Trashy and trying to reform.

[Ginevra]

I've been in the waste-reducing direction for probably 12 or more years, but we still generated a fair amount of trash all of the time. I'm upping the ante, though, and committing to more serious waste-reduction. I'd like to hear some ideas from others who do this. Have you come up with a unique way to use or avoid a particular kind of trash?

 

Also, do you ever "evangelize"? Try to bring others to consciousness about this problem?

 

Lastly, do you become discouraged, knowing that your efforts make such a small difference? How do you counter-act those feelings that it is hopeless?

[Stacia]

I read very few blogs, but one I read (& aspire to emulate irl) is Zero Waste Home: http://zerowastehome.blogspot.com/ She has many, many fabulous ideas, topics, hints, etc..... She has also just recently published a book & even though I rarely buy books (I use the library 98% of the time), my library doesn't have it & I think I'm going to buy the book. Yes, I'm in the same boat as you & would love to learn to embrace & live a trash-free life.

[OrganicAnn]

Our philosophy is to try to do our best and not to worry about everyone else. We don't eat organic 100%, we don't eat local 100%, we don't eat vegetarian 100%, we don't use earth-friendly cleaning products (detergents, soap, etc) 100% of the time, we don't recycle everything 100%, we don't compose 100%, but we try out best to do all of those things.

 

I remember reading someone who said imagine upon your death they toted up all the trash you generated, toxic chemicals you let loose in the environment and the natural resources you depleted would you feel comfortable meeting the Creator of the earth? We don't see the accumulated impact of our actions, as our trash is whisked away each week. Good luck on your journey.

[Joyofsixreboot]

Um, I do what I can. I use reusable shopping bags and jars or plastic wear vs baggies. We use cloth napkins and towels/rags vs paper tael. We recycle our cardboard plastic and cans but we are still left with all that annoying wrapping cellophane so we're far from trash free. We usually have three kitchen bags of trash/week for our family of 9.

[Laurie]

 

 

Lastly, do you become discouraged, knowing that your efforts make such a small difference?

 

 

YES.

In our city, we're required to recycle so in addition to the garbage can we also have recycle and yard waste bins. That's fine. My dh and I have been perfectly willing to follow the rules and do our part. But what makes me so discouraged is that there are still plenty of folks who don't think the rules apply to them. For instance, we have a man on our street who has been burning his garbage for years. He never puts anything out on garbage day, not even a garbage can. I'm sick of the stink on the days when he decides to burn. Years ago, I walked up to talk to him when I couldn't even let my kids out in the yard on a sunny day because of the stench coming from his chimney...and he and his elderly mother were outside and had the nerve to deny that they were burning anything! (I haven't seen his mother in a long time so I assume she's passed and hopefully he didn't choose a do-it-yourself cremation at home.) He's a very mean sort and I'm afraid to report him because I fear he's the type who would poison our dog or even worse.

 

Our city has been doing a pilot program (not in our neighborhood, thank goodness) to see how an every other week garbage collection would work. I called to complain about this because I would hate to see this happen. It's bad enought that we already have cheapskates burning their garbage, but I've also seen people in parking lots taking their bags of garbage out of their cars and and dumping them in the garbage cans in front of local businesses. It will probably get worse if the weekly collection stops, but I was assured that our city is watching Portland because they've already stopped weekly garbage collection there. I'm sure the good citizens in Portland are doing the best they can, but I've read that now there's a problem with people throwing dirty diapers into the recycling bins since those are still picked up weekly.

 

And I'm especially riled up this time of year because of all the fake "green" people around here who are also continually fouling the air with their charcoal barbecues and those &*%# fire pits that they keep burning all evening so that you can't even leave your windows open on a hot night.

 

It is very discouraging because you can't make everyone care about the environment and/or care about following the rules and/or care about their neighbors.

[regentrude]

A few things we do:

• reusable shopping bags
  
• we drink tap water and bought a sodastream to make our own carbonated water; this eliminates all water and soda bottle waste.
  
• use paper that has one side printed on for most things; I can bring home stacks from work.
  
• reusable mesh coffee filter, no paper coffee filters
  
• cloth instead of paper towels for almost everything (still have occasional paper towel for a few uses)
  
• reusable plastic plates for outdoor meals/picnics; we use real silverware. No paper plates/plastic utensils
  
• cook and bake from scratch. Fresh ingredients have less packaging.
  
• reuse plastic tubs from sour cream and yoghurt etc; reuse glass jars for storing ingredients
  
• compost everything that is biodegradable
  
• recycle everything that can be recycled in our town
  
• we use up what we have or give away what we no longer need
  
• not exactly trash, but: we limit the use of chemicals in our house. No pesticides on the lawn, no bleach, very limited cleaning chemicals.
  

We still have trash. I decided not to worry about it; I'll do my best, but I won't drive 100 miles to the city so I can buy fresh meat that is not in a styrofoam package.

 

ETA: Actually, the biggest contribution would probably be the using up things. Coffee filters and paper towels is little fish. Big fish is living with my grandmother's dining table and my parents' living room furniture and desk - quality that lasts many decades and does not have to be replaced by new stuff.

[regentrude]

LOL, yeah I can't see how that is saving anything!

 

And there's a lot of these trade-offs. I could buy half a cow from a local organic farmer, all just wrapped in butcher paper. I could feel very virtuous about the quality and local origin of the meat.

But in order to do that, I'd have to buy a freezer, use electricity to run the freezer, and eat a lot more meat than I normally would.

