Eve O. Schaub's Blog, page 6

MORE True Confessions from a Year of No Garbage: Greta and Ilsa Version

Note: Our daughters, Greta and Ilsa, might just be the world’s best sports. Greta, who is twenty, lives in Brooklyn where she studies acting. Because of the pandemic, she has spent a LOT of time this year at home with us in Vermont doing many of her classes online, but no matter where she is, […]

Ten True Confessions From a Year of No Garbage

I’ve flushed used staples down the toilet. I’ve asked visiting friends to take their garbage back home with them. I am nothing if not a gracious hostess. I’ve donated ketchup packages to the food cupboard. KETCHUP IS FOOD, PEOPLE. At an art reception I’ve let a friend go off looking for a real wine glass […]

Plastic in Our Poop and Ten Other Signs of the Apocalypse

Back in January, when people still did crazy things like gather in groups, I was faced with the first of many No Garbage social conundrums: I was offered wine in a plastic cup. I was at an art opening. The director of the art center, Anne, is a friend and was aware of our No […]

Buying the Future, One Giant Egyptian Cucumber at a Time

If I’ve learned one thing this year, it’s that we can’t recycle our way out of the plastic problem. If I’ve learned a second thing, it’s that we can’t buy our way out of it either. It’s too bad, because if there’s one thing Americans are really, really good at, it’s buying things to make […]

How Many Crowns Does One Girl Need?

Have you ever had a three-week old bag of pumpkin guts in your fridge, and wondered what the statute of limitations was on keeping it? Of course you have. When this happened to me last week the situation was further complicated by the fact that I couldn’t just do what any sane 21st century American […]

I Am The Great Sticker Marauder

I used to adore stickers. When I was in middle school I had a whole three-ring binder full of them: puffy stickers, heart stickers, stickers with pictures of unicorns gazing meaningfully at rainbows… Today, my thoughts about stickers are much less fanciful. And occasionally involve adult language. That’s because stickers are one of the more […]

How I Learned to Stop Single Streaming and Love The Dump

When we first moved to Vermont I was a little dismayed when folks said: “Oh! You live on the road to The Dump!” The Dump. It just sounded… well, scatological for one thing. For another, there’s something kind of sad and forlorn about it. This is where we dump stuff. Back then, we didn’t even […]

My Mind Is Easily Blown: The Scoop on Cat Litter, Toothpaste and Reusable Bags

As a confirmed cat person, I’ve never gone terribly long without owning a cat. Or two. Three at most- I swear. We said goodbye to our last cat one year ago, so recently we felt like we were ready for a new furry addition again. We headed to the local humane society to find a […]

The Problem With Getting Dressed

We’ve all got to wear clothes, darn it. And clearly, we LOVE clothes made with plastic. Name a popular clothing item today— yoga pants, fleece pullovers, stretchy denim— and odds are that item is made softer, more durable, more shrink- stain- and wrinkle-resistant through the use of synthetics. Which is to say, plastic. Have you […]

Single Stream Recycling is a Lie, and Other Recycling Facts No One Wants To Tell You

It’s taken me months to get to the bottom of these Recycling Mysteries, and some of them are pretty shocking, so let’s get right to it: The only plastic numbers that actually get recycled are Numbers 1 and 2, and possibly 5. This is because 1 and 2 are the only varieties of plastic for […]