Grace Engle
Personal Impact Project Paper
Awareness and “Taking Out” the Trash
The average American produces about 4.4 pounds of trash daily. Americans throw away 1200 pounds of compostable material each year. Almost 75% of the trash that Americans throw away is biodegradable (Recycling). When I set out to start my self-challenge, I had no idea that this was actually true. I felt like I was consistently aware of the need to recycle and that I wasn’t using the 4.4 pound of trash daily. I didn’t think that this was going to be that much of a challenge, although I did know that I was going to have to be changing some of my routines. I had no idea that this whole project was going to change my entire outlook on what I would go about doing with my time, my money, and my trash.
In the beginning, it was a bit more extreme than the rest of the challenge. At first, I had thought that I should not throw away anything. Thus, the first day I did not recycle or compost, but instead, used the paper I had no use for to make snowflakes and other interesting decorations for my dorm room. However, within that first day, I realized how time consuming it would be if I continued saving everything, and making crafts out of it all. I decided needed to be efficient with my time, as I am a student, so I changed the challenge, and I decided to save all of my trash. This included items I recycled, which I kept in my room, and composted, which I did not keep in my room, of that my roommate was rather thankful. I kept these things in my room as a reminder of what I was consuming.
After the challenge was changed, I made several rules. I decided not to use the paper napkins in the cafeteria, because although they are compostable, they aren’t necessary just for a little bit of food on ones face. The single time I did use napkins when I was doing this project was when there was a spill. In this case, they were necessary. This part of my project was reducing the need. I didn’t need to use napkins before, but I would, and did not recognize that I was using them. The same went for paper towels in the bathroom. Where the idea of convenience is welcomed in American society, it’s important to note that getting everything we want all the time makes the world even more unequal. This is fair to no one, and one of my goals was to make the world more equal.
Another rule I made for myself was to discover which types of plastics, glasses, and papers could be recycled in the Harrisonburg area, and then to reduce the amount of the other types of plastics and other materials that couldn’t be recycled that I used, as they would become trash. The plastic wrappings for granola bars and pretzels had to be reduced drastically, or an alternative had to be discovered, and I decided to switch from granola bars to old-fashioned oatmeal. This saved me not only the plastic wrappings, but also quite a bit of money. Eating oatmeal instead of granola bars also made me have to sit down and eat breakfast, wait for food to be ready, and not eat on the go. It was also an ultimate test to see if I was hungry or not, because oatmeal isn’t that much of a palette satisfying dish. Another goal was to reduce the amount of plastic cups, which are plastics #4 and 5, in my life, and avoid any type of disposable options, in general.
The first weekend was slightly rough, as I did some traveling to a family friend’s house, and they were using paper plates and paper napkins because their dishwasher was broken. So I did some dishes that weekend, and made sure that my banana peel and apple cores made it to the outside compost pile. Eating out always adds to the chaotic amount of garbage one consumes, so when Sunday lunch became a food court episode, I had to veer away from the Chinese options, which were being served on unrecyclable Styrofoam, which is plastic #6. The second option was Subway, although I wasn’t sure what I would do with the wax paper wrap and the plastic bag after the sandwich had been consumed. Luckily, when lunching with three-year-olds, a hat can be fashioned out of wax wraps, and for moms, plastic bags are useful for carrying around soiled diapers. So I escaped most of that trash, except for the Grande Starbucks House Roast cup of coffee that my weekend father bought me. Though for my growing coffee love, it was unfortunately contained in an insulated paper, thus unrecyclable cup with a Plastic #4 lid. So I had to hold onto it.
There were several times within my trash saving period that I had to travel, and more things tended to be consumed while I was traveling. When I went home for fall break, the people in out vehicle stopped at Quizno’s for supper, and Starbucks for a caffeine pick-me-up. Though I had packed myself a supper in the cafeteria, by the end of the trip, my trash bag had some granola bar wrappers while staying at home (I was given the option, and I chose granola bars over oatmeal). Some other unrecyclable things were given to me, like mail packaging (there was some mail at home waiting for me when I got home). The ending of the trip back to EMU was unfortunate, as we were in a car accident, and the next day I had to clean the car out. I had to add a good amount of trash to my bag, because there was trash that had been in the car since the previous May. I learned that when one travels, they accumulate more trash, and use more things in general. As Americans, we commute to work, and because of this, we take food in to-go packaging, and accumulate more trash because we take many different things. Because we are in such a hurry, to get from A to B, we end up throwing away everything that we had with us, regardless of whether we knew it was recyclable or not. It takes time to sort through the recyclable and unrecyclable.
