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 November!

Overall, I’m happy with the outcome but there are a lot of big pieces that stick out. First, last month was my daughter’s birthday and she wanted to make pizza at home. Part of my pizza routine includes ricotta. Looking back on it, I only used a few dollops of ricotta and I can definitely skip that next time.

The other large item that stands out is the packaging from a phone tripod. I’ve been making more Reels on Instagram and needed a tripod to help get the right shots.

Also, I’ve been ordering different items online including some Christmas presents for my kids and while most of them come in a cardboard box, they almost ALWAYS have air pillows. These things drive me nuts because they even come with items that clearly don’t need pillows…like books. Anyways, the best thing I can do is reduce my online orders which hopefully I can try after the holiday season.

Finally, this has happened to me a few times now, where I sit down to eat at a restaurant and get a mix of reusable and disposable items. This one shown below was baffling to me because they could have easily given me the mac and cheese in a smaller bowl. It just goes to show that even when you think you’re doing a good job at avoiding single-use plastics, sometimes you can’t avoid them

In a few other cases, I’ve received salad dressing in a plastic cup, but I think this might be a COVID related restriction because I’ve seen many restaurants that have a whole cabinet dedicated to tiny portions of various condiments.

All the other items are pretty common across my trash audits and I haven’t found a solution for them yet. I’m hoping that as bulk bins open back up, I’ll be able to find panko breadcrumbs and as legislation in California amends the health code, hopefully, I’ll be able to bring my own containers to the butcher again!

What do you think? Are you interested in a trash audit? If not for a whole month, how about just a week or even a day?

For related and random posts, check out:

• All My Trash for 2020
• A Day in My Plastic-Free Life: Part 1