Well I’ve completed my trash challenge for a week. I’m not sure how Dave (365daysoftrash) managed to do it for a whole year keeping all his rubbish in his basement! By the way Dave is keeping his old site but also has another site sustainable dave now that he has finished his challenge.
I think keeping track of your rubbish and recording it is a bit like keeping a food journal. It just keeps you aware of what you are consuming and makes you realise at the end of the day how much waste you have created. Each day you have a reminder of how much rubbish you have created the previous days which inspires you to keep trying to reduce your rubbish consumption. A group of Chico university students did a zero waste challenge a bit more radically – for two weeks carrying around a clear plastic bag which could be no more than 5 feet from them at all times and into which they had to put all their rubbish that wasn’t recyclable, reusable or compostable. Have a read about the initiatives some of the students are carrying out at the university – it’s inspiring.
There are 2 things that stand out the most to me after my week of trash collecting and recording. The first is that I need to sort out this year some sort of compost system for my household as I presently have nowhere for food scraps to go. The second is a bit more depressing – I live with a very committed meat eater so every day we have to have meat, that’s a lot of polystyrene meat trays and plastic wrap over a whole year. I’m not sure there’s anything I can do about that part of my rubbish really – I’ll have to do some thinking about that one.