Reduce the Waste challenge results

I just realized I forgot to post the results of the Reduce the Waste challenge we did here- and they're pretty exciting, as far as trash goes!

As you might remember, we purchased a new trash bin that is smaller and fits under our kitchen sink. Our existing trash bin was re-purposed as an indoor place to store recycling as it accumulates.

Some of the things we were going to focus on to help us reduce the amount of waste we generate were:

• being more conscientious about what we threw away
• trying to re-purpose and recycle more
• continuing to compost all food scraps, 
• and just using less, 

I am proud to report that we only had 1 small bag of trash for the 3 of us! Our usual is 1 or 2 completely full bags.

Now that we're 3 weeks into the on-going "challenge", we're realizing even more positive results:

• Getting even better and bringing bags with us to shop
• Bringing lunch to work in washable containers
• Using Glass jars and re-used plastic containers to get bulk items from the co-op
• Making more food at home to reduce the need for "take-out trash" 

We didn't even have to take out the trash last week- so in the past two weeks we've only generated 1 bag for the whole house! Before we started, I was a bit skeptical about how much we'd be able to reduce our trash generating- we already are big recyclers, and re-purpose some things. I've been surprised at how much less we can use than we did in the past, and all the little ways that trash adds up. If you're thinking about reducing your "carbon footprint", I would suggest setting up some parameters for you and your household, and see what you can cut back on. You might be surprised too!