On a Garbage Diet

by Rachel Dunstan Muller

I admit it: until recently, I didn’t give the amount of garbage my family produces much thought. Yes, I was aware that finding landfill space is an ongoing challenge for many Island communities. Yes, I’d read that some of my own region’s garbage is transported to as far away as Washington State. Not an ideal situation, but not the most pressing environmental concern, either. Next to issues like global warming and mass species extinction, how much trash we lugged to the curb didn’t seem that important.

It took a chapter in David Suzuki’s Green Guide to give me new perspective. According to Suzuki, the garbage I see is just the tip of the iceberg. On average, 200 kilograms of waste and pollution are generated upstream to produce and transport the materials in each kilogram of waste we leave out for the garbage collector. In other words, for every garbage can we fill, the equivalent of 200 more cans worth of waste have already been burned, landfilled, or otherwise released into the environment. It’s mind-boggling. Obscene, even.

Motivated by this information, I decided it was time my family went on a garbage diet. To get my husband and teenagers onside, I asked them all to watch a fast-paced animated mini-documentary called “The Story of Stuff.” It was more effective than any lecture I could have given. To check it out yourself, go to www.storyofstuff.com.

To get our garbage diet started, we turned to the three R’s. Reducing consumption is the most important strategy in scaling back waste. We have a baby and a toddler as well as our teenagers, so using cloth diapers religiously was the most obvious way to reduce our garbage. Disposable diapers weren’t the only convenience items we gave the boot. We replaced paper napkins with cloth ones, and paper towels with rags. When I caught a nasty cold I used my husband’s handkerchiefs instead of Kleenex. As the chief grocery shopper, I made a special effort to bring less packaging into our house. I found a super-concentrated laundry detergent at a health food store, bought bulk containers of everything from yogurt to shampoo, and avoided single-serving containers like the plague.

To further reduce consumption, we agreed to shop for quantity instead of quality. We’d already been using this strategy in certain areas. For instance, when our teenagers were younger, we used to buy them a new backpack every year. It wasn’t simply a matter of keeping up with the latest trends; the cheap packs we’d bought in September had fallen apart by the end of the following June. Then a few years ago we purchased well-built packs from Mountain Equipment Co-op. They’ve taken every kind of abuse a teenager can put a backpack through, and they’re still in great shape. It will be years before they need to be retired. Now we’re using the same “buy to last” strategy with everything we can. It costs more up front, but it saves environmentally and even economically in the long run.

Reusing what we have was already second nature to us. My children are on both the receiving and the giving end of hand-me-downs. My two oldest daughters are particularly creative when it comes to giving new life to thrift store finds. They cut apart old T-shirts, redesign vintage dresses, even unravel sweaters to knit funky scarves. I don’t have the time to be quite as creative, but I do know how to repair a torn seam, or turn a pair of pants into a pair of capris. Meanwhile, my husband is great at repairing things such as toasters and shoes, and giving new life to old furniture. If you don’t have these skills yourself, don’t despair. If you can’t find a live teacher, you can look online for tutorials or get how-to books from the library.

When we have no further use for something, we give it away. Small items go to the thrift store. Larger items get advertised on craigslist or put out in our driveway with a “free” sign attached. It’s amazing what people have dragged off.

Our third major garbage-reduction strategy was to recycle more. I’m ashamed to say that we’d been routinely throwing away things like shampoo bottles and clean plastic wrap, items that are accepted by our area recycling program. David Suzuki’s book provided us with more motivation to be diligent in this area. For example, did you know that recycling aluminum requires only five per cent of the energy needed to produce aluminum from raw materials? Or that recycling a stack of newspapers just one metre high can save a tree? But it’s not enough to fill the recycling bin. As consumers we need to demand products which contain recycled materials. I was pleased to find everything from pens to binders featuring high recycled content when we did our back-to-school shopping this year.

Composting is another strategy that can immediately cut a family’s garbage by up to 25 per cent. In our house all non-meat food scraps go to our backyard chickens, who in turn give us rich fertilizer.

I’d like to say that by the end of our waste challenge month we’d cut our garbage output in half. We did reduce it by about a quarter before our lives got crazy and our enthusiasm waned. I still think the original target is both doable and worthwhile. Now that I know that every bit really does count, I’m committed to go the distance.

Rachel Dunstan Muller is the mother of five, and a children’s author. She and her family are working at reducing their environmental impact, one area at a time.