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Slash Your Trash and Save the Environment: Waste-Less Lessons

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By Peg Rosen

The average American household of four produces roughly 18 pounds of garbage a day. But not mine—at least not anymore. I got my family to slash our trash, and you can do it, too.

In the fight to save our environment, I’m a decent suburban foot soldier. I schlep my own bags to the supermarket, opt for eco-friendly products when they’re not too pricey, and cram my family of four into the smallest, most fuel-efficient car we (and our sports equipment) can fit into. I’m also pretty good about garbage. At least I thought I was until I heard about families who composted all their food scraps, washed, and reused their plastic bags—and even went without toilet paper to cut their contribution to our nation’s overburdened landfills, sewers and incinerators.

Granted, some steps, like giving up toilet paper, seem a tad extreme for most mortals. But all that “ecotalk” inspired me to challenge my clan. If we put our minds to it, would it really be possible to waste less, recycle better, reuse more and reduce our three-cans-of-garbage-a-week habit?

My teenage sons quickly signed on to the project when they realized less trash would mean less lugging for them. My husband, who’s not quite complete without a disposable Dunkin’ Donuts cup in hand, took a little longer to come around. Eventually, though, we all got on board and began our great garbage diet. It was not easy at first: At times I think my guys were ready to mutiny. But now that we’re 12 weeks in I’m shocked by how well things have turned out. And we’ve learned some important lessons along the way.

1. Most of what’s in the garbage isn’t garbage. I wasn’t at all sure where or how to get started. So I asked for help from expert Katie Edwards, director of the waste-reduction and recycling program for the Philadelphia-based Clean Air Council. Her suggestion? A garbage autopsy to determine exactly what my household has been throwing away. And I was shocked when she offered to come over and do the job with me. As Katie and I donned rubber gloves and sorted through my family’s icky mess, it quickly became obvious that the lion’s share fell into two categories: compostable organic stuff like pineapple tops, eggshells and coffee grounds and paper scraps that I could have been recycling.

Then there were the curious little groupings Katie made: an old key to who-knows-what door and a bedspring, which are both apparently candidates for the town’s scrap metal recycling bin, and a sad single sock with a hole in the toe. I was surprised to learn that clothing charities aren’t insulted when they get stained, useless garments like this. They earn a pretty penny selling them to textile recyclers. The small tangle of true garbage that remained—maybe one-sixth of the original bulk—included used paper napkins, a chicken carcass and some non-recyclable plastics like frozen vegetable bags. And even these, suggested Katie the Garbage Lady, didn’t really have to be there. But more on that later.

2. Cutting down on garbage doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Eyeing the biggest pile in front of us — made up mostly of veggie and fruit scraps — Katie uttered the word I was dreading: “compost.” Ugh. I half expected her to write me off when she saw me grimace. But Katie’s response was reassuring. “If composting doesn’t work for your family, no problem. Do you think you can try to get that paper out of your trash?” she asked.

Smart environmentalists, I soon learned, don’t disparage those who aren’t as hard-core as they are. If they do, people like me will feel so intimidated they won’t bother doing anything at all. Any change that works for a family’s lifestyle and budget—reusing Ziploc bags, recycling plastic—makes a difference.

3. Earth mothers aren’t the only ones who compost. I actually did cave on the composting issue, but only because I cook so much that I knew this was where I could really make a dent. Besides, the flowers in my garden would appreciate it. And now that I’ve been composting for a few months, this decidedly non-Birkenstock-wearing, somewhat germaphobic mom is here to tell you, it’s no big deal! I simply dialed up one of the many online sites that sell composting equipment, and customer service people helped me pin-point exactly what kind of composter bin and paraphernalia would suit my needs. The options range from around $40 for a simple wire bin up to $400 for a weather-tight insulated container.

When my goodies arrived, the nice folks at gardeners.com walked me through the setup, advised me where to put my com-poster (most people opt for outside, though some bins are specially designed to be used in garages or on back porches) and talked me through the basics of what would go in it. If you want to save money, check to see if your town sells composters at a discount. Or skip the bin altogether, keep a scrap heap in a corner of your yard and turn it every so often with a rake.

