Tess' Trash Challenge
My Bag, BFF for Another Week...
My Best Friend the Bag -- with me until the end of the Trash Challenge...
I'm about to hit one week of carrying my trash around... and there's some disagreement about how the next part works. I thought I would be tossing the first week, starting anew to see how much less I can generate in week two. But since my Best Friend The Bag is so small, there's a suggestion that I just keep filling the original and see how much waste I have after two weeks. So -- lucky me!!! -- that's what we're going to do.
For the most part, I've been able to recycle or compost most of my waste this week. We should have had a scale today, but I don't think there's one in the office. I can definitely say that I did not generate six pounds per day -- which is the national average. That would be 35 pounds or so to carry around and I'd be developing some nice guns.
Maybe that's the solution to my exercise aversion: Carry my trash around for the rest of my life. Hmm.
By the way, I'm thinking about buying a second composting bin. The city of Pasadena is selling them at our local farmer's market this weekend. Just have to figure out where I could put it in our backyard. And I'm definitely thinking that somebody should nominate me for this.
But here's a question that's come up -- am I recycling things that aren't really recyclable? I've been putting just about everything that's plastic, styrofoam, glass, aluminum or paper into my recycle bin. I don't look at numbers on the bottom of milk containers. I don't look at anything except what it's made of. So I went to the city Web site -- and lo and behold, they have rules. Uh oh. Here's the rundown:
THE FOLLOWING RECYCLABLE ITEMS ARE ACCEPTABLE:
º Aerosol cans (empty)
º Beverage and food containers (rinsed)
º Cardboard (flattened)
º Junk mail, mixed paper, catalogs, magazines, phone books
º Newspapers
º Plastics types 1 through 7
So I guess I'd better start looking for the numbers on my plastics. But what about beverage and food containers? They're all OK? Really? I'll see if I can reach someone at the city to get even more details next week.
Meantime, I wanted to respond to some of your comments from the past week. They're in italics -- my responses are not.
Sue: What are you doing about used toilet paper? Or are you switching to cloth for your two weeks?
Doesn't count! I'm only carrying trash with me. Not stuff that usually gets flushed into the sewer system. I have limits!
Brent Tannehill: It's really easy to deal with garbage if you live in the country. Everyone should own at least two chickens (you don't need a rooster). They'll eat all the wasted food that your kids leave behind. They'll eat the meat off of the bones that you didn't.
Ok. That's it. Farewell, Hollywood. Hello, Nebraska!
Greg: Hey, Tess! Great story. My office works the same in that we can only recycle office paper. Nothing else. So, I keep a box under my desk and put any other recyclable items in it and take it home once a week and make sure it gets in my recycling bin at home. Some of my coworkers think I'm weird, but others have started doing the same thing (or they ask if they can put it in my box!)
My coworkers think I'm weird already (uh... I'm carrying around my trash), so I guess this wouldn't be a huge stretch. Maybe I'll try it next week. But unless my colleagues agree to carry around their own garbage (which they won't -- weenies...), they don't get to add to my recycling box.
Kathy: DON'T USE PAPER TOWELS. OR NAPKINS. Use cloth rags, dish cloths, cloth napkins.
Certainly seems like a rational suggestion. I could also carry a handkerchief with me instead of using Kleenex -- though I now know those are compostable. But this brings up another issue: If I start using more cloth, I'm going to have more laundry. So I'll use more water. Which is the last thing anyone should be doing in parched Los Angeles. What's the trade-off worth?
Anonymous: I was stuck by your first paragraph in today's post. I am curious if you completely forget about the Trash Challenge while walking the grocery aisles? When I walk the grocery aisles I am always thinking of the life of the product -- where it will end up?
Dear Anonymous: You're a better (wo?)man than I.
And finally, some reality from an urban-dweller like me. Brent Agnew says he's a big fan of recycling, cooking at home, etc. But...
Brent Agnew: 1. A less convenient, more garbage-free lifestyle doesn't lend itself well to those with ambition who need the extra time to hon their career or business.
