Weighing In on Waste
As we have now reached the 6 month window of our year of zero waste, I wanted to know if we have further reduced our garbage. Facing a weigh in of garbage, I am a little nervous. I am not sure that we have made a significant improvement in our waste reduction recently. It is getting tough to reduce further without some significant lifestyle changes. For example, I am still dying my hair (gray hair is notoriously difficult to dye naturally) using traditional materials. This means waste. Also, while the rest of the family has made great strides, there are some things that they are not ready to give up. My husband likes his parchment paper, although he did give me two Silpat baking sheets so that we can reduce the parchment paper that we use (thanks honey!). My daughters still buy packaged goods every now and then, use disposable wipes and non-reusable feminine hygiene products. That’s OK. This lifestyle has to be realistic and achievable. With all that preamble, our garbage for the last two weeks:
A rather large bag, but not that heavy. 2.8 lbs. If you recall, two months ago we were at 6 lbs, 3 lbs of which was the cat’s litter. At my friend Tony’s suggestion, I have been burying the cat’s litter in an effort to further reduce our waste. I had purchased compostable bags but I was told that they did not work. I have buried one of the compostable bags with the cat’s litter to see if it really degrades. I will let you know next summer!
Basically, we seem to have plateaued on our waste generation. 2.8 lbs for a family of 4 for 2 weeks means 72.8 lbs for the year. I think that this is significant improvement from the beginning of the year (11 lbs for 2 weeks), but we are not yet ready for a garbage jar.
I am working on making some other lifestyle changes. One of which is dental floss. Did you know that dental floss containers are not recyclable? And that a year’s worth of dental floss containers for the United States represents a football field that’s 6 stories high? With that in mind, I purchased compostable dental floss made of silk coated with carnuba wax.
This dental floss comes in a reusable glass container. Very practical! It is available on line but I bought it at Vert Essential in Vaudreuil (link to their website)
The friendly owner, Christine Grenier, is very knowledgeable about zero waste living:
She offers everything you need to make your own cleaning products (15% vinegar, castile soap, etc) as well as numerous essential oils, laundry soap and fabric softeners. Most everything can be bought in bulk at her shop.
Challenge for the Week: Are you trying to reduce your waste? How much garbage are you producing? Maybe you are producing so little that you are ready to graduate to a glass jar. Please share your tips!