Just how much waste do we generate? Americans generate 254 million tons of "municipal solid waste" per year (about 4.6 pounds per person per day). And this New York Times article from May 2008 reveals that “Americans generate roughly 30 million tons of food waste each year, which is about 12 percent of the total waste stream.”
A lot of what we throw away is stuff we don’t really use (or need), or stuff that could be diverted elsewhere, whether reused, recycled, redirected (or refrained from using in the first place).
As part of our MOGO Online course, we asked participants to pay attention to their waste, and to keep track (for one day) of how much and what kind of waste they generated. It's surprising how much garbage we produce, even when we're striving to be conscious about it.
Challenge yourself for a day or a week: keep all your waste — everything that you would throw away, and store it somewhere, so that you can get a real sense of what your garbage footprint is. If you can’t keep it, then write down everything you toss and keep a list. Then look through your treasure of trash and notice what could be recycled, what could be reused, what could be redirected, and what you could have done without in the first place. Think about how you could have gotten what you needed without generating garbage. If you have kids, get them in on this little adventure; turn it into something fun.
Although I’m encouraging you to keep your waste for just a day or so, one guy decided to keep all his garbage and recycling for a YEAR, to see how much would accumulate, and how well he could do at reducing his waste impact. Dave kept a blog of his efforts, cataloging all the waste he generated and how he dealt with it.
As I've mentioned before, the blogger at Fake Plastic Fish, Beth Terry, keeps track of all the plastic she uses and works to eliminate plastic from her life. Both Dave and Beth have useful tips on their blogs to help you find additional ways to reduce your garbage footprint.
~ Marsha
Image courtesy of fnavarro.
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