Author: jennynazak

Tiny sewing kit made from a discarded chewing-tobacco tin. Well, the lid is metal and the bottom is plastic, so I guess it’s not technically a “tin” but I still feel like calling it that is most accurate.

The holes around the outside of the circle, I drilled in order to add fine wire which could then serve as a scaffolding for weaving a design out of embroidery floss, beads, etc. That still might happen, but for now, I decided I would rather just paint the lid with a design indicating that it’s a sewing kit.

There are so many kinds of cute little containers that can be turned into mini sewing kits. Those itty-bitty mint tins; one of those is one of my favorites. And the clear plastic “hinged” containers used for a large pack of sugarless gum are another good one.

To tuck into purse or bag for emergency repairs (mine or someone else’s); or give to people who want them. And I keep one in each main work area or common area in the house.

Pics here.

#urbanbabushka #sewing #repurposing

Giant-sized empty coffee tins make great little waste-baskets for each room. It’s amazing how small a can I can get away with, when all that’s being thrown away is pretty much just plastic packaging.

Paper and cardboard get composted, as does food. Recyclable plastic and aluminum cans, as well as plastic jugs and bottles, go into the recycling bin.

As I’ve said before, I never assume that anything gets recycled. So when I can, I reuse and re-purpose. Or avoid the container in the first place.

These giant coffee containers probably came from somebody’s curbside recycling bin; it’s so long ago I can’t remember where I got them lol. (The cans are about 7 inches tall and 6 inches wide; I think it’s the 4-pound can of coffee).

They’ve got just the right amount of rust on them to be easily paintable with the water-based acrylic paints in my art supplies.

See pic here. For as long as the will of zucc shall allow.

Photo on left: [sturdy plastic green box issued by the city, full to the brim with 2 weeks’ worth of our household recycling]

Photos on right [cylinder about 4 feet high and 10 inches in diameter, made of chicken-wire and containing plastic ziploc bags and various other lightweight nonrecyclable plastic trash]:

• Above: About two MONTHS’ worth of our household trash, household of 3.
• Below: The same household trash, compacted by squashing down with a shovel.

I took these photos to demonstrate the extent to which food packaging accounts for a huge proportion of household trash in the USA.

The three of us buy very little stuff other than food. We each have different eating habits and dietary needs. One housemate cooks a lot and uses about one Ziploc bag per day to marinate chicken etc.

I personally am able to avoid a lot of food and drink packaging simply because I’m very obsessed with avoiding it. For example, I am able to get produce from local farms delivered without plastic bags. And I’m able to get milk in returnable glass jars. And when I want a soda as an occasional treat, I walk down the street to the convenience store with my refillable cup. And I buy delicious fresh-baked loaves of bread from a European market and they put it in a plain paper bag.

Even so, there is a lot of packaging I find difficult to impossible to avoid. Very much to my chagrin!

I enjoy making what you might call “practical trashy demos”: Visual representations of the trash we produce. The little “trash cage” cylinder is made of chicken wire that someone threw away at curbside. Once it gets super full I will empty it into the actual trash can and put it out for the trash collection.

According to the @Riot for Austerity numbers, the average US household produces 4.5 pounds of trash per person per day. A lot of that is probably because people throw food in the garbage. Instead of composting it. And a lot of it is surely packaging for food and consumer goods.

Our cylinder of “fluffy” plastic trash weighs maybe 7 pounds.

Also, although I mentioned that we use a recycling bin, I never assume anything really gets recycled. I end up using a lot of the tin cans in craft projects. And, fun fact, in our super humid and salty coastal climate, a tin can will rust and disintegrate in a matter of weeks. The early rust stage is a great opportunity for decorative painting of cans to repurpose.

You can see photos here on my deep green Facebook page for as long as the will of Zucc allows.

I just now sent this to a colleague who wants to use some of my material in her presentations. I’m sharing it here too in case it’s helpful to you, my dear readers.

“jenny readily admits that her posts and public speeches might sound a bit scoldy sometimes. She’s not writing originally for a civilian audience, but for an audience of activist-minded people who are kept awake at night by their worries about climate and biospheric collapse, and really want to do something about it but feel helpless.

“Furthermore, she is writing mainly for an audience of her fellow white middle-class Boomers. Most of whome have amassed a certain amount of money and other resources while still feeling powerless.

“jenny wants her peers to recover their awareness of their power, so that they can use it in a more constructive direction.

“Not that she doesn’t want to help other demographics as well, but that she considers other demographics besides her fellow white Boomers (and Boomer-adjacent Silent Generation folks) to be outside of her lane to boss around.”

those of you who have been following me for a while know that I provide tips and resources for people seeking to reduce their footprint. But sometimes, many times actually, a person who is just as far as long as I am in some category assumes that I am somehow way further along.

