Day 3: Vet Visit

Today's Winner: it's a draw really.
Today's lesson: medical waste is massive
Next Goal: get over feeling foolish.  

We will have to revert to pioneer medicine to be trash-free.  I took the rottweiler to the vet today for his annual check-up.  Other than a UTI and the start of cataracts he is doing a-ok.  However, the vet visit produced trash and a situation I could not deal with.

The vet tech cleaned the examining room with spray and paper towels before we entered.  All those paper towels went into the trash.  I guess I should have rooted through the trash to get them out after she left so I could compost them, but --quite frankly-- I have no interest in seeing the inside of a vet's trash can.  The needle used to draw the dog's blood was packed in plastic wrap to keep it sterile.  That was trash I definitely should have asked for to add to my pile....but how do I ask?  "Oh.  Don't throw that away.  I need that!"  Then I will have to explain why and feel totally foolish.  I guess that is the rub.  I have got to get over feeling foolish because I really do believe in this experiment.  And I don't really care what people in general think about me.  But in the moment, those are not the thoughts that come to my brain.

For the UTI, the vet gave me pills in a plastic bottle with an unrecyclable lid.  By this time, I felt down and out.  I just took it and left full of questions.  How do I tell people about this without taking too much time or sounding crazy?  What do I do when I visit my people doctors with their disposable gloves, swabs, needles, everythings?  Should I give up on western medicine?  Will my pharmacy reuse my pill bottles? 

And then I panicked into error.  On the way back to the car, the dog pooped.  I had to make a decision between creating trash (bag it and dump it) or riding 30 minutes back to my house (with 2 errands needing to be run on the way) with poop in a plastic container as well as 2 dogs and a 3 year old or just leaving it.  Well, the last option seemed like a cop out and I pride myself on being a responsible pet owner.  The second option seemed unbearably stinky with a potential for lots of complaining.  So I went the easy way out and made trash.  The bag I used was from 2012, but the poop wasn't.   

Bret caved and ate a individually wrapped chocolate from the Christmas stash in the break room at work.  So he made trash too.  Definitely less trash than my vet visit created, but for more personal reasons.  Totally preventable.  So we will call today a draw.