Garbage Day - taking a closer look into what I throw away! (metaphorically speaking)
Today was the second garbage day during my 21 day challenge to dispose of my waste in a more responsible way. I once again noticed that the amount of garbage in the bin is astonishingly low, with only two bags this week! I am very pleased with the significant drop in the amount of garbage I have been throwing away since the start of this challenge, but have decided to take a deeper look into what I am really throwing away in order to reduce that amount even more.
What I have noticed: A bit more than half of what I have thrown away this week is non-recyclable plastic materials such as plastic wrappers, films, and paper products with plastic wax-like coating. The rest is mainly things such as waste from my bathrooms, and organic materials that I have decided to keep out of my compost, in order to keep it safe for my gardens, such as animal products such as meat and dairy.
How can I reduce the amount of these wastes from ending up in my trash?
Plastics - First of all I can try to reduce the amount of plastics that I buy and consume, by finding options at stores that are unwrapped or wrapped in recyclable materials. Another option to stop my non-recyclable plastics from going to the landfill could be ecobricking! I have seen many videos about this and decided to do some research on it. In summary, ecobricking is taking non-recyclable, clean plastics and compacting them into an empty plastic container or bottle in order to make a brick that can be used to build many things. I tried to find any sort of eco-brick donation site or anywhere I could mail them to if I decided to start this project, but came up with just about nothing, especially in my area. I don’t imagine I will start eco-bricking just yet, but it could be a neat summer project when I have more time on my hands! For now I will just try to buy more products that have recyclable or no packaging!
Bathroom wastes and animal products - These types of waste could most likely be composted (tissues, toilet paper… meat, dairy….), but i have decided against putting them in my compost to keep it sanitary enough to eventually use on my vegetable garden. If my township had a compost program, I could put these things in the bin to an extent. Another option would be to start a secondary compost for things that I won't necessarily put on a veggie garden but maybe use for other projects. I would most likely need to clean up my compost area more to allow another section/bin, so maybe another summer project!
