What can you do?

Okay, maybe you think this zero waste challenge might be a good thing. What can you do?

First, read Erika's ideas and my (helpful?) comments:

Item	Alternative
Energy bar wrappers	Sign up with Terracycle’s energy bar wrapper recycling program. Two cents will be donated to the charity of your choice, for every wrapper that you send in.
Dental floss	Dental floss is so little, and yet so important! Throw away used dental floss with my blessing.
Styrofoam and plastic meat trays and wrappers	Buy meat from a butcher shop, or from the butcher counter at the store. If necessary, ask them to wrap it ONLY in waxed paper. Rinse off the waxed paper and compost. kmkat adds: Wash and save all the Styrofoam trays. When you have a pile of them at least a foot high, seek out a grade school teacher or art teacher who wants them as raw materials for children’s art projects. If you cannot find such a person, continue to save them until you do. Or until it becomes the problem of your heirs. (Hey, that was my mom’s solution!) All you vegans out there can continue to feel smug.
Foil or mylar coffee bags	Buy coffee from a coffee shop, or by the pound at your grocery store, using those little paper bags. Compost the bags.
Yogurt tubs and other #5 plastics, if they are not recyclable in your area.	Collect and mail in to Preserve’s Gimme 5 Recycling Program
Vacuum cleaner bags	I finally bought a bagless vacuum cleaner, and dropped my old vacuum off at the thrift store. The contents of your bagless vacuum cleaner can go in your compost bin. kmkat adds: If you, like me, absolutely love your bagging vacuum, you can still compost the bags’ contents and throw away only the bag. Or, if you cut the bag open very carefull, you can probably reseal it with duct tape and reuse it.
Dryer lint	Dryer lint can go in your compost bin. kmkat adds: Note: dryer lint does NOT make a good dust cloth. I figured that out when I was tried it at age 8.
Litter box contents	Personally, I dump all that stuff in an abandoned outhouse here on the property. Could you flush the poops, and throw away the “other” clumps? That would reduce your litter box garbage load by half! kmkat adds: Train your cat to use the toilet! Read about it here: http://www.catsofaustralia.com/cat-toilet.htm
Full plastic bags from walking the dog	I’m not telling you to do this, but I know someone who cleans up after her dog with a sheet of newspaper. She then drops the poops in the toilet when she gets home, and puts the newspaper in the compost bin. The heat in a good compost bin will kill any microbes. However, this method is both A) labor-intensive and B) really gross. kmkat adds: Move to the country. Let your dog poop in the woods. Problem solved

* * * * *

Now, I consider some of those to be Advanced Topics in Achieving Zero Waste. For those of us in still struggling in Zero Waste: The Primer (1st edition), here are some easy first steps:

• Get some cloth tote bags. Carry them everywhere. Decline the plastic bags at the supermarket/big box store/drugstore.
• • Put at least one of the bags in your purse.
  • Put some more in every car you drive.
• If there is recycling in your area, get the latest brochure or check their website. Find out if there are things that can be recycled that you didn't know about.
• Talk to your neighbors. Maybe they have some ideas, maybe you can educate them.
• Eliminate paper catalogs that you don't want. Go to CatalogChoice.org and sign up.

Go, team!

Comments

[Heather]

I don't think I could face the idea of reusing dental floss. I'll just keep taking quick showers and using cloth napkins for my packed lunch.

[Cookie]

Or not have pets. ;^)

The meat trays I get from the grocery store have a recycle symbol on them. Although, I do think the teacher idea is great.

And I always have the reusable bags with me. Plus a large purse.

[Sheepish Annie]

Most schools are constantly putting out the call for things like styrofoam trays, egg cartons, yogurt containers and the like. It is a great way to recycle items. I have about three billion of those plastic coffee "jars" for scissors and pencils in my classroom. Yarn is a biggie, too. It is a great way to find a home for all the acrylic stuff.

I can't flush pet waste on the public sewer system here, although how they would find out I have no idea. But I fear The Poop Overlords and obey. Otherwise, it would be all flushy-flushy here at the manse!

[Chris]

It's a good thing my massive IKEA project will be mostly done before February starts. Oy, talk about lots of cardboard....

[Norma]

You know what I found with Catalog Choice? That the catalog companies DOUBLED THEIR EFFORTS after I signed "off" them, and sent them twice as much. Catalog Choice has a place you can report that the companies are ignoring their requests, so I'd guess it's a problem for several people. I bet with the cost of mailing, and this economy, they might stop sending so many, though.

But I have no problem reusing dental floss a few times before I throw it away. My husband and I do that all the time. We rinse it after use, and hang it on the toothbrush caddy.

[lisa]

Okeee, well, I'm not signing up for the dental floss re-use thing... my teeth are tight and it often gets shredded... plus, well, just.

Here's something... Augusta has a really minimal recycling program (as in they won't take laundry soap jugs or yogurt containers), but Brunswick has a much better program, and I work with somebody from there who has said she'd take these items. Maybe this is the case in other places?

I save egg cartons for people I know with chickens... I'll often get some eggs out of that!

I'm wondering if anybody takes the foil coffee bags?

Are you working on a worm bin? I did a bit of poking around and you can get a pound of worms for ~$25. I wonder if they'll eat their own packaging...

[k]

I don't think waxed paper is very often waxed any more. I think it's mostly something icky and unidentifiable. I don't know how you can tell, either.

[Miss T]

Terracycle makes great plant food! But reusing dental floss? Please. How DO people think these things up?

[Amy]

I went to Byerly's the other day, and went through the drive-through pickup area, and saw 7 bins with cloth bags in them! Two being mine. I have a whole trunk full of those bags now.

[becklund]

Not sure about cutting open the vacuum bag and taping it back up.