My trash: Day Two

• paper coffee cup & cardboard sleeve
• tiny Starbucks sample cup
• pastry bag
• plastic knife & wrapper
• 2 individual-serving cream cheese containers
• Styrofoam cup
• plastic apple sauce container & foil lid
• 1/2 roll of paper towels & cardboard tube
• 4 plastic bags
• Subway sandwich wrapper & plastic bag
• bag from chips
• xtra large plastic Subway cup
• 2 trash bags
• paper shopping bag with cloth handle

Today I cleaned out my refridgerator, which also created lots of trash.

• orange juice carton
• plastic juice bottle
• 5 plastic bags/food wrappers
• plastic containers with lids

My Trash: Day One

Today was my first day recording my garbage output. Before I get to the list though, I want to clarify what I will record and what I won’t…

First of all, I will not record anything that could be put into a composter. In other words, food scraps don’t count. I will also spare you from reading how much toilet paper I use daily, but I will report how many doggy poop bags I throw out each day because I think it’s a big contributor to how much trash I make. Lastly, I would like to be able to post a photo of my daily trash audit…but I realize that won’t always be possible.

Today’s list:

• 1 teabag & paper sleeve

• 79 sheets of copy paper*

• 1 post it note*

• 11 staples

• 9 sheets of legal paper*

• 1 paper plate

• 1 plastic spoon, fork and knife

• 1 paper napkin

• 1 salt & pepper packet

• 1 plastic cup

• 1 coffee stirrer

• 1 Styrofoam cup

And from dinner…

• 6 paper towels

• 2 aluminum cans (1 reg & 1 large)

• 1 plastic produce bag

• 1 small plastic bag & twist tie

• 1 chicken stock carton

• 1 paper map

And from Theo’s dinner…1 doggy poop bag

*In my defense, I put these in the recycling bin under my desk but it never gets emptied so I’m not sure when or if it will end up being recycled.

The Dirt

The goal: record my trash consumption every day for a year, & then add it up to see how much I’ve wasted.

I would consider myself a “weekend environmentalist.” I have a degree & job in public health so I know all about being “green”…how healthy it is, how easy it is, how much it can help the planet- but I don’t actually apply any of that stuff too often. I’m all about bringing my tote bags to the co-op, but I don’t mind shopping at Target (& sometimes Walmart shh!) and coming home with plastic bags.

So, the point isn’t to pretend I’m all about protecting the planet & “living green” (where did that phrase come from anyway?). Instead, this is an honest account of my trash consumption for an entire year. Along the way, I’m sure I’ll decide not to waste so much, & I’ll probably come up with some ideas for how to throw less of my junk into the landfill…but in the beginning, it might be ugly. So if you’re a true environmentalist you might want to look away…

Oh yeah, my list starts tomorrow.

Trash in the streets

Trash in the streets!