Week of Trash, Day 3 Results
Not much, right? 2 aluminum Coke cans, a little bit of product packaging, the outside piece of "throwaway paper" from the Netflix envelopes, a banana peel, squash skin, and a napkin or two. We even had a guest arrive, who is staying with us. Not bad, except for the fact that we ate out last night, and I flew solo at lunch and just snacked. (We're often 2 people for lunch, 2 for dinner.)
Today I want to take a quick moment to talk about my organic waste again. Yesterday I had a ton of it. When I lived in Mexico (2002-2005), we didn't have garbage disposals, and I missed them so much. I hated putting that stopper in the drain and then having to clean it out with all of the gook that wound up sitting inside of it.
Then, last year, we came back to the US. I figured that it must be a good way to get rid of organic waste - doesn't go to a landfill, right? But now I find that everywhere I look, water conservation guides tell me not to use it. From the County website: Minimize the use of the garbage disposal. They are unsanitary, use tons of water and clog pipes. And I assume that all of that stuff in the water adds more process to the water treatment? (I have no idea, just a guess.)
So, that is why you see most of my organic waste in the trash, and not down the drain. I still use it a tiny bit, so as to avoid the whole "gook" situation...but I try to utilize water that would already be going down the drain.
Note: It seems to me that I should be analyzing how much of my trash is product packaging, in addition to what I've been looking at. (I just checked the definition in Wikipedia.) I'm not sure how I'll measure it, but in my inventory, I think I'll make a "PP" annotation to the side of something that is Product Packaging. Maybe also at the end of the week I can separate it all out to get a sense of the "size" impact.
No No Organic Waste
No No (PP) Paperboard: cream cheese box & other small boxes, paper napkins
Yes Yes Netflix paper
Yes Yes (PP) Aluminum Cans (we use these for the occasional guest or craving, because we found the 2 liter bottles just go to waste)
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