Jag ([info]agrajag) wrote,
@ 2006-10-24 23:45:00
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Garbage
Do you ever find yourself wondering what's in other people's garbage?

I've never had that desire, until today. And not just to see what my neighbor's lives are like. But more to find out what they could possibly be consuming to generate so much garbage.

I forgot to take out my garbage last week, so I made a point of taking it out today. I picked up the not quite full bag from the kitchen and tossed it in the garbage can. That not-full bag is the only garbage I have from the past two weeks. I then took the garbage and recycling out to the curb and looked around. Some of my neighbors have huge bags of stuff sitting on top of their recycling bins. Bags much bigger than my bag, bigger than my garbage and recycling combined. That combined with their full recycling bin means they're recycling 2-3 times as much as I'm recycling/throwing out. And I know that only a small percentage of what's consumed can be recycled. So I find myself wondering, just what do people consume that causes so much garbage? I'm only a single guy and most of my neighbors have families, but the proportions still seem way off.

The irony is that I actually think I don't do enough to reduce how much garbage I generate.

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[info]ymasen
2006-10-25 02:36 am UTC (link)
Some ideas:
They have babies and have diapers
They're menstrating women and have pads & tampons
They cook at home 7 days a week and make their own lunches and have milk cartons, chicken bones, or other food prep remains.

Just an idea... my parents are recyclers and w/them and keeping the grandkids a few days a week they typically end up with a full garbage can every 2 weeks. If you think about how much "garbage" you create but leave at any given restaurant you may realize you're not that different from your neighbors.

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[info]agrajag
2006-10-25 02:52 am UTC (link)
I don't eat out nearly as much as I used to. I eat out four, maybe five meals a week. And I bring my lunch.

Granted, I don't drink anything but water most of the time, so I don't have milk cartons or soda bottles, etc.

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[info]faebouche
2006-10-25 04:07 am UTC (link)
Yeah, soda cans really add up fast in the recycling bin. I stopped drinking soda at home about a year ago, and I was blown away at how much trash they make when Aaron was drinking lots of diet coke here this summer.

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[info]arcturus [deadjournal]
2006-10-25 01:12 pm UTC (link)
I think pre-packaged meals probably have more waste. Those usually have a carton (and maybe a cooking pan) for each meal. Whereas if I make something at home, I've used one pot and have maybe one jar and a small box to get of, along with compostable scraps, after making dinner. And if you bring home take-out, you get a large volume of wrappers and containers to throw out. Soda cans and bottles also add up quickly, and if I recall, Jag doesn't drink much in the way of soda.

Eric and I eat out about once a month as a big treat, so the rest is at home. We usually generate one paper grocery bag of garbage a week, and a plastic grocery bag of scrap paper and bathroom stuff every couple of weeks. Once a month we take a large paper bag or two of glass out to be recycled. Of course, I inexplicably feel ashamed every time I take out a bag of trash, so that might have something to do with our lack of trash. But I do wonder about people who have piles of trash on their curbs every week. From the sounds of things, Amy's parents generate about as much trash, per person, as Jag. That's a lot different from the families with 3 trash cans. :-)

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[info]arcturus [deadjournal]
2006-10-25 01:14 pm UTC (link)
I should have proofread. Obviously, when I cook at home the pot doesn't get thrown away, unlike the ready-to-cook prepackaged dinners.

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