It’s a Wrap! Ending the Garbage Experiment

I finished my garbage experience last Friday. I know, it can be hard to find time to blog sometime.

I didn’t really end up with any more garbage than I had from my last post, update #2.

The reason is: I was required to collect, then recycle all of my trash for one week for my environmental science class. Kind of ironic, huh?

So, I should have collected more than I have right now. I’m just excited to finally throw this stuff away and not have to look at it anymore.

As part of the experiment I have begun to read No Impact Man by a Mr. Colin Beavan.In this book, a Manhattan local decided to go one year without making any impact by eliminating garbage, transportation, and electricity.

So far, so good!

So, I’ve been trying to figure out how I can eliminate basic wastes. Here are a few that I’ve come up with:

1) Bicycle more. This decreases the need for more stuff, more space, and less fossil fuel.

2) Carry a re-usable mug everywhere. This stops me from taking any tea, coffee, water, that is offered anywhere with an all-to-easy cup to dispose of.

3) Compost. I’ve started a compost bin. This isn’t my first attempt, but I’m hoping to actually get some dirt this time around instead of just nasty rotting sludge.

4) Buy less packaged food. This has been the hardest. Meijer really has nothing that is not packaged, including the vegetables. I think they used to have the bulk bins, but they probably had a problem with too many children eating cookies and chocolate covered raisins… now the nuts and grains come in plastic containers. They’re recyclable, but impossible to buy unpackaged.

5)  Eat IN more. It seems like few people my age know how to cook. This includes me at times. I’m working to rejuvenate the art of eating in more and eating out less. It costs less, is more fun, more rewarding, and probably tastes better than Applebees and McDonalds anyways.

 

I have been following a friend of mine Katie Green, in her experience in Uganda. She went a week living without electricity and running water. What would happen if someone did that here to make a statement?

Photo from Katie Green’s blog. Uganda. Read her blog!

Read her post here. 

I’ve been reading stories of Gandhi, a firm actioner who didn’t wait for someone else to begin changing culture. Let’s figure out what impact we can have as individuals in improving the world, and culture that we live in.

As my African History professor said yesterday, “We are all agents of social change, whether we like it or not.”

 

 

Tracking My Garbage Experiment: Update #1

It’s been almost a week since I started measuring how much I throw away.

The expected pieces were groceries, receipts, plastic bags.

For an idea of the kind of trash I expected, check out the beginning of this video.

But several times I realized I was drinking or eating something out of something I was about to throw away. My first reaction to this was, “Whoa, how did this thing get into my hand?!”

Both of these instances happened on Sunday, the sabbath of all days.

Sunday morning we went to church where I got coffee in a paper/plastic cup. The Spring Arbor Free Methodist Church shared their expenses for the year, and I couldn’t help but think how much of the $800,000 annual spending on worship went to the coffee before and after church, and the immediately disposable cups. As I finished the coffee inside the cup I held onto the cup, leaving it in my coat pocket as Wesley scanned Valerie and I into the DC, putting it in my grocery bag full of garbage back at the house.

The second incident happened while watching a documentary on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The Office of Intercultural Relations was hosting the event, and they provided water in a styrofoam cup with deliciously salty popcorn in a paper bag. These too ended up in my grocery bag in my cupboard. I have yet to get a large garbage bag to hold this stuff from Ormston.

I thought I was doing pretty well until I got a box in the mail yesterday from REI containing a new and shiny green backpack. I was going to have to save this box, along with the other thing currently shipping to me in the mail: A pair of socks with a lifetime warranty.

Here’s the picture of my trash from the last week. Not too shabby, but it definitely contained a few surprises. I’d like to know how much garbage the average American creates per week to see how I compare.

Garbage accumulation for one week.

This picture does not contain the veggie scraps I’m “composting” AKA “leaving in a plastic container outside in the 10 degree weather.”

I’ve made some goofs. I’ve thrown away tea bags, realizing later I should have saved them. I’ve also thrown away two cans, one containing garbanzo beans and one containing tomato paste. This next week I will remember to save these kind of items. I’ve also thrown away out of habit the food other people have given me. Last night, for example, someone gave Valerie and I a 1/2 of a pizza in a box I immediately trashed. For the next week I hope to save the tea bags, cans, and any garbage or handout someone gives me, directly or indirectly.

Thanks for reading!

Keeping Track of How Much Garbage I Throw Away: An Experiment

I’m starting an experiment today. I’m going to keep all of my trash for one month.

I want to do this as a practice in self-awareness and discipline, and to better understand our easily disposable culture. I realize we throw things away, and don’t really know or care what happens to them afterwards. I want to know how much I am contributing to piles of trash as an individual.

In Guatemala, they do things differently. People sort through other people’s trash in search of anything that can be scavenged and recycled, then sold. You can read through my visit there by clicking here. It’s different than that here. My trash will probably not be picked through by hand by anyone, but I’m still interested in what my “footprint” is.

Garbage in the Guatemala City Dump

Some rules.

1) I will save anything anyone gives me, whether it be a church bulletin, a flyer, a receipt, or a piece of paper.

2) I will not save toilet paper. I know this is a waste, but I refuse to save that crap in a bag. Gross.

3) I will keep any box, can, or plastic bag that any food that I buy comes in, as well as any packaging included if I eat out somewhere.

4) I will be keeping all of my garbage in a giant plastic bag.

5) I will be saving food scraps in a separate container from all of the other garbage.

I hope to blog twice a week with updates on this. Also, assuming my trash bag gets more and more filled, I will include some picture updates!

I hope you enjoy following the experiment.