What I’ve learned from 2010 is how to navigate my new (used) iPhone to better document my life in terms of food and post them to my Cheapfoodhere Project 365 Flickr gallery. I don’t prefer using the subpar iPhone camera, but it’s something I know I’ll have with me at a moment’s notice and not have to download, tweak and then upload to Flickr. So, please forgive the photo quality and know that more importantly, I want to reflect at the end of 2011 on my food journey while sharing the sweet and the terrible about what I ate during those 365 days. I plan to document people, places and things that meant something to me that day and will help my readers see what Cheap Food Here really is, in a more visual way.

I’ll be adding a gallery for reader-contributed photos so feel free to email me a photo (ashley (at) cheapfoodhere (dot) com) to post or comment with a link to the photo with permission to use it on the site. I can’t wait to see how others will journey through 2011 with Cheap Food Here. Enjoy it!

Cheap Food January Photo Gallery

Taking out the Trash- The Clean Bin project (trailer1) from Grant Baldwin Videography on Vimeo.

Here are some tips straight from the Clean Bin Project to help you reduce your waste:

1. Don’t use plastic bags (under any circumstances)
2. Set up your recycling in a convenient place (so you have no excuse to throw it in the trash can)
3. Set up a place to compost.
4. Recycle everything possible. (find out what your municipality will take)
5. Check the package BEFORE you buy it, to make sure it’s recyclable.
6. Buy Recycled and Biodegradable Household Products.
7. Buy second-hand whenever possible.
8. DIY. (Make it yourself from bread to clothing, shelves and more)
9. Stop Using Takeout Containers.

Here is a more descriptive list of ways to help reduce your waste.

Cheap Food Here is thinking about the challenge and preparing to get started. We are working on a compost bin, get the recycling situation sorted out and seeking to buy less packaging on our products. As far as our consumption goes, we do a fairly decent job. We don’t buy much in the way of material goods and shop at the markets much more often than the grocery stores. However, that still doesn’t account for the times we do shop at the grocery stores, when we’re eating takeout and when we need to buy clothes (once every 6 months or so).

But, regardless of all that we do, there will continue to be situations where following the ‘rules’ of the Clean Bin Project will be excrutiatingly difficult and next to impossible. Take flying for example. Here is a testimonial of a guy who asked the flight attendant first where his little plastic cup would end up after he used it and second if he could refill the same cup on the next flight. It’s shocking, yet expected what happened. These situations shouldn’t be unavoidable and it seems that the airline industry is not acting responsible enough in their waste-producing practices. Although, I will note that even though 4 million plastic cups are consumed in the US airline industry every day, at least they recycle the aluminum and paper (why not the plastic?).

We should all seek to be more responsible in our consuming and waste-producing practices. Act as a demonstration and lead others by example. At the end of the year, how much will your bin weigh?