I was going to write to Nabisco and ask them to use wax paper instead of plastic as their cookie/cracker etc bags.
Then I wondered: "is waxed paper really any better?" I started researching and discovered that many products labeled as "waxed" are actually made with a petroleum based coating and not real wax. Also, there is processing involved that may or may not be any better in terms of environmental impacts. I'll have to be more specific in my request and state that it should be natural soy wax or something like that....more research needed so I know what to say!

I watched a Bea Johnson TED Talk with my family. Event weeks later, my nine year old keeps bringing it  up. Yesterday, for example, she reminded me that if she had fewer clothes she could just fold everything up, put it in a suitcase and go. Less stuff = happy mom and happy family! I'm glad this challenge encouraged me to show the video to the whole fam. 

this is so much easier than I thought it would be (so far).
we already have most everything needed just by mowing the lawn and setting up a section of the garden to dry clippings and add poop! USDA has a PDF you can download and it took less than the 12minutes I allocated for the challenge.

I watched a mini-doc (below) about remote food-delivery kitchens being built to cut the restaurant out of food delivery. The film and the issues it depict strike me as near apocalyptic, and the proliferation of single-use packaging is but one of the many implications of this trend. This new model of remote kitchens has cropped up in the Bay Area and similar places due in part to incredibly high housing costs that make it impossible for restaurant owners to find workers that can afford to live nearby. With the dissolution of the restaurant we're seeing the dissolution of one form of the public sphere and potentially well-paying jobs alongside growth in delivery-driven carbon emissions and landfill-bound plastics.

https://www.hngry.tv/

The biggest surprise was the TSA agent who was curious about our re-usable ziplock bags that our carryon liquids were contained in. It was great to introduce him to the reusable option. We have gallon, quart, sandwich and snack size re-usable bags, and packed all of our toiletries in these bags instead of single use ziplock bags. 

In coordination with Girl Scout Troop 12380 (Kinder through 5th grade), we did a trail clean up at Glenn Otto Park in Troutdale, OR. It was so much fun watching the girls get into their clean up and enjoying a 'hike' at the same time. We kept bringing our work back around to the Eco Badges we are working on, and reinforcing the Outdoor Code and Leave No Trace Principals. The best was their utter confusion about why somebody would toss a bottle on the ground less than 3 feet from a trash can. 

I like the burrito shop outside...she has wooden forks.