Mission Statement

The mission of Zero Waste Lancaster:

To educate ourselves about our use of natural resources, including land, water, and energy;
To reduce consumption of scarce or non-renewable resources;
To develop structural systems that enable and encourage our neighbors and our cit to use resources more wisely.

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Minutes (way too long) of the October 22, 2019 Meeting

The meeting of the Zero Waste Lancaster group on October 22nd began with eggplant parmesan, because that's what I happened to have a lot of at the time. The topic for the meeting was "How to get things out of the house". We talked about this in two parts: first, sharing things that "could be useful someday" (and getting them to be useful now); and secondly, getting rid of things that nobody wants anymore (that is, trash). We had a bit of a show on the computer, and added to it as we went along. The notes are below. Our next meetings will be November 19 (with luck, we'll get to talk about Lancaster's Climate Action plan and our city's water use) December 17 (how to avoid bringing stuff into our home in the first place). If you know someone who'd like to be on the Zero Waste Lancaster mailing list (getting two emails each month!), please have them send their email addresses my way! - Annalisa Notes:...

Zero Waste Gifts: Minutes of the November 19, 2019 Meeting

This meeting was dedicated to Zero Waste (or low waste) Gifts. We swapped some of our favorite ideas. Wrapping gifts: Some of us make our own reusable (and highly festive) gift bags from fabric; we had a sample from Sara G on display. Others of us have followed easy origami patterns to make small gift boxes from calendar pages or holiday cards. My daughter reminded me of one of my favorite past gift-wrap techniques: decorating the bare box to look like something else (a book box that became a dinner table; an oatmeal container, with some sun glasses and a small hat became a "dude"). I think I'm going to try that technique again this year. Giving gifts I myself tend to go for very practical gifts. Two years ago, I gave all my adult kids "emergency preparedness kits" (with maps, radiation sickness pills, emergency contact numbers, first aid kits, etc). What can I say? It's not for ev...

Next Meetings, spring 2020

Gratitude and Generosity: February 18, 2020 It's easy to think of a Zero Waste approach to life as one of intense effort combined with deprivation. But people who start to move in the Zero Waste direction often find that -- in contrast to expectations --there's an incredible amount of joy involved. At February's meeting, we'll shift our focus from the mechanics of going Zero Waste toward the philosophy and psychology of doing so. In particular, we'll share our experiences with the twins of gratitude and generosity, two virtues that not only make Zero Waste easier to achieve, but also become the rewards that flow out of using our resources more mindfully. Commercial and community-level composting: March 17, 2020 Eve Bratman, Professor of Environmental Studies at F&M, will discuss a project she and her students did in 2018, in particular assessing the viability of commercial/community composting for Lancaster.

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