What if I had to KEEP all of my own trash?

On December 26, 2010 we were hit with an amazing blizzard here in Staten Island. Snow came in from every direction. The winds howled, siding blew off my house, our cars were buried, the roads were blocked and my garbage was not picked up.

I understood, I mean New Jersey had declared a state of emergency, who was I to complain about garbage? It's just that it was the day after Christmas. Our trash cans were overflowing. There was wrapping paper, bows, boxes, discarded parts of assembly for Christmas toys, scraps of food from our feast, and all of the stuff from the preparation of that feast. There was no room for more garbage in any of our cans... and there was no talk of sanitation from the NYC officials as they worked overtime just to get emergency vehicles and mass transit back up and running.

I had to keep my trash. So did everyone else. And then we all kept adding to it.

I had already been thinking a lot about how to lead a less wasteful life, how to be kinder to my Mother Earth, but this situation made me realize how fast our trash builds up. I started to think about and learn new ways to slow this all down.

Here are some of the things we can all do to reduce our trash:

1. Composting. I started this in March when I challenged myself and others to "Do Something" for the entire moth of March thanks to "Do Something Day" March 4th. This is the easiest thing to do if you have a backyard, and is even possible if you live in an apartment (I was surprised by this!). Even if you don't want to keep your own compost, there are plenty of farmers' markets and community organizations looking for contributions of food scraps for their own compost heap - see if you can find one!
2. Donating. I actually have a pickup scheduled for tomorrow. This is just about the best feeling ever! Knowing that your stuff may get a second life with new owners? Awesome. Here in the US, I call the Salvation Army (1-800-SA-TRUCK) if I have a furniture donation and I go to www.vva.org if I have household items or clothing to donate.
3. Yard Sales. Yes, these are a big pain in the butt, however, you would be surprised how much of that stuff you were just going to throw away, someone else is willing to pay for! Reduce your prices as the day goes on, remember - you were going to throw this stuff away, so , really, who cares if you give it away by sundown?? 
4. Go Retro. Enough with these new-fangled cleaning items like the "Swiffer" or those handy-dandy "clorox wipes" - have you ever thought about how much extra trash that causes? Why not switch back to a mop that you can wash and reuse, and cleaning rags that have the same fabulous feature?!
5. Shopping & Packaging.  First, let's think about food shopping: composting can take care of the food scraps, but what about packaging? Un-packaged food is better for you and the planet. I spend nearly all winter blogging about healthier food choices on the Searching for Sustenance blog. In terms of all of our shopping - what bags are we using, what packaging are we accepting from distributors, in short, how much trash are we actually paying for?

My husband and I talked about this after going on a mini shopping spree at some outlet stores. I asked him (as we were both bagged down with new purchases), "Now, really... how would this have gone differently if we had to keep our own trash?"  We agreed we would have brought or bought reusable bags for the trip. We also said we would have made a stink in each of the stores about all of the labels all over the clothing and the use of plastic that had no chance of ever biodegrading.

And then I thought about it for a moment...

Why aren't we doing that?

Let's face it, we already all keep our own trash. It just might not be in our own backyard (YET).

Here's the deal - I grew up next to a full-blown New York City landfill. For a large part of my life I felt like my garbage was being stored in my backyard. Now I just feel horrible that it's being shipped off to someone else's! I've always heard of the three Rs: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, but it is one thing to know it and to live it. Those three Rs are in exactly the right order of preference, so if you're doing them backwards (like I tend to do), then you've got it all wrong.

First Priority: Reduce

Second Priority: Reuse

And if you still have stuff left over after that, THEN

Third Priority: Recycle

 

If you need some more convincing, or if you think it's not that big of a deal until it is in your backyard, then I invite you to do two things:

1. Check out Chris Jordan's fantastic photography with a message on his website and be sure to read the picture captions,and
2. see the Earth's Eighth Continent:

There's not much more I can add to that. That's our Earth... we are already keeping our trash. Let's do something about it!

This post is written as part of the What IF? Project hosted right here on the Rivera Runs Through It Blog. Each week a new "What if?" question is presented, and, if we so choose, we respond to the query. (If you have a What IF? question you would like to submit as a possible future prompt, please do so in the Rivera Runs Through It Community What If discussion.) This week's "What if?" was What if you had to KEEP all of your own trash? Follow this LINK to see what others had to say.