Sunday, January 17, 2010

The garbage can

Between composting and recycling, our household doesn't generate that much garbage - maybe a trash bag a week and not even a full one.  Today I decided to start to track what is going into the garbage can, to see what is being tossed.

Started with the empty bag last week and so far, I have thrown in:

2 empty butter wrappers
1 Target gift card holder
plastic tea bag covers
plastic top to milk bottle
a piece of plastic packaging from son's DS game
plastic top to seltzer bottle
plastic straw
kit kat wrapper
plastic bag from a robot model - parts were in bags
64 oz juice carton
2 rubber gloves
plastic bag for potatoes
ice cream container
Crisco wrapper
frozen container that held apple juice concentrate
tissues - lots and lots of them
candy bar wrapper
plastic liner that held bread
 Plastic container that butter came in (can't be recycled)
plastic hanger
plastic bag for nuts
1 bag full of trash from bathroom (mostly tissues and q-tips)

Plastic plastic and more plastic - none of it can be recycled.  What can I do to eliminate more plastic?

5 comments:

  1. You can make nifty upcycled business card cases from gift card holders.

    Is there a dairy near you that delivers milk in the old-fashioned glass bottles?

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  2. Yes, I already get my milk delivered in glass bottles - but they deliver the butter in plastic tubs that can't be recycled.

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  3. First off don't be hard on yourself you are doing great. Second for the milk caps are they screw on? If so Aveda takes them.

    And the butter is it in #5 plastic?

    For the straw get a set of Glass Dharma glass straws, they are dishwasher safe and awesome! :)

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  4. Glass straws! I'm ordering some right now - thanks for the suggestion

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  5. Some years ago a couple of neighbors started an "EcoTeam" where one of the tasks was to weigh your garbage every week and try to make it less each week. It really gets you thinking about what you put in there, what you buy and how to recycle it!

    Sorry I can't be more helpful with the seed questions. I'm still figuring it all out, too. So far, I'm only sure of what I DON'T want!

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