- I'm nervous that it's gonna be more than ten dollars.
- Oh my god, the suspense, the suspense.
Today we're gonna try to make a zero-waste meal
for under ten dollars.
- But first, we're going to busk for our money.
- That's right.
(upbeat harmonica and beatboxing)
♪ Currently my poo gets mixed with toxic goop ♪
♪ Reducing bio-waste that has nothing to do with me or you ♪
♪ It ain't refuse if you know how to use it ♪
♪ Power your motor with your methane ♪
♪ Now that's a bowel movement ♪
- Hello, we're Nate and Hila.
- Hi.
(laughs)
(beep)
- We make ecologically themed hip hop.
- Yeah, we rap about planet Earth.
- And specifically how to be zero-waste
about living on planet Earth.
♪ I bring my own cup ♪
♪ I'm always glad I brought it ♪
♪ I voyage with my vessel ♪
♪ I go with my own goblet ♪
♪ I travel with my chalice ♪
♪ I stumble with my tumbler ♪
♪ I go with my own mug ♪
♪ So I don't have to bum another ♪
♪ I fill it up, drink it up ♪
♪ Rinse off, and reuse ♪
♪ Good for coffee, tea ♪
♪ Or some freshly squeezed juice ♪
♪ I refuse single use ♪
♪ No excuses, just knowledge ♪
♪ Not tryna fill the land with any more garbage ♪
Zero waste is important to me because
I think that there's no such thing
as an away to which we throw things.
And it's all here with us,
so I try to trash my home as little as possible.
♪ In our goings and comings ♪
♪ Oh so many go cuppas ♪
♪ So we get cups and cup lids ♪
♪ From a Starbucks or Dunkin's ♪
♪ But when done with it's function it gets discarded ♪
♪ We're done with it ♪
♪ For that cup is like a lover ♪
♪ We don't love and don't come with ♪
♪ But a cup that's just used once ♪
♪ Is just a gutless injustice ♪
♪ Because it just doesn't give love ♪
♪ To what the essence of cup is. ♪
- Zero waste means trying to send
as little as possible to the landfill.
- It's an ideal that is never fully actualized
but it seems worthwhile because even the concept
of waste is sort of an inconsistent concept.
Matter is matter and matter has value
and so matter deserves to be treated
in a way that's respectful,
and so I try not to acquire matter that I don't need,
like excess packaging and meaningless matter.
And I try to live zero-waste so that the matter
that is in my life is matter that has meaning for me.
- Matter that matters.
♪ When you're walking to the coffee shop ♪
♪ Bring your own cup ♪
♪ When you're leaving out from the restaurant ♪
♪ Bring your own cup ♪
♪ Whether it's cold or whether it's hot ♪
♪ You can do with it whatever you want ♪
♪ Bring your own cup, b-b-bring your own cup ♪
- We're rich!
Rich beyond our wildest dreams.
- All right, we got our ten dollars from busking,
we're kinda nervous because we don't know
if we're gonna be able to get all our ingredients
without packaging, it's kind of a regular grocery store.
- If not, we'll starve.
(laughs)
- We brought our bags.
Okay.
- Definitely wanna do onion.
- [Hila] Okay, let's get an onion.
- [Nate] Mushrooms, we should get mushrooms.
- [Hila] Yeah.
I have a little bag for the mushrooms.
I made all these bags out of old t-shirts.
So we're gonna get the cremini,
'cause they're 5.99 a pound instead of 9.99 a pound.
- Great.
I guess let's weigh it to make sure we're not going over.
- Yeah, we should weigh it over there.
(beep beep)
It's .385, so--
- Okay, so that's within budget.
- Yeah, that's like less than two dollars.
- This is gonna be like the delicacy part.
- [Hila] Yeah, that's like two dollars.
- This is the mushrooms.
- Probably three dollars now.
Let's get some kale.
- [Nate] I think we've got enough.
(laughs)
- 1.49 a pound and it's not that heavy.
- It does have a rubber band,
but the rubber band can be re-used.
- We're gonna get some bok choy.
- [Nate] Cutest of the vegetables.
- It is very cute.
- [Nate] It's the cutest vegetable there is.
- [Hila] Like a dollar?
- [Nate] It's a beautiful pepper.
- [Hila] It is.
So what's one thing of garlic?
Like, 50 cents for this.
