Thursday, April 7, 2011

cough drops: good for the throat but bad for trash-free dorms


So. i have a cough. What do I do? I drink tea, and suck on delicious echinacea honey cough drops, of course. But wait! As my throat is soothed, my conscience grows heavy as I gaze at the waxy papers that lay scattered across my desk. This is a problem. Seeing as i have a sore throat and these drops help that, they are not a commodity i'd really like to give up...but seriously? Why cant they be packaged in those plain paper wrappers, like some gum is? It would really make things a whole lot simpler.

These first few days of trash-free have been interesting, because mainly my garbage has stayed empty. I've been able to recycle and compost nearly everything I use, because i don't shop for many packaged snacks, and enjoy fruit (biodegradable, yay!). But these pesky cough drops have been a first and a major set back, seeing as there are 20+ in a bag. That's a lot of little garbage scraps!
BUT WAIT, though you may be on the edge of your seats with worry (i sure hope not), but this is the moment when Super-RA Julia swoops in to save the day. In the past Julia has made paper cranes out of the lollypop wrappers in my room, and it dawned on me! Those cranes decorate my room, and are far from trashy, so why not pester Julia into making all my wrappers into cranes?! I didn't expect her to take up the challenge, but lo and behold, i have several crane families taking up residence in my happy, and now fully trash-free, dorm room!

~Melia

1 comment:

  1. what a great idea! Love these! I've made earrings out of starburst wrappers folded into cranes and sold them to people... you could probably do something similar with these little guys. :)

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