#upcylce

   The piano disassembly project, delayed due to woodworking issues and lack of manpower, is suddenly back at the top of the project list. My son got a strong cousin to come over this evening - they are likely pulling the cast iron frame out even as I write. Once that has been removed, we will be able to unscrew the legs of the beast and store it in pieces (and in a much smaller space) until it can be repurposed.

One of my environmental priorities is to reduce the amount of waste I make and to help others do the same. I want to do this for several reasons, for sustainability, for the environment (make it nicer), and conservation. Primarily I am focusing on a reduction of plastic use and reuse of products.

According to National Geographic (https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/07/plastic-produced-recycling-waste-ocean-trash-debris-environment/) only around 9% of plastic produced is recycled. This is due to not only a lack of people but its due to the lack of facilities to recycle certain types of plastics, and contamination of plastics that keep places from recycling many plastics. On average 138 million metric tons of plastic is produced per year. We have used more and more plastic affecting this average as it has been growing since 1950. We have known of the harm these plastics cause to the environment, to animals and even to other people. Plastics take centuries to degrade as they are not biodegradable. Fish and other marine animals are often the most commonly referred to when we talk about animals suffering for our waste. Many if not all of us know that plastic ends up in our oceans and that many of the animals would get stuck in plastic or will try to eat plastic and end up choking to death. Sea turtles, more in particular the leatherback sea turtle, are known to eat jellyfish as an essential part of their diet. When plastic bags (which are not recyclable under normal means since they clog up the machines, forcing the recycle process slow down to unclog machines) are disposed of they will often get picked up by the wind and be carried off to an unknown location, most of the time stopping once they reach water. In the water, they look somewhat like jellyfish so are then eaten by sea turtles only to kill them.

 I am looking into ways to recycle, upcycle, or Terracycling (https://www.terracycle.com/en-US/) some of my waste. For my larger containers, I can use them for storage of things that need to be kept fresh since many are fairly airtight (such as storage of tea, art supplies, or even upcycling them into pots for plants or a home garden. As for plastic bags, so far, the best idea I have come across is to upcycle the bags into yarn-like product to use in projects such as making sleeping mats, new bags, or even a hammock. You can find how to do this by looking up “plarn” or “reusing plastic bags”. However, you are still left with scraps of plastic that you are not able to use or put in the recycle bin at home. I am unsure of if these scraps are able to be reclaimed/recycled through those plastic bag deposit bin s many of us might see in grocery stores.

Another solution I have started doing is buying in bulk using a reusable bag (for things like granola or trail mix instead of excessively large plastic bags. Now, this is still a grey area in my opinion as on average a canvas, or fabric bag takes a lot more energy to make. To make up the difference per use compared to plastic bags, the reusable bag needs to be used around 170 times before balancing out [https://www.opb.org/news/blog/ecotrope/reusable-bags-only-superior-to-plastic-if-you-reuse-them-a-lot/]. If we shop once every 3 weeks and we always use the reusable bags it can take around 10 and a half years to make the 170-use mark. If anyone has massive amounts of plastic bags in our house, I say we should make plarn then knit a new bag instead as long as it does not use over 170 bags to make.

Hopefully, within a year I can at least reduce my plastic waste by 20% and overall waste by half. I want to do this mostly because I want to help protect our environment. I know to make an impact I will need to keep at it for a long time (around 5 years), but I am willing and excited about making the change, living healthier, and helping protect the animals we live along side.