I decided to go a day trying not to throw anything away (excluding toilet paper). I suspected that this wasn’t totally realistic, but wanted to give it a shot in hopes that I’d become more aware of the habits I have and be able to make small changes to improve the amount of garbage that I do actually produce.
I chose a work day (Monday) and didn’t do much planning just so that I could reveal my real habits. On a typical work day, I get a cup of coffee in a Starbuck’s cup and yogurt for breakfast – therefore, I’m throwing away a coffee cup, the lid, the sleeve, the yogurt container, a plastic spoon, and a napkin. For lunch, I get a sandwich or something in some packaging and for dinner, I usually cook something or get take-out if I’m on the go.
Today, I used my aluminum Starbuck’s mug that’s been sitting on my desk (and they only charged me $1.00 vs. $1.66 since I brought my own cup – what a bonus, I had no idea). I did get my yogurt, but recycled the container and used my own spoon, which I washed after use – ah, but I used a paper towel to dry it off! The other thing I threw away was the stirrer after I put milk in my coffee. The stirrer?!? I never even thought about the fact that I used a stirrer! Tomorrow, I will try my coffee without stirring it after I add the milk and see if it even makes a difference. It’s 8:09am and I’m already feeling good about throwing less away and saving $0.66 on my coffee.
Here brings up a question: I buy the 6 oz yogurt containers and I could buy the bigger yogurt containers and put my daily dose in a bowl which I could wash. However, it’s still a bigger container and still uses more plastic, so is it really worth it? I did throw away the aluminum top off my yogurt – if I had the bigger yogurt container, I’d have a plastic top which I could recycle – or save to store leftovers in the future.
Lunch was a little more difficult. Like I said, I purposely picked a day where I wasn’t really prepared (had I prepared for this, I could have brought my lunch in a Tupperware container that I could wash) but to truly challenge myself, I wanted to have to make decisions throughout the day. I thought about this on and off all morning and solicited advice from co-workers on where I could go that would be the least offensive. If I had more time, I’d go sit at a restaurant and use a plate, silverware, etc., but that’s not a realistic option today (is a restaurant all that much better, though, because even though I wouldn’t be throwing anything away, they would be?) In any case, I chose Spa Café because their packaging is made from recycled goods.
Upon getting to the first floor, I looked outside and crap, it was raining. I had no umbrella and so the moral dilemma – do I sacrifice myself and get wet in service of the planet or just go to the cafeteria in the basement of my building? I chose to stay in the building but decided to choose some food with the least offensive packaging. I looked around at everyone with their to-go containers and was appalled by how much plastic and packaging we use! I chose a turkey sandwich, where they wrap a single sheet of paper around the sandwich. I chose Sun Chips, partially because they’re less in fat and partly because their packaging says “At Sun Chips, we really do live up to our name. In 2008, we began using solar collectors at one of our Sun Chips plants to harness the power of the sun to help make Sun Chips snacks. We also buy green energy credits to offset 100% of the electricity needed to product Sun Chips snacks.” The paper from my sandwich went in the recycling bin, the packaging from my chips in the trash - oh nuts, and there was a sticker that closed the paper wrapped around my sandwich went in the garbage.
A funny aside – before lunch, I had a light bloody nose. Are you kidding me? I haven’t had a bloody nose in 10 years! 3 kleenex in the trash – grrr.
At some point in the afternoon, I walked by our candy jar, came back to my desk, unwrapped the candy, threw the wrapper in the garbage, and threw the candy in my mouth. Hmm – more trash added to the garbage and I didn’t even think about it! This brings up an interesting point, though – if I had been thinking about the fact that having a piece of candy would produce a wrapper, I wouldn’t have had the candy. So this means I could actually kick my afternoon candy habit if I continuously focused on minimizing garbage. Not a bad side-effect.
Which brings me to dinner. Brendon and I were staying at his brother’s house because we had already moved out of his place and were moving in to our new place on Tuesday (yay!) We had to get take-out and I started having these terribly guilty feelings about having to get carry-out on the day that I’m doing my whole no garbage for a day challenge (I suppose it was perfect that it just so happened to be a day where I had to get take-out to really elevate my conscious on this subject). Anyway, we ordered Thai food and I had a plastic container that my food came in. They also gave me a plastic fork – which made me think that next time I get take out and know I’m eating at home to ask them not to include the plastic silverware that I’m not going to use anyway.
So there you have it. My attempt at a day trying not to throw anything away. All in all – I threw away:
- a paper towel
- a coffee stirrer
- the lid from my yogurt
- a Sun Chips bag
- the sticker from my sandwich
- 3 Kleenexes
- a candy wrapper
- a plastic to-go container
- a plastic fork
While this is more than I wanted to throw away on a day where I was committed not to throwing anything away, it was definitely way less than I would have AND, I learned some easy things I can do to help save the amount of garbage I produce. Here’s what I would have thrown away:
- a coffee cup
- a coffee cup lid
- a coffee cup sleeve
- a coffee stirrer
- the lid from my yogurt
- the yogurt container
- a plastic spoon
- a Sun Chips bag
- the sticker from my sandwich (maybe some other packaging if I hadn’t chosen the sandwich)
- 3 Kleenexes
- a candy wrapper
- a plastic to-go container
- a plastic fork
The bottom line is that implementing practices like filling your own coffee cup, washing your silverware at work, etc. takes some more time. A lot of us are lazy or don’t think we have the extra few minutes it takes to do this. I challenge you to try it – it really wasn’t that bad – the 3 minutes I spent washing my silverware actually gave me time to walk away from my desk and take a well needed breather.
