Tess' Trash Challenge
T-minus 2
Another day without trash.
People at Marketplace and around our building keep coming up to me and saying "where's the bag?!?!" When I tell them I had to trash it earlier this week they look at me like I've just put down the family pet. Then I say, hey, you should try it -- get your own bag! Carry it around! Suddenly they have somewhere they have to be.
I came close to starting a new bag because of a Styrofoam container that held my lunch. But I double-checked and I can, indeed, take it home and put it in my recycle bin. Phew. (I should try to convince the cafe downstairs to stop using Styrofoam.)
As I enter the last, what, 36 hours or so of the challenge? -- I'm fairly confident that I'll be able to continue keeping my trash volume at a low level. But I really don't know how people get it down to zero. It's a great goal, but achieving it would be a Herculean task suited to folks who decide to not only go off the electrical grid, but also off the garbage grid.
There just are things that have to go to landfills. But there's also so much there that doesn't belong there. So reducing as much as we can will certainly help. Oh -- and here's a new one that I haven't figured out: what can you do with used bandages? I'm pretty sure medical waste doesn't belong in either the compost bin or recycling.
Anybody have any last thoughts as we head into the final day of the challenge? Have you been able to reduce your own waste stream? Even a little? Are you looking at product packaging in a new light? Are you making purchasing decisions based on where your stuff will end up when you're done using it/eating it/wearing it/consuming it? Are you going to see if your local school wants to use your cereal boxes for art projects?
Rules of the Trash Challenge:
- No kitty or doggie poo (it's a health risk)
- No carrying into restaurants or malls where I could get kicked out
- Really smelly stuff goes inside extra Ziplocs
- If it's recyclable, you don't have to carry it around
- Trash from work is included, as is trash from the rest of your household (i.e. if your honey tosses it at home, it goes with you...)
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Comments (2)
Tess wrote: There just are things that have to go to landfills. But there's also so much there that doesn't belong there. So reducing as much as we can will certainly help.
BINGO! A well-managed landfill to contain the truly problematic material is A GOOD THING. Putting an endless stream of stuff that could have been reused, recycled or composted (or not manufactured and bought to begin with) in it is NOT GOOD.
Oh -- and here's a new one that I haven't figured out: what can you do with used bandages? I'm pretty sure medical waste doesn't belong in either the compost bin or recycling.
This is a great example of something that belongs in the landfill. (although if you have a good, hot compost pile that is well-turned and tended, there's no reason cloth bandages wouldn't break down -- I'd just worry about the inevitable plastic additives and adhesives) While doing a recycling study, I once found a bag with used condoms in a recycling bin. BAD.
This whole exercise has got me to thinking back on an old theory I once had: What if you were doomed to spend the afterlife with all the stuff you had discarded during your life? Those who were very poor (or wise and recycled) would be relatively unencumbered and free while those who were rich and threw things away indiscriminately would be surrounded by the smelly, junky debris of their previous lifestyle. How would you like to spend eternity in a landfill of your own making?