Zero Waste Jar Envy

My brother has joined the zero waste movement and he recently asked me how much I had reduced my garbage.  He has already reduced his waste 80%!   Since we were already composting, I expected that the waste reduction that I would see after 3 months would be negligible.  Plus, we have a cat (really not zero waste) and his waste has to go to garbage.  I decided that I would take the plunge and weigh our garbage from the last two weeks.  If you recall, at the start of this journey, our 2 week garbage for four came in at 11 lbs.  I was apprehensive because it looks like we have a lot of garbage:

My apologies for showing pictures of garbage on my website (my daughters are horrified).  I started by weighing the cat waste.  3 lbs.  Then I weighed the remaining garbage:  5 lbs.Amazingly, we have reduced our two week garbage from 11 lbs to 8 lbs.  I was surprised!  Assuming our cat waste is basically the same since the start of the year, we reduced our family’s two week waste from 8 to 5 lbs.  This represents a reduction of 27%.   Not bad.

While this waste reduction shows that we are becoming successful in our goal, I know that we have more to do.  I have to admit it.  I am jealous of the zero wasters with their glass jars of garbage and their justifiably proud “Look at me!  I have all my garbage in this tiny jar.”  I wish that could be me.

As a result, starting right now, my new challenge is to try filling a glass jar with our garbage.  Here is where we are after 1 week:

It looks quite full so I am a little concerned that our 2 week garbage might not fit in the jar.  We may need a bigger jar.

This latest zero waste challenge has already created lots of controversy in our household.   When I showed our new garbage jar to my daughters, they both exclaimed “Mom!  You’re going too far!”.  After questioning them, I saw that their biggest concern was around what to do when their friends came over.  I asked them why their friends were coming over with garbage to put in our waste can.   I think they need to find new zero waste friends.  Then I realized that it was about the “embarrassment” surrounding being zero waste.  They didn’t want to be different than their friends by not having a normal garbage can.   They didn’t want others to see what was in our garbage.  Your garbage is intimate, personal, very personal.  I get it.  Change is difficult.  Maybe one day, being zero waste will be the norm.

Fortunately (or not), my husband is out of town.  I am sure that he will have a few (nasty) words about the garbage jar too.  Rome wasn’t built in a day… and garbage in a jar will take some time.

Challenge for the week:  Are you reducing the amount of garbage that you produce?  Weigh your garbage and start tracking your progress.  Even if you think nothing is getting better, like me, you will be surprised and pleased when you see improvement.