This 35 days' worth of trash < the first 20

Tomorrow is trash collection day. It's been five weeks (35 days) since I've taken anything to the curb since just before the end of the initial 20-day challenge (see day #19). 

I haven't achieved zero waste (nor do I expect I ever will) but a little attention has proven to go a long way for reducing mindless waste. For example, my JOEmo stainless steel mug accompanies me to work every day (or I don't get coffee: that's motivation to remember to bring it!). I keep a spoon in my bike pannier for spontaneous frozen yogurt splurges. When I eat in restaurants, I either go with a strong appetite or bring a container for leftovers. I take jars, cloth bags and reusable plastic when shopping for food and things like shampoo that I can purchase in bulk.   

I've reduced buying things in non-recyclable packaging, such as saran wrap, plastic bags with foil lining, and hard plastic deli containers. 

I do shop around a little more but also eat less processed food.


My garbage from the past 35 days looks like this (the flip-flop is included for size perspective; it's dirty from being outside but is not trash...yet):

  
The waste includes parts of a pizza box with food on it (cannot be recycled); 35 days of dental floss; a paper bag with small amounts of tissue waste from the bathroom, and parts of this collection of non-biodegradable stuff:

I've kept the styrofoam, metal notebook spiral and tape dispenser until I can figure out where to recycle them, or in the case of the tape dispenser, where I can find refills that will make the dispenser reusable. 
 
I also have a waste can in the basement with dryer lint and dryer sheets from (probably) the last six months. I can't remember when I last emptied this:

The dryer sheets are Seventh Generation, and as soon as I finish writing, I have to pull them out of the trash bin!  I just learned:

"Our fabric softener sheets are made from unbleached paper, so instead of adding them to a landfill when they're done, you can recycle!"

I bought them because they have fewer chemicals compared to conventional dryer sheets. I didn't think about their ability to be recycled. Bonus.

Most dryer sheets are made of polyester, which is a plastic. Since these are thrown away after one use, they are part of the plastic waste problem. There are some re-use possibilities for polyester dryer sheets, but why create more work finding re-use opportunities? Easier not to use them at all. (There's also concern about unlisted chemicals in conventional dryer sheets, especially for children's clothing.)     

One of my local coffee shops (of all places) is selling Reusa Wool Dryer Balls. I may try them after my Seventh Generation box is gone (and recycled) since the paper used for these dryer sheets doesn't appear to come from recycled materials, which (as I learned when I was researching toilet paper) is not ideal for disposable products.

“No forest of any kind should be used to make toilet paper,” said Dr. Allen Hershkowitz, a senior scientist and waste expert with the Natural Resource Defense Council.  (From the New York Times)

I presume the same of other disposable goods.

What about the flip-flop? Jennifer Grayson of the Huffington Post wrote about the waste problem of our disposable shoes:  

"The cheaper they are...the faster they break, which means that every year, millions upon millions of them wind up either discarded in landfills or worse -- adding to the mountainous tide of plastic waste clogging our oceans and threatening marine wildlife. (Flip-flops, you might be interested to know, are a frequent sight in the Texas-sized floating landfill known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.)

Once thrown away, the stale sandals can leach dangerous chemicals into the environment, thanks to the variety of non-recyclable plastics like PVC and polyurethane most commonly used in their manufacture. A report last year by the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, for example, found hazardous chemicals in 17 of the 27 plastic shoes it tested, including the endocrine-disrupting phthalate DEHP, as well as toxic metals like mercury, lead, and cadmium."

There's a TerraCycle Flip-Flop Brigade that will take them for making new products. There are also alternatives to the chain store variety flip-flop, such as Okabashi. Good to know. 


P.S. recycling pick-up is only every other week in my municipality so more on that next week. 

Imagine the message our cities would send if recycling were picked up every week and garbage only every other.