Trash hauling as eco-lesson? Tess Vigeland, a woman in Pasadena, has pledged to carry around her trash around with her for two weeks — and blog about her experience at Tess’ Trash Challenge for American Public Radio.
So since last weekend, Tess has been lugging around all her non-recyclable trash — minus pet feces due to health issues — as a sort of challenge / experiment to reduce trash.
And — You’re challenged to do the same!
Try it, and you could very well save some money. Pasadena charges more for bigger garbage containers, Tess points out. “Our family uses the smallest trash bin available, 32 gallons, for which we’re charged $12.08 per month. There is no charge for the recycling and yard bins of any size.”
Beth at Fake Plastic Fish’s already joined in; she’s ahead, since her personal de-plasticking pledge predates Tess’ trash challenge. Read and be inspired –
I can’t commit to hauling everything — a feat that seems especially difficult if one’s biking places — but I’ll try collecting my nonrecyclable trash for 2 weeks and see how big the pile gets –
[image from TTC]
If you compost your food waste, you might be surprised how easy it is to haul around your trash. It seems like L.A. accepts every kind of plastic container for recycling, so you’re just left with used paper products like napkins and maybe some wrappers. Doing the trash challenge finally got me carrying my own cloth napkin today (actually a bandana.)
However, you have to be careful what other people bring you. I got through almost the whole day today with only 2 tiny pieces of trash, and then some friends came over and brought a cake in a big plastic container, the bottom of which is not recyclable anywhere near me. So I’m going to have to upgrade to a bigger trash bag.
Comment by Beth Terry — September 22, 2007 @ 3:47 am