Green Bin Challenge Update: February
Green Bin Challenge Update: February
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Here are the potential issues I have noticed so far:
Plastic meat packaging: Since I will be saving up our trash and keeping it in the rolling bin in the garage, all trash must be dry. By and large, it already is. We compost with Compost Now and in the backyard, so very little wet trash goes in. But there is the issue of occasional meat packaging. (We’ve cut way back on meat, but are not strictly vegetarian.) Sometimes, we buy meat in plastic packaging vs compostable butcher paper (Whole Foods has this) or my own container. This is mainly when I buy it at the market, which I prefer to do because I know the farmer and the way he raises his animals. This packing will have to be rinsed and thoroughly dried before going in the bin.
Litter: I am in the habit of picking up litter anywhere and everywhere! This is one of the reasons I know I could never do a trash jar. What I pick up on the walk back and forth to school in one day can be enough to fill one jar! For this project I will dispose of other people’s litter somewhere else… maybe in my neighbor’s bin, or the can on the greenway or maybe at the gas station for things I pick up from parking lots, etc.
Trash we make outside of our home: Trash I make outside of my home, for instance plastic straws or condiments that show up at my table, are my trash and will be carried home. The same goes for trash my family makes when I am with them, but I will not ask my husband and kids to pack in their trash when they are out on their own.
Decluttering: I am in the middle of a huge decluttering project. I am using everything at my disposal not to make landfill trash. But, some things no one wants or can be reused, these will go into my big green bin.
Crafts: I have a crafter. Great for reuse, but in the end, much of what my little engineer creatively crafts in our house is headed for the landfill at some point. Materials that may have once been recyclable are made not so once they are glued or taped together and covered in glitter or whatnot.
Another thought about this project: some of you will be saying, a huge green bin?? That’s not Zero Waste! Zero Waste types are meant to fit all their trash in a jar for a year, not a gigantic bin! Well, yes, that’s true, but we didn’t call this organization Toward Zero Waste for nothing!
Let’s be realistic. It is actually really hard to cut your waste by enough to only need a jar, and I honestly don’t know how folks do it. Just yesterday I got a sweepstakes plastic pull tag in the mail that would take up 1/8th of my jar! It’s plastic, not recyclable, and there is nobody that is going to want it. I suppose I could mail it back to whomever sent it to me, but in the end, they will toss it, too; it’s simply trash. And despite a nearly 100% record of saying “no straw, please” I still sometimes get a straw in my drink. Or a plastic condiment cup (not recyclable in my town). Or a plastic spoon (they ran out of the real stuff at Panera). I wish I had a penny for every time I have said “there goes my jar” about the fictitious trash jar I am always filling in my mind. It’s just not happening for me. But I have drastically cut back on the amount if trash we send to the landfill to be entombed for the rest of time, and am incredibly more mindful of the resources I use, and I feel good about that.
Others, those who fill a full green bin weekly, will be amazed and wonder how I will do it! I’ve thought about that, too. Stay tuned to my Green Bin Update to find out!
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