1.  Megan,
Since you are on a reuse/recycle kick, do you know where I can recycle my nalgene type water bottle? I am switching to the much-publicized aluminum SIGG and want to get rid of my old plastic bottle in a nice way...
-A

A -
This is a great question.  I don't know the answer,
let's pose it to the blogosphere...

mgm 

2.  Can we make a market for this product?  I just bought one with a cute green handle, and I can totally imagine heading back to Whole Foods in a couple of months for new blades and finding that the company's gone out of business because no one was interested.

From the Recycline website:

"Preserve’s new triple blade razor brings high-performance to the environment-friendly razor product line. Preserve’s triple blades are polished and coated to give a close, comfortable and smooth shave. Our patent-pending handle is made from recycled materials and is completely recyclable*. Package is made from renewable wood sources and is reusable as a travel case. Replace the blade with Preserve Razor Triple replacement blades– just squeeze the arms, pop off the blade cartridge and press in a new blade!

• Triple blades provide a smooth, close shave
• Handle is made from 100% recycled plastic, including 65% of recycled Stonyfield Farm® yogurt cups
• Innovative, one-piece handle design reduces resources consumed in manufacturing
• Ergonomic handle with contours and gripping regions enhances performance and control
• No animal testing

* Handle is completely recyclable in communities in with #5 plastics recycling or with Recycline's postage-paid mailer, available at stores or from Recycline."

Corn and Tomato Chowder, courtesy of Vegetarian Planet

Get the corn and tomatoes (and onions and jalapeno) from the farmers' market, and voila!  The Best Soup Ever.

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 cups chopped onions

2 teaspoons garlic

4 ears of corn (cut off the cob)

3.5 cups of whole milk

2 tablespoons tequila 

3 tablespoons cilantro

1/2 jalapeno

2 ripe tomatoes (chopped)

1/2 teaspoon salt

pepper to taste

heat the oil over medium in the soup pot.  cook the onions and garlic for five min, add the garlic a little later if you've used a press.  add the corn and cook for five more minutes.  add the milk and simmer for ten minutes.  add the tequila, cilantro, and jalapeno and cook for five more minutes.  remove from heat.  add the tomatoes, salt, and pepper.  serve.  YUM. 

Thanks to Alyssa for filling in some of the details.

----- 

I will also leave you with a link to Barbara Kingsolver and Krista Tippet's conversation about Kingsolver's year of "good" eating, described in her book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. 

I simply had to spend $1.83 on a little plastic disc to stop my tub drain.  The mechanism never works when I want to take a bath or soak something in the tub but miraculously functions the next time I take a shower.  And I was too frustrated to wait three weeks for the super to mess it up more.  Funny, I hadn't been inside a drugstore in a long time...

Hi, lovely readers.  I'm sorry I've been gone so long.  This blog thing is hard: with a struggle I can get 1-2 entries up in a normal week; when I've got a project going on, everything goes out the window.  This month's projects have included a film shoot and a massive reorganization of my office.  I've been taking the (four years' worth of!) white paper to the office where they say they recycle because I know for sure my apartment building doesn't.  I will investigate this in more detail during the Trash unit later this year.

The "patio" tomatoes are still chugging along, producing golf ball-sized fruit at the rate of 4-5 a week.  They are flavorful, if kind of an awkward size. I'm still not sick of BLT's, and I've been having fun trying the different kinds of locally-produced bacon from the farmer's market.  The beefsteaks, on the other hand, had some kind of trauma while I was away and never fully recovered.  The few that came off without blossom end rot were delicious, far better than the patio ones and quite a bit bigger.  Now the plant is doing this weird thing where it's producing new growth and flowers but the older leaves are turning hideous shades of purple and yellow.  It looks terrible and seems unlikely to produce more fruit.

I've run out of a few more things: mascara and mints.  The mascara is no big tragedy - I rub my eyes a lot so it ends up looking bad anyway; just an eyelash curler is serving me way better.  The mints I was trying to justify as a food item, but then I found some promotional Listerine tape thingies from a million years ago.  I'm sure that they could survive basically anything, so I'm not too worried about it.  When they run out, I'll have to make sure to carry my toothbrush with me.  And then it will be time to see the dentist, who is very generous with free toothbrushes.  All this stuff makes a lot of packaging and trash.

Now that the year is two-thirds gone, I've been fantasizing about the items I'll buy in 2008, things I think I need or that I really want.  Which makes me think this whole thing is kind of ridiculous: did I just put off my buying to Dec 2006 and Jan 2008?   Should I extend the experiment even longer to see if I can determine where/when it breaks down for me?  Maybe it already did - I've been lax on the food thing, and some art project materials and gifts have provided a little pressure valve.  At the same time, I really won't be that much better off financially (especially since I think my rent will be going up astronomically), so I won't even have the means to buy a lot of stuff at once.  We'll see - I'll do the numbers at year-end.