Tess' Trash Challenge
Trash Challenge: Into the Dustbin of History
Get out the tissues. (And don't forget to compost them.)
Today is the final day of our trash challenge. My bag and I parted ways on Tuesday. On Thursday it joined its neighborhood compatriots in John Wilucz's garbage truck. And I've gone three days without generating trash.
I'd love to show you another photo of my empty (new) bag... but it was used without my knowledge for other household purposes. Oops.
And so we reach the end. What have we learned?
Well first, let me share with you some thoughts from a couple of trash challenge participants. First up -- Beth Terry. I've mentioned and linked to her before. We spoke on Wednesday. Here's the interview:
And here's an interview with another trash challenge participant, Michelle Martinez:
And finally, some highlights from my own experience:
1.) This is an incredibly important issue to a lot of you. The response to the challenge went far beyond my expectations, both in the number of people who joined it, and in the number of you who were interested enough to respond to this online diary or through letters to Marketplace.
True, it's not exactly a scientific survey, but there's passion out there... along with a slew of creative ideas about how to fix the landfill problem. Politicians -- local and national -- should be paying attention.
2.) While it may be possible to get down to zero waste, it's not probable and it's certainly not easy, especially for any length of time. Some of the blame for that difficulty lies with those of us who keep buying all kinds of stuff that we don't need, so there's no incentive for retailers and manufacturers to cut back.
Some of the blame lies with those same manufacturers who wrap all our crap (pardon my French) in way too much packaging. Even if that packaging is recyclable, they're assuming people will recycle and are able to. We shouldn't have to do that work for them. There's just no reason why a one-inch square digital media card has to come in a plastic container fifteen times its size.
Of course there's plenty more blame to go around, but I'd say those are two big reasons why it's not easier to get to zero.
3.) When it comes to recycling, there should be national standards for what's available to citizens. It's mind-boggling that I can recycle something in Southern California that someone up north can't... and vice versa.
I know these things are decided by local governments and sanitation districts. And recycling is expensive. But there's got to be a solution to what really is an issue of inequality. People who don't have access to good (easy!) recycling programs are stuck sending everything to landfills.
4.) That creativity I mentioned above? Wow... amazing ideas. Take used cardboard and cereal boxes to the local school for art projects. Use a bokashi bucket. Or a Doggie Dooley. Some of these ways to cut down do cost money. A lot of them don't.
None of this is breathtakingly new. But hauling my trash around made me hyper-aware of my own consumption patterns. And it forced me to think outside the... bin. Maybe it did the same for you.
Be sure to tune into all the programs of American Public Media in November for a special project called "Consumed." We'll be airing an entire week's worth of stories and interviews about America's consumer culture and whether it's sustainable.
On Marketplace Money we'll be devoting our entire show the weekend of November 17th to the question "What's wrong with trash?" We'll have stories about our throwaway habits, how tough it is to "unplug" from the marketing machine, and I'll profile a group of folks in New York City who forage Prospect Park for plants and go dumpster-diving for perfectly-edible food along 3rd Avenue. We'll also talk about the decline of the fix-it-don't-buy-it culture, and we'll visit a plant in China that imports recyclable material from the U.S. and sends it back as packaging for our consumer goods. Tune in!
I hope you've enjoyed watching and playing along. Keep working at it... I know I will. And thanks to all for your comments, hints, and cheerleading! This has actually -- amazingly -- been fun.
Trash Vigeland... out.
09/28/07 by Tess VigelandRules 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...)
