All My Trash for January 2021
I’ve been saving my trash in a “plastic audit” since October of 2019. I live a generally plastic-free lifestyle but I’m not 100% plastic-free…yet. So, to see where the last 1% of my trash was coming from, I started keeping track of all of it. At the end of each month, I take a look to see where I could improve.
A few reminders of the rules. This is just my trash not my whole family’s (although they don’t generate too much more than this). My husband is not as stringent on plastic as I am, so he buys a weekly tub of yogurt and occasionally some bacon. But again, my husband and kids don’t generate too much more trash than me.
Finally, the city I live in provides compost and recycling along with trash pick-up. Now, given the state of recycling, I only recycle metal, glass, and paper. This generally includes 4 cans of tuna a month, a few glass jars with metal lids, and junk mail. But even so, I try to reduce the amount of cans, glass, and paper I recycle.
So, now that we’ve covered the ground rules, let’s dive in! Here’s all my trash for the month of January!
Overall, I’m stoked at how small my trash pile is this month! It’s one of my smallest monthly trash piles and I can see a difference when compared to my January pile from 2020:
Let’s break it down eat week to see what I learned.
Week 1
Week 1 was pretty uneventful. We have the usual produce stickers and plastic from cheese. I’ve been working to reduce the amount of cheese we use. I think we’re down to a 2lb block each month.
We also have some plastic seals to glass bottles. I still can’t find zero waste options for things like fish sauce which is used in Vietnamese cuisines or hot sauce…which I put on everything! Luckily, I’ve found a HUGE 32 ounce bottle of Tapatio hot sauce so that will probably last us all year.
Week 2
Week 2 is pretty boring. I bought my monthly allotment of chicken…which is about 3 – 4 pounds. I usually buy 6 whole chicken legs. Depending on which week it is, I either use one or two and then freeze the rest.
Week 3
During Week 3 I got a new laptop for work. So, I had to remove the work-related stickers I had from my laptop. I participate in different affinity groups at work related to encouraging girls to go into STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) careers and helping develop female leaders within our organization. The laptop also came with a battery charger which was plastic wrapped.
Week 4
Week 4 I bought some Andes Mints. I love these and wished they didn’t come in plastic, but alas, they do. I saw that they have a large bar instead of individually wrapped pieces at Walmart, but didn’t find any so I settled for a Valentine’s day special which included a pack of cookies and cream candy. It was delicious and worth it!
I also broke a hair tie this week…most hair ties are made of polyester…i.e. plastic. So, I included it in my trash audit. There are several brands of organic cotton biodegradable hair ties, but I’m still working through the bunch of hair ties I purchased years ago.
Overall, this month, I’ve been trying a few things with my diet. Even though I love cheese, cheese does not love me. So, next month, I’m going to be giving up cheese (wish me luck). And I’m going to be finding ways to get my hot sauce kick without having to purchase bottles. I’m thinking of making my own Chinese chili oil or making my own hot sauce. We’ll see how this goes. 😛
Are you interested in trying a trash audit? If not for a month, then how about a week or even a day?
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