Have you heard about this guy? In 2008 David Chameides collected all of his garbage and recycling in his basement for an ENTIRE YEAR!
Dave and his friend were talking about throwing something “away” and what “away” really meant. They thought if they could see the stuff they threw “away” then perhaps they would be less wasteful. Thus, Dave decided to keep everything for a year to see how much waste he created and how much he could avoid.
Thus, he started tallying up things he used every day and putting it in his basement in 3 piles – garbage, recycling, other.
He didn’t include the family in this experiment, nor did he change his eating habits- except for a few junk foods he gave up as he knew it would lead to waste; plus, it was healthier. It sounds like he was more efficient with his waste than most of us even before the experiment started – tending to eat less packaged food and buying things in bulk.
He put the food scraps that smell the most in his worm compost bin (except for the usual dairy, meat or fish which he didn’t each much of). He saved boxes, TP rolls, receipts, mail, pizza boxes, glass bottles, plastic bottles; you name it.
The point to his experiment was to better understand and therefore limit his footprint on the planet as far as his waste stream was concerned. Seeing the consequences, he hoped to help change his ways and open other people’s eyes as well.
So can you guess how much he saved in the year? Dave estimates it was approximately 30 pounds of trash alone (recyclables he recycled). The crazier statistic I read from an ABC News report was that that is the SAME amount the average American produces in six days!
Ok, that has got to change. This is a great reason to try the living with less philosophy.
Tread Lighter producing less trash, PLEASE,
-Phyllis, Green Expert
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