My First Consulting Project – Compost Construction for City Slickers

Posted on April 6, 2012 by The Young Urban Unprofessional

Over the weekend I helped my girlfriend build a compost for her apartment. Ever since I built my worm bin last August she’s wanted to build one as well but we just never got around to it (for those directions … Continue reading →

Worm Compost Follow-Up and My First Horticulture Experience

Posted on December 24, 2011 by The Young Urban Unprofessional

It’s been four months since I started my worm compost bin back in August’s Life Without the Landfill Challenge. I decided that Christmas would be a good time to open up the bin to see if some of the compost … Continue reading →

7 Ways to Live Without the Landfill – Lessons from the Young Urban Unprofessional

Posted on September 1, 2011 by The Young Urban Unprofessional

Over the course of the last 30-days I tried my best to live without the landfill, i.e. I recycled or composted almost 100% of the things that came into my life. I have learned a lot along the way and I’ve … Continue reading →

Life Without the Landfill Challenge – Last Day…

Posted on September 1, 2011 by The Young Urban Unprofessional

Today is August 31st 2011 and it is the last day of my first 30-day life experiment of life without the landfill. This challenge has been tough but once I broke some previously wasteful habits I settled into a rhythm … Continue reading →

Movie: No Impact Man

Posted on August 31, 2011 by The Young Urban Unprofessional

A friend of mine told me about this documentary called “No Impact Man” where a man and his family (wife and daughter) from New York City went one year trying to make no net negative impact on the environment. [caption id="" … Continue reading →

Weekend Adventure #4 – American Folk Festival and Hurricane (tropical storm) Irene

Posted on August 30, 2011 by The Young Urban Unprofessional

I’m writing this blog post while sitting on a Concord Coach Lines bus on the way back to Boston from Maine (Yay for WiFi on buses, even if you are pretty slow most of the time). I ventured up to … Continue reading →

Coffee (The Nectar of the Gods) and How to Reduce Your Waste

Posted on August 26, 2011 by The Young Urban Unprofessional

I am a huge coffee fiend. I love the smell, I love the taste, I love the experience, and I generally spend 2-3 hours drinking the same cup of coffee. I love it and no I don’t have a caffeine … Continue reading →

Day 23 – Farmer’s Markets and the Reverse Commute

Posted on August 24, 2011 by The Young Urban Unprofessional

Before I started this month’s challenge I had planned on acquiring most of my food at local farmers markets in order to avoid trash and to just eat healthier in general. Avoiding trash and eating healthy are probably correlated anyway. … Continue reading →

Weekend Adventure #3 – Gulf Hagas, Bob Dylan, and Mount Katahdin

Posted on August 23, 2011 by The Young Urban Unprofessional

If you’ve been paying attention you’ll realize that I didn’t write a post for Weekend Adventure #2. It was actually pretty easy to live without trash so I’ll briefly summarize. I went to Martha’s Vinyard, bandited a 5k, and hung … Continue reading →

Day 10 and 17 – Young People Get it, Fig Newtons Do Not

Posted on August 22, 2011 by The Young Urban Unprofessional

Today I went to Corrado’s Subs with some coworkers for lunch. With my Tupperware in hand I was ready to venture out into town. I asked the high school/college aged girl at the counter for a large buffalo chicken sub … Continue reading →

Saving the World one TED Talk at a Time

Posted on August 19, 2011 by The Young Urban Unprofessional

I watched these two TED Talks earlier this year and figured they’d be appropriate to bring up in the blog. They are less than 10 minutes each, enjoy. Video #1 is about this guy who invented a technology that uses fungi … Continue reading →

Day 18 – Compost Construction for City-Slickers

Posted on August 18, 2011 by The Young Urban Unprofessional

After 2+ weeks of saving my food scraps in a large Tupperware container, I finally got my act together and built a compost. I decided to use a vermiculture compost (with worms, see my previous blog post) because it works … Continue reading →

