On Tuesday, someone came to buy bagels from me who had written to me earlier in the day asking that I please DO NOT put the bagels in any kind of bag and that she would be bringing her own.  When I read the message, I actually thought she was asking if I COULD put the bagels in a bag and when I replied “sure! they will be in a paper and a plastic bag!”, I’m sure she was not happy- haha.  Anyway, when she arrived later that afternon, I brought the bagels to her on a plate and she placed each of them in a plastic “bread” bag she had that she reuses and then we had a long (like 30 minute) chat about plastic use and our culture of using and tossing.  My Dad always says to not only use and recycle, but to use and REuse as much as possible.  I grew up reusing the little plastic ziplock baggies for my pretzle sticks for many days in a row, and I went to school on many, MANY occassions with my lunch packed in a bread bag, or stuffed into a granola bar box or into a pretzle bag.  Yes, I always thought it was strange and I wanted to have a brown paper bag (or buy my lunch- even better! – and yes, we bought lunch occassionaly), but now, all these years laters, I really appreciate those efforts to help reduce our waste by reusing the plastic and other materials we were using.  Just this morning, I washed a ziplock bag that I had in the freezer and plan to use it again.  My Mom always bought (and still buys) produce from the New Jersey farmers market, and while I don’t think it has much to do with plastic waste, and more to do with her affinity for local produce, buying the fresh and local produce helped us have a lower negative impact by buying produce that was grown in the same state that didn’t need to be shipped across the country (or the world!), and that didn’t come wrapped in tons of plastic bags.  Besides that, things we did growing up at my house (and to this day) include: adding water to the end of the soap dispenser (and ketchup bottles…) to get the last bit, and then refilling the hand soap dispenser from an industrial sized container, composting our fruit, vegetable and egg shell waste, buying from the farmers market, buying from the bulk bins, using the air conditioner as little as possible, and a lot more!  One thing we (or, my parents) could work on is using biodegradable dog poo bags for Teddy!

Living in Spain, I find that sometimes it’s easier to reduce your waste and that the culture is less wasteful in some ways, for example:

• by law, stores must charge you for each plastic bag they give you, so it encourages many people to bring their own bags or carry everything in their hands- yes, I have walked home with 3 apples, a carton of eggs, and an orange juice in my hands!
• there are LOTS of markets (mercados) where they sell fresh, local produce and have organically grown meats and eggs, and these markets don’t sell things in a ton of plastic. 
• some supermarkets have jumped onto the bring-your-own tupperware bandwagon and will pack meat and fish into your home containers, but it’s a slow movement.
• there are LARGE containers for glass, cardboard, and plastic that you can dump your waste into, and they get emptied every night or every other night.  There are also many places to leave old batteries.  
• when you go out to eat (even during lunch time), your food will NEVER be served in a to-go container.  I was HORRIFIED in Philadelphia when I saw that there were people ‘dining-in’ and eating from to-go containers that were going to end up in the trash.  Some were paper, but MANY were plastic and to that, the only thing I can say is WTF?!
• to-go is not really a “thing” here.  For better or worse, most people don’t pack up their food (but they also have smaller portions here, so there is less need to get your food in a styrofoam container)
• people don’t snack on junk food as much here, so you don’t see Dorito bags and Hi-C bottles blowing down the street (I really think THIS is a problem in the US)
• nobody uses straws here.  In the US, you order a glass of water and they put a straw in it- WHY?  I don’t need a straw, I’m not 95 years old!
• with less to-go culture, there is much less usage of plastic forks and knives.  We eat with real forks and knives.
• people have much smaller cars and houses- they have what they need and nothing more (no big trucks and McMansions here)
• public transportation is great- no need to drive if there is an awesome (and SAFE) metro, bus system, trains, city bikes, scooters, and cars for rent.

I could go on and on, but I also wanted to share 5 ways that I am working to reduce my waste.

5 Ways I Reduce Waste in Madrid

1. I buy my fruits, vegetables, meats, fish, and eggs from the mercado near my house.  I go to the same woman every week and get my fruits and vegetables, and she never uses any plastic and she reuses the paper I give her to wrap avocados and other fruits.  She even gives me a small discount for bringing my bags!  I buy eggs in paper cartons (and one day hope to just keep using the same carton), and only get meat and fish wrapped in paper.
2. I buy spices and bulk dry goods (rice, pasta, beans, flour, oats, etc) from a bulk bin store.  I bring my little spice jars and they fill it with what I ask for and sometimes I leave with an interesting new spice, like last week- I got smoked salt- it’s salt with smoky flavors and super yummy
3. I use silpat sheets for cooking and baking.  I JUST made this switch this week, but I am so glad I did and wish we had done it sooner!!  The silpats are reusable silicone baking sheets that can withstand very high temperatures, and they’re amazing.  They clean easily, and now I don’t need to use all of the paper baking sheets that I was blowing through before.
4. For my bagel business, we now purchase huge quantities of everything which helps reduce the waste of using small bottles.  If it’s something you will use, consider using the large size.
5. When I ask for a coffee “to go” at school, I ask for it in a glass and then I bring the glass back a few hours later.  If I DO take a paper cup, I don’t take the plastic lid- I don’t need it.

3 Things I am Going to Do in the Future

1. Reuse my egg containers.
2. Purchase large containers of soap so we don’t need to purchase small containers
3. Convince Luis to stop using face wipes and start using liquid face wash- it lasts MUCh longer and those face wipes never disintegrate

There are SO many small things that can be done to make a huge difference.  It’s easy to do the most convenient thing, but it also feels good to make a small effort.  Actually, just yesterday I went for a walk with a podcast and on my walk, I picked up 50 pieces of trash!  I got some strange looks, and there was SO MUCH MORE that I could have picked up, but again, baby steps!  This is another one I learned from my parents and only because I don’t want to embarrass myself, I won’t tell all of you internet lurkers the most embarrassing story regarding my parents and their trash-picking-up habits on the NJ beach one day a few years ago…..

What do you do to reduce waste?