Working towards zero waste

One of the goals I am pursuing is reduction of the amount of garbage we send to the landfill every week.

Living in a place where recycling is mandatory, and where beverage cans and bottles (aluminum, glass, and plastic) can be returned for a deposit has made for a good start. Metal, glass, and plastic food containers are washed and placed in their respective bins. Corrugated cardboard boxes have a bin. Ditto newspapers, junk mail, and magazines.

Another item has been reducing the amount of packaging we bring home, including plastic bags. We have gotten much better about taking our reusable shopping bags to the store with us. The next step is choosing items with minimal, or at least recyclable, packaging.  Best places to accomplish this are the produce department and bulk bins. But you still end up with plastic bags to dispose of, unless you have your own reusable produce bags. I am about to order some as we speak.

Yard waste goes into the compost pile behind the garden shed. This provides fertilizer for the garden. Coffee grounds go straight into the garden. We have not yet developed our composting skills to the point of including kitchen waste--which needs to be done right to avoid scavengers and unpleasant odors. After all, we have neighbors. But the amount of food that we discard is minimal, because of planned use of leftovers.

Some communities are turning to organic waste recycling, which involves large scale composting of  food scraps and yard clippings.  The technologies used not only produce fertilizers, but also biogas that can be used to produce electricity or be processed into compressed natural gas for transportation fuel.

When it comes to discarding non-organic things, the first question that must always be  asked is, "What else can this be used for?"   Unwanted clothing, furniture, housewares can be sold or donated to be used by others.  CFL lightbulbs can be dropped off at Home Depot for recycling. The Salvation Army accepts computer equipment and televisions for recycling. Most things can be broken down into reusable or recyclable parts, and if you don't want to do it, then there are people willing to do it for you. I will be adding a handy recycling resources page for your information. But--STOP! and think before you toss anything into the trash bin.

In a more evolved world, we would stop producing so many easily disposal items and instead create things with regard for their environmentally safe longterm use and reuse, designing "ecologically intelligent" products, industrial systems, buildings, even regional plans--a manifesto laid out in the book Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things. The authors make our recycling efforts sound primitive and shortsighted. But since we are a long way from being the society they envision, we must make do with what we have.