Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
Sigh. It’s been one of those weeks around greening my home and striving towards zero waste. I put out the trash today.
Was it more trash than usual? No. Same 12-gallon box. Was it more compost than usual? Nope. Same 24 gallon city container. Was it more recycling than usual? Nope. It is the same 64 gallon tub.
So what is the big deal? I put the 12 gallon trash box out two weeks ago and have already missed my goal for 2012.
OK- some clarification is probably needed here. In January, I set a goal of putting out the 12-gallon trash box *only* every *six* weeks, to see if I could top last year’s goal of putting the 12-gallon box out every *four* weeks. A goal, I might add, that I missed as well: instead of the hoped for 12 boxes for 2011, it turned out to be 19.
I made the first six weeks of 2012- I only put the first box out the 2nd week in February. But then two weeks later, I had to put out another.
Why? Because it seems in order to make less trash, I have to initially make more. You see- I am going over my house with a fine tooth comb, so-to-speak, and getting rid of, donating, recycling things that I can no longer use or reasonable repair. And sadly this means more trash rather than less… for now.
I have to keep pinching myself and repearting the “for now” part- I really think I can make my 9 boxes this year goal… but it’s just that this week I am feeling dfrustrated by my own garbage production.
As for recycling, the good news there is that I do seem to be on track- my goal for 2012 was to only put out *half* as much recycling as last year- and *not* because the recyclables are in the garbage (!), but because I am simply composting more and/or consuming less.
(The city composts shredded paper, thus I am shredding more often and putting it in the compost. Nothing with plastic, though, like envelopes with plastic.)
However, even with recycling, in order to cut the amount of plastic bottles, etc., around the house, I am trying to use up what is already here. And while that does involve some consolidation (i.e. pouring all the dregs of shampoos into one container) it still seems to be generating a lot of plastic bottles.
The good news is that I *have* already reached the end of the pre-packaged liquid soap, and, for the first time ever, *refilled* that last plastic bottle with dish soap from the bulk dish soap vat at the food-co-op.
I cannot even begin to tell you how good it felt to *not* be bringing in yet additional plastic!
So: two steps foward ,one step back. Isn’t that how it always is?
