The menstrual cup is hands down my favorite zero-waste essential. As i’ve said before, it is life changing. It is also the very reason i’m doing all this zero wasting. Since i’ve been a “cupvert,” i’ve been on a mission to tell women to switch from pads or tampons to this holy grail of zero waste menstruation. I’m the happiest whenever a friend finally does the switch. I’m not only happy for the environment, i’m also happy for my friends because they’ve experienced the menstrual cup magic.
Because i’m a menstrual cup fanatic, i religiously check out “menstrual cup” tags on my WordPress Reader. As in. Idk, but i just enjoy reading others’ experiences with the cup.
I think the menstrual cup is the best innovation of the pasador (it’s basically a reusable cloth pad that our grandmothers used on their red days): it is reusable like the pasador, but offers convenience that caters to the needs of our contemporary lifestyles.
Just when i thought the menstrual cup can’t get any better, i saw this in my Reader. The Keela Cup was co-designed by Jane Hartman Adamé, a person with disability (PWD). What’s amazing about this cup is that it is designed with accessibility in mind. Check out its Kickstarter page to see how cool it works. I’m only judging from the looks of it, but to me its clever design seems better than the ordinary cup.
Currently, zero waste is not inclusive (and the word “inclusive” itself is still problematic). And the Keela Cup somehow reminds me that in our effort to save the environment through zero waste, we must also work on making the movement accessible to all. This requires going beyond personal actions and innovating current alternatives and solutions. We also need to work on long-term systems change.
After my grandmother’s funeral in November, our big family, together with some close relatives, gathered for dinner at a Chinese restaurant.
I think i was going to a rest room when i saw our drinks being prepared by a waiter. All 30+ glasses had already been filled with iced tea and the waiter was putting a plastic straw in each glass. He had already put in some ten straws or less when i approached him and asked him to stop. I asked him politely to remove the straws, keep them, and only give one if someone asks for a straw. He happily obliged and i thanked him. He then asked the other waiters to bring the drinks into our room. (Some Chinese restaurants have rooms for large groups.)
Straws are a trigger so my butting in was kind of automatic. I really didn’t intend to do an experiment. But then during dessert (hence, last part of the dinner), i saw the waiter again and remembered the straws. I suddenly realized, to my amazement, that nobody had asked for a straw. I looked around our room and saw that nobody had straw in their iced tea. Nobody even noticed there wasn’t a straw in their iced tea. In other words, nobody needed a straw.
This accidental experiment shows us that straws aren’t truly necessary. Imagine all the waste it would make if i didn’t tell the waiter to remove the straws, if people actually used the straws simply because the straws had already been provided. That would be 30+ straws uselessly, needlessly wasted.
And then when i was decluttering last December, i saw these.
What should i do with these?
Back in July 2014, i bought these straws for a party. The company i worked with then had a tradition wherein every month birthday celebrators would throw a pakain or party. New to the company, two of my officemates and i were excited about our turn to throw a party for the month of July. Because we were also the young ones, we decided to have a kids-themed party. We bought party hats and, pardon me, those colorful disposable straws. The straws were my idea. I put them on the table for anyone who’d need one. And guess what? Very few took a straw. Heck, only three! Its packaging says “40 pcs.” I just counted the unused straws: 37. And if i remember correctly, i didn’t even get one myself because i used my coffee mug for my drink and who would drink from a mug with a straw?? So here they are in 2018 completely unused. Now i don’t even know what to do with them.
From these events one can see that people can do away with straws because straws are not truly necessary.
Despite this, however, humans will still suck. (Double meaning intended.) I mean, i know people will look for a straw if the situations were different (perhaps they didn’t ask for a straw because they weren’t travelling or their drink didn’t have pearls). In addition, i know people who actually complain when they are served drinks without a straw.
It is not ridiculous (or too minimal an effort), therefore, to try to save the planet by refusing single-use plastic straws. If any, the war against single-use straws (and plastics) must be fought with seriousness.
Interestingly, one way to win this battle against single-use plastic straws is to recognize humans’ propensity to suck. I have observed that simply telling people to stop using straws does not work. Not even showing people this heartbreaking video of a sea turtle with a straw stuck up his nostril. Like i said, people suck. (Double meaning still intended.)
You have to intervene. Like what i did at the Chinese restaurant.
Or introduce a sustainable way of sucking.
And so despite my empirical finding that people can do away with plastic straws, last Christmas i gave away reusable metal straws to family and friends as gifts. I also raffled off three metal straws to my advisory class.
