WEEK’S REPORT
It is a week that I am behaving as a 0 waste person.
Is it easy? Not so much.
Is it possible? Yes it is. How? It takes time.
- To think differently
- To change your habits
- To cook by your hands the meals
- To prepare the bags for the shopping with containers
Space:
5. In the school bags
6. At home to collect the stuffs and reusable containers
Creativity:
7. to give to not reusable stuffs a new life!
For examples I turned a finished paper towel into a fork holder to take to university.
I’ve already had a lot of containers and lunch boxes….I am a transfer student, therefore my mum uses to give me a stock of food when I come home.
Skills for a 0 waste life in university, Last week:
· I cooked a very simple pasta with my mum’s sauce the day before the lessons. I cooked it once for two meals. It took less time; otherwise on Thursday evening I cooked risotto for the dinner adding a portion for the next day.
· I brought my water flask. (it is not a new habit). At university there is a water filling machine that I used when I finished the home water.
· Unfortunately I had to stop drinking coffee at school!!! During breaks or after lunches I used to buy a coffee at the machines (the one of bars is too expensive). I could have brought it from home but I already had enough stuffs with me.
· I gave up using paper tissues to us canvas handkerchiefs. I don’t like them a lot but I can get use to them.
Rules for a 0 waste everyday life:
As firs step let’s be aware of how you separate waste:
· one garbage can for the compostable waste;
· one for plastic and metal;
· one for paper;
· one for the trash;
You should also add one for the glass but it is almost unusual and also pretty reusable.
I prepared for the challenge the garbage can for the compostable waste and a jar for the trash (paper and plastic included) to be aware of the amount of waste I would have produced.
My grandma cooked polpettone for me as stock for some days in Milan and it was enough for two-day dinner. On Tuesday I started making a list of what I would have bought in the next two weeks:
Me and my flatmate had already bought the supply for the month of pasta, rice, home’s products and detergents and last year I bought a filter jug to drink the tap water.
Where should I buy everything else?
I already knew Negozio Leggero which are very nice “no packaging” shops but far away from my neighbourhood. Twenty minutes on foot from my flat (I don’t have the ATM subscription) there is Effecorta, a kind of Negozio Leggero which sells also packaged stuffs, those that are not sellable in bulk; but…How many products are they? Of course:
· Meat
· Fish
· Milk
· Vegetable Nut?
On Thursday I run out of all the stock!!! It was two days that I was eating pasta and polpettone… No way, I needed to buy something else but I still not had time to reach Effecorta.
I went to the neighbourhood’s Auchan and I spent there one hour looking around me.
It was the cheapest shopping I’ve ever done!!! I spent three euro and half for some zucchini and apples; fruits and vegetables are the only products sold in bulk.
where should I buy bulk milk? There are milk dispensers in Milan?
I found on the net a map of all the bulk-milk’s dispensers around Italy! It is called MILK MAP!!!
Unfortunately they are all outside Milan limits, almost 50 minutes away with public transports. Should I take the car? It won’t be sustainable if I have to drive a car to achieve them.
I saved the milk till it was possible.
On Saturday I finally got the time to go to Effecorta.
There dry foods are sold in bulk through dispensers; you can use plastic or paper bags or bring your own containers.
The shop owner told me that the provided plastic bags are compostable, I’m not so sure!!!
Prices are shown per kg; First you fill the container (if it has its own weight you must first calibrate it) than you weigh it by entering the product code.
The same happens with liquid products but for whom you have to pay in addition for the bottle (if you don’t bring yours).
There I found almost everything; in the shop there are a part for home’s and for the personal care’s products, like detergents, soaps and shampoo but the conditioner was finished.
In the middle of the shop there are vacuum packed meat and cured meat; they are biological products but have more packages than those sold at the supermarket.
In the front space of the shop you can find a lot of cereals and any shape of pasta, mixes for the breakfast and some types of bulk snacks. I unexpectedly found the Vegetable Nut sold in bulk.
Just after entering the shop you also find fruit and vegetables from Lombardia’s gardens.
The report of the Effecorta’s shopping is: ecologically good, economically bad.
For example the Vegetable Nut was sold at 17.00 €/kg… very expensive, instead at the supermarket the most expensive is sold at half of that price.
Being all biological the prices are higher.
Till now the number of biological shops are increasing but they aren’t enough to create such competition in prices; above all not having certain information about the provenience, shop owners are justified to raise the price to make you perceive higher quality of the products.
If the trend of be sustainable go on, in few years this shop owners behaviour will change due to additional controls and higher competitors.
I had a fast conversation with the shop owner about the sale of milk.
Inside the shop you can find lots of types of packaged milk but, why not in bulk?
Till now ASL doesn’t allowed shop owners to sell milk in bulk due to the pasteurization process and hygiene regulations.
I made a fast research about it and I found out which are the health measures in force: only the production companies can sell directly bulk milk to the final consumer or they can sell it through dispensing machines but located in the same company.
This well explains why Milk Map shows milk dispensers far away from the Milan centre.
