Trash Talk

With all the trips I've recently taken from our apartment to our car to reuse our boxes for our move, I've been acutely aware of how much trash I create. I also used to live near a landfill that was created into a park, and now, I live near a landfill that is about to become a park. It seems I just can't get away from it.

With everything I put into the trash, I've started wondering: was that something I could have prevented? Here's a recent sampling of the refuse I put into a landfill and how I plan to curb that activity next time around:

• Plastic produce bags
• Herbal tea bag
• Paper napkin
• Kleenex (a lot of them)
• Cough drop wrappers
• Ziploc bag container
• Organic cream bottle
• Chinese bistro take-out container

Plan of action to curb my landfill contributions:

• Plastic produce bags: I will start bringing my own reusable bags to the grocery store. I will bring bags for produce items, for bulk dry goods and for carrying my items from the store.
• Herbal tea bag: Roomie and I have already started buying loose leaf black tea so that we aren't putting bags into the garbage and we can utilize the used leaves for composting, but I should start buying my herbal teas loose leaf as well since I cannot consume black tea because of Baby.
• Paper napkin: Yes, I really could go to cloth napkins. :D
• Kleenex (a lot of them): Oh, how delightfully old-school is this? I could use handkerchiefs… apparently, they aren't just for your hair anymore!
• Cough drop wrappers: I will find a brand that sells the cough drops in a single container, preferably in something highly recyclable, like tin and are not individually wrapped.
• Ziploc bag container: I have already cut out the useage of plastic baggies, but I will start encouraging Roomie to take his lunch Bento-style and not utilize plastic bags.
• Organic cream bottle: Our grocery store used to sell our cream in glass bottles (how cool is that?!) and then you could bring them back and get a credit on your next purchase of dairy. I know we have a dairy in town, perhaps I could follow-up on that. Of course, this brings up another valid point about participating in a cow-share. I could just use my own containers.
• Chinese bistro take-out container: Well, I probably should stop eating P.F. Chang's…

Wow. Everything in my trash bin was totally recyclable or preventable.

Photo credit: flickr - alex_lee2001