I'm ready to take the Zero Garbage Challenge

By Katherine

My mother-in-law claims to own Ziploc bags older than me.

I don’t doubt it. I’ve been watching her meticulously washing the same ones out for reuse since I met her son 17 years ago. 

I used to find this behavior strange and suspicious—one of those neurotic habits of the sort who grew up during the Great Depression and will be damned to spend precious dimes during the next economic downturn on something as silly as a new sandwich baggie.

Now, what I find stranger is that those baggies are no worse for their decades of wear. They just keep going and going and going. It makes we wonder what all those baggies I used and discarded during the youthful indiscretions of my brown bag lunch days are up to currently.

Maybe they’re hanging out in a landfill with a few plastic grocery bag cousins, shooting the breeze for all eternity about their brief moments in the sun--those few hours when they held precious contents before being thrown away in yet another plastic bag. 

Or maybe they blew off a garbage truck and spent a few fun years flying around with the birds before landing in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch where they were broken up into little pieces of plastic plankton and later ingested by unsuspecting sea life.

This keeps me up at night.

I curbed my indulgent plastic baggie practices long ago, and I’m proud to say I own a few Ziplocs purchased before the birth of my four-year-old.  

Also I compost and try to only purchase items with packaging that can be recycled. I make most of my own cleaners; avoid purchasing processed, over-packaged foods and all that jazz. Still, my family and I somehow fill up a trash bag at least once a week.

I aspire to do better, which is while I’ll be attending the Zero Garbage Workshop on Friday, March 18 to learn some tips on eliminating trash.

Rose Brown of the Zero Garbage Challenge will lead the discussion and teach us all how she threw away her last bag of garbage in December 2008! 

Anyone out there want to join me in trying for zero-ish household waste this year?

 

 

 

 

Comments

[Tracey]

Me!!

Have you seen the fabric snack bag tutorial on angrychicken's blog? On my wish list!

[Jen]

I am trying to go trash free this year. If you check out my progress during the No Impact Experiment you can see how close I am....but still seems so far away!