All My Trash for October 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 look to see where I can 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 a few cans of tuna and clams a month, a few glass jars of olives or mustard with metal lids, and junk mail. But even so, I try to reduce the amount of metal, glass, and paper we use.
So, now that we’ve covered the ground rules, let’s dive in! Here’s all my trash for the month of October!
The most obvious item this month is my rapid COVID test. I work for Abbott which makes a rapid COVID test and they gave us a free six-week supply of tests. Despite getting tested at work once a week, I decided to take another test since I was feeling particularly crappy.
The other major item that stuck out is the Rosemary Serum for hair growth. As I talked about in this post, I dealt with some hair loss earlier this year that really stressed me. My hair is growing back and I’m fine but this serum was one of the things I used in my hair:
You can read more about my hair loss journey here:
My company had a celebration and they brought in two food trucks…a sushi truck and a chicken and waffles truck. I wasn’t sure about getting sushi from a food truck plus their food was in big plastic containers. The chicken and waffles truck had paper boxes for their chicken and waffle sandwich…so I went with that.
BUT…when I opened up the box it had a tiny tub of syrup. Sometimes, it’s so hard to avoid plastic…even when you think you’re doing it well!
The online packages are the other thing bother me. I’m torn between buying used books that oftentimes arrive in plastic and buying e-books. Normally, to avoid the plastic, I buy e-books and read them on my phone. But I was purchasing an environmental health textbook and figured it would be tough to read on my phone.
What do you think? Are you interested in doing a trash audit? Maybe for a day or a week? Tell me if you do in the comments!
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