The other night, my family and I watched the film "No Impact Man." We thought it was going to be a spoof about a guy who is over the edge with trying to be eco-positive to the point of driving away his family. It turned out to be a documentary about a writer who challenges himself to one year with zero environmental impact from his family, living in New York City. They gave up all motorized transportation and started walking and riding bikes, stopped using plastic of any kind, bought only local, fresh, organic foods, became vegetarian and starting a worm, composting bin in their apartment. Ok, that's mostly stuff I already do. Many people in Corvallis and Portland are on that track. After being on this path for a few months, he decided they should also give up television, toilet paper and electricity. Life became like camping in a tiny New York apartment. People got angry at them for being "unsanitary." But, they made it through the year without getting sick or losing their jobs or endangering their child. You can read more about this experiment at: http://noimpactman.typepad.com/. The movie is also pretty fun and inspiring to watch. For me, it was great, because now I can say to my family, "at least I let you use toilet paper."
Our big challenge right now is getting rid of stuff. We've massively downsized from our big historic house in Albany to a little house in Corvallis. Wow, moving is wasteful! Plastic abstinence went out the window for the weekend of moving, that's for sure! I had to make a trade-off, because my green bamboo flooring I chose to install in our new home office was wrapped in plastic. Oh what a wonderful treat, when you unwrap it though! I had no idea bamboo had such an amazing smell. It's like a cedar forest - or maybe a bamboo forest? And it looks great too.
What I've learned through this move is that despite the fact that we have been living simply, buying used clothes and furniture or making our own, we've still accumulated too much stuff! Of the three R's, we've got the "reuse" and "recycle" down, but the reduce part is what we have to work on now. Freecycle, Craiglist, Goodwill, Habitat for Humanity, watch out, here we come!
On a positive note, I was able to ride my bike to work today. We've moved to Corvallis, 3.6 miles from my work just in time for national bike commute to work week. Yes! It feels great! High five, No Impact Man!
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