Filed under: Waste + Recycling | Tags: "reduce, coms 130, food waste, gargage, recycle, recycling, reuse, waste, waste management, why recycle
So how about some good trash talk on one of my roommates for a change?
The other day, she asks me if I would tell her the next time I’m going to take the recycling, because– get ready, read slowly, you’re not seeing things– “my recycling is full”
She opens the cabinet under the sink (I thought we only kept cleaning supplies down there) and I see this:
Stifling a gasp, I look up and see a little green-arrow recycling-logo-halo form just above her head. Last semester, I gave a speech on recycling. I guess at least one of the three practice speeches I delivered to her carried influence. Maybe it was my sweet pie-chart on waste disposal, I just can’t be sure.
I’ll tell you now what I told my coms class: Each year, Americans generate enough waste to fill a convoy of garbage trucks halfway to the moon. Whoa! (My classmates, unfortunately, were less captivated by this factoid than I’d hoped). However, if my recyclables are recycled correctly, my personal contribution isn’t grotesque. I live in a scale-free apartment (with two other girls, who knew?) but I’ll call it a fair estimate that my trash falls far below the average American’s 7.5 pounds per week.
(This has been a nomadic weekend for me so I’m missing some plastic wrap from leftovers I had for dinner, a styrofoam cup from OJ at work and a salad bar container).
I’d say 95% of my trash is related to food. My daily granola bar wrapper, snack size m+m’s, salad bar plastic containers, anything messy, paper towels for covering microwaveables– they all end up in the trash can. I’m never home, but snacking continuously, which results in lots of little, single-serving and individually wrapped throw-aways.
I can think of two possible solutions: 1. Go on a diet (“possible” in no way represents “likely,” mind you)
2.Buy in bulk and use reusable tiny tupperware to transport
I used to think that recycling yielded zero-waste. Thinking back, it was my speeches implicit thesis. I’m learning now that the process of recycling is sometimes inefficient, uses plenty of energy (though less than producing virgin materials) and can require lots of transport, which wastes fuel. Reduce, reuse, recycle seems be in descending order of which deserves the most focus.
Where you can’t reduce, however, I still think recycling’s the answer, but not even necessarily from an environmentalist standpoint. I used to take my sandwich/chip lunch in two new Ziplock bags each day. When down to my last two, my stinginess led me to the more ecologically sound practice I use today: Reuse the same two bags forever and ever. Recycling also helps me with stress management. I enjoy few things more than hurling my empty glass bottles into the recycle bin in mock rage. That intentional shattering isn’t welcome just anywhere, you know.
-Sonya English
Filed under: Waste + Recycling | Tags: carbon footprint, Chicago, KU Greeks, Naismth Hall, recycle, Sigma Delta Tau
I grew up with a freakishly clean, recycle-maniac of a father in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. I consciously was aware of the numbers at the bottom of my yogurt containers at a very young age. Recycling has always been something I was an advocate of. I had to be, or else my dad would make me go through the garbage and pick out what I forgot to put into the recycling bin. Now, I am ’sort of’ on my own. Instead of taking the apartment route after living in Naismith Hall freshman year, I decided to take the sorority route. There are many perks of joining a sorority. One of the primary ones is living in the chapter’s house. Currently, I live in a house with 35 other girls and a house mother. Not my ideal living situation, either.
Let’s just say… sorority girls + lack of recycling + waste consumption = a large carbon footprint.
Since I live in a communal household, I throw my garbage away wherever I see a trash can (bathroom, hallway, foyer, dining area, etc.) My own personal trash (consisting of food wrappers, used paper, water bottles, dryer sheets, etc.—some things I definitely should recyle) can has been collecting garbage for about 3 weeks now. It is still not completely full. It weighs about 5 pounds. On the other hand, garbage cans everywhere in the house are just piling up. Sorority sisters (myself included) are putting their papers, plastics, etc. into the garbage seemingly non-chalant. There are moments I realize…wow, we really should have a recycling program (other than just stuffing cans into a cardboard box that never gets dropped off anywhere in order to be recycled).
*My own little garbage can in my room.
* The paper towels stacking up in the bathroom. This is less than 24 hours worth of thrown away towels.
I’m putting my psychology major cap on and am thinking about it like this: my sorority sisters (generally) are not consciously aware of their carbon footprints as they place their garbage into the garbage can. Many people out there are intimidated and threatened by the large influence humans have on the planet. Or maybe they just don’t know how to recycle or be “waste smart”. Maybe they are just not educated about their impact.
Even if there was a recycling program at the sorority house…would that even make a difference? Would my sisters even consider these recycling bins before placing their recycleable trash into the garbage? All I can say is this: I’m glad I’m being educated about my carbon footprint. I’m thankful for my freakishly clean, recycle-maniac of a father who told me it was important to recycle because we were saving the world.
*the pitiful “recycling program” we have.
-Dena Hart
I used to live in rural Douglas County where there wasn’t any municipal trash service. We would hold onto our trash for a week and whenever the smell began to overpower the back porch, we’d haul it to town and toss it into an unsuspecting apartment Dumpster. We didn’t recycle. Nothing like living under the same roof with your trash will make you appreciate how much garbage you produce.
So over a period of several years, and after adjusting to the conveniences of city life again, we learned how to reduce our trash. We now recycle everything we can, re-use plastic Ziploc bags, compost our veggie and fruit scraps, and we try to reduce the amount of packaging in our purchases. Not that it’s automatic, though. Sometimes I am incredibly reluctant to do this. More times than I can count I haven’t wanted to shuffle across the yard with the compost or grumbled in the morning when I realized that I hadn’t emptied the reusuable coffee filter from the day before.
But living with the Reduce-Reuse-Recycle mantra has paid off. We now go through about one small (13-gallon size) trash bag every 7-10 days. When I weighed out and photographed my trash, I wasn’t surprised that most of what I photographed wasn’t destined for the brown bin at the curb.
I’d made enchiladas for dinner, had leftovers for lunch before that and began the day with an egg and an orange. Round that out with a bottle of wine, the newspaper and the coffee grounds for the day, the junkmail and the dryer lint (ew), and it doesn’t amount to much. In fact, my total trash weighed in at 4.5 pounds, but the amount I threw away – the cheese bag, the tea bag wrapper, the aforementioned dog waste – amounted to what I’d estimate was about 8 oz (I wasn’t about to weigh my canine’s …um…trash contribution, but I’m confident in the estimate).
But this little experiment took place in winter, not anywhere near a celebration or holiday. At the visit to the landfill on Friday, I learned that the amount of trash spikes in the summer and after seasonal holidays (think of plastic easter grass, heart boxes at valentines day, gift wrapping paper and packaging, etc.). And in a college town like Lawrence, it also increases dramatically in August and May, the typical move-out/move-in seasons. How many of us have hastily left chemicals, furniture, clothes, junk mail and even our recyclables at the curb on move-out day, all because we just wanted to be done with the process?
–Jen Humphrey
