Trashing the planet is a bad idea.
Over the past few years I’ve become rather obsessed with trash. I know … I’m weird.
It all began a few years ago when a group of citizens in Spartanburg County fought a new landfill down around Enoree. Rarely in Spartanburg do you see citizens come out in droves like they did over that issue. It’s always good to see people stand up when they feel strongly about an issue and voice their concerns. It is even better when the people they elected actually listen. I agreed with these citizens that Spartanburg County didn’t deserve another landfill. Who wants another landfill in their community? No one wants or deserves another landfill. It’s trash, for crying out loud. No one wants it.
Proponents of the landfill actually had a valid argument in that the operation would bring money into our community. And I agreed. We do need money, but at what cost? That often seems to be what none of us ever think about … the cost of our choices today on tomorrow.
The effort went on to be defeated. Throughout the whole time though, I felt hypocritical. Everyone was saying “not in my backyard” and I agreed. But whose backyard should it go in? All I could think of was “Do unto others.”
That was where my obsession with waste began. I realized it wasn’t fair for me to keep producing a bunch of trash and expect someone else to have it dumped in their backyard. I knew I would always contribute trash to the heap, but there had to be ways I could lessen my impact in hopes of extending the life of our current landfill.
So, I took my new challenge to the family. Well, to my hubby, David. My kids are 6 and 3 and pretty much do whatever we put out there. With David, it’s a bit different. My new challenges normally get a sort of sigh with a little, “Here we go again” eye roll, but, for the most part, I’m very lucky to have a supportive, patient family who understand my intentions are well-meaning. They know I’m passionate about the environment and appreciate the fact I want to take care of it. They do as well. So we started making changes.
Our main goal was for a family of four that we have no more than two full trash bags in our pickup bin each week. We already recycled every week and took our steel cans to the county recycling site (now we’re trying to weed out steel cans because of the BPA problem). We started a compost bin, which is an interesting, ongoing learning experience. We began reusing what we could. I had read an article about a friend who washed out the plastic bags — like sandwich and gallon size — even had his kids bring them back from school and reused them a few times. We cut out the use of paper plates, napkins and cups and actually used the real plates in the cabinets!
Just little things, many of which reminded me of things my grandparents, who were very frugal, once did. I started to look at the products I purchased differently paying close attention to how they were packaged and how much waste was produced. I learned I could make a difference if I wanted.
We’ve done pretty good trimming out household waste but there is always room for improvement. We are by no means perfect nor will we ever be. Scandalous or not, I figure we’ve all got some trash we can sort out.
Tammy Stokes
Great article Donna, keep it up. Our Company is trying to help communities do this on a large scale!!!
Joe
I am of the same mind as you Tammy although id don’t do quite as well as your family on the amount of trash bags a week that need to be hauled off. IF I could only talk the youngest from bringing home all that fast food. We are however making improvements
Nice insights here. The key is taking responsibility. On two fronts. First, we all need to change our personal practices and stop pointing fingers. Second, corporations need to be held accountable for their large-scale production processes and externalized socio-environmental costs.
Support your tap water by taking the Think Outside the Bottle pledge. It takes two seconds and is a great start to accomplish these goals. http://www.thinkoutsidethebottle.org
Good article Tammy. I recycle all my boxes too- spaghetti, mac & cheese, cereal as well as the regular newspaper. People dont’ think about all glass and plastic jugs & jars. We use 2 bags a week but I have 2 30 gal plastic trash cans & a 20 gal one that I put all of soda boxes, pizza boxes ect in. That saves us alot of room & has drastically reduced what we take. I encourage everyone to also join Freecycle.com. There is no limit to the things that are advertised on there. It has to be free and in somewhat decent condition. People do advertise appliances and furniture that can be fixed. This prevents those items from going to the dump also. I wrote an article at http://tinyurl.com/mxw7y8 about this wonderful service.
Great article, Tammy!
I’ve noticed over the last couple of years that reducing our ‘trashprint’ often has less to do with being willing than actually *noticing* what you’ve been tossing out, or taking in.
In your fast food example, Sylvie, let’s notice and:
~ Take your sandwich to the sauce dispenser, or similar, instead of using a little plastic cup. And little plastic lid.
~ Save your extra clean napkins in the car for later use instead of tossing them away with the wrappers and bag.
~ Recycle / reuse the bag the fast food came in.
~ Ask for what you use: if you only use 2 ketchups, ask for ‘Just 2, please.’ Or, ‘I don’t need a bag … or mayonnaise, salt and pepper, thanks! Or a straw. No really …”
~ Order the regular size drink in the wax paper cup instead of the large size’s plastic (not-recyclable-at-least-not-here) cup.
~ Or, order the large / plastic once, then just bring your own cup.
Most people make most of their big changes when they have to, right? The City has just tweaked its trash pickup rules and maybe ought to consider a little more: when we’re charged by the pound for trash pickup, and recycling is free, that landfill may last a long time!