Traveling brought many challenges to my plate, but when I told my weekend mom of the idea that I had for saving trash, said she’d seen a television show with a family with children that managed to only use a garbage bag full of trash a month, and also a family of two that only used a shopping bag sized bag of trash in a year. Of my research on saving trash, there were several examples that did the same thing as me, they saved their trash, but for a year at a time, or reduced their trash for a year. Ari Derfel, a Berkeley resident, and a Harvard Law School attendee, saved his trash, reducing as he went, and ended up with 96 cubic feet of trash within the year. Though he did this project from December 2006-December 2007, Ari continued to write for awareness on his blog saveyourtrash.typepad.com until early 2008. In San Francisco article, he noted that when he was little, he had wanted to be a Supreme Court justice to make a difference, but realized later on that it would be better for him to work on helping people one-on-one. So after his project had become public, when people would come up to him and tell him of the difference he’d made in their lives, nothing felt better (Zito, 2007). Ari Derfel donated his trash to an artist. By saving his trash for a year, he brought awareness to the city of San Fransisco. Now, according to an article written in June 2009, San Fransisco has the toughest recycling laws of the country (Cote, 2009).
Matthew and Waveney of Christchurch, New Zealand, who made a decision to go “Rubbish free” for the year of February 2008-February 2009. They used tactics such as reduce, reuse, and recycle, but they also established the idea of “rehoming.” Matthew and Waveney reduced by removing the extra plastic wrappings from their lives, including researching beforehand the plastic wrapping free locations where food could be bought with no plastic involved. They prepared for the project by removing all the things in their home that would cause them to have “rubbish” later on in the year. They replaced these things (such as batteries that were not rechargeable) with things that could be reused and wouldn’t cause waste. They reused as much as possible, by using the plastic #3 and #4 yogurt containers and cloth bags to get foods at the bulk food stores where they shopped. They recycled, of course, and went to some extreme extents to make sure that they could recycle their scrap metal, no matter if it were as small as paper clips and metal toothpaste tubes.
Lastly, Matthew and Waveney used the tactic of rehoming their items that they no longer needed or used, or risked putting in their rubbish bag, and tried to locate someone who would be willing to take it and use it themselves. I have depended on this tactic with my own project at some points. They also used composting, and they made an in-ground compost bucket in their backyard for all of their biodegradable needs. At the end of their year, Matthew and Waveney ended up with a shopping bag full of trash. But only a shopping bag! (http://www.rubbishfreeyear.co.nz/index.php)
After reading their entire blog, I felt overwhelmed, because there was so much more that I could do to make a difference in the amount of trash that I consumed, but as a college student, I neither had the resources nor the time to accomplish any of these things because I am a college student. I was motivated by the idea of rehoming, however, because it is something familiar to me. I have given bags and bags of things to people, or to the thrift store, but never thought much about the fact that I was saving the landfill a lot of space. In my opinion, donating things to a thrift store is almost like throwing them away, because you never have to worry about them, but it is essentially rehoming with a profit for a small (depending on the thrift store) business. It causes the items to be reused, and they aren’t put to waste. Rehoming is the idea that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. I filled a large garbage bag with clothes and things from my dorm room, that I no longer needed to have. I decided I could survive with out them. I could survive without so much! This hit me like a truck. I was very glad that I’d reached this point.
When I reduced, I refused to use paper towels or napkins. I was disgusted with the idea of using disposable things when there were so many long lasting options for these disposable items. There are so many natural options for our processed American versions. I used less body wash and tooth paste, showered less, reduced the amount of clothes that I washed and the frequency of times that I washed the clothes. (Washing clothes too many times causes them to be worn out more quickly, so I was extending the longevity of my clothes). I reduced how much paper I printed off of my classes, and for nonassignment printing tried to make sure that I used paper that had already been used so that I wasn’t be unnecessary with the amount of paper that I used. Because each American uses an average of seven trees or 680 pounds of paper a year, I wanted to make a denton that number. I like trees. They give shade and green (J) and add calm to an atmosphere.