I did this because i thought that through reusable straws people might realize how wasteful it is to throw something that can in fact be reused over and over again. I thought that through reusable straws, people might rethink straws in particular and stuff and waste in general. This is also why i opted for stainless metal instead of other alternative materials for straw, such as bamboo and glass: i thought it’d be more likely that people will keep their metal straw for a long time since it’s just like stainless spoon and fork (not to mention, also stylish). With bamboo or glass straws, i worried people would throw them away improperly if they get moldy or dusty (bamboo) or if they break (glass).
We don’t need straws. But we suck anyway. Good thing, we can now suck sustainably.
To conclude, the waste unwasted by not using plastic straws is tremendous. Just look at the figure 37 out of 40 and you get the idea. That said, the simple act of refusing single-use plastic straws saves the planet big time.
January is Zero Waste Month in the Philippines. In celebration, i decided to do my own beginner’s guide to zero wasting! Hopefully, this will help people to start their own journey.
STEP 1: Identify the source of your trash and know how much trash you generate.
How? Simple. Look at your basurahan (trash can). Like really stare at it. Then, identify and describe the contents of your basurahan. Are they mostly food wrappers? Tissue papers? Are biodegradable and nonbiodegradable stuff together?
If you share a basurahan with other people, do this experiment: after reading this blog post, get a plastic bottle. Stuff all of your day’s trash in that bottle. If you want a little challenge, make it three days or a week. After that duration, identify and describe the contents of the bottle. After three days, is it almost full?
***I really encourage you to do Step 1 first before going on. Come back to this page when you’re done with Step 1. :)***
STEP 2: Learn how to refuse.
After Step 1, you probably realize now how much trash you generate as a single person (maximum of 1 kg per day if you’re in Metro Manila; imagine then how much a household generates!) and where your trash comes from (yes, trash doesn’t just happen; you are directly responsible for it). You probably now realize too that, yes, all of those trash will most likely end up in landfills. (I get your shock. I’ve been there too.)
So now that you know where your trash comes from, learn how to refuse them. If you found plastic straws in your trash, then from now on refuse straws. If you found too much food wrapper, then avoid buying food in wrappers/packaging. If you found single-use plastics, then refuse single-use plastics.
MMDA data showed that the No. 1 type of waste thrown in 2016 was kitchen waste, which accounted for 33.67 percent of the more than 9,000 tons of garbage collected per day.
How about personal care products that are packaged? There are tons of alternatives!
What shall i do with tons of paper? Reuse the back side. If that can’t be done, sell them to junk shops. May pera sa basura!
Once you get a whole picture of where your trash comes from, you’ll have a clear idea not only on how to avoid them, but also on how to deal with them properly.
Zero waste can be a challenge here as zero waste alternatives are not yet widely available. Ritual is the only totally package-free store at the moment. (But then there are now online zero waste stores which i will soon blog about.) In addition, refusing stuff can be quite a challenge too. As such, it’s quite understandable to fall short and resort to convenience once in a while. (Well, for now. The aim is still to go close to zero.) It’s important to understand that zero waste does not happen overnight or even over a year.
Good thing, there’s The Plastic Solution, a movement that aims to repurpose nonbiodegradable trash as ecobricks. So if you happen to still make trash and don’t know how to deal with it, stuff it in a plastic bottle. Once full, turn it over to their drop-off centers so that it can be used to build low-cost constructions.
My ecobricks, along with those of my students’, ready for drop-off at The Plastic Solution
***
And that’s it. That is zero wasting. It’s simple and doable. Doing these steps may be challenging at first. But when you’re committed, they easily become new habits.
And zero wasting doesn’t end there. It’s a life-long commitment. Simultaneously you’ll learn about mindfulness and minimalism. Immediately you will realize there is no turning back. There’s only going forward, towards becoming kinder to the planet.
Wow. It’s been a year. I remember planning this blog towards the end of 2016. And now i’m in the second year of my “official” zero waste journey.
The first year had been challenging. I tried my best but still occasionally fell short.
All of my personal trash in 2017. They will be dropped off at The Plastic Solution.
Obviously, i’m still faaaar from zero. Just for transparency: not included in those containers are our household waste or waste i share with my middle-class family. But this year, i will do better and, hopefully, be more in control.
My general goal: to fit a year’s worth of personal trash in two containers or less. And then for this blog, i will focus more on sharing tips and resources (aside from experiences). Especially because some of my friends are now starting their own little steps towards zero waste this year. (Yay!) So now the agenda is to help them and others stay on this journey. Thankfully, because zero waste is now gaining popularity, more alternatives and solutions are now available. I will blog about these very soon.
