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A few years ago I read a book I loved, Garbage Land: On the Secret Trail of Trash, that really opened my eyes. For the first time it honestly made me realize that the fact that I throw out vast quantities of stuff is not actually a good thing. Yes, it’s good to want to clear clutter, but I shouldn’t be living a life that takes such a toll on the planet around me.
Today I saw an awesome blog and video called The Zero Waste Home (thanks for pointing this out Money Saving Mom). I loved the video and the message included, and definitely encourage you to take a minute or two out of your day to see what this “Zero Waste” home looks like.
The craziest/most inspiring thing? Although this family used to put out a garbage bin’s worth on their curb once a week, they’ve since changed their ways. Look out how much how little trash this family has collected in four months:
That’s it! Amazing, isn’t it?!?! Four months!
So what are some of the things you won’t find in this Zero Waste home? (And hopefully in your own?) Plastic water bottles, for one. Disposable diapers, for another;)
So, how much waste do you produce a week in your family? How are you trying to reduce your family’s waste?
I’m sad to say that we currently put about two tall trash bags a week out for the trash collector. And there’s only two of us–we don’t have kids. At least not yet–we’ve got one on the way, and that motivates me to change a lot of the ways we’re living. I want to leave a better world for this little one, and teach him or her to be a good steward of the earth–not just with my words, but by example.
I had seen this video on the front page of Yahoo the other day, and I was *totally* inspired by it. I know we can’t do everything they’re doing, at least not all at once. But it inspired me to start making small changes where I can. I’m going to invest next month in some re-usable produce bags to take to the store and the market, and find out if my health food store will let me use my own containers for the bulk bins. Thanks for posting this!
Reusable bags are an AWESOME first step!
We are fortunate to live where curbside recycling is done very well. We can recycle a lot of stuff very easily. We also have a curbside bin for yard waste that also takes food scraps for composting. I buy a lot of things in bulk, and very little “packaged food”, so for our family of 4 I generally have 1 13 gallon kitchen bag of garbage each week.
Oh so you don’t keep your own compost — you can just put everything in the curbside yard waste bin? That’s cool your city has that;)