Talking Trash

Fact: Americans generate 4.6 pounds of garbage per person per day. Think about it: That is 1679 pounds of garbage per person per year. The average household was 2.6 persons (2003, U.S. Census Bureau, 1/13/08) which equates to 4365.4 pounds of garbage per year. That is over 2 tons of waste per average American household per year. I find that fact to be absolutely disgusting. And just imagine what the average person's contribution is over the lifetime. What a "gift"!

Several years ago, it occurred to me that our family contribution to the landfill was the legacy we leave to future generations. It was as if all that waste I placed in the garbage can was a gift to unknown future generations. I could almost see their hands arising from the garbage can to receive that gift. My own inner voice countered as if a visceral reaction: No, thank you!

Several epiphanies happened along my path to raise this awareness. (1) When I was growing up in the 1950s and 60s, I would accompany my father in our big green station wagon on those weekly trips to "the dump". In those days, it was "do it yourself" disposal. Otherwise, the stinking stuff would accumulate in the summer's heat in our garage. I remember my father driving through that entrance, over a rise, and down that precarious road into a place where we were surrounded with mountains of sharp, glistening, almost confetti-like, stinking trash. I could not wait to get away. (2) In the early 90s, I was given a reference which showed how long it took stuff to biodegrade, in other words to return back to the Earth. Common ordinary stuff took dozens, hundreds, even thousands of years. (3) I started seeing waste wherever I went, including my home town, retail outlets, when I traveled to intensely peopled areas like New York, Cairo, and Venice. (4) I remember seeing garbage piles in Luxor, Egypt, which seemed to "melt" back down into the Earth. Because the materials were largely organic, they biodegraded very quickly. At that time, western consumerist practices were creeping in. That waste just sat there. And they wanted to be like us? (5) Although I had not asked for them, people sent me pictures of waste. Melanie sent me a picture of a garbage barge headed out of the New York harbor. You could almost smell it. At the same time, I began reading about waste washing up on beaches on the east coast, including some pretty hazardous stuff. (6) In 1997, Grand Forks experienced a devastating flood. This natural disaster laid waste to many possessions of families in our community. We carried the heavy, dripping, stinking stuff up to the berm, where a pile 6-8 feet tall from house to house lined city streets. I began to see how little we needed. (7) When the new millenium began, a contentious issue for our community was the re-siting of the city's landfill since the original one was soon to be full. Turtle River Township in Grand Forks County had been targeted for the city's dump. I went to some of the hearings and followed the issue on local news. I discovered with great disdain the effects on local residents who had long histories of living in the area. Perhaps one of the most inspiring stories came from Ann Leesom, who spoke with quiet eloquence regarding the effect such a siting would have on her neighborhood. The reality that my garbage was soon to sit in their country township filtering into their lives filled me with disgust. (8) I began to have a growing awareness of what I was putting into the garbage can on its way to the landfill. I could no longer do nothing about it. Being too busy didn't cut it. This was important. Business as usual? No, thank you.

Over the years, my family and I began gradually reducing our waste stream. We got the bulk of this practice started while we lived in Grand Forks and were busy with our work-a-day worlds. This was important. We started with one thing that really bugged us (recycling). We got good at it. Then we moved on to something else. We got good at it. Looking at our waste now, I am proud of what we have done. We will do more. These are some of the things we do and we started them all, one at a time:

• We consciously consider waste when we purchase products. If the product produces waste which cannot be recycled/reused and it is not essential, we look for another choice.
• We buy in bulk. In Grand Forks, we carried our own clean containers to fill at Amazing Grains, a natural food store. It is not so easy here in northeast Missouri but we will figure it out.
• We recycle as much as we can: paper, cardboard, plastic. We feel fortunate to have an excellent recycling center in town about 10 miles away. In Grand Forks, we had curbside recycling, a project begun by an Eagle Scout. Here, we have to carry the items. We stack them in the garage and periodically take them into town.
• We pick up waste that we find wherever we go and we recycle it.
• We reuse products until they are no longer functional. That includes plastic bags and tubs.
• We compost kitchen scraps in our own luscious compost pile or take it to the chickens who do a gleeful chicken dance whenever they see that blue bucket coming.
• We do not put yard and garden waste into the garbage, but rather put it in the compost pile. The next year we have soil.
• We carry our own bottles of water wherever we go.
• We don't eat fast food, whose waste lasts far longer than the quick meal.
• We convert old cotton sheets, towels, clothing, etc., into soft wonderful rags, which we use instead of paper towels (the only exception is that I find paper towels superior for windows).
• We use handmade cloth napkins at meals. We continue to use them as long as they are clean. (If you are company at our house, you get fresh ones.)
• We pass on magazines to friends, coffee shops.
• We give books to the library or book sales for special causes.
• We try never to waste food.
• When we have big meals at our house for a crowd, we give the extra food to the mission.
• We take used clothing to thrift stores.
• We shop at thrift stores.
• We print on both sides of paper.
• We buy recycled when we can.
• We purchase only what we need.
• We carry cloth bags to the grocery store or other retail outing.
• We do not purchase fads or fashions some guru in some place far aways prescribes as "in"; we establish our own trends; we use, wear, and surround ourselves with things we love that will endure for a long time.
• When we moved, we downsized a huge amount. We passed items on to those who would use them. We had to be very mindful about this. We hardly had any increase in our garbage during that time.
• We try never to take styrofoam. That includes "doggy bags" when we eat out.
• We look to my Mom for inspiration; her 1930s Depression background shows us the work of a master in never wasting anything.

This entry precipitated quite a discussion by my family. We looked again at what we contribute to the public landfill. While we have decreased substantially the amount of waste we contribute, we concluded we could do better. And we will. Isn't life fun?

Dear Reader, what meaning do you make of these things in your life?

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Top photo: Richard takes the week's garbage out to the road for pick-up. Since our scale is missing among the unopened boxes of our move, he estimated the weight instead: 15-18 pounds. Almost all weight and volume was cat litter. The remaining was next to nothing. That is a huge decrease from years past and significantly less than the national average. For this week, we produced less than 1 pound per person per day. Multiplied over 365 days, that is still a chunk to pass on. We shall be looking at what we can do about cat litter and some other things besides.

Note: The fact quoted at the beginning of this entry came from a magazine Sarah Saltmarsh passed on to us: Organic Gardening, November-December 2007-08, page 16. We cannot bear to throw magazines away. It is even a stretch to recycle them. We like to pass them on to others to stir those good ideas out in the community. Perhaps you could call it planting seeds. Thanks Sarah!