Anyway, Happy New Year to you who are reading this. I’m going to assume that you’re here because you want to do some change this year, particularly, to minimize your waste. The waste crisis in this country alone is unimaginably huge. People need to give a shit. So if you’re thinking of helping fix that through zero waste, then welcome aboard! I’m glad you want to do this. The zero waste community in the Philippines is growing. That’s proof that zero waste is doable and achievable.
If you’re new to zero waste, i hope you find this blog helpful. If you’ve been zero wasting, feel free to share experiences and tips! One of the things i discovered last year is that there’s nothing more kilig than meeting a fellow Pinoy zero waster! It feels amazing when you encounter people who give a damn about things you give a damn about. It makes you realize that there are people who care for this country and for this planet. It inspires you to do more, do better. It gives you hope.
When i was in grade and high school, we gave Christmas gifts to our teachers. So now as a teacher, i worried i might get many gifts this Christmas. And so i needed to do something. As soon as December came, i made the following announcement through Facebook’s My Day:
Thought i should make this announcement as early as now.
To all family, friends, coworkers, students:
Please do NOT give me any gift this Christmas. Please do NOT include me in your shopping list. I have been trying hard to minimalize my life this year. That means i’ve been trying to lessen my stuff and possessions. I won’t be able to achieve that if i will receive any new stuff from well-meaning people. I will very much appreciate your support on this personal project.
Pero pwede ang CASH! Which i will donate to a cause that i support. So cash only or nothing at all. Either of the two will be highly appreciated and considered the coolest gift ever. Thank you!!! 😊😊😊
I even announced that in the classroom to my advisory class and sent it personally to friends. Also, i reposted it a few days before our Christmas party with students.
The result: i STILL received some gifts. But not as much as i likely would had i not made the announcement. I got only two gifts from two students who i’m sure didn’t see or hear the announcement. And from friends, well, they told me they had already bought something for me before i even announced my No Gifts Please policy. What i truly appreciated, tho, is that they gave me stuff that are ecofriendly. Also, they didn’t wrap the gifts because they knew i wouldn’t like them wrapped. It’s really the mindful thought that counts.
Speaking of mindfulness, i’ve been practicing it again since doing zero waste. So on my part, i wanted my gifts to be ecoconscious. As such, i gave away reusable metal straws as Christmas gift to family and friends. (Why i chose metal straws is the subject of my next post.)
I also wanted this Christmas to be meaningful, to be more about time and relationships and less about stuff, to be about sharing rather than abundance.
And so for noche buena, i cooked for my family. I don’t cook and have no talent in cooking at all, so my mother and brother eventually helped out. The cooking turned out to be a fun experience for me and my brother who also doesn’t cook.
As for the traditional kris kringle (secret Santa) at work, i didn’t put anything in my wishlist. This was because i didn’t want anything new for me at all. Luckily, my secret Santa learned about my announcement. So he gave me a letter instead in addition to cash. (He even added P200 more than the agreed budget. I will soon donate everything to an org that i support.) This is the best gift i received this Christmas. ❤
Lovely. I love letters, especially ones with beautiful handwriting.
I hate how Christmas has been hijacked by capitalism. Christmas has lost its meaning that “Merry Christmas” doesn’t mean anything to me anymore. “Happy holidays” is more apt. After all, ’tis a long holiday of buying, stuff, big sales, raffles, and exploitation.
If there’s anything i truly, deeply want for Christmas, it’s to see capitalism fall. Because then we can achieve peace, justice, and joy. Mindfulness, i believe, can help make that wish come true. (But that’s for another post.)
Anyway, happy holidays! I hope this year has been good to you in general.
My previous post was scheduled to be published on November 18. I remember i was wrapping it up just a couple of minutes before i fell asleep. I had only been asleep for half an hour when my mother woke me up at 2:30 a.m. telling me that my 90-year-old lola (grandmother) has died. Mommy, as we all called her, had been trying to live up to my father’s birthday on the 19th. She didn’t make it.
I should find solace in the fact that she had been desiring that moment with all her heart–that moment when she’ll come home to her Lord (and with open arms as she would imagine). But it’s hard. I’m still so pained by her passing. I thought i was already prepared for this as my maternal grandmother also died last year. Both of them were dear to me.
When my maternal grandmother died last year, i had just started doing little zero waste practices. During the entire duration of her wake, i saw how wasteful an event such as death can be. I saw that again in Mommy’s wake.
