October 12, 2020

by drplasticpicker

This post is almost two weeks overdue. I was not really moved to write this post earlier because the secondary environmental net positives were flowing this month. Every action I took this month, seemed to just lead to less clutter in our house, something upcycled or a change that became organically emeshed with my psyche – that I didn’t even feel the need to list it on my iPhone. This blog has alwys been about keeping motivated to make changes for the earth and September I needed very little motivation.

I now realize that it was becuase last month we sold our 2006 Honda Odyssey https://drplasticpicker.com/the-road-to-fise-let-it-go-the-2006-honda-minivan/. It went to a high-school friend at the market rate maybe a tad below, and gave us a wonderful experience with said friend. More importantly it was an impactful way to reduce carbon emissions about equivalent to our family of 4 taking nine cross country flights. We also gained $4500 to add to our fund to buy another renal property (stay tuned!) and saved $400 in insurance and DMV fees yearly.

What I didn’t realize what would happen is that opening up the backyard concrete pad where we would park the rarely used 2006 Honda Minivan has led to a burst of creativity and gardening activities! It has been so wonderful. Above are just some of the pictures of our container gardens.

List of 15 Secondary Environmental Net Positives (September 2020) Ordered from how I listed them on my iPhone. There are many more changes we made, but these are just the ones I listed that I needed motivation to do.

1. Composted Containers (5): I guerilla composted 5 containers of food scraps at an unknown top secret location. I am allowing this project to stay dormant and I think it will work. But I think it’s inefficient to guerilla compost. Given the brilliance of my friend Dr. Young-Ho Yoon and that he has an Aerobin 400, I’m waiting for it to either go on sale at Costco again or I find a deal for under $300. My plan is for us to start using this at home to compost.
2. Plastic-Free Food Project (1): I forgot what it was. But I listed it. I’ve definitely been cooking more from scratch.
3. Upcycled Garbage Liners (4): I pieced together four bathroom garbage liners out of leftover plastic food packaging. I always like doing this but this was more of a beginning of the month project. We’ve been so busy with the gardening that I mostly used left over large popcorn bags for garbage liners. We haven’t purchased any plastic bags and rarely bring home any from the stores.
4. Upcycled Bookmarks (2): Our daughter had those photostrips from a birthday party long-ago. She gave them to me, and I made them into bookmarks for myself. Now I have extra motivation to read, as I can see her and her best friend.
5. Vegan Muffin Batch (1): I must have only made one batch this month. Our daughter said she was tired of my healthy muffins. I like making muffins. But only one batch I listed this month.
6. Vegetarian/Vegan Meals (2): We are definitely eating more vegan and vegetarian meals, but one time I listed it so I could have motivation.
7. Food Waste Projects/Meals (9): This month I’ve been thinking hard about food waste. Take \-Out food generates so much trash! We had Thai Food this last Friday night as my clinic ran late, and even with washing and recycling the containers – it’s so much waste. Trying to eat less take-out is impactful, and we did minimize the food we throw away with these projects! Yeah. Less methane from the landfill and saved money too!
8. Bag of Bunny Poop/Hay Composted (1): This related to the guerilla composting project. We will be composting our own soon in the Aerobin 400.
9. Showers Averted (3): It’s still important to save water. I don’t go crazy since I figure it’s more effective for the world if I don’t buy useless cotton clothes that cost areas like Pakistan 2000 L of water on average to grow and produce the average T-shirt. But three times I delayed a shower specifically for the earth.
10. Girl Scout Books Shipped (1): We had a set of Junior Girl Scout Books that were practically new. I think it’s unlikely that it would be found by the right person if I donated it. So I posted it on my facebook page, and one of my old friends from residency has a daughter who is a Junior Girl Scout. I shipped it to her! It did cost me shipping at the book rate, but I figure that is more about spreading karma. I also sent her a drplasticpicker reusable tote bag!
11. Home Hair Cut (1): I had my mother-in-law trim my hair. She does a fine job and I’m not a fancy person. I may just stick with this even post-quarantine.
12. Trash Art Pieces (3): I think I’ve made more than three but at least three.
13. Upcycled Soap Dishes (3): This was really fun. I had saved these plastic sticks from an old Edible Arrangements gift. I had saved them from years ago. I upcycled three plastic tofu containers into soap dishes with pretty ingenous drains. Totally works and is sturdy.
14. Gardening Projects (4): We definitely have more than four. But four times I needed the motivation to do it by listing them. We are trying to upcycle and reuse a lot of containers. It’s been really fun. The basil and curled parsley are doing decent, as are the succulents. As with everything on this blog, it’s trial and error and I’m allowing myself the mental space to fail. We should all be this forgiving to ourselves. I once saw on Bright Vibes that quote “Be Brave Enough to Suck at Something New.” I totally love that.
15. Delaying Buying a Toaster: I still haven’t bought a new toaster. Delaying purchases is good. The right two slices still work. I was on a cleaning rampage yesterday due to our infestation of biscuit beetles and almost threw it out, but I stopped. I’m glad I did. I needed a 15th item to report out to the blog’s readership. So you helped me delay throwing out this toaster!

And that is it! That is my overdue September report on our Secondary Environmental Net Positives for September 2020! Oh by the way, the apple-scrap vinegar and beer vinegar projects are going great. I didn’t list them because I just enjoy checking them out every day and don’t need the extra motivation. Happy Monday everyone as our “Garden Hero” salutes you, I salute you as well.

Click here to read last month’s post! https://drplasticpicker.com/secondary-environmental-net-positives-august-2020/ You can keep on clicking to go all the way to the beginning.