Turning into Betty Jean

I've recently realized that I am turning into my maternal grandmother (Betty Jean Hoffman). While I obviously am looking more and more like my mom, I am acting more and more like grandmaw. Most of this transformation is of the Green nature. I hate to admit it, but in the States I never recycled much more than paper at work and old clothes. Numerous friends over the past decade have encouraged me to recycle, sadly I never took the time. Now that we are in Italy and recycling isn't exactly optional, I've decided to embrace it! This embracing has begun my transformation into Grandmaw.

My grandmother lives in a small house in Gastonia, NC. She recycles EVERYTHING. I don't believe she does this for the good of the earth, but just because it's what you are supposed to do. For years I didn't understand why I couldn't throw leftover food scrapes into the trashcan. (No garbage disposal.) I was disgusted that she scrapped leftover food from Sunday Lunch plates into a coffee container before handwashing them. (No, she doesnt' have a dishwasher.) However, I have now seen the light!

We have plastic, aluminum, cardboard and garbage pick up every week. There are also two bins placed throughout the neighborhoods for glass and organic waste. From the beginning I jumped at the fact of recycling the non-food items. I refused to use the organic waste containers. I ignorantly thought it was beyond disgusting. However, after realizing that we were the only people in our neighborhood that have 2 full trash cans on the street every week. I, out of American embarrassment, decided to make a change. Now, just like my grandmaw, scrape food off of plates and throw out any unused foods. My kitchen is furnished with an organic material bucket (just like my grandmaw's coffee can) and I walk it up the street every couple of days. My trash has been reduced by about 1/4 every week (I'm aiming at getting this down to 1/2) and my garbage doesn't smell like yucky food.

I must admit I smile every time I do it, because I can feel her presence in my Italian kitchen telling me I'm doing the right thing.

There are many other ways I would love to be more like my grandmaw - Her strong faith, her joy of laughing until someone pees their pants, her hard work, her patience and love with our family, her giving nature - but I'll start with scraping food and recycling.


Here are a few embaressing moments in my attempt to be Betty Jean.. haha

Our garbage cans (the yellow ones that hold about half of a regular city garbage can in the States). First of all we have 2 of them. Everyone else has 1. Not only do we fill up both of them, but we sometimes have an extra bag sitting beside the cans :( This not only is frowned upon, but can be fined up to 640euro.

Milk Containers. Our abundance of milk containers (soy milk and dairy) is rediculous. I have yet to figure out how to recycle them. Apparently they do not go with the cardboard containers, since the collector tossed all of them back into the bin before leaving.

Organic Waste: My first attempt at organic waste was a complete failure. Rylan and walked my bowl of leftover food up to the bin, quickly opened and dumped the food in. Once I heard the splat of the gross food, I immediately noticed that everyone else had put their food into a plastic bag. The bin doesn't smell or have flies arond it for this very reason. We walked back to the house hanging our head low, knowing that our nosey Italian neighbors probably watched the whole embaressing act.


My Little Green Organic Machine



The Line Up


The Distance to the glass and organics bin from our driveway


~ Heather