Growth

I've been meaning to blog about this for awhile but just haven't been getting around to it.

I feel like I've grown in the last few months. I'm not talking about growing sideways (which I'm sure I have) or even growing in terms of my intellectual capacity or my career.

I'm talking about growing as a person. While I am not a full-blown, greenpeace-loving hippie... I do believe that I've become a bit more environmentally conscious lately. To be specific, I'm more waste-conscious.

It's something that's come out of the last year or so. When we moved, we started up a worm farm to change kitchen scraps into nutrient rich casings for our plants. Seeing the bin fill up with scraps made me realise just how much of that would go into landfills if we didn't reuse it. It's gotten to the point now that we're producing more scraps than our current army of worms can process and we'll be adding another worm tray (and worms!) to our little farm soon. It's been so lovely to watch our plants reap the benefits from the worm casings - our kalamansi tree is happily producing lots and lots of fruit!

The worm farm seems to have triggered off a chain of events. I've become more restrained when buying vegetables at the supermarket. While our waste does end up going to the worms, I don't want to create unnecessary waste.

I can't remember the last time I bought lunch while at work. It's not just about saving money or the fact that my husband cooks awesome meals (with extra for leftovers) but I feel good about not having tons of plastic takeaway containers or sandwich paper which end up going into the bin.

Speaking of bins, I've become more conscious about recycling. Our council has recently removed our recycling option and will only reinstate it next year. It really sucks because the recycling program they had was awesome - it was a one bin trash and recyclables system. Basically, they found that it was cheaper to have someone at the facility sort through the trash and recyclables than to have two separate collections which might have needing sifting anyway. It was a win-win: I can't imagine a more cheaper or easier way to recycle. It's like all excuses are removed from recycling.

Alas, the sorting facility was shut so all the trash in the bin is going straight to landfill. I don't think I would have been bothered about potential recyclables being turned into trash but the worm farm has made me realise how much of a difference it could make. So, in the interim, I now bring my recyclables to work when I've built up a stash.

It's been a nice transformation, I think. While I don't think I'll ever be able to give up my carnivorous leanings, every little bit helps :)

On a related end note: a lovely little surprise greeted me last night. I completely forgot that I still had cauliflower plants until the hubby called me out to the backyard to show me this.

I'm all excited about getting more so that we can grow more of our own food. Now, to find a way to sneak in more pots and plants...