All Posts
sponsor
Latest Comments
- Trash Challenge: Into the Dustbin of History (9)
- Richard Oppenheimer wrote: In the week or so since you aired this piece, I began paying... read
- Lisa Taber wrote: Wow, I'm psyched to discover Tess' Trash Challenge and the a... read
- T-minus 2 (2)
- Radical Garbage Man wrote: Tess wrote: There just are things that have to go to lan... read
- Darryl Wingard wrote: This whole exercise has got me to thinking back on an old th... read
- Trash Vigeland and Her Rat Posse (4)
- Patricia wrote: You're right. You don't want those nasty chemicals in your ... read
- charlene jaszewski wrote: rick has a great idea.., but realistically, if you did somet... read
- My Bag, BFF for Another Week... (13)
- Maryann wrote: Hazel, you should check out WrapSacks.com. My daughter's Mo... read
- Nancy wrote: I have 2 son's that are plumber's and they have passed on in... read
- The Good, the Bad and the Stinky (32)
- Bruce wrote: I'm sorry, what's the point? This "experiment" is an attemp... read
- Patricia wrote: Medical waste is a huge issue that I haven't seen addressed ... read
sponsor
Comments (9)
I feel your pain.
On June 6th -- after tossing 8 gagillion brochures, catalogs and fliers into the recycle bin -- something inside me snapped.
In a decision I have come to regret, I began contacting all the people who send me stuff and asked them to take me off their list.
Big mistake.
Incompetence was met by inertia. But enough about me.
Fortunately, I did have the foresight to record many of my encounters with the machine/human hybrid that is telephone support.
The project is called "Off The List" and may be found at:
http://www.youtube.com/user/theRealJonnyHal
Good luck to us all.
jonnyHal
Thanks for doing this, Tess, and for encouraging the rest of us to participate. I really look forward to your "Consumed" project in November.
Ten years ago, I applied to my city, St. Petersburg, Florida, for reduced garbage pick-up, once a week vice twice. I mailed in the request form and waited. After not hearing anything for several weeks I called City Sanitation, the garbage people. Their response, "Your yard is too big to qualify [65x110 ft]." I mentioned I composed my yard litter and kitchen waste; donated my glass, aluminum, and newspapers to a local Boy Scout troop fund raiser; and used the pruned branches from my trees as firewood in my fireplace. For the City of St. Petersburg, irrelevant personal detail. Yard size was the criteria.
I dispose of about two paper grocery bags of household trash and a five gallon pail of junk mail (yes, I separately monitor that volume) per month. My at work waste is pretty much the chicken bones and wax paper from my lunch. I continue to pay for and receive nine pick-ups a month from the City. I dutifully place my garbage container at the curbside every Tuesday and Friday. The City is planning on raising the garbage fees because of rising costs of operation. I doubt a demand based fee for service will ever enter their heads.
This was fun to follow.
Thanks Tess! I am looking forward to the Consumed project and to your Marketplace Money follow up in November.
I have been thinking about my trash for several years now. I do live in Santa Cruz County in California where thinking about the volume of trash you generate is almost mandatory behavior. This weeks bag weighed in at 2.5 pounds but I didn't carry it around!
The change I noticed in my own behavior was that I suddenly was reluctant to help myself to a disposable cup for water and order my sandwich 'to go' this week.
If anyone out there in corporate America is following this I would like to say that I am one consumer who occasionally makes the decision Not to purchase because I just don't want to deal with the trash that purchase will generate. And now I am not buying because I want an option to buy electronic devices that can be turned off instead of merely put to sleep.
Thanks again for this challenge,
Anita
I was delighted to hear about Tess's trash challenge on Morning Edition last week. What a wonderful idea to capture people's interest about our waste. Trash is something that has constantly been on my mind the past few years. It all began when I served as a Peace Corps volunteer in rural El Salvador from 2000 to 2002. Those two years were my trash challenge. I lived in a town that had no means of disposing trash. The local solution was to burn everything. However, burning plastic is extremely detrimental for the environment because of the toxic ash it creates. As a volunteer I wanted to live by example and think of a healthier way to dispose of my trash. As with Tess, I began to really think about my consumption patterns. The system I finally worked out was to burn paper, bury plastic and compost food products, all the while avoiding buying items with plastic. As North Americans we really take for granted where our trash goes, which is why Tess's trash challenge was such a great idea.