2. A more garbage-conscious society will certainly tank my retirement account which depends on the population consuming more and more.
3. Less garbage discourages the development of new technology or industries for dealing with the problem which also effects my retirement account.
Our assignment for the weekend? Come up with some answers. Go!
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 (13)
You certainly are lucky to have your city recycle such a wide range of products. As another poster pointed out, most places only recycle plastics 1 and 2, and then only a bottle or jar shape. Consequently, when the waiter put my leftovers in a Styrofoam container last night, I said "oh....crap." I have now christened it my dedicated take-out container (recycling), because I don't want to carry that huge thing around with me! That's the problem with Styrofoam, says the internets. It's cheap, and takes up lots of space, so it can't be efficiently recycled. Yet it takes ages to biodegrade. It's about the worst thing to put in a landfill. Some cities have banned it, apparently. We'd do well to make that ban more widespread.
Also, thermal paper receipts. Whose bad idea was that?
Hey Tess,
If you use cloth to wipe up spills or for napkins, you won't really be doing more laundry. We each have our own color wash cloth/napkin and it gets used for the entire week (unless it's really gross with spaghetti sauce or something). So at the end of the week, I have 2 more wash cloths to put in with the towels. Under the kitchen sink, I have a pull-out rack for towels. There is a hand towel and a dish towel. These are also used for the whole week (as is the dish cloth--but you can microwave it for 90 seconds to sterilize it daily if you want). So that means 2 extra towels and a dish cloth each week. I have a stack of cheap white and nasty towels for the dog, and I use these to wipe up wet foot prints or spills, etc. It really doesn't add much to my laundry, and I certainly don't do an extra load for this stuff.
The key is to store it where you use it. The pet towels are in the hall closet, but very close to the kitchen. That's also where we keep the cloth bags for the grocery store.
Good luck on the challenge!!!
And what of the other 51 weeks of the year?!!
C'mon, folks, get real (as in real reality).
This society and culture are going down the tubes with a whimper. The end result will, of course, be a BBBBAAANNNNGGGGGGG!! Have a nice life, what's left of it.
I've only done the challenge for 1-1/2 days so far, but my trash not only fits in a bag, it fits in my pants pocket. Here are my results:
http://www.fakeplasticfish.com/trash_challenge.htm
Hoping to only have 2 items of trash for today.
BTW, it would be great if you'd follow the recycling that gets picked up and show us what happens to that!
Actually I must say I am learning a lot about all of this. And I am encouraged to think more about what I recycle. I must be honest, I don't compost, but after reading Tess's blog, I am looking into.
I had a meeting with Tess where we both volunteer and did find it disturbing that I was sitting next to a chicken carcass, but lucky for me she had it in a zip-lock baggy :).
Karen K
Most trash in dumps is construction waste. This waste has value. The main problem is sorting it, and removing nails from the wood. Some companies have been pre-cycling by going to homes/buildings scheduled for demolition or remodeling and removing items, then warehousing and cataloging them for resale. This can make retrofitting doors and windows in older homes easier.
Another huge generator of waste is the medical industry. I have two disabled children. One of whom needs to use adult diapers. I used a diaper service for three children until they went out of business. Then I bought special larger-size toddler diapers until he grew out of them. Now I am considering using folded wool flannel panels inside waterproof liners that another mom told me about.
But he also needs catheters 4x/day. I used to wash them every time, but now that he's a teenager we went back to using a sterile one each time. I wish there were some use for all of the medical waste I see at the hospital.
Over the last 4 years I have reduced my garbage for a family of 3 and a pet rabbit to 1/3 of a garbage can per week. The main thing that changed was cooking from scratch more often. I share a newspaper with my landlady.
I even recycle the water from my fish tank and frog tank. The frog tank water is the best thing for my plants. The fish tank water goes into my garden. Everything is growing like crazy.
