I’ve said this a lot to myself since becoming the “go-to” zero waste person in my social circles. Here’s the pattern I’ve seen:
- Someone knows I’m zero waste.
- That person has something they don’t want anymore.
- They don’t know how to get rid of it responsibly, or they feel guilty throwing it away.
- They remember me, their zero waste friend/family member, and ask if I want it.
- I tell them I don’t want it (sometimes several times).
- They insist I take it.
- I tell them I’m just going to throw it away.
- They don’t believe me and give it to me anyway.
The end result is always the same: If I don’t need it, I throw the thing out.
Most likely if you’re a friend or family member reading this right now, you’re surprised by this, and maybe a little disappointed. Possibly even angry. Haven’t I spent years talking about the importance of the zero waste R’s? Don’t I stand behind my lifestyle choices? If they’d known I was going to just throw it out, they never would have given it to me! To which I say: see the list above. Honestly, a lot of you don’t even ask me if I want it in the first place, and just drop it and run.
The truth is, the reason you gave me this thing is because responsibly disposing of your own waste is hard. It usually takes a mixture of researching the best way to dispose of or donate it, trying multiple ways of keeping it out of landfills, and/or repurposing it into something you actually need. If being zero waste was easy, everyone would do it.
For years I struggled with the massive amounts of junk people gifted me, from broken storage containers to mismatched dishes. I’d post their things on Facebook buy nothing groups, find charities that needed specific donations, or research specialty recycling places before shipping them off, costing me a great deal of time and sometimes even money. More often than not, the things stayed in my home because there was nowhere to responsibly send them.
I became a hoarder of other people’s trash.
Hence my present day approach:
- If I own something I no longer want or need, and I was the one who bought it, asked for it as a gift, or told a person I wanted it when they offered it, I am responsible for following the zero waste R’s to ensure as few of my belongings as possible end up in landfills (note: sometimes this really is unavoidable).
- If the thing was given to me against my will, I trash it.
This blog post isn’t a guilt trip or a shame train. I’m not innocent of giving my trash to other people (in one of my worst offenses, I left several pieces of large furniture in a friend’s storage unit saying I’d be back, and then a few years later moved across the country without taking them (Sorry, Sonia!)). No, this blog post is a friendly reminder to my friends and family that I am not bluffing about throwing out their things, and also a message to anyone who has struggled with the false responsibility of other’s waste. Community efforts and collective action are important, but being your community’s unofficial dumping ground does not fall under that category. Your only responsibility is to your own waste, and to inspire other people to take responsibility for theirs.