 

I could also purchase loose vegetables and fruit and can my own. I'd never have to create any more glass waste if I were just refilling my own jam jars every year. But you know what? I am very glad that there is division of labor. I don't WANT to make my own jam.

 

So, I'll do the things I *can* do.

[Guest]

Thank you, everyone, for the replies.

 

One area where waste really makes me twitchy is when we and all our in-laws go to our beach house. The waste and trash is staggering. Absolutely despicable. And this year, I became the supply buyer for the vacation house, so...GACK. I buy large quantities of all the stuff I never or almost never use on my own. My MIL used to harp on everyone about using paper plates and plastic cups and bottled water. (For her, it was mostly monetary waste that bothered her, but still...) Because of her earlier position, I know that all or most of my ILs totally disagree with having to use plates, utensils, cups, dishtowels, etc. One of the more devious SILs actually bought paper cups once, saying, "THERE! Now she will HAVE to throw them away and won't be able to stick them in the dishwasher!" :svengo: This same SIL was recently saying that for her home use, she bought a Costco-sized stack of styrafoam cups for her dh to take his coffee in, because he "won't" ever return a travel mug to wash out. Anyway...that's my :rant: I don't know that I could try and change anyone for this vacation house use. It is already known that I am the wack-job who will not bring bottled water and juice boxes. :leaving:

[VeganCupcake]

I was going to post Bea's Zero Waste blog, but Stacia beat me to it! I love that blog. She is very inspiring. She has it down to a science, really, and I wish I could come even close to that.

 

As far as evangelizing, I try to lead by example--I use my reusables in public, and if asked, I'll talk about how easy they are to use and how they often do the job better. When people come to my house, they get to use my reusables. I've had several friends start using some of the same types of items (kitchen cloth, cloth diapers, stainless steel tumblers) when they see that it's really not that complicated and that good alternatives to throwaways exist.

[KungFuPanda]

I married a man who is sleeved out by the feel and sound of styrofoam. We had two children with the same aversion. Therefore I could never purchase anything made of styrofoam. If a restaurant puts out leftovers I it, I am appointed to carry it :-/

 

They're also all three pathologically afraid of being hot, so in the winter we use less heat than most.

 

They're all weird, but in this case I guess it works out.

[mumto2]

 

Many areas in the UK have biweekly rubbish. We alternate our green and brown wheely bins. The hardest part is keeping your schedule strait--neighbors scedules are not necessarily the same! Recycling bins are weekly. Tips(sorting areas for dropping recyclables common) so dirty diapers go there. People are used to it and it works. This was hard for me to adjust to because no mudroom/ basement/garage to store in. We rarely fill our bin in two weeks. It has been a huge learning curve for us. We came here from twice a week unlimited rubbish so no motivation to do much, in all honesty. I have been amazed at how easy it is to significantly reduce our household rubbish.

 

Burning rubbish is occasionally a problem. The ordinances say you can't until after 7 at night. People are forced to comply with that because so many people hang their laundry outside. The fury of your neighbors would be overwhelming!

 

 

 

 

 

YES.

In our city, we're required to recycle so in addition to the garbage can we also have recycle and yard waste bins. That's fine. My dh and I have been perfectly willing to follow the rules and do our part. But what makes me so discouraged is that there are still plenty of folks who don't think the rules apply to them. For instance, we have a man on our street who has been burning his garbage for years. He never puts anything out on garbage day, not even a garbage can. I'm sick of the stink on the days when he decides to burn. Years ago, I walked up to talk to him when I couldn't even let my kids out in the yard on a sunny day because of the stench coming from his chimney...and he and his elderly mother were outside and had the nerve to deny that they were burning anything! (I haven't seen his mother in a long time so I assume she's passed and hopefully he didn't choose a do-it-yourself cremation at home.) He's a very mean sort and I'm afraid to report him because I fear he's the type who would poison our dog or even worse.

 

Our city has been doing a pilot program (not in our neighborhood, thank goodness) to see how an every other week garbage collection would work. I called to complain about this because I would hate to see this happen. It's bad enought that we already have cheapskates burning their garbage, but I've also seen people in parking lots taking their bags of garbage out of their cars and and dumping them in the garbage cans in front of local businesses. It will probably get worse if the weekly collection stops, but I was assured that our city is watching Portland because they've already stopped weekly garbage collection there. I'm sure the good citizens in Portland are doing the best they can, but I've read that now there's a problem with people throwing dirty diapers into the recycling bins since those are still picked up weekly.

 

And I'm especially riled up this time of year because of all the fake "green" people around here who are also continually fouling the air with their charcoal barbecues and those &*%# fire pits that they keep burning all evening so that you can't even leave your windows open on a hot night.

 

It is very discouraging because you can't make everyone care about the environment and/or care about following the rules and/or care about their neighbors.

[Laura Corin]

Many areas in the UK have biweekly rubbish. We alternate our green and brown wheely bins. The hardest part is keeping your schedule strait--neighbors scedules are not necessarily the same! Recycling bins are weekly.

 

Where we live there is only a weekly general rubbish pickup. About once a year it is announced that we will in future get a recycling pickup, but it never happens. The next village over has one.

 

I try not to buy veg/fruit in plastic boxes and I use canvas shopping bags. I compost kitchen waste, as well as shredded office paper and scrunched newspaper (mixed with lawn mowings). On Sunday, I drive to the next village to pick up the newspaper, combining the trip with walking the dog up a nearby valley and dropping off our recycling at the bins in the village car park. Our wheelie bin is normally about one-third full when we put it out.

 

L