Hi there! Welcome back into my weekly diary, in which I want to show you how I try to live an eco-positive lifestyle. Topics I talk about this week are: veganism, zero waste and buying things secondhand. I had a big shock this week regarding my thesis and went on a sushi date night! Want to read along? Here’s weekly diary #76.
Thursday
Since I’m still free from school, I work a lot. Today I worked from 9 till 5. After that I had handball training and so today was not that special I guess.
Friday
Yes! After working 4 days in a row, today is my free day! I had planned to go thrift shopping by myself and so I did. I like that most, or together with my mom. Going by myself I can take all the time I need, because I need a lot hahaha. Thrift shops can be messy and I want to find the real special things, so I take my time. It’s so exiting and fun. I bought so many great things and wrote a blogpost about it too. At that moment I was very happy, but then in one minute everything changed. That’s because I got an e-mail from school saying my thesis proposal was rejected and so I was not allowed to start my thesis semester and had a delay of my study. I was soooo sad and kind of had a mental breakdown. Personally, I feel like I worked my butt off to make this a good thing and now I just got rejected. I made some phone calls because I just did not understand. Turns out that they had made a mistake! I am starting my thesis semester Februari 11th and I am so relieved! I am going to rock this semester, the final one.
Saturday
My boyfriend came over yesterday and we had some drinks, but since I don’t have a bed for two persons I slept on a air mattress. I was freezing the whole night, it’s been a while since I slept so bad. I ended up wearing 3 sweaters and two pants, socks, slippers, a scarf and two blankets. God, if we have a tough winter what will I do? Anyway, he went home and I went to work. At night I went over to some friends to go out together. I bought the drinks and one of the others did the snacks. Even though he bought it, I felt bad about the waste, because we decided to get potato chips. I feel like I have a say in this and so next time I want to propose some low waste snacks, like olives in glass. I am paying for it too, so I should have a say and I will. A lesson for next time! Going out was so much fun, I managed to refuse the straws when I got some drinks. But then someone asked if I wanted a drink, I said ‘No, thank you’. He bought something anyway and so there I was with a straw. Sad, but unavoidable I guess. We wanted to go eat after we danced, but it was 5:30 already and so everything was closed. No waste there, and no more bad calories haha!
Sunday
It was time for another handball match. Surprise: we lost the game. Every week it’s the same thing and it’s sad. Anyway, looking from the bright side I worked out again. I also was a referee after our own match and the second two matches after that. It’s a type of volunteering, but being a referee can be hard too. I’m doubting if I still like it because people tend to disagree with your decisions a lot. I don’t know if I’ll do it next season still, we’ll see.
Monday
Another free day! It was quite a special day because something very exited happened today! Our local newspaper came by to shoot some pictures and video’s. The article will be about Loose! Yes! Zero waste is getting more and more attention. Anyway, I worked out and I did some chores at home and blogged a lot too. I just happen to be on a roll with blogging and it feels amazing, I am writing so much since I have a lot of time. I had such a simple dinner that night, but it was delicious. Some leftover rice which my mom still had with broccoli, paksoi and some bean sauce which I bought in sale to try it out and it is so good, it comes in a glass container.
Tuesday
I did an internship today because the company where I work is changing, it’s changing into a different company. And so, I need to learn a lot to still be able to work there. It was fun, but I had to leave at 6:40 from my house and somehow I can never sleep well if I have to get up early for something exiting. During my internship two years ago I had to get up at 5:00 on Mondays and somehow I could never sleep well then, I hated that. Today I did some thing of my to-do list today, including shooting photo’s for Loose, answering e-mails, cleaning the house and planting some seeds for my garden! I planted some green peas for the upcoming months, I am exiting. Honestly, I just love working on something that will make me selfsupporting, like mending, gardening or cooking. I think that is something I want for the future, being selfsupporting.
Wednesday
Today is such a good day, date night! But first, I have to work and before that I went through my trash to see what’s in it this week. I am trying to do that every week now and will discuss it here (with myself haha). This bin is my personal bin in my room, so it’s my personal trash. As a household we have more trash, but I don’t feel responsible because I most of the time don’t do the groceries. Anyway, let’s see what’s in there and see if there are things to improve next time. The first thing is my previous foundation (make-up), it’s a glass container with a plastic lid. The glass I will recycle and the lid will go to landfill (since black plastic can’t be recycled). This was the best option I could find at the time. After this, I have another bottle and then I will switch to a lower waste one (more about that soon!). I don’t wear a lot of make-up anymore so this is a slow process haha. The second thing is my concealer stick. It’s currently the lowest waste option I can find. The outside is bamboo which I will try to compost myself. We do have a recycling option here for organic waste but I think when they sort it they will take this thing out and burn it and so I want to do it myself to be sure. The inside is a tiny piece of plastic which I will recycle and some metal which I can recycle too (I asked the company selling it). If you know a better option than this brand, let me know! Third is a receipt I got when I bought something for my dad and I wasn’t sure if he needed it, when I shop for myself I never ask for a receipt, this will go into the paper recycling bin. Four are two letters which were printed out by accident for something I needed to print for my bank, I will try to use them again and then recycle. Fifth is my previous bank card, I opened another bank account recently for Loose. I went from Triodos to ASN Bank, both sustainable but the second one is cheaper, so. The last thing is a letter from the government. Somehow I can’t get these things by e-mail and they have to send it by mail. I mean, hello? It is 2019? Anyway, that trash will be reused and recycled. And that’s it for this week! And at night as I said, it was date night.
Yours sincerely,
Romee
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Hello Romee, what do you think about this new Loop return concept of TerraCycle, where all big brand join.
https://www.unilever.com/news/press-releases/2019/unilever-innovates-durable-reusable-and-refillable-packaging-to-help-eliminate-waste.html
Hi Harry, I think Unilever is doing an amazing job here! It’s a good step forward and I completely support it. I am curious to learn more about it, since the information I now know of this is minimal. As I understand, the products are refilled, but only a number of times (they mentioned 100 times), so that’s not ideal I find. After that it will be recycled I think, but I’m curious how they will do this with all the labels and stuff. I am not a fan of Unilever because they are a huge company and they own almost the entire food chains. It’s kind of a monopoly this way, so I am more a fan of smaller, local businesses. But, for the zero waste concept it is amazing and it will be a great step to a more circular system!