How does one live without creating garbage?

This is a question my great-grandparents rarely asked. Most things were reused (or naturally biodegradable) and very little was wasted. In three short generations, we've become reliant on disposables for common, day-to-day living. Still, most of us don't see where our garbage goes, so it can be easy not to notice just how much we discard.  
 
Some answers have come easily: I try to use canvas bags when shopping for groceries, and compost organic material. I take garbage to the curb maybe once every three weeks. There are areas that are more difficult though: I enjoy carry-out meals, for example, and plain yogurt that you can get in 64 ounce tubs, both of which are often sold in plastic disposable containers. Until recently, I washed and saved these containers until the cabinet was overflowing, at which point I put them in the recycling bin. What's a person supposed to do with 40 yogurt tubs? Still, it's hard to know if the stuff actually gets recycled, and the process itself involves fossil fuels. Room for improvement, right?   

This evening, I'd planned to see a film screening of Plastic Paradise: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch. I'd invited others to attend, and a colleague who is finishing his undergraduate degree and planning to do a sustainability-related capstone project accepted. Had he not, I might have made a decision to skip it: I was tired. I knew the film would provoke feelings and likely be a real downer. Worse, I expected that I'd feel compelled to take action only to gradually forget about it.

Alas, we went, stopping at a local chain to pick up a quick dinner on the way. The crowd was upbeat, the movie was indeed provocative, and I went home feeling the irony of having ordered 'healthy vegetable sides' instead of a fast-food sandwich, only to have more waste to throw away at the end of the night:

Of course some of this could be reused but most of its type won't be. "Approximately 50 per cent of plastics are used for single-use disposable applications...." (http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/364/1526/2115.full)

At present, this kind of plastic isn't recyclable. It will live somewhere on this planet for centuries to come. 

This blog is an experiment: what would a person need to do to avoid consuming things that are readily discardable? How does that change the way one lives?

Step one will need to involve some sort of meal planning....