Haa!
Okay, grocery stores are very overwhelming sometimes.
- All right, beans, black? - Good for your heart.
(laughs)
- Tasty.
Which do you want,
do you want black beans or canellinni beans?
- [Hila] How about black beans.
- It's nice when they have bread
that doesn't come in packaging,
which is a rare thing.
- Which is the cheapest?
These are all like 1.50.
- [Nate] Let's get one of these ones with seeds.
- [Hila] Okay, just one, huh? - [Nate] Yeah, yeah.
- Yeah, I think that's all we can afford.
We'll get a tomato and that's it.
- [Nate] Yeah.
- So we got everything package-free except for the beans,
which are in an aluminum can, which we will recycle.
I'm nervous that it's gonna be more than ten dollars.
(cash register beeping)
- [Nate] Oh my god, the suspense, the suspense!
Oh my god!
- [Hila] Wooow! - That is satisfying.
With over a quarter to spare. - Yes!
- That is pure profit, that quarter.
That is 26 cents for us to enjoy
on other activities.
We did it. - We did it!
- 9.74. - 9.74!
- These are really good groceries.
It's a lot of food.
- And all it cost was some rhymin'.
- Some rhymin'.
We were thinking we were gonna make
a simple veggie and bean stew
with some bread.
We're gonna be cooking out of the van,
this is our van.
- Her name is Kevin.
- We're gonna be cooking out of Kevin
with a propane camping stove, a pan,
and we have a compost pail.
Every single thing here, we got secondhand.
Except the propane.
- Which also makes it not, you know,
totally zero-waste, we're using a fossil fuel.
- All of this is gonna go into the one pan.
I'm gonna light this baby.
All right, it's hot.
Put a little bit of oil in the pan,
smells like coconut.
Now we're gonna put the onions,
we can reuse this bowl for more things.
All right, you got the garlic?
- I do. - Very good.
So nice to cook outside with the breeze and the BQE.
And now I'm gonna put the mushrooms--
Onions and mushrooms are like best friends.
They help each other cook.
Wouldn't you agree?
(laughs)
- Which one are you?
- I-- - You're the mushroom.
(laughs)
- You're the onion?
- I think so.
- Yeah.
- I think I'm a bitterer person, just comparatively.
- You have more layers.
And I have more spores.
(laughs)
Whenever there's two things, we try to figure out who's who.
Nate's peanut butter. - You're definitely jelly.
- Ooh, peppers!
In the van we always have this spice mix,
which is paprika, curry, salt and pepper and stuff.
Tomato!
- [Nate] You want the beans before the kale?
- The beans can go in now, yeah.
I'm just gonna dump the whole can of beans into this pot.
'Cause it's a one pot shop.
- You ready for kale?
- Yeah.
- One, two, three.
- This is gonna cook down significantly,
I'm gonna put a lid so that the steam can hit the kale,
I'm gonna turn it up.
Last ingredient is the bok choy.
If you ever do this at home, get a lemon.
- I'm gonna try and make some garlic bread.
I'm just gonna split up this little roll
that we got and then cover it in coconut oil,
and then we'll put these pieces of garlic on.
We don't have another pan,
but we do have secondhand aluminum.
- Sometimes when we get sandwiches,
they come with aluminum, and so we save them.
- It's like secondhand clothing for a sandwich.
And put it on the fire.
- [Hila] It's burning.
- [Nate] I wonder if this is a good idea.
- I love when my meals are really green.
Turning off the fire, everything is cooked.
It's so good!
Yum!
- It's good.
- This is great.
This is exactly the kind of food that I love.
- It tastes like more than ten dollars.
It tastes less than like, thirty dollars.
But more than ten.
- We have at least two more servings of this in the pan,
so this is like really a 2.50 meal.
- Yeah, yeah, totally.
- [Hila] The compost is gonna get taken
to a drop off location.
- This can of beans, which is now empty, this is recyclable.
And that one little sticker.
So this can't be used anymore,
'cause I burned it a little bit.
But other than that, we're good.
♪ When you're walking to the coffee shop ♪
♪ Bring your own cup ♪
♪ When you're leaving out from the restaurant ♪
♪ Bring your own cup ♪
♪ Whether it's cold or whether it's hot ♪
♪ You can do with it whatever you want ♪
♪ Bring your cup, b-b-bring your own cup ♪