Anyone who has never been to, or simply driven past, a "dump" or landfill, should really do so. I can't imagine how anyone could see, and more importantly *smell* one could not be inspired to cut back on their garbage production. I drive by one several times a week when I take the dogs to their favorite park for a romp. I usually have the windows down for the dogs, and the smell is indescribable. Seeing all those bulldozers shoving mountains of garbage around is astounding.
So I started thinking about the many ways we can cut back on our garbage production, and realized that this is directly related to my current thought processes about our food intake. The biggest thing you can do to cut down on your garbage output, is cut down on your garbage INput. If you cut out processed and packaged food, you are no longer putting all those packages into the garbage, and thence into the landfill. *Epiphany*.
Of course recycling is important, and a great way to reduce your landfill contribution. But cutting out processed food also reduces the amount you are recycling. When we did the McCombs Plan last fall, I actually got rid of a couple of our recycle bins, because we just weren't using glass jars and bottles to put in them. No jarred foods, no beer, no wine, almost no liquor. No olives, molasses, preserves, or syrups. The only cans we had to recycle were "fizzy water" cans, but that is mostly true always. We just don't eat much out of cans.
The one thing that did increase was our water bottle recycling. I know we should refill stainless steel bottles with filtered water, and we'll get there, but for now bottled water is our biggest (identified) anti-green habit. For now it keeps us drinking our water. For the McCombs Plan, I'm supposed to drink 6 1/2 liter bottles a day, so I put 6 bottles on the fridge door each morning, and at the end of the day I can easily see how close I've come to that goal. That size bottle is easy to hold, carry, & drink. For some reason it's easier for me to drink two 1/2 liter bottles than one liter bottle.
Our local recycling resources don't accept green glass, but we collect it anyway, and take it to another city to be recycled. A bit extreme, but as much wine as we (used to?) drink, we produce a fair bit of green glass, so it just feels like the right thing to do.
It bears repeating:
The biggest thing you can do to cut down on your garbage output, is cut down on your garbage INput.
So cut out all that processed food, and contribute to not only your own health, but that of the environment as well.
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3 comments:
don't forget composting. I take my recyclables once a month - a bin of cans (well, maybe a quarter of a bin), a bin of plastic, 2 bins of newspaper and a bin of glass. between dropping off the recycling on my way back to the office after lunch and composting in the back yard, i only put my trash out to be collected every 4 - 5 weeks - which is good since i forget to do it.
OH! Yes, a very excellent addition, and one that I have yet to implement as well. That should be next on my list.
Although, we do a version of this - much produce that we would compost such as apple cores, cabbage or avocados past their prime, etc, get thrown out into our backyard to either feed the squirrels and birds, or to rot away naturally. I'm sure our neighbors think we're nuts, but they already do, so what! ;-)
That's interesting about the decline in your recycling. I'm on a 21-day purification, eating all whole foods, and it's amazing how little recycling there is. I also passed the pantry today and realized I'd barely looked in it...because I'm not eating anything canned, etc.
This is something that I think will be a way of life...
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