Does This Trash Make My Bin Look Big?!

An Inventory of our Garbage

In order to see how we are progressing with our Zero Waste Journey - We need to know how we are doing right now.   We wrote down everything we tossed for the week, and then inventoried it.

According to the EPA, each person in the US makes about 4.4 pounds of waste each day.  That means the average family would make 123 lbs. of waste per week.  Of course some of it is recyclable, but wow- that is a lot of trash. 

Here is the inventory of our trash for this week:

Paper:  

• Election Guide
• Mailed newspaper circulars, Saturday and Sunday newspapers
• 43 election flyers
• 18 pieces of assorted junk mail, brochures, envelopes, etc.
• 36 pieces of completed homework sent home after being graded  
• One old magazine that was torn up for the collage I made from magazine pieces
• Several tissues - as we had the sniffles this week
• One empty paper bag from See's Candy
• Four Paper towels - the end of the roll - we are going to attempt to not buy any more

Plastic:  We were overdue to clean out our refrigerator, so we took a hit here:  

• Seven plastic tubs - yogurt, sour cream, cottage cheese, bean dip, hummus - all almost gone but past expiration date.  We emptied, rinsed and put in to the garbage.  (These were purchased before we started this, but I still feel guilty!)
• Plastic wrap from around the Olive Oil we purchased 2 bottles.
• Plastic lunch meat container (sizeable from Costco.)
• Plastic wrap from cheeses we finished and the chicken breasts we cooked for dinner.  
• Plastic from some Smoked Salmon
• Three plastic bread bags - We pulled out the bread maker - and my husband has already made 3 great loaves of bread!
• Bags the newspapers came wrapped in
• Two shampoo bottles (we are planning on refilling bottles in the future - but these were excess bottles)
• Plastic bags from frozen veggies, fruit, and sausage
• Plastic Method hand soap refill pouch - refilled several containers, but is empty.
• Lid from egg nog
• Empty peanut butter jar - we will be using our own glass containers in the bulk area in the future. 
• Halloween candy wrappers - 10 total.... I know  - yuck, but sometimes I need to pick my battles with the family.
• Empty kids toothpaste  

Cardboard:

• 4 boxes from food
• Egg nog carton
• empty cardboard container from left over food at a restaurant.   I was mad at myself for forgetting to bring my take out container for my leftovers, but need to give a nod to Dos Coyotes for their Eco-friendly to-go container
• One empty soda cup from lunch at a restaurant. (At least I didn't opt for a lid or straw)

Glass:

• BBQ sauce bottle
• One broken drinking glass
• One wine bottle
• 2 beer bottles 
• empty mayonnaise jar 

Foil / Metal:

• Empty Peets coffee bean bag - 2 lb size means less packaging. 
• Foil from wrapped leftovers
• Foil pouch from Costco sized yeast bought for making out own bread
• 7 cans from cat food (our cats are quite elderly and just can't eat the dry food anymore like they used to
• Two cans from crushed tomatoes used for dinners

Misc.:

• Waste from our cats' litter box.  Not sure how we can get around this.
• Dirty newspaper that lined the parakeets cage.   

TOTAL Waste weight for the week: 31 pounds.  

10.5 pounds were cat litter waste, so we generated   20.5 pounds of waste total for the week, or about .75 lbs. of waste per person per day.  While that is not a lot according to the EPA, 20 pounds of garbage is still too much.  We can do better!


Some of our day to day behaviors we should celebrate, because they make no waste:

• Packing the kids lunch in a tin container, with a cloth napkin, and reusable fork.  
• We all use reusable water bottles and reusable coffee cups.  
• If I want to splurge and go out for a coffee, I bring my own cup, or I don't get one
• We bring our own bags to the store when we shop.
• We have a worm bin for some of our food waste. 
  

Celebrations this week on our Zero Waste Journey:

We made our own bread a few times.  I made a batch of tortillas from scratch, and we said no to purchases we had made in the past, and found better alternatives.


I stopped in the new Fresh Market in Roseville.  Immediately I eyed the bulk bins - they seemed to have loads of great stuff to buy in bulk.   

First stop was the deli counter.  The girl was very nice, and happy to put my deli purchases directly into my container.  
Then she said, "Oh, I don't want to put this label on your container, so I'll just put it on this bag you can take to checkout.
Me, "No!  Please put the label on my container, I asked you to put everything in the container to avoid using plastic."
Her, "Oh, ok. Here you go."

They were more than happy to let me use my own containers for bulk, and weighed my other containers for me.  After a closer look - it looked mostly like snack foods, and we didn't need that, so I got just one snack mix.  I wish they had more organic choices.

When I went to check out, I explained to the Checker that the weight of the containers was on the bottom and needed to be subtracted from the container.  
She asked, "So that if how much the bulk weighs, written on the bottom? 
Me, "No, that is the weight of the container.  You need to subtract if from the total weight."
She fumbled with her computer for a few minutes, then looked at me and said,"  Today for you, it is free.  Can you use the bags in the future?  Our system isn't set up for this."
Me, "Thank you, but no - I can't use the bags, I'm trying to keep excess plastic out of the landfill."
Her,"That is good of you,  I will try and figure out how to do this, so we know in the future."
Me, "I hope so, I'd like to be able to shop here again." 

Costco shopping was not very successful - excess packaging made us say no to some of our usual purchases.  Big containers of individually wrapped items are no longer on our "to buy list". 

All in all, some good mixed with challenges.   I realized how much Whole Foods does to encourage people to bring their own containers.


Failings This Week:

My husband and I went out to grab a quick lunch on Friday.  We planned to go to try a new cafe, but it was too busy, so we landed at L&L Barbeque.  We were planning on eating there, so it never occurred to me to think about packaging.  Both of our meals were served in styrofoam.  We ate it all there, so it didn't hit our garbage inventory, but why do restaurants still use this stuff?  Not going back without my own plate!