TAKING OUT THE TRASH

m o r e (waste less, want less)

I was intrigued when I heard about the Garbage Museum in Connecticut. Complete with a huge but playful Trash-o-saurus made from 2,000 pounds of trash, the amount attritubuted to each person per year in that state, it brings what we throw away to life.

When I worked with L.A. area school teachers on environmental projects, one of the best activities I heard about was the one where science teachers had all their students record and carry around their trash for a week. Kind of like the rice baby experiment, only carrying and caring for nasty waste instead of newborns.

And since the average American generates three and a half pounds of waste a day, carting it has consequences.

I've heard wise people say that "throwing away" trash is a misnomer. Where is away? Truth be told, it doesn't really go away. It goes to our ever-burgeoning landfills. And if something that could be recycled goes there, like a plastic bottle, it can take hundreds of years to break down. If it goes "away" down the street and into the ocean, it ends up out to sea with the birds and fish--even worse.

Then there's Dave, who saved his trash for 365 days. It's a trip to see his lists of waste and  his basement lair. But he didn't do it just for kicks:

"My hope is that, as the experiment takes shape, I will be able to quickly ascertain what waste I can simply cut out through choices, what waste is necessary but that can be dealt with in a sustainable way, and what waste I just simply can't do anything about."

So, talking about taking out the trash and taking out more waste from our lives, here are some ways I try to do my part for the wastestream:

*Shop at the farmers' market. Fresh produce from farm stands (usually) has no packaging.

*Bring my own bags to the market and the store.

*Don't buy plastic water bottles except in a couple of special cases (aka emergencies). Instead, I drink filtered water from my tap and fill up SIGG bottles with the same when on the go. I'm famous for asking cafes to refill them when I run out.

*Pack no waste lunches and snacks. All I need are Thermos containers, lightweight bamboo cutlery, and cloth napkins. (You can see how I do my zero waste picnics in pictures here.)

*Compost. I just resurrected my vermicomposting bin where some food waste and paper waste can be eaten by worms and made into the best fertilizer in the world. (Project coming soon.)

*Buy in bulk. I am lucky to have two natural bulk bins nearby where I score grains, nuts, beans, pasta, flour, agave, sea salt, olive oil, and even Dr. Bronner's soap. I try to bring my own glass containers or eco-bags there, too, but admittedly it doesn't always happen. Even buying toilet paper bulked together saves on packaging though I just pick mine up from Trader Joe's where the t.p.'s made from recycled paper and the packaging biodegradable.

*Save packaging. I haven't bought wrapping paper in probably a decade. I favor saving the good stuff and odds and ends and packaging presents in simple, lovely brown paper or fabric with twine or other found, collected ribbon.

*Use both sides of paper. I save any one-sided piece of paper that comes into my sights, whether in the mail or elsewhere. As a writer, I'm always printing out manuscripts on said sheets or I can use it for scrap paper, etc.

*RECYCLE, of course. Glass and aluminum can be forever recycled to make more glass and aluminum (unlike plastic, which has to be reincarnated as something else.) And recycling saves big time on water and energy and cuts out mining.

Okay, so what about you, trash-savvies? How do you minimize waste in your home or office?

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Photo credits: abc news and 365 Days of Trash