Day One: Trash Tally Begins

Trash Tally


Well, I started the tally today and here's where we're at:

After a week, I will weigh each category. I had hoped to weigh it daily but unfortunately, most of the categories don't tip the scale yet (which at least means we're well under the 7 pounds/day national average).


The Waste Breakdown

• Recycle refers to any plastic, paper, aluminum, or glass products that I can simply toss in our recycle bin for curbside pick-up.

• Special Recycle refers to stuff that can be recycled but you probably have to take it to a special place to do it as curbside recycling usually won't accept these items. In Portland, Oregon, that place is called Far West Fibers (http://www.farwestfibers.com/materials) and they're just a few blocks away. I'll explain more about them in another post when I do my drop-off but basically they take a lot of stuff that curbside recycling won't.

• Compost is any food waste that we toss in our neighbor's green compost bin. For some odd reason, our five-plex doesn't have a compost pick-up but our neighbors across the street do and they are kind enough to let us contribute to their bin.

• Landfill is anything that won't fit in the above three categories (or can't go to Goodwill). I can already see that by weight and volume, our biggest contribution to landfills will be the 'litter box treasures.' For your viewing pleasure, I will keep the lid on the bucket when doing the tally. Unfortunately I don't know what can be done to reduce the kitty poo. Caspian could probably eat less but I'd hate to take that life joy away from him. For now, the cat waste remains...

Hey guyz, did yu notiss that my littur box is a tub from Gudwill that Poppa cut a hole in? They must have savd twentee dollurs not buyink a fancee littur box at the stor. Gud think that I don't care wher I drop my treshures. I hope they use the savd monee to buy me mor fud.

Okay, so we've set the scene today for this trashy project of mine... Now that the explaining is done, I'll add some cool facts or tips tomorrow. And I promise today will be the last time I post a picture of a cat in a little box. Oh who am I kidding? I can't promise anything like that.