Dispatches from Dufferin Street

Tomorrow is Day One of our No Impact Week, and I’m feeling good about it. I think it’s going to be hard in ways we can easily imagine (not buying any food with any packaging at all, walking/biking to and from school come rain, sleet, snow…), and in ways we haven’t yet thought of. But, I think we’re all game. I hope.

Tonight over supper, we all talked about what we thought would be the most challenging parts of the week, and what aspects of the week we thought would be educational and inspirational after the week is over and done with. We’ll see at week’s end if our predictions match up with the way things actually unfolded.

Max (eight) is most concerned about Day Five’s challenge to reduce energy use (i.e. turn off the TV!). The kids only have TV time on the weekends, so he’s not worried about the first couple days of this challenge, but we definitely will need to use some creativity to get through those weekend mornings, and it seems likely the parents will have to give up their little sleep-in next weekend. Max thinks that the most educational part of the week will be reducing consumption, and coming up with ways to get what we need without buying new stuff.

Leo (four) is primarily concerned with missing out on Lego Indiana Jones on the PlayStation (are we sensing a theme here?!), but doesn’t seem like he’ll be losing any sleep over that at this point. I think he’s pretty excited to save and examine our garbage for the week to see how we’re doing in reducing our trash.

Matt (thirty-six) thinks that the trash-reduction is likely to be the most challenging step, given how little we can now buy that is not grossly overpackaged. Not that we’ll be buying new things, but we go through a lot of stuff that we already have that will create trash this week - canned foods, toilet paper packaging, plastic wrap, etc., etc. He is looking forward to the time we’ll spend together in conversation that we usually miss out on. If we’re eliminating extra lighting, we’ll be “forced” to hang out in close proximity to the candelabra and create moments that just didn’t exist before to talk, play and be together as a family.

I (thirty-five) am fairly certain that Tuesday’s challenge to give up fuel-guzzling transportation will be the hardest. While I’m pretty sure that I could, albeit grudgingly, give up driving and hoof it around town for a few days, I’m equally confident that the children will hate this and that our walks to and from school will be long, torturous, and (according to Environment Canada) wet affairs. This will push my listening-to-whining-while-walking-painstakingly-slowly capabilities to the limit. We also have two out-of-town visits with grandparents planned that can’t be rescheduled, so will be using some serious creativity, if not downright cheating, to get around that. I am most excited for slashing both consumption and garbage. After an initial panic about things like tofu which comes wrapped twice in plastic, and then wondering about buying in bulk if I have to use plastic bags to collect my little spices, I took a breath, gave it some thought, and am now super-excited to get started on that kick. I have tiny plastic bags in my purse from old produce purchases, so anytime, anywhere, I can buy fruits, vegetables, or bulk dry goods without having to use a new bag for storage. I think looking at what we throw out Day One vs. the rest of the week will be really eye-opening, and I hope we can maintain a whole lot of these consumption/waste habits after the week is up.

A few random things I think might be hard:

I guess booze is pretty much out, unless we go for a family-sized bottle of something, or a keg (hmmm!). Our drinks of choice are beer and wine, both of which create waste pretty quickly. Given the whining I’m anticipating as we walk everywhere, I’m a little sad at the thought of missing out on the odd glass of wine after bedtime.

I’m about out of my cheap but wonderful exfoliating face wash… can’t buy new stuff now, need to keep washing my face! Perhaps I’ll embark on a make-it-yourself-facial-cleanser search, despite my initial distaste at the idea of this kind of endeavour. I suppose just because I make it at home doesn’t mean it has to be some kind of oily patchouli mess.

We’re about due to run out of a few staples, now that I think of it. Toothpaste is definitely running low, and I’m not sure about the toilet paper situation. We’re allowed to buy food – surely toilet paper can be counted in that category – it comes from the same store!!

We dry our clothes in the dryer a lot. I like my dryer. I like soft, lint-free, warm clothes. Darn.

I’d be lying if I didn’t say part of my reluctance to adopt some of these strategies is definitely a kneejerk flashback to being a consumerism-obsessed pre-teen in a house run by two commited political and environmental activists. While I have certainly moved well beyond that phase, the thought of using some kind of unflavoured, unpackaged, unbranded product, or bringing my own greasy, crumby ziploc to the health-food store to refill, or schlepping a granny cart to the store for groceries brings that 12-year-old back for a quick second. [Eyes rolling: "Are you SERIOUS?! Put BAKING SODA in my mouth?! That's disugusting! What about the fresh minty taste? What will my friends think if they see a used baggie filled with bulk baking soda on my counter?! PuhLEAZE!!"]

However. It’s been 23 years, and I’ve come to realize a few things. The thoughts my parents were trying to foist on me as an adolescent weren’t born out of a desire to torture me and make me a smelly, unpopular loser. Shorter showers, less packaging, eating local, organic food, and reusing stuff is smart, not dorky. And they certainly told me all this at the time, I was simply too busy being self-absorbed to notice. It’s kind of like that Far Side comic where the owner’s talking to his dog earnestly for a while, and all the dog hears is “mumble, mumble, mumble, DOG FOOD! Mumble, mumble, WALK! Mumble, mumble, mumble, TREAT!” For a few years there, all I heard was “Mumble, mumble, DON’T SHOWER, mumble, mumble, mumble, NO GRAPES! Mumble, mumble, mumble, TAKE THIS GRANNY CART DOWNTOWN WHERE ALL YOUR FRIENDS ARE!”

Luckily for all of us in my family, it didn’t take too long for my earplugs of self-absorption to be tossed aside in favour of a more involved, engaged, active life, and I’m excited to embark on this week with my family and see where it takes us. And if I’m left feeling whiny and put-upon, I’ll think of this woman, who did a whole lot of stuff to green her life over the course of a whole year, including getting rid of her fridge. That’s her fridge, people! Anything I have to do for eight days is going to be a hell of a lot easier than that.