If you've been following me on Twitter, @CrunchyDisneyMa,
you know how much I've talked about a Zero Waste trip to Disney World. Zero Waste means that nothing I touch would
end up in a landfill. I would refuse it,
reuse it, or recycle it. Did I achieve that?
Sort of. Zero Waste is very hard to pull
off while on vacation, even harder when you aren't in one specific
location. This is the first part of a
series that discussed the results of my Zero Waste solo trip.
I traveled to Orlando for the Boys & Girls Clubs of
America National Conference. About half
of my day was spent at the conference, while the other half was spent closing
down the parks; a tiring feat in itself, especially with a baby on the way. My flight came in the morning before the
conference, so I had an entire day to explore the Flower & Garden Festival
at Epcot. Zero Waste during my first day
was an epic failure. The local airport
did not support electronic boarding passes and while I brought my own snacks in
reusable containers, they did nothing curb my cravings for orange juice and
cookies, both of which weren't served in compost friendly containers. All boarding passes, car rental information,
hotel and restaurant receipts, and other papers were saved and recycled when I
returned home. What I didn't account for
was waste from others. My slightly OCD
nature wouldn't allow me to sit in a seat on the plane where a previous
passenger left trash; I had to throw it away, or it would haunt me the entire
flight.
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| My favorite dish of the festival was served in an eco-friendly container! |
For me, the largest amount of waste usually comes from
food. My plan was to eat at Table
Service restaurants while visiting Epcot, so there was no plastic or coated
paper products to throw away, just dishes to wash. With the addition of food kiosks at the 20th
anniversary of the Flower & Garden Festival, that wasn't happening. There were just too many food items that I
needed to try. While my favorite, the
Shrimp and Stone Grits with Andouille Sausage from the Florida Fresh kiosks was
served in a cardboard container (I ate that twice), many of the others were
not. I even asked at most of the kiosks
whether or not I could get items served on my own containers.
 |
| Least favorite was the lobster & asparagus and it wasn't my least favorite because it was served on styrofoam. |
Water bottles with filters and reusable ice cubes were still
in the suitcase, so I relied on water fountains when available. I did stop by Club Cool for a drink. Club Cool is a must-do for me. I love people watching here and stand right next to the Beverly. I wonder how the thousands of tiny wax covered
paper cups are disposed of? Unless they’re
coated in beeswax, they aren't compostable.
 |
| Rose blush lemonade |
 |
| Frushi |
Just a few notes on some random items…I did make a couple of
souvenir purchases. Both were put in my
backpack, rather than taking the bags usually given with merchandise. I keep receipts to total purchases while on
vacation, ensuring that I stay on budget.
Those were recycled after I returned home. After washing my hands, they were air dried
instead of dried with paper. I didn't use
Fast Passes at all this day, and opted to use a smartphone app to check wait
times instead.
Over at the Odyssey building, my paper annual passes were
exchanged for plastic passes. I’m
excited about the next switch to the MagicBands. Those will cut down on the number of paper
and plastic passes being sent to landfills.
I even witnessed a cast member with a few magic bands doing some testing
at Journey into Imagination. We can’t
wait to get our very own!
The next day was spent at Animal Kingdom. With so much attention given to conservation
and protection of the animals that live there, zero waste was easily
accomplished! Check
back next week for details on how I was able to pull that off.
Do you have questions about something I may have
missed?
