This week in my environmental science class, we were asked to track our trash production. Here are my results:

Days 1-3:

Trash:
1 box of old tea
Old leftovers from the fridge
Old veggies
Egg shells
Takeout food containers
Paper towels/napkins
Styrofoam meat tray (nasty)
40lb dog food bag
Plastic sandwich bags
Coffee grinds

Recycled:

Junk mail/Catalogues
Plastic shopping bags
Milk carton
Empty Windex bottle
Chlorine bottles (pool)
Egg Carton

Days 4-6:

Trash:
Takeout food containers

Recycled:

Junk mail
Glass bottles

Compost:

Old veggies
Egg shells
Coffee grinds

My kitchen trash is divided into two cans, I keep one for trash can for recyclable items and one trash can for actual trash. During the first 3 days of tracking what I throw away, I found that the items which actually went to the trash took up about ½ of the space in my trash can. The thing that took up most of the space in my trash can was from take out food containers. The recyclable items filled my other trash can, mostly because of the larger plastic bottles.

Some waste reduction strategies which I researched are buying in bulk, reusing products, buying products with less packaging, refillable products, reusable shopping bags and composting. I think buying in bulk is a great idea, and judging by the long lines at the warehouse stores, I think there are a lot of people out there that feel the same way. I’ve been buying in bulk for years, and to be honest, I don’t find the savings to be that great, but I do find satisfaction in knowing that I am not throwing away as much useless packaging.

After the first three days, I decided to start a composting bin outside of my kitchen door. I relocated the old veggies that I had thrown away the day before and have started throwing my eggshells and coffee grinds, almost on a daily basis. Composting my biodegradable waste actually makes me feel a little bit better about letting my veggies go bad. My second strategy for producing less trash is going to be eating out less. The Styrofoam containers are bad for the environment and can’t be recycled. Maybe next time we go out to eat, we will just eat in the restaurant. I could take it a step further by taking my own container for leftovers, rather than asking for a Styrofoam to-go box. Carrying around an empty container in my purse may not sound like an ideal situation, but I think it might actually work out – my current purse is actually too small for this use, so this would require me to purchase a larger, NEW purse!! Sounds like a win-win situation to me! The last strategy I employed in order to produce less trash was to recycle my zip-lock sandwich bags. I use them almost every day to take fruit with me to work. During the last 3 days, when my fruit bag was empty, I stashed it in my (small) purse and used it the following day.

The items which will be difficult to eliminate waste will be the dog food that I buy. I will consider finding an alternate source for dog food though, it would be nice to be able to find a whole sale pet food provider that would let me skip the bag and buy by weight. Something to think about going forward. Using the chlorine bottles for my pool feels wasteful to me as well, and even though they are recyclable, I would rather just cut them out all together. Going forward, I will try to purchase a different form of chlorine – granular rather than liquid. Granular chlorine is a bit more expensive than the liquid chlorine, but this is mostly because it is sold in bulk and it lasts a long time. The initial investment is difficult, but the long-term benefits make it worth it.

I would like to implement all of the above strategies into my daily life and intend to do my best to change my bad habits. This blog has forced me to think about how much I throw away and it has made me realize that there are changes that I can make that really don’t involve much effort on my part. There’s no reason why I can’t reduce my household trash production.