Goooooooood Morning SuperForest!
This Wednesday is a very exciting day for us at Zero One, as Wednesday morning the last trash bag we fill will go out to the street to be picked up by the county for the very last time.
I’m not quite sure what exactly is in this mystery bag. I’m tempted to tear into it and divert it all into the four resource streams we’ve created. But I won’t. I like it too much as a symbol of what is to come.
The last trash bag! After Wednesday, what arrives at Zero One stays at Zero One. So cool.
If you’ve just tuned in, at Zero One we’re using a cool system for dealing with our “trash.” We separate all resources into four streams: Compost (85 % of all our trash is organic material, which goes right into the compost/worm bin and then into the garden. We compost nearly everything, cardboard, white paper, meat scraps, bones, hair, everything. The hot composting process we use breaks it all down. Nom nom nom! Then into the land to enrich the soil.) Hard plastic gets stockpiled awaiting further creative re-use and upcycling, as does glass and aluminum. Soft plastic gets stuffed into empty PET bottles.
When you pack the soft plastic into the bottles nice and tight, you end up with an amazingly strong, nearly indestructable brick of awesomeness that can be used for building walls and pathways. When we’ve got enough plasti-bricks, I’ll do a post on what we build with them.
What amazes me is how much soft plastic one can shove into a bottle! I’ve been working on one bottle for three weeks now and I’m just finishing filling it. When it’s done, the new brick is capped and set in the barn for later use. We are very lucky to have the space to stockpile raw materials like this.
So, month one: no trash. Done and done. I cannot say how good this feels, but I will try…
IT FEELS SO GOOD!
I haven’t made any trash in weeks. None. Not one piece.
This has lead to interesting moments, like standing in the bathroom holding a piece of freshly used floss and thinking, “where does this go?” The floss went into the soft plastic bottle. A discussion with some friends about what to do with floss lead to the interesting idea of keeping a spool in the bathroom to wind the used floss around. Floss is nylon coated with wax and is incredible strong. With enough of it woven together, you’d have a very strong rope. Not strong enough to climb Everest, but certainly strong enough to tie bamboo together to create a lovely bower.
I realize that the only limit to my creative re-use of materials is my creativity, and the degree to which I am willing to ask for help. Fun, fun times at Zero One, lady and gentlemen SuperForesters.
Since I am doing such a sparse job at communicating the wonderful things going on (as I’ve been busy doing them,) I’d love to invite any SuperForester out there who is interested in what Zero One, Justin, Mea, or I have to offer to please contact me. My cell phone number is 323 599 7666. My email is superforestnyc(at)gmail(dot)com. Cell phone is the best way to reach me.
If you call, I will answer, so use the number wisely. Mwah ha ha!
I’d love to give interviews to fellow bloggers about the systems we’re exploring at Zero One, and if anyone has read my posts about the time at Zero One and has suggestions about how we could improve the systems in use, I’d love love love to hear them. The whole point of why I am here is to explore creating the most fun AND efficient system for living possible, and one flexible enough to use anywhere, and not just on a tropical island paradise. Sustainability on Kauai is one thing, but to be truly interesting, the Zero One system must work equally well anywhere, with different stresses on different aspects of course.
Yes lovelies, let’s all get in touch with each other and share ideas. It is the time for the sharing of ideas, freely, and without hope or thought of getting anything in return. An idea shared is a gift to the species and by extension a gift to this lovely planet we inhabit.
Love to all,
-Jackson
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