With my reusing, because I kept my recycling bin in my room, I reused more things. There were empty plastic bottles in it that stayed there a long time (even after I finished my rounds of saving trash). When I was thirsty, I reused these bottles. When I needed to write something down to remember it, I took a sheet of paper out the recycling bin and wrote the note down on it. I also reused the Starbucks cups that I received (or bought for myself), until they were misshapen, soggy, flimsy, and weren’t really doing their jobs anymore. Then they finally made it to the bag of trash. I also made a goal to get a to-go mug that I could use the next time that I got a hot coffee at Starbucks. This is how I feel we should be with every disposable item that we use. Because they are disposable we should use them until they have no other use but to be disposed of.
When I started this project, I made one of my goals to recycle everything that I had, within my capacity that was recyclable. This was one of the hardest things to do, because it is a habit to throw away paper. (In fact, it’s slightly fun to crumble it into a ball and see if you can make it into the trashcan across the room.) So my hardest adjustment was to make sure that I recycled all the paper that I came into contact with and had to dispose of. It was harder at first, because I would actually throw it away, then realize that I didn’t want to do that, and would have to take it back out of my trash and put it into my recycling bin. It became a lot easier to do when I removed my trashcan from my room (it became a container for recyclable plastic bags, and I couldn’t very well fill this with non-plastic bag items). The recycling bin became the priority for anything that I had with no longer any use for.
Because I was becoming so aware of what I needed to do to reduce my environmental impact, I wanted to make a difference on my hall. I put an extra cloth towel in each of the bathroom and one in the kitchen to promote the idea of not using the paper/disposable version. I also made a compost bucket for our hall, with the then almost-empty ice cream bucket that had been sitting in the freezer for the past month. (I finished the slightly freezer-burnt treat with great joy). I just put a label on the bucket, and then started to fill it with my own compost. I made colorful signs with different examples for what could be recycled, composted, thrown away, and a list of ways to reduce. There was previously a sign with the items listed that could be recycled, which was left up, but I also added my colorful one for those whose eyes tend to be more likely to look at pretty things, than yellow signs. These signs were mostly for the girls on my hall to become aware of what could be recycled and what should be thrown away. I think that it made them more aware of where their waste should go, but I’m not sure the signs made a difference, because I still saw pizza boxes in the recycling bin and coffee grounds in the trashcan. I’ve also had some oppression against the idea of using the cloth towels in the bathroom. The important thing for me was to get the ladies to be aware.
I felt it was also important to note that although Harrisonburg recycles plastics #1 and #2, they do not recycle plastics #3 and #4, which are commonly used in yogurt containers and butter tubs. This makes it harder for conscientious recyclers, who don’t want to fill the landfills with of everything they guiltily consume. There are also no local places to recycle lesser-used plastics #5 and #6, or any places to recycle Styrofoam nearby. The closest place is in Maryland, in a suburb of Washington D.C.
Thus, it would be rather difficult to try to live as a regular American does, and use the amount of plastic that an average American uses, and be able to conveniently recycle it locally. However, in Harrisonburg, one doesn’t have to go far to be able to get good natural, bulk, or local food—the Dayton Farmer’s Market offers food in bulk, though it is in plastic bags. The Harrisonburg Farmer’s Market also offers all local farmers’ own food for people to buy. With the local options of thrift stores to remove things without use, the large amount of people interested in living in intentional communities, and the easily accessible option of biking, there are many different ways that a person could accomplish living in Harrisonburg with a minimal trash diet.
With this project I realized how much I didn’t need, what I could live without. I became more aware of what the world had, and I felt I had too much in the world. In the devotional book, The Basic Trek, they talk about the ecological footprints of different cultures in the world. Americans have the biggest ecological footprints, being 30 acres per American. The average footprint in India is 3 acres per person. The average footprint in the entire world is 8 acres per person, and this takes up more than the world has to offer (Schrock-Shenk)! Americans would have to reduce to about 1/3 the amount of what they presently use.
