I did not meet my goal of 1 mason jar of waste this month.
And that’s okay! I didn’t expect to succeed right off the bat. This was my first month officially tracking my trash–specifically my non-recyclable, non-compostable trash. If it were that easy, everyone would be zero waste.
A few confessions about this month’s mason jar before I dive into lessons learned:
- I trashed a lot of food waste this month that I didn’t bother to track. I did not have a place to compost everything until recently and I wasn’t willing to see what would happen if I stored perishables in my little mason jar for 30 days.
- This collection does not include trash left by other people on my property.
- Some trash I forgot to hold onto, such as the occasional paper tissue or straw I acquired while out of town.
- There are certain things that could not fit in a mason jar even if it was the only thing I tried to put inside. This month, that included: (1) a giant disposable razor that I got as a freebie (refuse the freebies!!!) and (2) a pizza box from a moment of weakness on Halloween night.
For the record, I plan to hold myself accountable for compostable waste and any trash left on my property in November now that I have an official plan in place. With that in mind, here’s what I’ve learned from month one:
Plan for any future personal apocalypses.
Believe it or not, my largest trash items were from a zero waste swap (not so much a paradox as a personal choice).
See those big blue bags on the left? Those contained reusable hankies. I ordered them off eBay because I have severe autumn allergies that wreck me every year. When I say “severe” allergies, I mean last year I had to take steroids because my body couldn’t physically handle the Midwest harvesting dust or the mold created by all the beautiful, dying leaves.
Therefore when late September rolled around this year, I didn’t have time to make my own waste-free hankies by cutting up and hemming old sheets or t-shirts. I needed affordable, pre-made, inconspicuous hankies STAT. So I rush ordered them without even researching or asking for zero waste packaging options. I still think ordering my hankies was the lesser of two evils (the other evil being using Kleenexes or any off-brand disposable tissue).
Fast food will mess you up.
You may notice the crumpled Jimmy Johns wrapper on the right. For those of you who don’t know, I used to eat Jimmy John’s #6 vegetarian sub every day for lunch. I even had inside jokes with their delivery workers. So giving up my ol’ lunchtime standby is a hard habit to break.
Here’s what I’ve found has worked for avoiding my Jimmy Johns addiction
- Don’t experiment with weekday lunch recipes. I believe I bought this sandwich when I made falafel balls with soy sauce. Bleh.
- Never buy from Jimmy Johns again because their CEO is a horrible human being.
Don’t use the mason jar as a safety net.
That Reese’s Pieces wrapper. That one little wrapper makes me so ashamed.
Like most holidays, Halloween is a wasteful and seductive time of year. Sure, there’s the scary movies, the pumpkin carving, the fun costumes. But there’s also lots and lots of plastic wrapped chocolate. And I love chocolate. So after days and days of abstaining from the office cauldron full of candy, I finally broke.
My boss even looked at me in exaggerated shock, to which I replied, “I can have 1 mason jar of waste a month!” Henceforth, I will strive to only use my mason jar as a last-last resort (the last resort is supposed to be recycling) rather than an excuse to accumulate waste out of convenience.
What’s left?
Say I hypothetically followed these rules in the future. Does that mean I’d be 100% waste free? Well, not exactly…
- Replacing as I Go: There are several tea bags in this month’s jar, which is one example of how replacing as you go will continue to screw up your trash-tracking until everything is replaced.
- Crafts: If you’re artsy like me, going zero waste can be extra trying on your soul. There’s a little pile of yarn and the plastic label that held the skeins together up at the top of the photo. Most likely every month of my waste will contain some arts and crafts debris.
- What I’m Not (Yet) Willing to Give Up: I have a mailed magazine subscription because it brings me joy as well as trash. But the discussion of minimalism vs. zero waste and my love for Vogue magazine are two conversations for another time.