Just a little note to let you all know that We have kept up the challenge, although its not much of a challenge anymore. It has become second nature for the family now. we arent garbage less, but I can tell you, if the town limited garbage to 2 full bags a year, that WE a family of 7 would have no problem whatsoever !!

Last Week!!

This is the Last Week of the Challenge.. and We did it!! Over the past 3 months, we have went out of our way, well not too much actually, actually not very much out of our way at all.. we have recycled everything we possibly could, trips to the metal recyclers, actually put some $$ in our pockets, trips to the mall to get ris of the printer cartridges, then we started reusin and refilling the cartridges, less resources used that way.. reused a tone of bags and baggies that would have normally been thrown inot the garbage or recycling box.....

This started out all about Recycling, but as we went on, we realized its about the 3 R's Reuse, Reduce, and Recycle.

The Worm bucket now has at least 6 pounds of worms in it, and 20 pounds of worm castings. The children learned a great lesson with the worms, and how much we waste..

We will continue to practice what we have set forth.

Spring cleanup was difficult, but instead of heading to the dump, we had a garage sale, and then donated the unwanted stuff. also put ads in the local buy and sell..

Thanks to all who followed us through this.

Week 8 and all is well :)

The Racoons got into the garbage last night but no free lunch once more. Since March 1st, there is a lightbulb from our fridge, moldy bread, lots of dust bunnies, hair from buzzcuts, a poopy diaper from my neice and some broken pieces off some toys that were swept up.

On a cool note!

Q92.7's Terry and Mel interviewed Chantal on Eatth Day about our challange at first the were grossed out about the whole worm thing, but with a bit of explanation, they thought it was really cool. The interview was played throughout the day and was added every news break, they called us heros of Earth Day, if being a hero is this easy, why wouldnt everyone do it? or at least try.

It is Now April 11th, there has been 6 weeks of no Roadside garbage.
All is going well, Our worm bin isnt big enough now, we started with a pound of worms, I would bet there is 4 pounds of worms now and at least 20 pounds of worm castings.

We have not put any garbage roadside, we really haven't curbed our food consumption, or changed our lifestyle, all we have done is closed the lid on the garbage can and have to figure out what do with it, in most cases it means simply putting it in the recycling bin. being a bit more responsible with packaging, containers for the kids lunches,, if we do send stuff with wrappers to school the kids bring them home for recycling... We Reuse alot more now as well, margarine tubs for lunches, bread bags for lunches, rather than recycling them right away, get a few more uses out of them. those are just a couple examples.

Today. the garbage truck, which has bypassed our house for the last 5 weeks, decides to stop, and pick up our large blue box, and dump the contents into the back of the garbage truck, the small recycling boxes were left, so perhaps this garbage man was colourblind. or hopefully he put it into the recycling side of the compactor, but if he did, why would he have left the smaller bins..

Our Printer cartridges get refilled or disposed of at the Kiosk in the mall, We now look at labels, try to buy local as much as possible.

The whole paper making idea, was a great idea , but a messy long process, it was fun the first couple times. we will continue to do it, but at more of a leisure pursuit. The worms deal with flyers just fine.. Not only are we saving space in the landfill. It actually feels good to not contribute to it.. The kids refer to me as the Recycleing King

Official Start

The official start date is Today!
March 1st 2009. no roadside garbage for 3 months, over the past few weeks we have had minimal garbage, a total of 1 Grocery bag. I am wondering if theres a Tax break for no garbage collection.! We aim to have zero roadside garbage for 3 months, I will be posting weekly,.. our progress.




Tomorrow is the first Garbage day of our Challenge, heres a picture of whats at the end of our Driveway...

We unofficially started about 3 weeks ago, at the end of each week we go through the garbage bag, and there's usually only a very small amount of gross food garbage thats left..

Whats in the bag is 3 weeks worth of real garbage, cooked chicken bones, dust, dog hair, candle wax leftovers, some small useless pieces of drywall.

Eco Conscious, or just makes sense?

About 9 years ago,would have been September 2000, While brushing my teeth, I thought, What a waste of water.., I , and the kiddos with encouragement, turned off the water while brushing our teeth, We have been doing this ever since..




We also in the older bigger Toilets, filled a washed out margerine tub with rocks, and put it in the back of the toilet, saving 500mls of water each flush, our present toilets are water friendly they use much less water, we have added a fist sized rock into the back of the toilet, saving a bit more water...

And Then theres the Media

I really didnt think this would amount to more than a small write up and a link to the blog, afterall, this is just a small challenge we are doing, but perhaps the coverage might make others give it a try..
heres the article, click the pic

Well, here we are , at the end of January already, Last week we had zero garbage out for pickup, There was a garbage bag full sitting outside, so thursday night, I set out some plastic, dumped out the barbage bag, and sorted it out..... we did have 1/8th of a IGA grocery bag of actual garbage left over after sorting, it was food junk, stuff I didnt want to put in the worm bin, or give to the dog.

This past weekend the boys and I did some drywalling downstairs, so we do have some garbage, some drywall scraps. Over the past 2 weeks we have accumulated a grocery bag of garbage.

With minimal efforts this will be something we will continue for along time once our challenge is done.

Here is a family of 7's garbage day morning pickup. no garbage, just stuff for recycling..
.

The Worm bin

The Red Worms arrived today, a few days ago, the children and I got the bin ready,

. Every 3 months time we will have a rubbermaid bin full of rich plant soil, worm castings(worm poop), plus they also will have aided in waste reduction... this is an indoor project, that is odourless, also the .."Juice" that collected in the lower tray, is odourless as well and is another great plant food..
this is acomplished with..
this..
And these guys and gals..

Happy New Year 2009!!!

We are a large family, theres 7 of us, We have already been trying to minimize our environmental
impact on the world, we recycle, reuse, and reduce as much as possible, we have more blue boxes at the end of our driveway than any other house in our small town. Its discouraging when we see a family of 4 or even just a couple that put out 3 big bags of garbage and 1 recycling box on garbage day. We a family of 7 manage to only have 1 bag of garbage, we incur alot more waste and packaging and garbage all together but continually only have 1 bag of garbage per week..



We recently decided to try to reduce out stamp even more, we are challenging ourselves to a 3 month zero garbage challenge. Its going to be difficult, but I know we can do it.

but we will need some help and guidance. so any and all will be appreciated.

We are looking for products that will make this venture easier and greener..

our start date will be march 1st.