Time for a little trash talkin'

No, this isn't a post about Campaign 2008. It's a post about, well, trash.

Saturday afternoon I was driving home from visiting my parents and listening to NPR. It's a little confusing to do that right now, because the local DC NPR station now has several channels in HD radio, and it seems that most of my favorite shows are on those channels. Hence, I started listening to a show I don't normally listen to, “Marketplace.”

This is how I found out about “Tess' Trash Challenge.” Basically, the challenge is to take responsibility for your trash for a week. As in, instead of throwing it in a trash can, you have to carry it around with you wherever you go. From the story:

For the most part, I've been able to recycle or compost most of my waste this week. We should have had a scale today, but I don't think there's one in the office. I can definitely say that I did not generate six pounds per day -- which is the national average. That would be 35 pounds or so to carry around and I'd be developing some nice guns.

I'm finding that the bulk of my "tossage" is happening at work. Our building's recycling program only allows office paper, glass bottles and aluminum cans. That's it. Quite frustrating. For example, that Starbucks cup that holds my grande extra-hot nonfat latte? Goes in the recycling bin at home. Goes in the garbage at work.

I'm not sure I'm ready to sign up for the challenge, but it certainly got me thinking. Even just visualizing carrying around my trash for a week is enough to make me stop and think when I'm about to throw something in the can. We switched over to cloth napkins a while ago, so we're good there, but we do occasionally use paper towels. And we're very good about recycling bottles and cans and paper, but what about all that extra packaging? You know, the little sheet of plastic from the box of tea? And, of course, there's the food scraps. We've tried composting, and maybe we will try again this spring. But living in the city makes it a very demanding practice, as our many little rodent friends would love to get at some corn cobs.

If you're interested, try out the challenge yourself (at the very least, try to imagine it, as I have). You can read more at Tess' Trash Challenge.

Rules of the Trash Challenge:

• No kitty or doggie poo (it's a health risk)
• No carrying into restaurants or malls where I could get kicked out
• Really smelly stuff goes inside extra Ziplocs
• If it's recyclable, you don't have to carry it around
• Trash from work is included, as is trash from the rest of your household (i.e. if your honey tosses it at home, it goes with you...)