Week 1
One garbage-free week down and 51 to go! It’s been a busy week for us here on the no-garbage front, not because of the Green Garbage Project but because of a new kitten and a new washer and dryer that had to be installed. In many ways, our garbage-free lifestyle has been on the back of my mind – we spent so much time prepping to go garbage-free that it’s become essentially second nature. Living in a way that creates little or no garbage is a front-loaded project. Once the preparations are in place, it’s simply not that hard.
That said, our daily routine has changed in subtle ways. Dinner dishes become a little more complicated as aluminum foil yogurt lids need to be washed and dried, ditto for plastic bags, the food waste now goes in the compost instead of the trash, and our recycling is separated into bins for glass, curbside pickup, and Portland drop-off. Basically, we do a lot more sorting now than we used to.
Grocery shopping became a much longer endeavor than it usually is, though this is really no chore since I love to grocery shop. We’ll see if I say the same during the school year, but right now, it’s fun.
Wednesday was shopping day. I headed downtown to Salem’s Wednesday farmer’s market and picked up all the produce I need and then some. Treasures include a vibrant purple cauliflower and fat rainier cherries. Yum. Then off to Fred Meyer for regular shopping where the deli clerk looked at me like I had 18 eyes when I asked for my cheese to be wrapped in paper, not plastic. Lots of canned goods in the cart and a noticeable lack of frozen or packaged food like chips, cookies, granola bars, etc. Then, a quick trip to Waremart for bulk foods like pasta and dog chews, which, since Kavik has decided he doesn’t like, I will now be hunting for another substitute to.
I also swung by Petco for some cat supplies and found a neat product – scoop your own litter! I bought a big plastic litter container (it’s recyclable) and once we use up the litter, I bring the container back to the store and refill it. It’s cheaper to scoop my own than buy another container. This is a great little example of reduce, reuse, recycle: I reduce the number of litter containers I buy by reusing this original one, which can eventually be recycled.
Meal preparation hasn’t changed much, though some meals take a little more time. Making pizza from scratch, for example, is a bit slower than popping a frozen pizza in the oven. I’ve been dipping into my stores of preserved food in the freezer which got me wondering about Ziploc freezer bags. I’d checked that plastic bags that are stretchy are recyclable at Far West Fibers, but I wanted to make double sure.
(This is probably a good place to mention that my new greatest fear is that I’ll bring my load of recyclables to a recycling depot and be told that something I thought was recyclable in fact isn’t, and that someone on the phone gave me wrong info. So, I’m obsessively double-checking everything….)
Anyway, I learned that while Ziploc bags are recyclable, the zippers are not. Uh-oh. So I got depressed, then started researching other disposal options. I found this awesome Web site: http://www.lousupcycles.blogspot.com/ Here we have someone who despises trash so much, she invites people to send her their foldable packaging – things that would otherwise end up in landfills – and she makes bags, placemats, and other fun stuff from this packaging. I contacted Lou, and she’s more than happy to take my freezer bags.
So, the zippered plastic bags in my house will used and sent to Lou, then no more Ziplocs for us. I also have a piece of cardstock hanging in my kitchen that is a sticking place for produce stickers that I will eventually send to Sticker Man, who makes neat mosaics out of produce stickers. Check it out at http://stickermanproduceart.wordpress.com/
All that said, we reached a couple garbage conundrums that required some discussion and rule-making on our part. First, I went to see an allergist on Thursday and it wasn’t until I walked out the door after my appointment that I realized that my visit had produced garbage: a tongue depressor, a plastic ear-looking device thingie, two paper cups, and a plastic medicine measurer. Does this count as my garbage? On one hand, yes – if I hadn’t gone to the doctor and used those things, they wouldn’t be in the trash. On the other hand, no – I didn’t buy them in the first place.
Second, our landlord came and did some repairs on the house and produced garbage in the process, which he threw in our can before I knew what was happening.
And thirdly, I used up wet dog food my family left behind last weekend that happened to be in a plastic container. The plastic container is recyclable, but it’s wrapped in a hard plastic that probably isn’t (I called the company and they couldn’t even tell me what the plastic wrapper was made from, so I guess I’ll take it to a recycling depot and see what they say). After discussions, here’s what we decided about these decidedly gray areas. If someone else buys the item and uses it up, that’s their trash (like the landlord garbage and the medical trash). If, however, someone else buys an item but we use it up, that’s our trash, like the dog food container.
All in all, our bin went to the curb with cat litter, about a cup of chicken scraps, and the sheetrock mud container from our landlord. We produced a single piece of trash this week in the form of a piece of yellow duct tape stuck to the used washer and dryer we purchased. The dog food wrapper may be added later, but we’ll see. This is exponentially less than we generally produce. One piece of tape and maybe a plastic wrapper compared to three pounds a day? I’d say we’re off to a good start.
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Way to go! We have been looking forward to hearing about your first week. I love the decision making process of what follows the rules and what doesn’t. You have us really thinking about our trash and believe it or not, we recycled so much from the 4th party, we didn’t even fill up our garbage can this past week (and that’s with 20 extra people over!) Way to inspire us! Not that we are anywhere close to what you are doing but just know you are making a big difference in more ways that just at home! Love you guys!
I wash and reuse many times bread plastic bags etc for storing food in and freezing. Also I take the washed bags when I go shopping. It’s rare for me to get new plastic bags and I have never bought bags for the freezer or to line the garbage bin. I also use washable containers to store food in. I haven’t bought plastic/cling wrap for about twenty years.
When I used to have pet cats they went to the toilet outside, and on the rare occasion they used cat litter I buried it in the garden.
I’m due to visit the dentist soon and it’s likely my one visit will generate more garbage than I might in a week, but I guess for hygiene purposes I can live with this.
It’s great you are making an effort to reduce your garbage. I saw your project mentioned in my local paper, so it’s getting about.