Trash Count: Day 29

Here's what's in our home trash count after 29 days:

- 1 bandaid

- 1 deflated blister pack

- 1 empty bottle of aftershave

- 1 Mi Pueblo shopping bag (we brought home from camping to transport a dirty pan because we forgot our pot scrubber)

- 1 broken flashlight

- 1 flower preserver packet (with a beautiful bouquet for flowers from a friend wrapped in paper with a rafia bow)

- 1 plastic sleeve liner from incense (I thought it was just wrapped in recycled paper)

- 1 gum pack wrapper (a favor a party)

- 1 lollypop wrapper (on a gift from a friend)

- 2 quarters sleeves from the bank (we have coin laundry)

- 2 hot sause packets (we needed breakfast burritos ;)

- 1 plastic ring from either yogurt or some other jarred food

I see a theme here, yes plastic! We both try not to throw anything away all of the time, but we're not crazy strict either. We reuse and recycle as much as possible too.

Trash Count: Day 19

Like the previous weekend, I went on a trip and produced some trash. This time it was camping but my husband and I did our best effort to shop zero waste for that trip, use reusables as much as we could and reuse disposables. We also went to a pool party where we shared a paper plate, drank to beer in glass bottles and used a plastic cup a few times for beverages. For the most part I feel ok about the waste we produced this past weekend. 

Here's what's in our home trash count:

- 1 bandaid

- 1 deflated blister pack

- 1 empty bottle of aftershave

- 1 Mi Pueblo shopping bag (we brought home from camping to transport a dirty pan because we forgot our pot scrubber)

- 1 broken flashlight

- 1 flower preserver packet (with a beautiful bouquet for flowers from a friend wrapped in paper with a rafia bow)

- 1 plastic sleeve liner from incense (I thought it was just wrapped in recycled paper)

- 1 gum pack wrapper (a favor from a party)

- 1 lollypop wrapper (on a gift from a friend)

- 2 quarters sleeves from the bank (we have coin laundry)

Trash Count: Day 14

In our trash after 14 days of we have 3 items. 2 of which I'm still not convinced are trash. 

- 1 bandaid
- 1 deflated blister pack 
- 1 empty bottle of aftershave

They came from...
- bandaid, we are using all the bandaids we have already bought. We'll move to cotton gauze and paper tape when we're out.
- blister pack, I compulsively bought a new one piece bathing suit on sale online. It came in a plastic shipping envelope inside another plastic bag next to a plastic blisterpack. Such wasteful and excessive packaging for a bathing suit and it's not even flattering! (note to self: don't do that again!) I am reusing the two bags that's why they aren't part of this count.
- aftershave, that's my husbands. He used up this last bottle and decided he doesn't need aftershave anymore. Score!

I want to add that this is our trash from our home only. I did go out of town over the weekend with a group of friends and produced some trash. I used my own jars and bags for everything I brought but was not in control of what others brought and used. I did my part to be zero waste but was in a house that ended up throwing a way a few bags of trash. It was a good learning experience to see how 'normal' it is to be wasteful and to know it could have been largely avoided was hard.

Trash Count: Day 9

At this point we don't produce much trash at all. Part of moving towards a zero waste lifestyle is examining what you do end up throwing away and ultimately sending to a landfill. 

As an experiment I'm going to keep tabs on the trash we collect in our home. My husband usually halls down our giant trash can to the curb about once every 4 months. Lately I think it's been less then that, so this is an experiment to watch our trash a bit more closely. 

After 9 days the only piece of trash we've produced in our home is a piece of plastic packing tape that I received from a USPS box in the mail for my Mother's Day gifts.

{Used packing tape}

I was pretty positive that this indeed was trash and not recyclable but as part of my ongoing research I scoured the internet trying to find answers. Turns out that the tape is recyclable after all(sort of, recycling includes incinerating plastic and adhesive residue which is a recycling byproduct, not ideal!). This reduces our 9 day trash count to 0, that magical number. I'll keep you posted on what actually does end up in the bin headed to landfill.

Hello Blogosphere! This is my first post on the Gennarator Blog. On this blog I plan to share my explorations, creativity, tips and life events. I welcome comments and idea sharing. 

All the best,
Gennarator