The wedding process was crazy! I had very few requests as a bride. I don't care about colors or cakes - all I cared about what using compostable products to aide in a low waste event. I made this known to my vendor and even offered to dispose of it myself if necessary but they said "oh no, we'll make sure it's composted." Well, I just happened to be there as they took the trash out the next morning and I have no doubt in my mind that those bags were headed to the dump and not the city compost. I was pretty upset about it, but eventually took solace in the fact that at least I supported a good company - even if it wasn't properly disposed of.
The gift portion of the wedding is somewhere that I really messed up. If I knew then what I knew now (sage wisdom that it is) I would not have had a registry. We don't need this stuff. I don't want to be ungrateful, but Tom and I are both grown people each with a house full's worth of stuff. So we move into our very modest sized home and ALREADY have too much stuff and now we have boxes upon boxes delivered to us every day full of marvelous frivolous gifts! To be honest I am returning many of them and will probably put the money towards something expensive and boring that we actually need. At the time I was doing what I thought was best, but now I know better... oh well... lesson learned.
Moving is SO FAR from zero waste! WOW! I wonder what the effect on the earth would be if no one moved? We acquired most of our boxes second hand (mostly from liquor stores) but had to buy some big boxes for the awkward items. I heard there are ways to buy second hand boxes and briefly looked into them, but honestly convenience was a huge factor since it was such a busy time. There is so much stuff that you just dig up as your packing and unpacking that it just brings to the surface all the disposable crap you've been living with for the past many years. The silver lining here is that it is a perfect time to get rid of stuff and downsize! I've had the pleasure of listening to This Minimalism Podcast (Minimalism for the Rest of Us) which has been super great and inspirational as I unpack boxes. I'm still struggling getting rid of sentimental items, but once they're gone I feel good about it (I mean really, when will I even need my high school letter jacket again?).
We are trying really hard to be intentional with the way we are disposing of our unwanted items. This is definitely slowing down the process, but it's totally worth it. So far I have made 2 FULL car load trips to our "hard to recycle" center - Charm. It's an awesome place for those objects that are broken or unusable by someone else (appliances, scrap metal, bubble wrap, etc). And we have an ever growing pile for the thrift store. I might even try to sell a few things on Craigs list!
For our honeymoon Tom and I went on a week long Alaskan cruise! Amazing scenery up there! We realized pretty quick that Cruising isn't our preferred method of traveling. Don't get me wrong, it is luxurious in every way, but it's hard to completely enjoy a 24/7 All You Can Eat buffet when you know there are people starving to death. I know these kinds of buffets exist, but I don't usually pay any attention and I certainly don't typically support that kind of consumption. It seemed to be an incredibly wasteful atmosphere that dropped you off in only the most touristy of spots. Tom also pointed out just how horrible air-travel is for the planet. It emits far more carbon dioxide than any other mode of transportation and is responsible for 4-9% of all climate change impact from human activity. Getting to Alaska was quite the trek. It got me thinking about what it must be like to live there and have to travel or have every little thing shipped to you.
I learned so many lessons this summer and I continue to feel so grateful for the opportunity to intentionally downsize and dispose of the items we no longer need in a responsible way.
I still have a long way to go...
