Waste Audit

A typical week of garbage at our house

I'll admit it, I get really girly when it comes to gross stuff. I'm very happy to have a wonderful husband who takes out the garbage, green bin and recycling most weeks. So when when it came to looking into the garbages this week to find out what exactly was in there, I held my breath, and used my pen to shift things around so that I could see everything.

This waste audit uncovered a few things we need to consider before beginning our journey.

• Every place we currently have a garbage can, we need to get a second container for recycling/green bin collection. Most of the waste we create in the bedroom and bathroom areas of our house can be green binned or recycled - tissues, paper towels, toilet paper tubes. Right now that stuff just goes into the one receptacle we have in these rooms, and while we often sort out the green bin/recycle items from the garbage upon collection, there are weeks that we are lazy and it all ends up in the garbage bag. A much smaller dedicated garbage can should then allow us to use the current bins as compost/recycle bins.
• Living completely garbage free in this day and age is next to impossible. The past week almost every time we've thrown something out we've said "Hmmmm... that's not recyclable or compostable. Can we live without this product?" Sometimes the answer is yes, like when the product in question is a cheese string wrapper or a chip bag, but sometimes the answer is no, like when it's an empty toothpaste tube or the top to a yogurt container. We will definitely make more conscious decisions when we are out shopping about the impact the product container will make on our garbage free challenge.

The following things are what we found in our garbage this week that our family will not be able to live without:

• Yogurt Tops - Maybe we will purchase in larger containers and then have fewer tops. The concern with this is then we might end up eating more yogurt as the portions aren't as easily controlled.
• Cereal Bag - We need to see if these are recyclable in another region.
• Cheese Packaging - This is going to end up in our one bag for the year. We will stop buying the more convenient cheese strings for the children's lunches, but our kids aren't going to let us give up cheese completely.
• Dryer Lint - Clothes need to be washed, and subsequently dried. During the warmer months, we won't have too much of this, but our house is fairly small, and we don't have room to hang all of our clothes inside come winter. This will end up in our one bag as well.
• Toothpaste Tube - Thankfully they don't get emptied very often, so we should be good for a few more months!
• Other Food Packaging - Plastic packaging that holds pasta needs to be looked in to. Hopefully it's recyclable somewhere outside Waterloo Region.

There are probably some other things that we won't be able to live without that will also need to be thrown in the garbage, but that's why we've got the one bag for the year. 

Our garbage free challenge will officially begin on July 1. The next week and a half will be dedicated to researching and creating garbage free alternatives, such as mesh bags for bulk produce.

Recycling Plastic in Waterloo Region

One of the biggest disappointments I had in my first day of research was the limits on the types of plastic bags that the Region of Waterloo recycles. This seemed like it could be the thing that derailed this challenge before it started. Plastic bags come into our house in the form of bread bags, milk bags, bags that hold produce, and bags that hold meat. As we purchase all of these things on a weekly basis, how are we going to deal with 52 weeks of them? Bread bags could be eliminated by baking our own bread. That's not a problem, as most components of bread come in recyclable or compostable containers. For bulk produce, it would be a case of finding or making mesh bags. Again, not a problem. Milk was going to be the biggest issue, along with bags that our meat comes in.

As milk cartons are recyclable in our Region, I checked out the price of carton milk versus bagged milk at the grocery store today. I was shocked to discover that a 2L carton of 1% Neilson milk was about double the price per litre as compared to a 4L bag. I personally don't drink milk, as I have a sensitivity to it, but my husband and two growing boys certainly do. We easily go through 4 litres of milk in a week, so doubling our milk bill is not an option. So, what to do with the milk bags?

My mother-in-law takes care of the outer bags for us, as she crochets them into mats to be sent overseas. Someone recommended reusing the inner milk bags for sandwich bags. That's a good idea, but for sandwiches we already use reusable containers. The bigger problem is that 52 weeks of milk bags will give us 156 milk bags in a year, and even if they are reused, they still need to be disposed of sometime! As I lamented this to Matt he said "What if we store up our bags and then take them to my parent's house? I wonder if their region recycles them". Good idea Matt! A quick look at the waste management page for Niagara Region and our plastic bag problem is solved! Not only will they recycle milk bags, but they'll also take "bread bags, dry cleaning bags, clean bubble wrap, and the plastic outer covering from items such as toilet tissue, paper towels and pop cases". Wow, I hope when the Region of Waterloo finishes revamping their Waste Management Master Plan that we too can recycle all that soft plastic!

We now seem to have a system in place for recycling most of the disposable items that we can think of. Our next step in the research process is a waste audit to find out what items we throw out that aren't recyclable or compostable at all. From there we need to figure out what can be eliminated, and then determine if the remaining could fit into a 30 gallon garbage bag for a whole year.

A Garbage Free Year

Last night my husband Matt presented me with an interesting challenge for our family. "Let's not throw anything into the garbage for a year. You could write a blog about it." My first reaction was to laugh. I'm a musician, not a writer. I've tried the blog thing before and was not very successful with it. But as the night went on and the idea percolated, I decided that it was a good idea after all.

