Much Ado About Toilet Paper

Re-purpose genius: I wrote a love note on that homemade caramel's paper wrapping.

Ya know, I meant to write more about paper and packaging during the Reduce Paper Waste month of Operation Consumption Liberation.  I really did.  But here we are, December 16, and I’m still scrambling to figure out what the heck I’m going to do on Christmas Day since I’m waiting until after the big day to travel home this year. Christmas orphans get lonely, yo!  Feel free to drop by my place or invite me to dinner. (FYI: I like peppermint stick ice cream. Also, doorbells and sleigh bells, schnitzel with the noodles.)

Anyway, since my last post, I:

• Bought a car after the pokiest 4-month-long shopping process ever.
• Hosted a friend on my floor for several days.
• Got shingles. (Not contagious unless you’ve never had the chicken pox and just happen to touch one of the open blisters in my armpit—because I’m totally walking around with my armpit exposed in the middle of December—THEN you might get the chicken pox.  Anyway, the blisters itch like crazy.  For two days I felt all achy and worn down in that flu-like way for the first two days.  And since I live alone, there was no one there to make me soup. Poor shingles-afflicted, single-occupant, Christmas orphan me….)

How is that for a whine fest?  Memo to self: this post was supposed to be about paper. 

The Paper Challenge

This month is all about gift wrapping.

I can’t believe it is already December 4. The last month of my Operation Consumption Liberation challenge!  While I *may* be gearing up for OCL 2 in January, for the time being, let’s break down my December challenge: I want to reduce my consumption of paper products and other packaging (we’re talking bubble wrap and Styrofoam peanuts, people.)  I chose December for this particular challenge namely because the holiday season’s abundance of gift-wrap.  But reducing my paper waste goes far beyond skipping the fancy gift-wrap paper.  Here are a few things I am currently and will be doing this month:

To meat or not to meat?

Operation Consumption Liberation’s month of not consuming meat has ended.  Before I move on to December’s challenge, I wanted to dive into some of the ethical, environmental, and health-related questions that pop up when assessing meat consumption in the USA.  Before I started this month, I asked my currently, and formerly, vegetarian Facebook friends why they went meatless.  I only got three responses (FYI: all three are no longer vegetarians), but I wanted to share a little of what they said.

From my friend B.: “I started because I loved/love animals and couldn't justify killing them just so I could eat. Then I lived in a veggie house, so that made it even easier. I started eating meat again when I realized (as sad as it sounds) that I didn't care enough to keep not eating meat (which is a sad commentary, I think, on the ubiquity of meat in our society).”

But I love you! (Credit: Jim Champion from Southampton, UK [CC-BY-SA-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons)

The reason B. became a vegetarian is the reason many people become vegetarians.  Whether you ever went to Bible School or not, chances are you still are familiar with the Ten Commandments and the commandment “Thou shalt not kill.” Yes, this refers to killing other human beings, not animals. There’s the argument that the animal world is full of predators that kill prey—“if animals kill for food, why should we hold ourselves to a higher standard?”  Still, many people struggle with the idea that the steak on their plate used to be a cow, and that this cow was bred, raised (often on unsuitable grain and supplements in the confined space of a feedlot), and killed explicitly so that humans could eat it. From a moral standpoint, eating animals presents a lot of grey area and conflicted emotions.  I do not know if I could personally slaughter a cow, chicken, or fish.  And I do occasionally wonder if I should only eat the animals I hypothetically could execute myself.  By this rule, bugs would likely make up the bulk of the meat in my diet.