Things I Didn't Buy or Consume Today

Fall is coming.  The asters are blooming.  The Scrub Jays have been at the bird feeders loading up their crops with seeds to store.  The Grama Grass has formed seed heads and the seeds are drying out.

In other news, I've been thinking again about all the things I consume, which of them are necessary, what value they have to me, and what happens to them after I'm done with them.

Our local recycle center has recently stopped accepting glass and plastic--it's not cost-effective to recycle these things in rural areas where they must be shipped elsewhere to be processed and re-distributed. This has initiated a community conversation about recycling in general and ways to reduce our consumption of non-renewable resources more specifically.

There have been several articles in the news lately about China's decision to stop taking our materials for recycling.  According to an article from NPR, "the U.S. exports about one-third of its recycling, and nearly half goes to China" (https://www.npr.org/2017/12/09/568797388/recycling-chaos-in-u-s-as-china-bans-foreign-waste). In some cases, communities have already been sending their recyclable materials to the local landfills because there is no market for them.  Our community has been grinding up the glass and storing it at the landfill for this reason. 

This local conversation and the articles have led me to reflect a little more deeply on the products I consume and the waste I generate.  I think I'm already very limited in my consumption relative to the average U.S. resident given our living situation and choices I've previously made about how to live, and I often reflect on whether I need vs. want something, and this limits my purchases.  Still, I realized I have become complacent in some of my day to day habits.

Today I went to town because the dog was almost out of insulin.  I go to town about twice a week, a 40 minute drive each way.  This is much less driving than I used to do when I was commuting every day for work.  Still, I try to limit my trips by combining errands.  I realized that this trip was unnecessary: I could have avoided it by getting insulin a few days ago when I already needed to be in town for other errands and appointments. 

During the drive, I thought about going to the store to buy new pants and a couple of shirts.   I could use new pants since several of the old pairs wore out this summer.  And I could always use more shirts since it allows a longer delay between trips to town to do laundry.  But though the thought of new clothes was attractive, I'm fine for right now.  I have enough clothing.

I then thought about going to the grocery store and actually headed in that direction before I made a u-turn.  I was very tempted to get some specific foods, especially chocolate.  But I don't need the chocolate and I'm better off without it.  I think an occasional sugar treat is fine, but I just had chocolate the day before yesterday.  I can wait until the next trip to town.

I was also tempted to get other foods that we are out of, the things I usually have for lunch that are easy to prepare.  But I have other perishable foods at home and food waste is something I want to get better at avoiding.  I can eat these perishable things instead. 

I went to the thrift store to look for art materials.  With art materials and books, I'm always really tempted to make some kind of special exemption for myself that makes it okay.  I tell myself that personal development and expression are legitimate areas where I can allow myself greater freedom of consumption.  But I've started to be tougher on myself than I have been in the past.  I realized that new art materials, when they aren't a replacement for something I use regularly, aren't always something I should feel okay about buying--they aren't necessary or even desirable.  I've been asking myself, given what you've already got, aren't there tons of interesting things you could create just using them?  And how could doing this stretch you to explore new ideas and ways of expressing yourself?  Use of limited materials is one way to breach the barriers of habit and to make new creative discoveries.

Collage made with vintage and found materials

For example, I've been making collages and a common material used by collage artists is a type of Japanese paper called washi.  I've been looking at different kinds of it for sale online.  It's lovely stuff. But I made myself wait and consider the materials available to me, particularly those that can be re-purposed.  Yesterday I was thinking about the colorful aluminum cans of sparkling water we purchased when we had guests over last weekend.  (Note: I've been trying to eliminate it altogether for my own consumption, and thought about getting a device to make my own at home.  Because I want to limit my purchases, I'm first trying to eliminate it.  I haven't had any for about two weeks now and it hasn't been bad at all.)

In the past, I've used aluminum to make earrings (https://www.etsy.com/listing/650291335/soda-can-earrings-gift-for-lacroix-lover?ref=shop_home_active_45); the material isn't as sharp-edged as it seems and it's pretty easy to cut with a regular pair of scissors.  When thinking about collage materials that I could use instead of washi paper, I came upon the idea of using the aluminum.  A little later I was drawing colorful pictures of moths and butterflies and it occurred to me that I can construct them out of the aluminum, too.

Back to my trip to town: I've been on the look out for vintage paper materials to use for collage, again as an alternative to washi or other new materials.  I want to have an assortment of things to play with when I try to create a collage and what I have now is pretty limited.  I've been looking in the phone book bin at the recycling center (because people also dispose of books there).  I've also been looking at thrift stores.  Today, I went to the thrift store and I found an Anatomy textbook with excellent illustrations, and I took it to the counter to buy.  But I didn't buy it because it was too expensive: $10.  I've seen similar ones at the recycling center for free.  I did buy a used collection of poetry-- I want to read it and then use for collage.  That was only $2.

I broke a plate the other day and I somehow got it into my head that we needed more dinner plates, so I looked through the dishes in the thrift store.  I saw two I liked, picked them up and looked at them, and then put them down.  Upon reflection, I realized that I don't really need them.  Over the last several years I've gotten rid of sets of dinner plates because I didn't need them.  What sense would it make to buy more?  Even without the one broken plate, we still have enough.

I had in mind to go to a second thrift store for winter clothes and more collage materials, but decided I didn't need to do that.  I had enough of both for now. 

On the way home, after I stopped at the vet to pick up the dog's insulin, I thought about the ice pack the vet's office gave me to keep the insulin cool.  These are an example of unnecessary consumption of a questionable resource.  I don't know what's in them (it's not just ice), and they're wrapped in plastic. And I have several already from previously vet trips just sitting around.  I don't need these new packs, I can just put an ice pack I already have in a cooler at home and bring it with me to the vet's.  I don't know why I didn't think of this.  Again, complacency and convenience, I think.  In the future, I will bring my own ice pack.

I've also been trying to break my paper towel habit. I pulled out our cloth napkins the other day. I'd been using paper towels as a combo of plate/napkin for my breakfast and lunch because it saves the water of washing dishes, and water is high value here since it comes from our rain-filled cisterns.  They're also lighter weight than a ceramic plate and washing heavy dishes is hard on my joints.  But a cloth napkin works just as well as a paper towel or a plate for something like a bagel, I already own these napkins, and they don't add much to our washing load.

I'm trying to use fewer single use plastic bags.  They can be recycled at the grocery store, but they do use non-renewable resources and even the recycling process uses non-renewable resources.  I recently purchased some netted re-usable bags for produce---I figured the purchase was a legitimate, given the reduction in plastic use it would support.  At the time, it didn't occur to me to consider whether we already had something I could use instead of making a purchase.

Today for lunch when I pulled the lettuce out of the fridge, I noticed it had wilted down to almost nothing.   Without the plastic to hold in the moisture, the lettuce dehydrates.  My first thought was, hmm, I should buy one of those plastic salad spinners and keep it in that.  But I caught myself and decided to do some research to see if there is an alternative using things we already have. 

When I reflect, I see that there are quite a few consumption related choices I'm complacent about.  I have habits that can be altered, ones that don't have dramatic costs in convenience or personal happiness.  Even though I'm generally careful about how much I buy, I'm still just astonished at how often I find myself thinking, "I need to get this or that,"  and then, when I reflect on whether I really do need the thing, I find that I don't.  In the case that something is actually needed, it can often be postponed and I can get more use out of what I already have without hardship, or I can re-purpose something we have just sitting around.  I also find that conventions, the default behaviors we all tend to take for granted, lead me to consume in ways I hadn't been noticing.  I can be more careful.