Shopping Isn't Easy

by Ulli Klein, Operations Manager and Executive Assistant, Second Nature

I went to Shaw's yesterday and walked out with a Pyrex bowl. That was pretty much it. There really isn't much local food to buy there, especially at my Shaw's, because it's not really catering to people who try to shop local. At all.

In other news:

That would be one of my countless re-usable bags with a bio-degradable trash bag (hey, I am not going to toss my teabags into it) for my trash collection this week.

I am somewhat amazed at how far behind the US is with some of this stuff. My parents in Germany have 4 containers in front of their house. A huge blue "trash can" that gets picked up every 4-6 weeks for paper only, a yellow one for aluminum and plastic, a brown one (if you don't compost, that's the one for bio stuff) and then a black one for residual trash.

All are free except for the black one. The black trash can is taxed by # of people in the household. The trashcan actually has a second bottom, so my parents actually have very little room each week for their residual trash. This forces people to recycle, because, like good Germans, we actually have people walking around giving tickets if you don't. And if you overfill you residual trash can regularly, you will be given more space, but that will get taxed higher.

Works great. Oh, and every village and town has a glass collection site. Containers for brown, green and white glass. I remember being 6 years old and thinking how cool it was to throw bottles in there and hear them shatter. That was always one of my favorite trips.

Would be nice to see that here.