2-17-12: Redbull, Animal Cruelty, and a Talking Cat

Posted on February 23, 2012 by The Young Urban Unprofessional

We were at an event run at the Cyclorama in Boston that was being put on by an extreme sports company, very similar to Redbull but it was something else. They were trying to mix the event with a circus. We were all sitting on couches and chairs or standing watching this guy talk, throwing out gear and swag for everyone. There was a horse type creature that he let loose to run around the audience to try and pump everyone up. The animal was petrified and didn’t know where to go so it just kept running around the maze of people. The head guy then threw a wiffle ball to the animal which went under a couch and the horse creature just dove underneath to grab it, immediately feeling better now that it had something familiar. They then let loose another animal under the same type of circumstances. Both animals were a little bit exotic, or “extreme” if you were ask the guys in charge. They were so proud of how “extreme” they were being by having these animals running around. Both of the animals were grabbed by people sitting down and the animals were held there while that person tried to calm them down. This event may have gone over well somewhere besides the North East where everyone is pretty well educated and environmentally conscious. It was sad to see the blatant disregard to these animals’ well-being and everyone seemed to feel that way except for the guys running the event. What do extreme sports junkies know about treating animals?

I also had a dream about a talking cat but it was very disjointed. It involved a basement with a beast inside of it but it turned out that the beast was actually just a cat. As I went down to turn on a light there was a cat and it simply and matter-of-factly said, “Hello” and started purring. Very bizarre but that’s all there was to it.

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 the cardboard box. Then I made coffee in my french press and set aside the coffee grinds for composting (once I figure out how to actually do that I’ll let you know). Lastly I filled up the Nalgene with water and put some butter mochi in tupperware for good measure. All in all a pretty standard setup for work-lunch, no big surprises.

No big surprises until lunch time actually. I normally will grab a handful of plastic knives and forks from the cafeteria at work and then keep them at my desk for when I bring in my own lunch. With today being my first day of this new challenge I decided it would be pretty hypocritical of me to use plastic utensils for lunch. I asked around and none of my coworkers had proper silverware so I had to use my hands.

Getting pasta sauce all over my keyboard was kind of a pain but I got it done, no trash during lunch on day 1 = success. Let’s just say I already have my metal fork in my bag for work tomorrow.

Later on I came home from work and found these in front of my doorway:

The first thing out of my mouth was “damn”. I had forgotten about these packages because they had taken so long to arrive. So obviously they had to show up on my first day of no-trash-month, ugh. This is what they looked like on my kitchen table, again, damn:

It’s a sleeping bag from Mountain Hardwear (Lamina 35F if you care) which actually came in a recyclable plastic bag and a cardboard box with a QR code talking about recycling cardboard. Win for Mountain Hardwear.

I was actually stoked about my 2nd purchase as well because it was a stainless steel coffee mug by Stanley and it was designed specifically for bike commuters. No more spilling coffee all over myself while I’m carrying my bike through the train station or having it leak on me when it’s in my backpack side bottle holder. Also, the company I ordered it through, TheClymb.com, uses GreenShipping.com which is a cool shipping services that uses carbon offsets to neutralize the footprint of your products shipment to your house. It’s a very cool service that will likely get it’s own blog post at some point this month. Anyway, the outcome was actually pretty weak-sauce. The cup is only stainless steel on the outside, it’s plastic on the inside. That was the opposite reason of why I bought this mug, I’m not really into pouring lava-hot coffee into a plastic container so it can then leach into my body over time. I’d rather use stainless steel. Also, the packaging was not recyclable. Wtf, come on theclymb.com you’re like 80% the way there just by using greenshipping.com, the next step is to use recyclable plastic in your packaging. Anyway, I might return this product anyway because it wasn’t want I wanted, so perhaps I can escape this accidental trash that came into my life.

Lastly I made a trip to Shaws for some eats for the week, but that adventure might deserve a separate blog post…

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 not use or purchase things that must be thrown away. I’ll be limiting myself to one small Ziplock bag of trash that I produce or come across by accident. I developed the idea for this challenge after reading the book “Let My People Go Surfing” by Yvon Chouinard, the founder and owner of Patagonia. His vision for Patagonia was for it to be an example and an experiment in sustainable business practices. Is it possible to be a profitable company with high quality products while still remaining environmentally sustainable? Their answer at Patagonia was yes however it is a very difficult and lonely road. It was a great book about the challenges that Patagonia and Chouinard Equipment (which eventually become Black Diamond) faced and I definitely recommend it. It’s a quick read that’ll help restore some faith in American companies. It also has some great climbing photos along the way which is always a bonus.

One of the last quotes of the book really struck a cord with me, “Over 90% of what Americans purchase will find it’s way into a landfill within 60-90 days”. I found this to be staggering, almost nauseating even, and it lead me to wonder how much I am contributing to that statistic. How much of my daily life ends up in a landfill? I mean I use Nalgene water bottles (BPA free of course) instead of bottled water like any self-respecting outdoor enthusiast would. I also recycle at home and at work, but that’s mostly because of how I was brought up in Maine where you get a $5c deposit for cans/bottles and a warm fuzzy feeling for recycling paper. However, I also use a lot of plastics (utensils, saran-wrap, etc) as well as Styrofoam (lunches at work and take-home from restaurants) that cannot be recycled and thus I throw them away without thinking twice. In addition, I have never composted a thing in my life. Normally I just throw extra food away when I can’t eat it or when it goes bad in the fridge. Again I don’t really think twice about it.

So back to my original question, how much do I contribute to the statistic above? Well, we’ll find out at the end of this month how well I can manage to avoid the creation of garbage all together. I am sure it will affect my daily habits and that it will make me more conscious of my purchasing decisions but I am more interested in the less-obvious culprits; all of those little things that I’m not currently aware of which produce trash. I’m sure there will be experiences that will take me by surprise and that there’ll be mishaps along the way but I’m excited to try out this lifestyle just to see if it’s possible.

Again, my goals are to limit myself to a small ziplock bag filled with trash, to learn about recycling and composting in Boston, and lastly just to see what is possible.

I welcome any tips/hints/best practices about sustainable living that you can offer. This is both a challenge as well as learning experience that will change my life for the better. Wish me luck.

- The Young Urban Unprofessional