8 weeks of clean living

Along with being vegan, I’ve been trying to avoid other wasteful eating practices. Recently I’ve been paying a lot of attention to excessive packaging and labeling. I do most of my shopping at Whole Foods, where one would expect good behavior on these fronts, but even there I’ve found several things to look out for. I’ve been buying a fair amount of herbs such as mint and basil and I’ve noticed that there are normally two options when doing so. With mint, one can sometimes find a loose bunch (tied up with a twisty tie and a label) in the general greens section for $1.99, but the much more salient option is a prepackaged plastic box of mint (from the same supplier, Jacobs Farm) that is hung up at eye level with all the other herbs like rosemary and lemongrass. It costs $2.49 for what looks like much less mint. The boxed mint is also more consistently available. The same story plays out for basil. I’ve been able to buy bunched basil for much less than the 2.5 ounce version in a big plastic container, but it’s only every once in a while that I find it. Since I’m trying to reduce waste where possible I’ve been avoiding the boxed versions. In some cases that has led to menu changes when the loose herbs weren’t available.

Obviously buying nuts, grains and raisins in bulk helps cut down on packaging use, but there are actually financial disincentives for doing so. If my memory serves me, pecans are 11.99 per pound in bulk and 8.99 for a 1 pound package in a thick plastic zipper bag. Even when buying in bulk, one is encouraged to use a disposable plastic bag to hold one’s purchase. I have personally been reusing these bags (and the little twisty ties), but it would be nice to see a proper reusable bag with a known weight (to subtract from the weight at checkout) for bulk items. While Whole Foods is loudly proclaiming its intent to eliminate plastic grocery bags on Earth Day this year, I imagine the produce/bulk disposable plastic bags will remain.

In order to start vermicomposting, I need a worm bin. The Solana Center up in Encinitas sells worm bins preassembled, but they are a little pricey at around $80. I decided to go ahead and build my own as per the instructions on this site.

I went down to Sears and picked up an 18 gallon plastic storage bin in Christmas colors for $2.50 on sale from $5 (I guess they are clearing out their Christmas storage bin inventory). Once I got home, I used a nail to punch some holes in the bottom of the container. These holes allow any liquid that accumulates in the worm bin to seep out. To collect this seepage I placed the bin on top of its plastic lid and replaced the lid with a piece of cardboard from an old box. The cardboard will serve as a cover and allow a little bit more ventilation than the plastic top would have. I’ve put some pictures of this process at the bottom of the post.

Next step: acquiring worms. I’ve already struck out at one nursery, but I’ve found a place in Escondido that will ship worms (you can buy them online). I’m a little anxious about having worms shipped, but if I don’t find another source after looking around little bit more I guess I’ll give it a shot.

During my last eight week project I tried to use my car as little as possible, but I didn’t set any hard and fast goals. When I did drive I tried to follow many guidelines in order to increase fuel efficiency. This time around I’m going to put a hard limit on my driving by setting an explicit mileage goal. Since I don’t do any recurrent and necessary driving (I take the bus or walk to campus and back) my baseline use is 0 miles per week. On the other hand, when I purchase large, heavy things or pick friends up from the airport, I accrue miles that don’t seem all that optional. Also there are times when for social reasons or because of timing it is preferable to drive.

With these thoughts in mind, I’m going to set a goal of 40 miles per week during my eight weeks (320 miles total). If I am driving a carpool somewhere I’ll count only my share, so if the trip is 90 miles and there are three people in my car, I’ll charge myself 30 miles. At the start of my experiment my odometer read 166,067 miles and so far I’ve driven two miles. We’ll see how it goes…

I think this kind of goal can be an interesting exercise for anyone. Calculate the number of miles that you have to drive every week (to work, for example) and then give yourself a mileage “budget” above that. If you beat your goal, take yourself out to dinner in celebration with the leftover miles. I’m sure anyone can find innovative ways to string trips together, carpool, walk/bike/take the bus and otherwise reduce his or her driving.

In an earlier post I considered the difficulty of getting to the airport in a timely fashion via bus in San Diego. The main problem is that the MTS route 992, the only route that services the airport, simply follows a loop between the airport and downtown, and thus one must go all the way downtown and then back up to the airport if coming from the north. When I wrote the article, I had not actually tried taking the bus the whole way, however, and now I have several times.

It turns out that depending on when one is traveling, taking the bus is not too big of  a hassle. Specifically, if one is traveling around rush hour on weekdays the 150 runs every 30 minutes and gets downtown from campus in approximately 40 minutes where you can then catch the 992 (running every 12 minutes) to get to the airport. This is actually all fairly quick and costs just $2.50 without a student bus pass or $2.25 with (for the 992, which is inexplicably not part of the free bus zone). The story is different mid-day or on the weekends. Mid-day the 150 only runs hourly, which can waste a lot of time, and on the weekends it does not run at all, and one has to take the 30, which can take over an hour to get all the way up to campus.

I’ve actually taken to scheduling flights that fit well with the bus schedule and I’ve had good luck getting to and from campus quickly and inexpensively.

While I was on break I acquired a pair of shoes that I think fit pretty well with the goal of this site. Traditionally I have been partial to Adidas’ Rod Laver kicks, but they don’t exactly scream “environmentally friendly hippie” like I’d like. Enter Toemorrow! A member of Simple Shoes’ Green Toe line, the Toemorrow is made from materials such as bamboo, organic cotton and jute, among other environmentally friendly components. I’ve heard rumors that the Green Toe is completely biodegradable, though I imagine the brass lace holes would persist in the wild indefinitely.

I’ve been fairly pleased with the comfort and fit of the Toemorrow so far. I’ve felt some unpleasant friction on my right heel and ankle on longer walks, but nothing too drastic. Compared to the Lavers the sole of the Toemorrow is much thinner, giving me the impression that I can feel the texture of the surface that I’m walking upon. They were also a little slippery out of the box, but lately I’ve been feeling more sure-footed, perhaps because the sole has worn in a bit. If you can’t afford a Prius and want to project your green cred, these shoes are for you!

It’s been a while since my last post. In that time I finished a stressful quarter of graduate school and then spent about a month traveling around for the holidays. Ever since I finished my last eight week project I wanted to start another to investigate some topics that I didn’t get around to the first time. This quarter of my graduate program looks to be much more relaxed than the last, so I feel that this is a good time to get it under way. 

For the next eight weeks I’m going to do everything I was doing before (save the cold showers *shudder*), along with some new tricks that I think will be interesting. First, I’m going to focus even more on food, by practicing veganism instead of just vegetarianism (vegans don’t eat any animal products, including milk, cheese and eggs), as well as avoiding overly packaged or processed foods. I’m also going to be a bit more concrete in limiting my driving, by staying below some goal number of miles over the eight week period. One of the things I’m most excited about trying is vermicomposting, which involves starting a worm farm to compost one’s food waste.

I hope the results are helpful and insightful!