Trash! Steps 1-4

1. The image below illustrates the products that I used for less than ten minutes, and the products that I used for more than ten minutes.

This really opens my eyes to the fact that the majority of my waste is from food packaging and once my family consumes that food, the packaging is disposed of. The pile of waste in the box illustrates the waste used for more than ten minutes, and the pile below illustrates the waste used for less than ten minutes. This process opened my eyes to the fact that mainstream America uses and wastes materials rapidly as if these resources are going to exist forever.

2. Guideline two for trash calls for the establishment of a mobile reusable eating kit, including tupperware, a container for hot and cold liquids, utensils, and a cloth towel. Many of these items I already carry with me on a daily basis. As the class can probably attest to, I eat my oatmeal out of a tupperware container each morning in first block. I always take this tupperware, which is usually reused lunchmeat packaging, home with me to wash it. Also, everyday I bring real silverware with which to eat my oatmeal, so there're usually quite a few utensils in the bottom of my backpack. Every morning, I bring my Circle K or Panthers coffee cup with my coffee or tea to first block. For the rest of the day, I carry my Nalgene and fill up with water at school water fountains. Something I need to start carrying around are reused bags to collect my compostables and recyclable materials when no receptacles are available. The picture below shows my routine travel kit. My mom and younger brother are generally good about using reusable receptacles for their liquids and food; while my father still reverts to drinking bottled water.

3. Guideline three calls for the elimination of trash. I'm going to attempt to educate my family on which materials are composted, which are recyclable, and which have to go to the trash. In order to accomplish this, I'm going to label each receptacle with reused paper denoting the acceptable materials to deposit.

Compost Sign (As soon as I affixed this label, my mom moved it (she's a major offender of not composting) saying that it makes the cabinets look cluttered. No matter how much I try, I think this NIMBYism is a result of their generation. After the compost accumulates in the paper bag, I then take it out to my compost pile; pictured below the receptacles.

Another step I took to help minimize the family's waste stream was to post a reminder sign next to where we keep our recycling bin. It includes a list of all the materials accepted curbside in Charlotte. One of the routine contaminants in the CLT recycling stream are plastic bags, so I wrote a reminder to keep bags out of the bin. In order to have our bin accessible, we keep a red bin inside; then dump it into our large rollaway cart. Below is my list and recycling bin. 

Here is where my family keeps the plastic bags that aren't recyclable curbside, however are accepted at Food Lion, Harris Teeter; and other local grocery stores.

The last portion of guideline three called for the creation of a special bag to collect all the trash I accidentally created over the course of the week. Something I noticed is that some materials that I use/eat everyday are packaged in a non reusable, recyclable, or compostable container. Something that Mrs. Toth knows I enjoy every second block on A day are my Lance Reduced Fat Toast Chees. The cracker wrapper is made of crinkly plastic that isn't recyclable. Also, I need to buy a reusable lunch box, because I've been using a Ziploc bag that gets dirty easily and I end up having to get rid of it. In addition, this lunch box should be big enough for tupperware so my sandwiches won't have to be packed in space saving plastic.
Here is a sample of the "trash" I produced during the project.

The majority of my trash was compostable, made up of tissues, apple cores, and paper cups. I need to start using a handkerchief, and always make sure I'm not caught out without my Nalgene. The rest of the trash that can be eliminated are the small sandwich sized ziploc bags; which can be replaced with tupperware. The remaining trash is from food that was purchased and whose packaging was un recyclable. Namely, Toast Chees!