Maximizing

That title might be a bit surprising, given that we’re usually all about reducing, reusing and recycling over here. Don’t worry, we haven’t changed our tune. In my own life, I’ve been thinking about how I can maximize and get more use out of what I have. I’m trying to be creative in how I apply the concept.

The Jewish High Holidays just happened and every year my friend and I pick our own word to be our focus for the year. Mine is, you guessed it, maximize! I can tell it’s the right one for now because when I talk about it, I get the chills.

This past weekend I was talking to a customer about how it could be applied to a lot of situations.

Composting

She lives in a townhouse that also has a multi-unit condo building as part of its community. We talked about how she could maximize the resources it takes to swap out her 5-gallon bucket by channeling her enthusiasm for the practice into introducing others to it.

Another colleague in the environmental space set up a drop-off program at his faith community. This has been our dream for the Neighbor Totes program, that composting communally would create the opportunity for many more people.

Eating

There are so many fun people to follow on Instagram. One of them @plantyou (otherwise known as Carleigh Bodrug) has a series called Scrappy Cooking and a new cookbook you can preorder now on her website. Another @morocooks (otherwise known as Matt) has demonstrated how to use the whole watermelon, even the peelings. Those were blended for smoothies. I just love him, he’s so funny.

I recently made a chimichurri sauce using carrot fronds. I was pretty proud of that. They can be used wherever curly parsley is specified.

I’m helping a local preschool to donate lunch leftovers. My first challenge was rehoming 26 soy butter and jelly sandwiches. I put the bulk of them in two community fridges to see if they would be taken. (They were.) I kept a few in order to try a recipe for PB&J french toast bake. The recipe was actually created to use the leftovers from making homemade uncrustable sandwiches.

Clothing

I kind of baby my clothing. Some of it I handwash and I only use the dryer for towels and sheets, not technically clothing. I have been joking recently that my clothing is immortal! It will never wear out.

Mending

Mending is in fashion again, from invisible mending to visible mending. Many dry cleaning establishments have tailoring services and can help you if you don’t have a sewing machine, or skills or time or wherewithal. Pop-up repair cafes often have simple mending as one of the kinds of repair available. Check out the visible mending tab of local artist Bliss Joy Bull (otherwise known as Nandi) who we know through our delightful participation in Nowhere Collective’s Trashy Markets. (We’ll be talking trash at the one on December 10th. The location has not yet been revealed.)

Fusing

It was tricky to figure out the subhead for this one. Something my boyfriend (otherwise known as photographer/writer David Sutton) learned from his parents was that in order to not waste even a little bit of bar soap, you fuse the thin flimsy soap to the new hearty soap. His girlfriend suggested he photograph these because they’re so pretty. You can see many more of these on his Instagram @being_david_sutton or by searching for the hashtag #soapfusion

Exercising

I’m considering whether I want to take a harder class. It costs the same. If it’s not too hard, it probably makes sense for me to step it up, to maximize my time spent exercising.

Charging

I had this really cool thing happen. It was a case of being in the right place at the right time. I was looking at the account activity on my credit card statement and because I had purchased my dining room chairs that particular month at the Habitat for Humanity Restore, a nonprofit, I was eligible for a sizable discount on the purchase from my credit card company, but just that month. I don’t know if that actually counts as maximizing since it was kind of an accident but I know that there are all kinds of ways to capitalize on your credit card usage. In fact, The Points Guy website’s tagline is “Maximize your travel.”

Cooperating

I tuned into Faith in Place’s Green Team Summit online this month. The keynote speaker was author Leah Thomas who in her book, The Intersectional Environmentalist, and in her teaching, talks about bringing all parts of you into your environmentalism. She is also on Instagram @greengirlleah.

We’ve been asked a lot lately how our container-swap composting service is different from others and my answer is that we bring our female energy of cooperation and collaboration into our work. I really admire Erlene Howard, our founder, for bringing her feminine point of view to the historically masculine world of waste. 

Last month in our blog, I wrote about why, particularly if you are one of our customers, we need you to become an owner. Missed it? You can read it here. Because of the co-op tax structure, we can maximize the money you spend on your composting service, if you become an owner, to further support our mission and do more environmental good.