Monday, April 13, 2009

Garbage check-in. Sortof.

Well it's no surprise but I've been a bit lazy about keeping track of our garbage. It's not that we are producing a lot, its that it's such a pain in the ass to weigh everything each week.

But I decided to do it this week because it's been 9 weeks (!) since we last took out our blue box (plastic and aluminum recycling). And while it is quite full, it isn't even that heavy - only 9lbs.

In order to get to 9 weeks, I started crushing everything that I put in the box - milk cartons, pop cans etc. It's amazing how much space that frees up. Imagine if everyone did that. Even without anyone changing their buying habits, I bet that alone would mean that the blue bin would only need to be collected once a month instead of once every two weeks. Think how much carbon would be saved from the garbage trucks being off the road.

5 comments:

Stephen Vance said...

Nice work!

Very much an inspiration for me. I am hoping that in the coming months my family will be able get to this point.

Inspired by your excellent site, I did an analysis of our consumption of resources etc., but as you can see here: Crunching The Reduction Numbers we still have a LOT of work to do!

Hannah said...

I wish everyone was like you. Then there would be REAL progress in tackling global warming and pollution.:)

Layla said...

Congratulations for reducing even recycling etc!!

must say I never really weighed it, might be a good idea to start!

Your blog looks very inspiring!! :)

Layla said...

Oh, and found you at the no-fridge post over at Crunchy Chicken - are you still living without? and how do you manage? :)

Rachel said...

Thanks Stephen! And congrats on your numbers. You guys are doing great! Looking forward to sharing tips on consumption reduction. :)

Hannah - thanks! I am often accused of looking through rose coloured glasses but I really do think the tide is starting to turn. Frugality (and greening) is the new cool. :)

Layla, as much as I'm lazy about doing it, I've found weighing my garbage and recycling so useful. It gives me something to track and then improve on. :) Yep, we are still fridge free. 1.5yrs and counting. Tomorrow's post will be a bit of a fridge update, but to learn more about how we are doing it, check out the 'fridge' label on the main page, to see all my fridge posts. We are hoping to do even better this year - more on that to come!