Zero-ish Waste

If your neighbours put out 3 bags of garbage per year, they are probably minimalists.

It is easy to identify minimalists in your community. Just wait for garbage day.

Minimalists have less stuff, including trash. Less stuff in - less stuff out. 

This is especially noticeable on garbage day in a disposable everything consumer society where big piles of garbage bags are a common sight. 

As people began to buy more consumer products in the 50s and 60s, the landfill economy emerged in all its stinking, wasteful glory.

Big Waste made its appearance, and municipal, plastic, electronic, and food garbage all showed a marked growth. 

The landfill economy is a one way model from raw materials to manufacturing to retail to our homes, and finally to the landfill, probably sooner than later. 

It is a disposable model with products wearing out and breaking down by design so more units can be sold, and profits realized.

This model doubled average waste generation in only twenty years, the fastest increase in garbage production in human history. 

What an achievement.

Over the last year I have been tracking how much waste our household generates, and now that we are coming up to the end of the year, I can share the results. 

I have been amazed and surprised at the numbers that came up. It seems impossible, but the numbers don’t lie.

We have green bin pickup here, but all our organic waste from the kitchen, garden, and yard goes into our compost pile. 

Other things that have helped us reduce waste generation are 

1. Choosing a lifestyle that minimizes consumption

2. Focusing on what we need rather than what we want. 

3. Buying in bulk to reduce packaging

4. Making as many of the things we need as possible

5. Repairing rather than replacing

6. Making things last through gentle use and maintenance, and wearing them out completely   

7. Focusing on experiences over possessions.

 

8. Making most of what we eat from scratch using whole ingredients

 

 

The Results

In the past 12 months our two person household produced 3 regulation sized bags of garbage. 

Three. That’s it. The consumer landfill economy can not continue if extreme waste reduction ever catches on. We are doing what we can to make that happen.

At the same time, we generated 8 standard bags of paper, cardboard, metal, glass, and plastic recycling.

From casual observations, this volume of waste production is less than what our neighbours in the area put out on every two week garbage pick up day.

I challenge anyone to try not buying anything, or even just less, for a while, and witness the amazing things it does for your waste production, not to mention your bank account, and sense of satisfaction.

My household may not be zero waste, but we have achieved zero-ish waste status, and it feels good.

Or maybe that should be zero waste-ish. 

Either way, we can see that the war on wicked waste can be won.