Which in this case is definitely not the case. Avoiding single-use plastics and other single-use crap feels like a blood sport at times lol! Anyway her comment is in the screenshot, and my response is pasted below.

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This extremely well-meaning individual is beating herself up trying to so-called to “get to zero,” and I guess assuming that I am somehow at zero. There is no such thing as zero. There’s a reason why one of my favorite groups is called journey to zero waste.

The plastic thing is something that you just can’t beat yourself up about. The retailers and restaurants and everyone pretty much shove it down our throats. Sure, do what you can, but probably all the tips I can offer are things you have already thought of. And please don’t think I’m anything close to zero in this department!

Some things that help: buying from local farms, buying from a local dairy that still uses milk bottles including exchanging them, and buying from a local retailer who is super on board with avoiding plastic. Also, always remembering my cloth bags when I shop, and always remembering my reusable takeout containers when I go to restaurants. And always remembering to not ask to ask for no straw. That said, I don’t always remember, and even when I remember they sometimes still stick the straw or the plastic utensils or whatever in there. Hope this helps! Also, do you belong to any of the reuse and recycle groups here on Facebook? They are super inspirational and lots of emotional support. I wouldn’t be able to function without them, because I sometimes drive myself crazy about the plastic!

I share your aspiration about not wanting to send it past your yard, but honestly, reading the level you’re at, it doesn’t sound like I’m any further along than you are. We do the best we can. And as we normalize speaking up about this, we might help shift the envelope in our area. For example, if 10 customers in a day walk into a retailer and then they refuse to buy something that’s packaged in plastic, it might have an effect. Especially if it’s a local business as opposed to a big corporate supermarket etc.

I’m a huge advocate for personal responsibility and doing something everything we can as an individual, but that can only take us so far. The next step is speaking up about it and influencing the people around us. Which can be hard, because one gets a lot of pushback and condescension, as you have surely discovered yourself!

PS. And on a meta note, social media can be very misleading as we know. We only see peoples outside’s that they present. As an influencer, even though I’m just a micro influencer with a micro following, I have in recent years become acutely conscious of how I have unintentionally contributed to people being demoralized. I’m doing my best to remedy that going forward.

PPS. If You have been following me for a while, and I am still the only environmental educator/inflencer, or even just the main one that you know, please start following other people, such as the many whose work that I share in here and on my other platforms. Many many people are a lot further along than I am. And can help you!

LIVE on Sunday December 8, 3pm
on my Facebook page DEEP GREEN book by Jenny Nazak

FREE AND OPEN TO ALL; all levels welcome

Along with the “official” topics, we will be addressing various pitfalls and misunderstandings regarding permaculture so that you and your community can get the most out of this class.

email me jnazak@yahoo.com
for outline & supplemental materials list

SPECIAL BONUS! To complement the Facebook Live, I’ll host a realtime informal q&a chat via zoom at 7 PM the following Tues (Tuesday December 10). Bring your snack, coffee or tea etc., and let’s connect!

For those who might want to go on to take an extended class, I will also be offering my top recommendations of who i consider to be the best courses & instructors of the full Permaculture Design Certificate course

My PERMACULTURE CONDENSED class is free and open to all.
However, if you would like to support this work financially, you are welcome to buy me a snack or coffee at any point before, during, or after the course.
CashApp $jennynazak ; Paypal jnazak@yahoo.com
(When I end up with extra money beyond my needs, I share it with local businesses and community members doing good work.)

Short answer: Try another approach.

Longer answer: Keep the same worthy goal, but try a different approach.

For example, let’s say you’re trying to convince your local government officials of the importance of vegetation in mitigating floods and heat. Let’s see you’ve been doing this for years, and it doesn’t seem to be working.

This is a real life example ha ha. I say ha ha because I’m the one who has repeatedly tried this and it seems to not work.

But this is the point where people want to give up and say, “I tried to get local government to take some simple steps to help stop flooding in my local area, but it didn’t work.”

When instead, we should be saying, I tried emailing Public Works about this, and no one answered.

Or people nodded and said good idea, but kept doing the same things they had been doing.

So then, I tried participating in my local tree advisory board. A lot of people nodded and said good idea, but our actions still didn’t change.

So then, I tried writing a fiction story that is set in my city. (This one is a work in progress! I’ll let you know what the results are.)

The fact is that even when things don’t seem to be working, ideas are percolating into the public consciousness. Not long after I started speaking up about the connection between de-vegetation and flooding, more of my fellow citizens started talking about this in citizen comment period at the various board and commission meetings as well.

Our work is to keep finding the next step when we’re not getting the result we want. It’s not to abandon the very worthy and essential goal. Abandoning my efforts to do my part as an educator-activist to reduce flooding in my city and bioregion is not an option. There’s too much suffering happening.

Do you have an example from your own life? How’s it going? What has worked, and what hasn’t? Have you ever been tempted to give up? If so, how did you keep yourself engaged?