Each year at my work we have a holiday party. For 2017 I implemented ditching plastic straws at work, moving to paper straws and only giving them out upon request. At the holidays I thought it would be fitting to give everyone on staff a metal straw.

To keep the tradition of zero waste gifts up in 2018 I decided to get everyone some bamboo utensils. I found some super cute little sporks. I tried to make sure they were sustainably made, a good company, the right fit for what I wanted to convey with the gift. I felt at least mostly satisfied and made my purchase. 50 bamboo sporks.

And then they arrived.

Yes, every single one of the 50 sustainable zero waste-use items I had bought was wrapped in it’s own plastic bag, and each 10 in turn were wrapped in another plastic bag.

The horror.

The absolute horror of it when I opened the mailer (also plastic, BTW). Even though I tried to be as zero waste as possible I was wasn’t at all. But it happens. You can only do your best, and work with what you have.

As I unwrapped every single spork, I thought about how my coworkers would like them and how it might save them from using disposable utensils. I thought about how more people know about or ask questions about zero waste bc they work with me. And I thought about how I would have to drop all these tiny plastic bags off at recycling.

Even though the was a fail, I will learn from it. What fail have you had recently?