawning so hard that my eyes are watering and I’ve just used two tissues.

Tags: Zero waste