What?s the point (Bruce asks)? Most people would agree we should take responsibility for our own actions, yet putting waste out to the curb shirks this responsibility. Next to the energy we consume, the waste we produce represents the biggest impact we personally contribute to environmental degradation and finite resource consumption. The negative consequences of resource mining and depletion are already being felt world-wide. When we landfill our waste, the most immediate consequences are felt by those living around the landfill (there?s a reason people don?t like to live near them) and the atmosphere (our best technology only captures 15% of the gas emissions). The long term consequences are felt by future generations (those landfill caps and liners eventually fail). Technically we have transferred all our individual trash bags into one big one and left it for a future generation to deal with.
Is zero waste possible (Tess asks)? Probably not, but we can get pretty darn close. It has taken my family 15 years to fill a paper grocery bag with waste (half those years included 2 teenage girls). I?ve calculated this to average ? pound per person per year. We allied with others to develop a strong community recycling program. We constructed a backyard composting pile which takes all organics (including those chicken bones). We avoid what we can?t recycle or compost. Both my wife and I have busy lives. Convenience for us means: can the item be conveniently taken apart and recycled or composted? Looking at what waste we do produce; we think that a little more responsibility taken by the manufacturers to insure recyclability would have a big impact on what?s left in that grocery bag.
Most Americans are insulated and seem to be blissfully ignorant of the consequences of their actions and I applaud Tess and all those who have taken her challenge seriously.
Tess-
I just found out about your challenge, and I love this idea. Once upon a time about ten years or more ago I worked at a recycling center.
We went door to door and collected the recyclables, and I was amazed at the amount of 'stuff' we go through.
Now I work at a hospital were I regularly dig aluminum cans out of the bin and put them into the recycling spot.
It seems funny that the same doctors we trust our health to cant be bothered to recycle their aluminum, or plastic containers.
Thanks again for this post.
Trevor Marty
In the week or so since you aired this piece, I began paying more attention to my trash and recycling habits. We have always done pretty well on recycling, but certainly could do better. When I thought about your smelly garbage bag issue, and the "chicken bones" you had in there I couldn't help but come up with some solutions. First of all, you should have washed the chicken carcass remains so that all flesh and other portions could have been sent into the disposal. The bones by themselves would not have smelled. This can be applied for most food waste which really is most of the smelly part of garbage. If there was still something smelly that had to go into the bag, you could sprinkle some baking soda into the bag and that would probably neutralize the odor. Use washable cloth napkins and towels rather than paper to clean up after meals and around the house.
After that most items are recyclable including the packaging for that tiny digital media card that seems so large for its contents. You said there is no reason for it, however, there is. And if only we could rid society of this problem we could save in so many other ways. The reason packaging for small, expensive products is large (and difficult to open) is to thwart theft. It is difficult to stuff those large packages into coats and down pants. Manufacturers and Retailers would love to save on both the cost of the packaging and the transportation costs that larger packages incur, but that cost is outweighed by the resulting theft they have experienced.
Wow, I'm psyched to discover Tess' Trash Challenge and the awareness about waste that it's sparked.
Coincidentally, I just ran across a documentary previewing on Nov. 19 about a family that keeps every scrap of garbage they create for three months, called "Garbage: the Revolution Starts at Home!". For more information you can go to: www.garbagerevolution.com.
The longer description of the film is pasted below. I found it in the course of researching our abundant use of plastic and its consequences for a new website on the topic...and after reading about the Trash Challenge, I'm even more encouraged about the interest this new site may generate!
"Writer director Andrew Nisker takes an average urban family, the McDonalds, and asks them to keep every scrap of garbage that they create for three months. He then takes them on a journey to find out where it all goes and what it's doing to the world.
Everyday life under a microscope has never been so revealing. By the end of this trashy odyssey, you are truly inspired to revolutionize your lifestyle for the sake of future generations.
In Garbage!, filmmaker Andrew Nisker, skillfully and succinctly puts all of the information in one place � shifting the movement from melting glaciers and oil slicks to our neighborhoods and into our homes, so that average people can connect the dots between their actions."