A bit of background on me and my family. I grew up in the Waterloo Region, the home of the world's first residential recycling program. I still remember when our family got its first blue box. As a resident of one of the townships, we had to wait longer to receive this program than residents of the cities. As a member of the environmental club at my elementary school, this made me sad that I could recycle bottles, cans, and paper at school, but had to throw them out at home. The day that I came home from school and found the blue box sitting on our porch was a very happy day indeed. From then on our family recycled everything that we could. My parents also purchased a composter (this was before the Region gave them out for free) and we composted kitchen scraps. Recycling and composting, although sometimes inconvenient was a way of life.

When Matt and I got married, this way of life continued. In our apartment we stuffed our little blue bag full with recyclables and when we bought our first house we got a composter and happily composted everything we could. When our children arrived, we chose to use cloth diapers, even though disposables would have been more convenient. (I must confess that we did have disposables on hand, but very rarely used them) In our four person household with two children in diapers, we regularly put out only half a bag of garbage per week. We would look around at other people on our street who had fewer people in the house, and were amazed at how much garbage they would put out at the curb each week. Now that we are blessed with a green bin program, we regularly put out only a kitchen catcher sized bag of garbage each week.

Caring for the earth is part of who we are, and garbage reduction is but a part of that. We use our clothesline whenever we can. Laundry gets done on sunny days and hung outside whenever possible. We do have a dryer, and it is used during the winter, and if the weather is rotten and the laundry has piled up too high spring through fall. In the winter our thermostat is kept at 20ºC (68ºF), though we've discovered that since our thermostat shares an uninsulated wall with our refrigerator that the actually temperature within the house tends to be closer to to 18.8ºC (66ºF). It definitely is chilly, but sweaters and blankets help make that more bearable. In the evenings our thermostat is set to 17.5ºC (64ºF). In the summer we do use air conditioning, but try to use it sparingly. Midday it's set to 29.5ºC (85ºF), morning and evening to 26.5ºC (80ºF) and night to 24.5ºC (76ºF). The high midday setting is also due to the time of use electricity pricing, as our one income family looks to save money in many ways. We also try to grow some of our own food, which in the past has included tomatoes, peppers, strawberries and herbs. I make some of my own preserves (salsa, relish, jam, peaches, pears) using locally sourced ingredients, and shop at local producers whenever possible. There are times when practicality and monetary restrictions make this challenging, but we try hard to tread lightly upon the earth nonetheless.

We've been married for 11 years, live in a village without transit service, but have managed to survive for most of that time on one vehicle. We had a second vehicle for a short time when I was working part time, but gave it up when I decided to be at home full time again. This means some early mornings dropping Matt off at the nearest bus stop when I need a car for the day, or asking to borrow my mother's car if it's just a short errand. In the summer Matt also bikes the 15 km to work regularly. Our one car has made for some very wet and cold walks to school over the years, but I always feel guilty when I drive that one kilometre to the school.

Now that you know a bit more about where we're coming from, back to the garbage free challenge. Matt's idea came from the articles that have been written recently about the usage, or lack thereof, of the green bin program, and the projected timeline until our regional landfill is full. I know the region is tossing around ideas, including reducing the bag limit or even going to biweekly garbage collection, while keeping recycling and green bin collection every week. Before jumping into this idea of a garbage free year, I felt I needed to sit down and do some research into what the current practices are for recycling (to make sure I am following them correctly!) as well as other waste collection.

My first stop was the Region of Waterloo Waste Management website, specifically their Blue Box brochure. There has long been debate in our house as to what types of plastic bags are allowed in our recycling. The Blue Box brochure alluded to shopping bags being okay, and plastic wrap and baggies as unacceptable. But what about milk bags? We are in Canada after all, and that's the most affordable way to purchase milk for a family. I sent an email off to the Region's Waste Management department last night asking about the milk bags, as well as Ziplock bags and plastic packaging containing recycling symbols. First thing this morning I received this reply:

"Currently everything you ask about is recyclable, however,  it's not to that extent in our Region.  We need to have companies that will purchase certain grades of plastic from us.  We recycle retail bags because the company that buys them says they are consistent with what the content is made of and easily breaks down evenly for recycling.  Any other plastic bag, wrap, shrink wrap, bags with the triangle symbol (bread, salt softener, etc), ziplock and other clear plastic bags are not at this time taken in our region.

Plastic packaging such as those hard bubbles surrounded by cardboard are recyclable but the cardboard needs to be separated from it.   We like to suggest to residents to stick to household containers that are rigid plastic with a triangle symbol from 1 - 7 on it are all recyclable."

Thank you to the Region for their prompt reply to my question. It is a rather unfortunate reply, however, as this puts a wrench in our plans, and also means we've been "contaminating" our recycling by recycling milk bags, bread bags and other plastic bags when we shouldn't have been. 

When Matt brought up this idea, he went on to clarify it a bit more by indicating that it's likely impossible to live completely garbage free, but that we could "save up" our garbage by cleaning it and storing it for the year. This is where my idea of the "one bag, one year" comes in. Could we fit all of our garbage for a year into a 33 gallon garbage bag? Meat packages would have to be washed before being stored, and items like milk and bread may have to be procured in different ways. Bread could be made, and milk could be purchased in cartons, depending on the cost difference, as cartons are recyclable. 

The next few days at our house will bring about some more research and more discussions about whether or not this venture will work. If we decide it will work, I hope for a July 1 start date. I will then take the time to blog about our experiences about living as garbage free as possible, sharing our challenges and hopefully creative ways we've come up with to leave as small a footprint as possible on our earth.