My Garbage Challenge is complete!
Last week, I challenged myself to make 1 Large kitchen trash bag last us a whole week! Since we've added recycling and composting into our routine, it's cut way back on our garbage and I wanted to be mindful of the things I was throwing away and learn areas I could reduce even further!
What I learned:
Baby products account for so much waste! Everything is packaged in plastic to be sanitary but some of it seems excessive. We are rather minimal with our baby purchases and use a mix of cloth and disposable diapers and yet there was still so. much. baby product plastic.
Most of what went into the garbage was plastic packaging from food items! Berry clamshells, produce bags etc. Typically, I would use my reusable bags but to the unusual times we find ourselves in, a lot has changed and while the extra plastic is frustrating, it's temporary. It did help me to take notice of the foods that come in plastic and brainstorm ways to reduce.
-buying fresh produce and freezing in glass or cloth bags rather than pre-frozen in plastic bags
-reducing our meat consumption will reduce the plastic packaging
-shopping at the farmers' market when it opens and is in season
-buying less "snack" items (a goal anyway so my children actually eat their three meals, not just pretzels all day)
-when there is an option between an item being packaged in glass or plastic, choosing the glass over the plastic even if the cost is slightly more (I can reuse that jar!)
Doing this challenge definitely caused me to be more conscious of what was going into the bin! If you did the challenge along with me, I'd love to hear what you learned or ways you thought of to reduce! If not, consider choosing a week and challenging yourself! It's eye opening and a great way to make yourself think before you toss!
*We have 2 trash bins in the entire house - bathroom and kitchen. Disposable diapers go into the main kitchen trash. The bathroom trash is mostly tissues and doesn't often fill.
* We have a recycling bin in the kitchen by the trash. It goes into our outdoor single stream recycling bin and is picked up weekly by our garbage service. This has started to fill faster than our trash bin.
* Food waste is sorted into 1) Food scraps to be made into broth and 2) compost. Food scraps are frozen in a cloth bag until full when broth is made and the remainder scraps are added to compost. Compost is put in a blender with some water, ground into a "compost smoothie", and poured into the compost area in our garden. We then mix it in a bit with the shovel and add some dirt on top to help it aerate and break down.
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