- Jenica
January 2019 Waste Audit
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 in terms of reducing my packaging and curbside trash. Every month I end up with somewhere between 1 to 10 ounces of trash. I have yet to make zero trash in a month. And this is my fifth year!
Zero Waste is Impossible
I think that goes to show just how truly impossible ZERO waste is. Low waste is absolutely achievable! But for me to make zero waste day after day? Never mess up? Never get a gift in plastic? Never break anything? Well that's just impossible. And I've talked about this before! Getting to zero is this goal that I will always push myself to reach, but we have to admit that in our modern society right now, it just isn't a realistic goal. Maybe one day...
Focus on Invisible Waste
When I say though that I have reached the maximum about of success when making waste, I want to clarify that I just mean the plastic in my life that ends up in the landfill! I have miles to go when it comes to food waste, buying second hand, supporting government legislation, driving and flying less, and more. So I think for now, I will continue doing my waste audits because they have become a habit of mine. And so you can continue to ask questions about what ends up there and why! My energy though is going to focus now on reducing all of the other "invisible" ways I make waste (not what you can see in the trash can!).
So here's my waste audit. It totaled 3.4 ounces.
January 2019:
a cross country skiing ticket
a perfume atomizer package
two bus passes
a broken plastic dish
a sticker package
a library receipt
a tea wrapper
a name tag
Kodiak Cakes pancake mix bag
a whole chicken wrapper
a cracker package
two plastic ice cream seals
long sleeve shirt tags
two staples
a parking pass
two essential oil bottle stoppers
a vitamin packet
a yogurt starter package
a mailer label
a bar code sticker
a nutritional facts sticker
some plastic tape