Happy New Years!
So it has officially been 6 months since we started the Clean Bin Project. Sometimes I think we’re doing quite well, and other times I feel like we are still creating mountains of waste, and the only difference is that we’re now segregating it into different piles. Organized, but not necessarily to the point of waste reduction.
Up to this point, we have let ourselves pretty much buy anything that is recyclable. We have a really great recycling program here in Vancouver, so we can recycle most everything. That means our project is much easier than if we lived in the UK or New Zealand.
So in the spirit of keeping ourselves accountable for our waste, we’ve decided to take on a challenge proposed by Dave over at 365 days of trash. Grant and I are going to meticulously catalog all our waste for one week (we happen to be away on vacation which is why it is just the 2 of us). We figure we’ve been keeping all our garbage anyway, so we can probably manage to write each and every item down for 7 days, recyclable or not. It will also serve as a good check for us to see how we’re doing on a weekly basis – something we have neglected to record thus far.
I’m looking forward to it because, although we have managed to drastically reduce our waste, including progressively cutting down on soft plastic and plastic containers, I actually have no idea how much recycling we generate each week. So stay tuned for the details of our waste this week, and feel free to contact Sustainable Dave if you want to sign up too.
The Clean Bin Project Blog 
This is a great challenge; we did it during our zero waste week. I feel that a zero waste lifestyle has two parts. The first is to keep stuff out of the landfill by recycling more, reusing and composting, but then there comes a time when you need to step it up, and that includes looking at where you can REDUCE your recycling too.
Good luck with this; I think you will learn a lot and I can’t wait to see your results.
Happy new year!
Mrs G x
Happy New Year Jen and good luck with reducing your recycling as well as your non-recyclable stuff. Mrs G is right about it all happening in a couple of stages and the impact that has on the amount of recyclates you end up with.
Since I started the Rubbish Diet almost a year ago there has also been a gradual reduction in our main recycling bin, which takes mixed plastics, card, paper, aluminium and steel cans. It’s now about 50%-60% full compared to a year ago when it was regularly overflowing and needed to squashed down. I think it’s been helped by not just focusing on reducing packaged stuff but reducing the amount of things that we used to buy, e.g. I would always buy strawberries through the Winter, but am now happy to wait until the summer when they are in season again. That means there are much few plastic punnets ending up in our recycling bin. I also used to buy loads of grapes packaged in punnets all through the year. Now, we eat more apples instead, which are bought loose from the market.
Can’t wait to see how you get on. 😀
Ooooh definitely something I can do at some point, right now I have too much going on as I try and get back into the swing of things, but pencilling this into next month for sure!
Thanks for the support.
Mrs. Green, you are right, we sometimes forget that REDUCE comes first.
We have also been trying to eat fruit more seasonally Mrs. Almost Average. It’s hard to stay away from the strawberries, but it is worth it wait until the spring farmers market where they come in a paper container. I’m impressed that you have reduced your recycling by so much. We still buy a lot of things in cans and boxes, so it’ll be interesting to see how we do.
Good luck next month Di. It is definitely a challenge worth taking. We just needed someone to give us the nudge to do it!
Hi Jen – just wanted to say thanks for contributing this post to this month’s Carnival of Trash. Just to let you know it’s now published over on my blog. You might be interested in next month’s topic as well. 😀
It’s true with you and grant gone, I’ve also realized how much recycling/trash I’ve been generating on my own! see ya on saturday drive safe.