Yvonne's Story

Yvonne's story is a great supplement to last week's post ;) And I love your picture, Yvonne! Thanks for sharing with us."One Modern Day Woman's Journey Towards Zero WasteRecently I was introduced to Bea’s blog. Like many others, I poured over every entry, amazed at the lifestyle of this family of four in Northern California. I considered myself “Eco-friendly.” I drove a fuel efficient car, recycled, minimized power usage by turning off lights, took short showers, etc. I thought I was doing my share. Seeing the lifestyle of a nearly Zero Waste Home, however, felt like removing blinders from my...

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Mini-Wardrobe Fave: The Striped Shirt

I LOVE fashion.The Striped Shirt.As you already know, I do not condone fashion's ephemeral reputation, or "fast fashion"'s environmental impact. But I do get excited about finding new ways to rethink my (mostly used) wardrobe season after season.The Zero Waste lifestyle is about re-training ourselves to consume intelligently, just as it is about letting creativity bring excitement into everyday activities, including fashion!I used to think that each season, trendy clothes needed to be purchased in order to have "style". I now believe that style is something that we (already) own, pair with flair...

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Sandra's Story

This week Sandra talks about the benefits that she too has discovered in the Zero Waste lifestyle. Thanks for taking the time to write about it, Sandra!"In a February 2010 issue of The New York Times, I read about a family that did not own a trash can, and thought, “That’s impossible, how could someone live without a trash can?”Managing the trash was an unfortunate necessity in my household. Filling the trash bin, bagging it, and hauling it to the curb: this was a routine I thought could never change. It was the first of many assumptions I had about zero waste that would ultimately prove to be...

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Wow, what a day!

People p78What a day we had Friday!An article about our lifestyle came out in People magazine and we went live with solar! The solar installation looks great (although you can't actually even see the panels from the street). The process was flawless, and the Solar City staff were super cool. We could not be happier with our decision.Solar City managed to find parking on our street...Wiring the converter...Solar Panels unpacked...and getting carriedfrom one roof-line to...the next.Panels installed on our super steep roof.I think they forgot something......

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A personal view on the ideal Christmas

A few years ago, my holiday traditions consisted of the following steps.Each year, shortly after Thanksgiving, I would kick start the season with a trip to the art supply store for fancy paper and scrap booking elements to hand-craft the best greeting card ever. The elaborate design had to out-do my previous ones; the forty duplicates would take a week to complete and had to be mailed the first week of December. My schedule also included adding Christmas lights to our existing collection and ensuring that our house out-shined all the neighbors. We would buy the tallest tree we could afford and...

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