I once read that in a Greek island, the garbage is so valuable that many of the street people fight over it. It is too expensive to ship off the island, and it is too expensive to bring a lot of stuff in, so almost everything gets recycled. The homeless even have "routes" and the homeowners often pre-sort the trash for them to make it easier.
I think that all garbage has value. It is primarily the sorting that prevents it from being used. If there were sorting stations that were easy to use, people could drop off almost anything and put it in a place it could be picked up again easily. For instance, like a "take it or leave it" parking lot. If it had shelter from rain, you could have sections for old technology equipment, furniture, used toys & bikes, parts for things that aren't made anymore, etc.....Even a compost area. Most people in my area don't like to see things sitting on the curb for very long, so they often take it to Goodwill or the dump. For things that Goodwill can't take I think that a large drop-off site would work equally as well.
Laurie
It's great following along on your trash journey/challenge! Thanks for doing this and for publishing the results :)
Reminds me of one of my favorite books: Garbage Land: On The Secret Trail of Trash, by Elizabeth Royte. Thought you might find the book interesting too.
Using cloth instead of using disposable for towels, etc. Saves water too! When we decided to use cloth diapers instead of disposable this was something a lot of people asked us about (who felt guilty about the mountains of diapers they were throwing out). We found a Swiss (I believe, may have been Dutch, its been a year) study which tracked the manufacture and usage of both cloth and disposable diapers for about 2 years and the disposable products used so much more water in their manufacture, shipping, packaging, and disposal that it wasn't even close. It was something like 35x more... and that was just the water.
One answer to Brent's concerns: Recycling creates more jobs (here in MA at least) than just throwing it away, meaning more people have more money to spend, which means more economic growth, which means more trash... wait... um...
In all seriousness, recycling has been shown (sorry, no links that I know of right now, but might find some later) to create more jobs than just tossing it, and it also means that the same material can be consumed multiple times. Besides, one can hardly say that trash disposal is a productive use of capital in the economy. Imagine if all the effort that went into moving and throwing away stuff went into developing new, 100% recylable (and recycled) products... more things, more industries, more growth.
My kids school requires them to bring their lunch in each day, and we try hard to have a "trashless" lunch. No "Lunchables" dippables or other pre-purchased so called food', No disposables, and lots of rubbermaid containers, thermos flasks and unwrapped fruit! We're trying to have a reward type contest for the other - let's just be truthful here- TRASHY kids in the class to encourage sustainable behavior! Just as we are making progress along comes the "school fund raiser" for the PTA, lots of metallic wrapping paper and plastic ribbon at exorbitant prices. Does anyone know of a commercial fund raiser with a serious environmental ethic we could offer as a replacement? With 400 kids in this school they must drown under their daily lunch trash...
I'm totally with Judy S on the use of cloth napkins and hankies, as far as they impact the laundry. We use the color method here too, and napkins can cover many meals. When I started this, I heard lots about increased laundry, but I can assure you I have never had to do an extra load of laundry just to cover 6 or 8 napkins, or a couple of handkerchiefs.
Radical Garbageman's comment about what happens to recyclable materials reminds me of a Dilbert cartoon I saw years ago. Dilbert is late at the office and asks the ...uh... office maintenance professional why there are 2 trash cans in his cube, one for recyclables, but when the professional comes on shift, he has only one bucket into which he empties garbage. And in the the last frame, the office maintenance professional asks Dilbert, "Could you please turn around for a minute?" (with apologies to Scott Adams if I got that punchline wrong.)
Hazel, you should check out WrapSacks.com. My daughter's Montessori school used this as a fund-raiser a few years ago. After you give the gift, you can also track how far the wrapsack has gone. I think I'm going to encourage the person I passed one to to continue the trail.
I have 2 son's that are plumber's and they have passed on info to me when they receive it.
1.Angel Soft tissue is the best for septic tanks,it breaks down much faster than any other tissue,except camping tissue.
2. Flush yeast to break down waste in septic tank.
3. Anti-bacteria soaps are bad for septic tanks,they prevent the break down of waste.