Zero Waste Blog

February is over so I gathered up my trash and took a look at what I made this month. It's quite the mixed bag! It totaled 5.5 ounces of trash and contains a mix of items I bought knowing they would make waste (i.e. cheese) and others that I sourced second hand and gave new life to, but also had some trash come with them. Like the coffee bag! I got some very old coffee grounds off of my local Buy Nothing Group to use in the body scrub I make at workshops. The coffee had slowl

It feels like I have been doing these waste audits for years now, and in fact, this will be my fifth year of auditing my trash every month! In some ways, it has become quite a routine in my life to stick my trash in this little pile in the corner of my bedroom. I enjoy the time when I can pull it all out, line it up, and see what I ended up with. At the same time, I am not sure if it is truly serving a purpose anymore for me personally...I have just about reached the limits i

In November I made a total of 6.8 ounces of household waste. What isn't represented here in the waste I made while visiting my parents for the holidays (as well as many other upstream and non-visible waste things). The tricky part about the holidays is that a lot of us visit with people that don't necessarily practice the same lifestyle, and that means we have to compromise. I am happy to say though that this year I offered to help my mom make Green Bean Casserole and we made

This last month I ended up sorting through my old filing folders and recycled the documents I no longer need. In them I also found quite a few old envelopes and some insurance cards so those got tossed in my monthly waste audit. I also finally used up the old coconut oil I had from Bramble Berry and their bags, unfortunately, can't be recycled around here. Now I buy all of my coconut oil in bulk from the People's Food Coop so that shouldn't be an issue in the future. So for a

I have finally gotten around to weighing my trash from June. I didn't originally weigh it because I left for Ecuador right at the end of June and it didn't make my to-do list. But here's a breakdown of all the landfill bound waste I made in my home for the month. I also forgot to weigh it so you'll just have to eye ball whether you think it's ounces or a pound this time around! June Trash Jar: name tag bacon package cheese package silica gel packet NyQuil pill packet almond m

Every month I gather up all the waste I made that will go to the landfill (excluding recycling and composting). It's all of my residential waste so it includes anything I would throw out in my home as well as items while out and about on errands, meeting up with friends, or eating out. I keep it all until the end of the month and then weigh it and photograph it. I call it the One Jar Challenge and I started it almost four years ago. I've talked about before how the resources

Another month down which means it's time to weigh the trash jar once more! This month came to a total of 0.9 ounces of trash. It contained the usual bus passes and staples as well as quite a few busted hairties! But you can check the list below for all the details :) Trash Jar: 1 take-out wrapper 1 starbucks drink seal 1 elk meat package 1 underwear zip seal 1 ice cream container seal 3 vitamin seals 3 hair bands Various bus passes Various staples Various receipts Various unk

Let's take a peek once again at what I trash I accidentally (and sometimes purposefully) made over the last month. The reason I mention both accidentally and purposefully is because sometimes waste comes into my life that I really don't intend on having. These are things like gifts, waiters putting straws in my drink even when I ask them not to, and products that had hidden stickers or plastic that I didn't seen when I bought them. At the same time though, most of the trash I

Okay folks. Man do the months fly by! And with it, it's time to complete another waste audit. This last month added to my total waste for 2018 by a lot because, unfortunately, I am a klutz and broke another glass. I added another 17.2 ounces of trash to the landfill. At this rate, I think I have made more waste in the last three months than I made all of last year! Ugh. Well, let's take a look at exactly what ended up in my jar. Trash Jar Contents: 1 broken glass 1 name tag 1

February has come and gone which means it’s time for me to take another look inside my trash jar. This last month has been a little frustrating because I ended up with a lot of from my graduate program that I felt like was pointless. It can be really difficult when you’re in a semi-medical field so professors require you to use certain equipment that is disposable. And most of the time I can understand the health reason behind it so it doesn’t bother me. But this quarter I ha

January marked the beginning of my fourth year hoarding my waste in jars each month. Every month I analyze the contents and add them all up to get a weight. I compare this weight to the average amount of waste each U.S. citizen produces every day in their homes (municipal waste). By doing this, I have a way of monitoring myself month by month and pushing myself to do better. Since January is now over, it's time once again to count up my waste! This month I produced 1.5 ounces

In 2017, I decided to collect all of my household waste for an entire year in a jar. As I have written about consistently on this blog, since I began going zero waste three years ago I have been doing a waste audit each month to analyze the contents of my trash bin. It gave me a way to motivate myself to make changes each month and target those items that were the most relevant to my lifestyle. But going into 2017, I felt like each month I gave myself a pass by emptying the j

It's the last month of the year which means it's the last trash jar of the year! This month was quite colorful if you take a look at the picture! And unfortunately I made some silly mistakes that ended up in bandaids and straws being wasted. However, I rounded out the year with a total of 1.67 pounds of trash for all 12 months! Obviously this does not represent my entire impact on the planet especially because this is only my household waste (not medical or industrial). But c

Let's take another look inside my trash jar this month. In November, I produced 2.0 ounces of trash. Mostly the weight came from the little metal candle holders I used one evening. Normally I don't burn any candles at all, but to celebrate my partner's and I's anniversary, I did light up a few! I've also been using a printer for graduate school and with it comes some plastic waste I have to deal with. Everything else on this list should look pretty familiar as they are the "h

Before I jump into the break down of my trash jar this month, I just have to say that not a single piece of Halloween candy is in there. Not one! As a huge fan of KitKats and Reece's Peanut butter Cups, I'm pretty proud of myself for resisting the temptation of consuming any. Instead, I bought some chocolate malt balls in bulk and ate those instead :) I produced 2.4 ounces of trash last month. Here's what was in my trash jar: 1 lightbulb 1 name tag 1 Scotch-Brite wrapper 1 Xf

I'm a little behind in writing this, but don't worry! I still have accurate details of my trash production from back in September. It was a pretty typical month with 0.8 ounces of trash filling up my jar. It included the following items: 1 vitamin jar seal 1 yogurt seal 1 yogurt wrapper 1 shipment receipt 1 piece of elastic string 1 credit card strip 1 IOPI tongue test tube (because "grad school") 5 staples Numerous receipts with BPA Numerous bus passes Numerous envelope wind

Whenever I start something new, be it a diet, job, class, or other change, I always give myself a little room to figure out how my zero waste lifestyle fits in. When a new change happens, I usually make mistakes. And I'm okay with that. I recently went through a LOT of new changes. I now live in a new city and attend a graduate program at a university that's consuming every waking minute I have (I'm literally staying up on finals week right now to write this post that is elev

Plastic Free July is up and it's time to do my monthly waste audit. This time however, I also collected the plastic recycling in addition to my trash. Plastic in general is not a resource I want to be using - whether or not I can recycle it. Over the last few years, my usage has drastically dropped but doing a complete audit every once in a while can really help me pin-point the areas that need more work. First, let's take a look at the trash I produced this month. It totals

June rounded out six months for this year so I took stock on how my trash jar has developed. Adding the 2.8 ounces from June, it brings my yearly total up to 13.1 ounces - still under a pound! Every month I find myself having to struggle less and less with resisting plastic. I think I've also found a nice balance with the few things in life I still buy that produce trash. Zero Waste is a goal that I'm striving towards and it's been a great adventure battling my way as close a

Ever heard of the saying "What would you do for a Klondike bar?" Well...apparently I would produce trash for one! I just couldn't resist one when my boyfriend brought them home :) This last month I produced 0.4 ounces of trash. It's a tie for my best month ever! In my trash audit, I've split it up into "purposeful" and "accidental" trash categories. There will always be times that I make an active decision to consume something that comes with trash. And there will always be m