Day 22

Collection

• No mail today...if only every day were Sunday!
  

• Food and other packaging

1. orange juice carton (reuse)
   
2. plastic grocery bags (reuse)
3. 1 ginger ale soda bottle and cap (reuse)
4. egg carton (reuse)
5. glass milk bottle (return) and cap (reuse)
   
6. tea bag and packet (reuse/compost)
7. 2 "biodegradable" plastic bags (garbage--already reused once or more and quite well-worn and dirty)
8. plastic seals on 2 resealable plastic bags (garbage)
9. Straws--may reuse the actual straws, but I also cut the bottoms off to get them down to 4-year-old cup size, then cut the straw bottoms into small bits to string onto an old shoe lace. This occupied my sick son for a time.
   

Other: Started up the third tier of my worm compost pile today. I have one tier full of great compost and one tier ready to rest for a while.

I've started sorting through and trying to organize my reuse piles, and to come up with a better system for this so that I don't drive my husband crazy before the end of month 1. My biggest issue is clearly going to be beer and soda bottles, so this will be the first reuse and alternative project I tackle. The main thing I find myself throwing away is plastic wrapping from food and other packaging. Although I am reusing plenty of plastic bagging, I am bringing in more than I can reuse, and much of the plastic isn't suitable for reuse as packaging.