Lamay (wake) in the Philippines is like a salu-salo, a gathering, a party–a party for the dead: the bereaved family and relatives prepare food and drinks for guests who have come to mourn with them. I just realized it’s the biggest party in a person’s life: it lasts for days, relatives abroad come home, families become complete, distant friends you’ve never heard of in years appear. Now. Of all the time that we had. Now, when the “celebrator” is not even here. It’s a sad party. But a party nonetheless.
Like any parties, a wake is wasteful. My lola’s death last year was the first death in the family in my adult life. I helped the family buy food for guests, which completely puzzled me because why? Why should we, the bereaved family, do all the hassle of preparing food for them? Didn’t they come to express their condolences? to join us in our mourning? Surely they didn’t come to eat, right?
But then what’s a party without food?
And perhaps this is a party no one prepares for. And with all the affairs and emotions the dead leaves us, convenience is the first and last resort. So hello, grocery food. Hello, single-use cups and utensils. Hello, Tetra Pak drinks and straws. Paper plates. Stirrers (stupidest thing invented ever). Tissue papers. Junk food in plastic-foil packaging. Instant coffee in sachets. Candies in plastic wrappers (seriously, is this Halloween? Why the need for candies??? Would visitors feel better if they suck on something sweet and minty?)
We humans are so funny. Doing all the hassle for the dead. All the making up (bec wut, life happened?). All when it’s too late. It’s such a waste. The dead doesn’t give a damn anymore.
She is not here anymore.
So much had happened in the very short time since i came home from Japan. And so much, too, had been missed. Perhaps if i knew how to manage and value time, perhaps if i valued relationship over work, i would’ve chosen to spend time with her. Perhaps if i knew better, i would’ve listened more, tried to understand, loved harder.
Last month, i went to Japan with my friends from college. I wanted this trip to be as zero waste as possible, so i brought with me my zero waste essentials, as well as my own toiletries.
Brought my Korean chopsticks so i don’t have to use the disposable ones.
I also managed to master the art of refusing. “No straw, please. Arigatou gozaimasu!” “No plastic, please. Arigatou gozaimasu!” I was glad the Japanese didn’t find this insulting. In fact, they were very accommodating to my choices.
Butterbeer is best enjoyed without a straw. 😊
However, i also had failures. There were times when we had no choice but to buy packaged food from the 24-hour Lawson and bring them to our Airbnb because restaurants were already closed.
Tsk tsk. Trash from instant ramen, instant o-nigiri, snacks, ice cream, etc. All of these go straight into my ecobrick.
And then because i am a Filipino, buying pasalubong or souvenirs has always been a must. I struggled so hard with this and eventually lost. I always hated shopping and yet i felt i needed to bring something home. Anyway, my pasalubong for friends and colleagues were materials made of paper and were bought without packaging. Still, i brought home some packaged goods for family.
Then there were also the traps: bag tags and stickers from airports, receipts and tickets, brochures and maps i thought i needed and didn’t refuse.
Trash as souvenirs
Obviously, my trip to Japan wasn’t zero waste. I’m not proud of this and will definitely strive harder in my future travels. Next time, i will plan ahead so i don’t have to resort to convenient stores for food and, of course, as much as possible, buy only plastic-free pasalubong.
One of the many things that i loved about Japan was the cleanliness. In all the cities we visited–Osaka, Nara, Kyoto, Nagoya–the Japanese seemed to value cleanliness. Like in Metro Manila, stores weren’t exactly package-free and many people used plastic straws and disposable utensils like chopsticks. But how come there weren’t trash everywhere? Then i realized it’s because the Japanese cleaned their surroundings religiously, managed their wastes properly, and simply gave a shit-ton about trash. For example, people didn’t toss their trash anywhere they deem fit but in trash bins that follow a strict sorting system. Also, one of the house rules of our Airbnb host was to make sure all our trash is bagged in plastic before we leave the flat. In the Philippines, our uber hospitable hosts don’t usually tell guests to clean up.
Japanese trash bins follow a strict sorting system
When in a place like Japan, it’s easy to think about home and feel sad, frustrated; to think about the good life it offers, but also your dreams and hopes back home. One of my simple dreams is to see Metro Manila clean and green. I believe it isn’t impossible. All it takes is to give a shit. Like how zero wasters give a shit about trash, about rivers and seas, about our planet. Of course, this dream can’t be realized by just bringing reusables and refusing single-use plastics. But those small actions are ripples of change that, i’m hopeful, are building great waves of positive impact that can lead to paradigm shifts, systems change, and government action and that eventually can make this dream come true.
