girlfiend

Ever since I took a free composting class last month  I’ve been a little bit out of control with the recycling. I’ve always tried to be conscious about waste, but the city of Philadelphia only picks up glass, cans and newspapers for recycling and it never occurred to me that I could just bring cardboard and plastics to the monthly recycling drop off point until this past first Saturday of the month. So now in addition to the too many bottles and cans (yes, perhaps we do drink too much, or at least entertain too much) I’m now hanging on to cardboard boxes, junk mail and the recyclable plastics the city will accept.

I used to just save most of my vegetable scraps for stock, now I’m saving them for compost along with coffee grinds and yard clippings. That doesn’t sound too bad until you factor in that I’ve started saving kitchen water for watering the garden. Every time I steam vegetables, wash dishes, soak greens or boil potatoes I pour the water into a big empty cat litter container and use it to water the plants indoors and out. Now there’s one more thing in the kitchen for the Fiendling to get his hands into, as though the trash can and compost bin weren’t bad enough.