My Low Waste Month
Originally published on August 1, 2016
I’m committing to going the entire month of August producing no more trash than can fit into a ziplock bag.
Why do this?
Because now that we’re all used to recycling it’s time to step it up. I’m raising awareness for the three Rs that come before recycling: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, and then Recycle. If we all practiced that sequence more frequently our impacts would be huge!
So here’s the challenge: for one month all of my trash and recycling cannot exceed the ziplock bag. I’ll refuse, reduce, and reuse as much as I can, then at the end of the month we’ll see what can be recycled.
How am I going to do this?
1) Communicating- telling servers and shop workers that I’m actively trying to create no trash, so I won’t be needing a receipt, straw, etc.
2) Avoiding packaging- buying things in bulk or fresh rather than canned or packaged
3) Avoiding anything that’s a single-use disposable
4) Bringing my own bag, fork/knife, handkerchief, bottle, and plate
Why even care about waste?
Because we often times find ourselves in conflict with what’s happening in the world. We want to make a difference, but outside of donating to causes, reposting articles, or signing petitions, we may not know how or not have time. In reality, we’re already making a difference every day- it just might not be a positive one. Each of our purchases has an indirect affect on the people and the environment around us. Consider one cup of coffee- “to grow, process, transport, and prepare the amount of beans for one cup of coffee in the US will consume 37 gallons of water.” And consider single-use plastic bottles- it takes around 3 liters of water to produce 1 liter of bottled water. And drinking straws, so seemingly harmless, accumulate to 34,000 tons of plastic waste a year and choke animals in the ocean.
Every product that exists needs resources like water, wood, oil, cotton, metal, and energy. Using resources for one product, means they are not available for anything else- it’s all a trade-off. Take plastic bags for example. The energy consumed in the life cycle (resource extraction, processing, production, transportation, consumption, and disposal) of just 14 plastic bags is enough energy that could drive a car 1 mile. Considering we use half a trillion bags a year, it’s a tremendous energy trade-off for something that’s only going to be used once or twice and thrown away. Furthermore, each step in a product’s life cycle produces some pollutant as a byproduct- often times carbon or methane which warms the atmosphere and leads to climate change.
It seems daunting, but rest assured the point is not to seek zero-waste (even nature wastes, but it’s waste that can be reabsorbed), or to feel guilty about buying stuff, the point is to be sensitive to how our choices affect each other’s lives and threaten our survival on this planet. It’s about seeing that we live in a world of interconnected systems that function solely based on our choices. We can operate normally without a second thought, or we can choose to opt out of wasteful systems. We can choose to use less stuff and consume less resources. We can vote with out dollar and choose products that are striving to be better for the environment than others. We can choose in a way that puts people and the planet first. We can carry our own bottle and refill it instead of buying bottled water, and we can say things like “no straw please.“
Can I have the things I need in a way that doesn’t cause an unnecessary impact on people or the planet? Would one of my foregone plastic bags have been the one that killed the turtle? Could I go through a normal work week without unconsciously contributing to loads of trash? With so many things happening that are outside my control, could I consciously own my choices and author a life that’s making a positive difference in the world every single day?
We, as a species, are seeing fantastic technological advancements happening right before our eyes. Our modern day innovations are finally starting to catch up to what we’ve been projecting in movies for decades- and it’s happening at an exponential rate. We’re going to see amazing things in our lifetimes like space travel, smart homes and cities, and maybe even telepathy- but we will absolutely not get there unless we get over this hurdle that is the deterioration of the environment, and unless our human systems are soundly integrated with natural systems. And one of the first steps in that process is to plug the holes in the bucket of limited resources and stop creating so much waste.
We haven’t always been this wasteful. Remember the milkman? How cool is it going to be when these traditional ways of doing things are brought back into the now and the future. When using something once and throwing it away is a thing of the past.
It can totally happen now and I’m going to figure it out. It’ll be challenging, and at times super inconvenient, but I’m gonna give it a shot! I’ll share my progress and hopefully we can all be inspired with new ways to refuse, reduce, and reuse.
http://pacinst.org/publication/bottled-water-and-energy-a-fact-sheet/
http://www.saseconnect.org/saseprints/160-3-17-14-how-much-water-goes-into-a-cup-of-coffee