My new goal with this project, even after my trash-saving episode was over, was to reduce the ecological footprint of myself. I use too much water, I eat too much food, and I cause too much fossil fuel go into the atmosphere. I don’t give back as much as I take, and I feel guilty about it. That is the hardest step—I have to find a balance of reducing and saving that I feel comfortable with so I don’t feel guilty about using so much that other people don’t have. I’d rather have less and not be as happy, if I knew that someone else had enough and was happy. But I am happy and I’m warm and comfortable. And though I should be happy, whenever I think about what the majority of the world is experiencing, what people I know are experiencing as they are doing outreach in Africa, Central America, in Europe, I cannot feel happy. I want to give and give and give of myself until there is nothing left of me to give. I cannot stay in this place with this unlimited amount of things, food, and warmth.
I do not find joy in wasting things that other people need, which happens in the dorm with the heat because it is an uncomfortable temperature all the time, so we have to open the windows to feel comfortable in the heat. I do not find joy in the idea that several girls on my hall cannot handle the idea of recycling paper, so they throw it in the trash. They contribute to the 75% of biodegradable and recyclable waste that is thrown away everyday, and cause the landfills to be 75% unnecessary. I know someone who chooses not to compost and recycle and is happy to not be a part of making the world a greener place. Matthew and Waveney had the same type of oppression while doing their projects. There were people who started doing “a rubbish bag a week” projects to replace the space of to their own “reducing” project. This is discouraging, and I feel the same way when people around me that I care about reject the idea of composting because it smells bad, recycling because it’s less convenient, or they reject the idea of reducing the amount of paper towels they use to dry their hands because wiping their hands on their pants is too much of a hassle. These are convenient, but so unneeded.
I feel that Americans are so used to convenience that we can’t embrace that having what we want all the time is making us universal brats, in the entire global scheme of things. However, just like with the Civil Rights movement, it cannot be just a change of habit. It also has to be a change of heart. This is something that I feel can be met with little steps in the right direction. If each American decided to have a reusable water bottle instead of insisting on using disposable water bottles (which in fact can and should be recycled), rather than using two million bottles every five minutes, there would only be 308,102,488 total used in the country, rather than 12,614,400,000,000. That’s twelve trillion water bottles per year, which is about how many dollars the United States government is in debt! Thus, little changes can make the biggest difference ever.
There are several things that I plan on continuing to do as I go with my post-project feelings. There’s no way that I can’t continue to recycle—it had become a habit that I plan on continuing as long as I am capable. Though sometimes my muscle memory in my arms tries to throw it in the trashcan that has been relocated back into my room, I make sure that it ends up in the right place. I try to reduce the amount of waste that I consume. I have started buying foods in bulk (cocoa powder, because I love to make my own hot chocolate), and I still walk out of the bathroom with wet hands if there is no other option, and leave the cafeteria with hands smelling like something I just ate because I didn’t want to use a napkin to clean up the little bit of a spill I made. I still only wash the clothes that are completely necessary to clean, as little as possible.
I have continued to reduce the amount of things that I have in my room, partly because I am moving out and I don’t need these things as much, by nature I’m a very messy person, and I realize as much as I think I’ll need them at some point, there is a very low possibility that I will actually need the things that I keep saying that I will need.
One of the biggest things that I have in my future, because of the partial impact of this project, is to be a participant in the YES program. Youth Evangelism Services (YES) is a program for young adults, ages 18-30, who get to do short term mission outreach programs. (www.emm.org) I have spoken to several people who have done the YES program within the last year, and also have spoken to some participants that are in the process of doing YES right now. I feel like it is a fit for me. When I went to visit the training center, because of my interest and my friends in the training, I felt called to be there and help and do. Doing is something I have been battling with since I have been on campus, because I have felt like I haven’t been able to help others and do as much as I need to since I have been here. Because I have this calling, I know that I will be able to experience the reduced ecological footprint by being in another country—I welcome it. I will get to live with reduced accessibility and less of everything in general. Then what I have here in America, when I come back, will not be taken for granted any longer, and I will be truly thankful for everything that I have here, and I will have experienced a reduced lifestyle. I will be able to continue to feel as if I have made a difference.
This project has truly opened my eyes to the path that I need to take with my life, and the steps that I need to take as I go. It has given me challenges, but more importantly, it has helped me grow mentally and spiritually, because of the indirect connections to my yearnings in life. Because of the simple idea of “taking out” the trash, I have changed my entire outlook on life, and what I will do with it. This project went from environmental impact to spiritual impact. I cannot wait to see where it will take me.
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