Wasting Less

It’s been a week since we officially kicked off our “Waste Less” recycling challenge (okay, it’s not really a challenge per se, but we are calling it that to make it competitive. That’s how we roll in our house). Last week I met with Tom and learned that, over all, we weren’t doing such a bad job of recycling. I caught a few tips from him though:

• To help reduce waste, it is helpful to actually eat the leftovers in our fridge rather than just store them in there for a time, then throw them out a few weeks later.
• On a similar note, if I only buy the fruits and veggies I know we will actually consume in a week, I will have less smelly garbage. I can’t tell you how much spinach we throw out. I always THINK I will want a salad, but I suppose it’s time to realize Costco may not be the best place to buy my greens.
• Microwave popcorn bags can’t be recycled or thrown in the yard waste because of a chemical in the bag. BUT you can make your own! How cool is that? Just put popcorn seeds in a lunch bag and seal it – it works just the same. And you can season it however you want! I love this plan; the summer movies-in-the-park-season is coming and popcorn is high on the packing list for these evenings out with the tween.

One of the cool things we got for taking part in this was a stainless steel, motion sensor recycling can that is divided into two sections; we use one side for garbage, the other for recycling. First I have to say how freaking cool the motion sensor thing is. We all play with it. You just wave your hands and the lid opens, it’s almost like magic if you forget about the four D-cell batteries it takes. It’s the toddlers favorite new toy.

I noticed at the beginning of the week the recycle side and the garbage side of the can filled about the same speed – we’d empty the bags at the same time. But as the week has progressed and we are all more aware of what we are throwing away, the recycling side fills up more quickly – right now it is full and the garbage side is only half full. Yeah us! Having a recycling can in the kitchen has made a HUGE difference because it’s easier for us. It’s all about convenience in this house – we’ll only save the earth if it works on our schedule.

The biggest thing to come out of this week though has been the compost bin. We never used the one we got from the garbage company (other than the first few days, when it was new and cool). But we decided to leave the new one on the counter and it has really helped us use it more. The food scraps go in there, we empty it every other day or so, and we are feeling like we are doing something towards our waste less goal. We have, however, decided to get a prettier one. Not so much loving the green plastic, but it is working for now.

So our garbage tally this week (ugh, what a weird thing to mention!) – the garbage can was only half full, the recycle bin was almost ¾ full and we had THREE yard waste bins (okay, we did some yard work that accounted for the majority of that, but it sounds like we are amazing. Or really bad at meal planning).

I’d count that as a win!