Daily garbage inventory (before the challenge):
- 1 or 2 diapers per day (depending on if Eli poos after we change her before bedtime or if we get lazy on washing diapers, or more when traveling);
- Meat/ seafood packaging (styrofoam tray and cling wrap or soft plastic shrink-wrap;
- At least one plastic bag/ soft plastic liner from chips, crackers, cheese, pasta, cereal, etc.;
- 12 inches of dental floss;
- Table scraps from uneaten food;
- Meat bones/ fish bones/ prawn shells;
- Sink gunk;
- Residual / non-recyclable paper from cans (when Trevor is cooking, I try to take them off before I wash them out);
- Gum / candy wrappers (every now and again I make impulse purchases in the grocery store line);
- Kleenex when Eli has a cold;
- 14 stickers.
Throughout the past year:
- Paint rollers and trays from painting the bathroom and Eli's room;
- Window washing waste (twice a year): wad of paper towels or newspapers about the size of a basketball;
- Renovation waste: this year we ripped up our bathroom floor and replaced the sink and cupboards;
- 30 empty plastic bags of manure/ compost/ peat/ other soil amendments (major landscaping job as we bought a new home that had never been landscaped, and I love to grow my own veggies;
- A few broken toys;
- Rotten non-compostable food waste from cleaning out the fridge, approximately one shopping bag full in the past year;
- 2 vacuum bags;
- 3-4 broken glasses / light bulbs / plates;
- 3 empty pens;
- 4 shirts beyond repair;
- 3 pairs of socks
I am sure there are other items I am missing but I put in a full day and am quite tired. Thanks for all the comments
Way to go Marcia:
ReplyDeleteMy family and I read your article and of course love the concept. We also object to the amount of garbage that is produced and we recycle and compost as much as we can. We have the smallest garbage can you can get from the city and we still never fill it by the end of the week. I look forward to this month, joining you on this course while you take it that one or maybe I should say, two or three, steps further in banishing the "treaded household trash".
:)carol
For future reference, I've heard that if you have carpets with natural fibers, the contents of the vac bags can be composted, ditto clothing (best to shred it up, first) but I don't know about the dyes.
ReplyDelete-jess
Thanks for the suggestion, I will have to try composting the vacuum bag contents and maybe even reuse the vacuum bag if it survives the emptying process. :)
ReplyDelete@carol gourley
ReplyDeleteSo does that mean that you are going to take the challenge as well?
After only 2 days, I know that we are going to have difficulties because of all the non-recyclable packaging we have in our freezer and cupboards so my suggestion to anyone thinking about this challenge is to start a month before to purge anything you already have that will end up in the garbage.
We will continue this challenge in May.
What a great idea, Marcia! Good luck with your challenge! If you have room in your yard, bones and shells make good compost if you bury them deep enough. We sometimes throw fish scraps in the hole when we plant trees or vegetables.
ReplyDelete@Sandra
ReplyDeleteWhat a clever idea, I never thought about burying bones in the garden - do they act like a fertilizer similar to bonemeal?