March and April 2021

Have a Day of Zero Waste

We're asking you to share your tips and tricks and hints and resources to help others meet a challenge of creating zero waste for an entire day.  No waste?  What does that mean?  For this challenge it means no trash and instead recycling, reusing, repurposing, and composting.  It might mean making different packaging choices.  It might mean making different purchasing choices.  
 
We usually supply tips to meet the challenge, but for this challenge the tips will come from YOU.  Please Share your zero waste story and your tips and resources with the EcoClub  so we can share with others! 
 
Tips, hints, tricks, and resources to meet the challenge:
 
Food Waste
  • Use cooking water to fertilize plants.  Grind up eggshells to add to potting soil. 
  • Using the florets of broccoli and cauliflower - don't throw away the stems and leaves, Roast them! Tossed in olive oil with a little salt - roast in the oven using high heat.    
  • Leftover coffee can be saved for iced coffee or pour it on acid loving plants like azaleas and blueberries. 
  • Candy citrus peels.   Or turn them into a natural cleaner. 
  • You can hide almost anything in a smoothie.
  • You can hide even more in a soup. 
 
Packaging
  • Shower products (soap and shampoos). Switch to bars rather than liquids that come in plastic bottles. Bars will usually come in cardboard boxes which are reliably recycled (unlike plastic).  Where in the heck do you find bar shampoo? - Minneapolis's Tare Market is a resource.  
  • Do you pre-make meals and freeze for later? Store meals in Reusable Freezer Bags (many options online -- usually food safe silicone)  instead of 1 time use plastic baggies.  You get the same space saving flat storage without the waste.  
 
This EcoChallenge is part of our Earth Month Extravaganza.  
 
The first Earth Day was 50 years ago on April 22, 1970.  It brought together people from all walks of life and areas of the country who were concerned about what was happening to our environment and natural world.  The attention coalesced a will that eventually yielded the creation of the EPA, and passage of the Clean Air Act and the Endangered Species Act.   
 
By participating in the Rotary EcoClub EcoChallenge for March and April 2021 and in other activities presented as part of our Earth Month Extravaganza, you'll help retain the energy of Earth Day that began a half century ago.  You'll take some time to appreciate all that has been accomplished since the first Earth Day and all that still needs to be done.  By examining your own daily practices around waste you'll find ways that individual action can contribute to a larger whole.    
 
Share your progress - the hurdles and the success - with Rotary EcoClub and your family and friends!