Turning Trash Into Treasures #2

Posted on August 16, 2011 by The Young Urban Unprofessional

A friend just pointed me in the direction of a company called TerraCycle. They take products that are hard-to-recycle or non-recyclable and create new products out of them. They call this process “upcycling” because you’re not taking the product and … Continue reading →

Turning Trash into Treasures

Posted on August 15, 2011 by The Young Urban Unprofessional

A few really cool outdoor gear companies just came back onto my radar. The first is Green Guru Gear. They are based out of Colorado and make some really cool and super unique products for the outdoor adventurer. They build … Continue reading →

Day 9 – Lunch Fail, Internet Shipment Fail, and Wallet Fail/Explosion

Posted on August 12, 2011 by The Young Urban Unprofessional

Today was the 2nd time I forgot to bring utensils to work for my pasta lunch. Also the 2nd time I ate pasta with my hands at my desk, fail: [caption id="attachment_135" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Ghetto Pad Thai - Rotini, chunky … Continue reading →

Day 8 – So Shaw’s Doesn’t Completely Suck at Sustainability

Posted on August 11, 2011 by The Young Urban Unprofessional

During my first trip to Shaw’s last week some employees gave me a hard time and I then proceeded to give it right back to them (albeit passive-aggressively through the safety of my blog post). After more investigating, this week’s … Continue reading →

Composting in the City

Posted on August 10, 2011 by The Young Urban Unprofessional

Time is running out for me to get my composting act together. I’ve been accumulating food scraps for about a week and it’s getting a bit out of hand. This post will be the first step toward me starting a compost … Continue reading →

Weekend Adventure #1 – Spartan Beast, Killington, VT

Posted on August 9, 2011 by The Young Urban Unprofessional

The Universe conspires against those who wish to live without the landfill. This was my first weekend adventure during this experiment without the safety net of my apartment, my workplace, or my weekly routine. Throughout the week I can plan … Continue reading →

Day 5 – TGFB (Thank Goodness for Boloco)

Posted on August 8, 2011 by The Young Urban Unprofessional

I didn’t have time Thursday night to make a meal for lunch so I planned to take my chances by eating out. My default dining out meal is a burrito from Boloco. I always knew that their cups were biodegradable … Continue reading →

Recyclable Plastics 101

Posted on August 5, 2011 by The Young Urban Unprofessional

Everyone is familiar with the recycle symbol and what it stands for, but how many people actually know what the numbers (1-7) inside the symbol stands for? Not me that’s for sure. Here’s the breakdown (no pun intended): #1 – … Continue reading →

Day 3 – “You should move to Cambridge and become a Yuppie”

Posted on August 4, 2011 by The Young Urban Unprofessional

That is what someone said to me today when I tried to explain why I was doing this particular 30-day challenge. I’m not sure how I was supposed to react, “Why because I’m educated and have an interest in the … Continue reading →

Day 2 – Gillette Fusion Fail and Toilette Paper?

Posted on August 3, 2011 by The Young Urban Unprofessional

This morning while shaving my gillette fusion cut my face, normally I would have used a paper towel or a bandaid but instead I just held my finger on it until the bleeding stopped. This apparently didn’t work that well … Continue reading →

Day 1 – A ‘Sustainable’ Trip to Shaw’s

Posted on August 3, 2011 by The Young Urban Unprofessional

On the eve of my first day without a landfill, I walked to Shaws with my Osprey backpack to get some eats for the week. I plan to try out a bunch of different food shopping options throughout the month … Continue reading →

Day 1: Lunch Fail – Pasta Hands

Posted on August 2, 2011 by The Young Urban Unprofessional

Today was day 1 of my first month long experiment so I decided to take it easy and not to do anything too complicated. Therefore, I made lunch the night before (pesto tortellini), put it in some tupperware and recycled … Continue reading →

August 2011 – Life Without the Landfill

Posted on August 1, 2011 by The Young Urban Unprofessional

I decided to start my blog with an environmental challenge; living my life as if I do not have access to a landfill. I will be recycling materials and composting food waste but for the next thirty days I will … Continue reading →