Avoid - Reuse - Recycle - Trash

When considering the disposition of ‘stuff’ - think ARTT:

A is for Avoid

R is for Reuse

R is for Recycle

T is for Trash

The higher on the list you can be the better for planet and most of the time for you too.

Let’s start with avoid. Think about things that you can simply not acquire or use. Is that plastic bag the cashier is going to put your purchase in needed? If you are only buying one item that you can just as easily carry without a bag, the answer is “no.” What about using cloth or other reusable bags each week for your groceries? Putting leftovers or items for your lunch bag in reusable plastic or glass containers is a good way to avoid sandwich plastic bags.

Another big potential for avoiding ‘stuff’ is paper. There are great mechanisms to avoid paper by getting the same content electronically. A little thought before subscribing or buying can make quite a difference in the amount of paper to deal with later.

Keep in mind that one key to avoidance is knowing what you already have. That opened package of cup hooks needs to be organized in a way that you can find it rather than buying another package!

Next comes reuse. Repurpose packaging - particularly glass - as often as you can. A salsa jar is the perfect size for my sourdough starter when I have it in the refrigerator. The packets of stevia I keep on the table are in a jar that originally held a candle. If I can’t find a new purpose for something - then I donate it. Right now I have a pile I’m accumulating of old clothes, books and a bulletin board. They may not all go to the same charity --- I give preference to ones that will pick up from my front porch. Odd things that may not be eligible for donating for some reason can be often be freecycled (check out http://www.freecycle.org/). I’ve successfully freecycled an open package of shingles, an old folding table, and a box of used interior house painting supplies. On the other end of the equation - you can reuse something someone else no longer needs; thrift stores and yard sales are great places to find bargains. I go to one thrift store that is convenient enough to check periodically for clothing. Sometimes I find nothing…sometimes I have to make some hard choices. Recently I got 3 tops and a skirt for $27! Last but not least - reuse bags for your shopping. These can be cloth bags or re-enforced paper shopping bags that can be used many times. The bags that work best for me are ones I accumulated by contributing to various charities.

Recycle is getting into the realm that the item is not usable in its current form. Most municipalities have programs for recycling paper, glass and plastic although there may be restrictions. Recently milk cartons were added to the list of ‘recycle’ where I live - which was good since the almond milk I like does not come in plastic milk cartons (that have been recyclable for some time). On the other hand - the plastic clamshells that many of the grocery stores are using in their produce sections are not on the recycle list so have to go in the trash. My response has been to avoid that kind of packaging as much as I can. It’s also important that plastic be clean so my municipality suggests that it is better to return plastic bags to the grocery store for recycling rather than putting them in the curbside bin with other recyclables (where they may get something on them that will make them instantly into ‘trash’). Some municipalities are handling compostable material similarly to recycle; if not, you have a decision to make about whether you will commit the effort for a ‘do it yourself’ form of recycle from food waste to garden soil enhancer. Finally, electronics are accepted by some municipalities or check out the program at Best Buy. For computers - clean off the hard drives beforehand; there are programs to do that.

Finally - there is trash. It shouldn’t be a lot if avoid-reuse-recycle is fully implemented. It’s useful to take a look at what is in your trash occasionally and decide if you are willing to make changes so that it will no longer be there. For example - if used tissues are a significant component of your trash, are you willing to use handkerchiefs and launder them (reuse)? If napkins and paper towels are more than half the kitchen trash - should you buy some wash clothes to use instead or the paper products?

So - the more you can avoid the less you will reuse the less you will recycle the less you will trash. The objective is to live well yourself while preserving more for future generations.

What's in your trash?

My household is down to one, not full, trash bag per week. We’ve done the easy recycling of plastics, cans, glass, and paper; it’s easy because our community has wheeled recycle bins, unlimited amounts, and trucks that come once a week - as often as the trash pickup. Over the years the items handled by our community recycling program has enlarged from newspaper/cardboard to all paper, from limited plastics to many more plastics (and more plastics are labeled clearly now so we know they are recyclable; much of the grocery packaging that used to be styrofoam is now recyclable plastic) and we no longer have to separate by type at all…it all goes into the rolling bin.  We still have to take the plastic shopping bags back to the store for recycling but we are getting fewer of them now that most of our purchases are carried home in reusable bags. So - what is still going in the trash? Here’s an inventory for this week:

• Milk carton, other food cartons
• Plastic wrap
• Used tissues/paper towels/cotton balls
• Broken strand of Christmas lights
• Styrofoam
• Used up ink pen
• Dried up marker
• Orange and banana peel, plate scrapings, vegetable trimmings (peelings, bad places, inedible parts)
• Old sock
• Small bags (shopping and food wrapping)
• Chunks of cat litter

Our household has a goal to reduce our food waste this year both because we want to maximize the nutrition we get from the food we buy; reducing our trash is a side-effect. Our primary strategies are:

• Pay more attention to our handling of left overs
  • not lose them in the refrigerator
  • freeze them for later if we are tired of the entrée already
• Make orange zest from every orange eaten so the peeling is reduced somewhat (and there is a flavorful addition available for other cooking)
• Instead of throwing away bread that has gotten a little stale, make bread crumbs (toasting or drying in the oven in a 200 degree F oven makes them crispy) to use instead of crackers with soups or croutons in salads.
• Collect tea and coffee grounds for immediate use as a soil addition or get a mushroom starter kit to grow your own crop of mushrooms.

There is a part of the trash that is potentially compostable but I’m not quite ready to do it…so it stays a part of the trash. I have started putting food scraps into the trash rather than down the garbage disposal these days (less water pollution) so the potentially compostable part of the trash has increased slightly.

It’s harder to image how the rest goes somewhere else than the trash. For bigger electronics like computers or cell phones, there are places to take them for recycling (Best Buy, for example). For things like a broken strand of Christmas lights, it takes too much effort to figure out what to do with them other than put them in the trash.

That’s a quick ‘state of the trash’ at the beginning of 2012 in my household. What’s in your trash?