4. Convenience is everything. No kid, no husband—heck, no mom—is going to walk halfway across the house to properly dispose of a toilet paper roll or a gum wrapper. So I knew I had to create satellite recycling stations, especially on the second floor. I hit my local discount store and snagged $3 baskets for every room, which I designated for scrap paper. The night before the recycling bin gets dragged to the curb, my younger son now simply rounds up newspapers, catalogs, discarded mail and other stray pieces of paper from around the house and dumps it into a regular, lidded garbage can marked “paper” that I’ve conveniently placed right outside our back door.

5. My town’s recycling rules ain’t your town’s recycling rules. While just about everything is technically “recyclable,” some towns collect only those items that they can find a buyer for. Take a little time to learn your town’s rules (many post them on their municipal website). If you’re confused, call and ask questions. You can also ask for recycling alternatives. I learned that Whole Foods has a drop box for number 5 plastics (like all those yogurt containers), which many towns don’t accept for recycling.

I also discovered that even though my town doesn’t collect scrap metals curbside, I could drop them off at the municipal dump on Saturdays. And many dry cleaners will recycle your old wire hangers. If driving around town with your oddball stuff sounds like too much trouble, don’t sweat it. Just getting the basic paper, metals and plastics that your municipality does recycle into the right bins is huge.

6. Recycling is only one of the R’s. I always thought that being good about garbage meant being good about recycling. But I quickly learned that recycling is just one piece of the puzzle. There’s less to recycle if we reduce what we bring into our homes, reuse what we can and refuse to buy products that are excessively packaged or not generally recyclable.

So I began to cut down. I signed up for online bill paying, put myself on the no-junk-mail list and canceled dozens of catalogs. I rethought what I bought: Did I really need a big plastic bottle of juice when I could buy concentrate in a small can? Why buy stacks of individually wrapped American cheese slices when I could get singles at the deli counter instead? (I even brought my own plastic container and, yes, at first the deli guy thought I was a nut, but he’s used to me now.) I started bringing reusable bags not just to the supermarket but also to the mall, the housewares store and the pharmacy. Often I do without a bag altogether. Just last week I bought a pint of Scotch whisky for a recipe and reflexively stowed the bottle in my coat pocket. So I got a few looks as I walked out of the store. Big deal.

At home I stocked up on dish towels, rounded up rags, unearthed old cloth napkins and kissed paper products farewell (though I kept a secret stash of paper towels for really gross dog-related messes). Rinsing and reusing plastic containers and bags means I use less foil and plastic wrap. And those chicken carcasses? How did I ever not throw my bones into boiling water and simmer some stock while cleaning up after dinner? All of this is just common sense. It’s how our grandparents lived when thrift was a virtue and no waste was a way of life.

7. It gets easier. Things were a little hairy at the start of our garbage diet. Deciphering exactly what number was inside the little triangle on each piece of plastic was a pain, and I spent a fair amount of time plucking recyclables out of the trash. I have a distinct memory of my husband standing in our bedroom, waving a Q-tip over his head and bellowing, “I don’t know what goes where anymore!” But after about three nutty weeks the chaos began to ebb. Since I generally buy the same stuff all the time, each of us began to recognize which plastics went where without having to go triangle hunting. Paper wound up where it belonged. When my husband actually remembered to take his own reusable to-go cup to Dunkin’ Donuts, I knew we were on a roll.

8. One change leads to another. When I put my family up to this garbage challenge, I was intent on -reducing our three weekly curbside cans by one. I’m proud to say we have massively surpassed that goal. Emptying the kitchen trash can, once a near-daily chore, has become a weekly duty—and only because the bag gets stinky, not because it’s full. Those three big cans that we hauled out to the curb every week have dwindled to a single container so light on trash that our biggest concern is that it might blow over. But here’s the real surprise: Suddenly, doing the right thing for the environment doesn’t feel like a burden.

Sure, my efforts can seem futile when I spot row after row of trash cans lining our street and see the mountains of litter generated by just one Little League baseball game. But at the same time we’ve inspired four friends to start their own family garbage diet. Two of them are even composting.

Change always starts somewhere, I guess. So it might as well be with the word “can.”

Peg Rosen is a former editor of two national magazines, has co-written two books, and regularly contributes essays to numerous women’s service magazines covering topics such as health, parenting, and motherhood.

NOTE: This article originally appeared in Ladies Home Journal (http://www.lhj.com), and is reprinted it here with permission.

Environmental News from Living Green Magazine – Where Green Is Read

The post Slash Your Trash and Save the Environment: Waste-Less Lessons appeared first on Living Green Magazine.


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