How much garbage do we really create?

You are what you eat, but how about how much garbage you create? Let’s dig into our little garbage container and peek what is in the three bags.

As we have said many times earlier: we are trying to consume less, mostly less plastic, and keep the household clutter-free. Sometimes things just come to us. This can be simply avoided. Always buy what you really need, write down a list to avoid extra purchases, do not shop hungry and alone.

Our shopping habits

Anyway while on our new path, some may probably wonder how much garbage we are creating in a week. I have to explain a bit about our buying habits. Since we are vegan, we buy mostly fresh produce, oftentimes beans and tomatoes in a can, rice, and pasta. Unfortunately, the two latter come in plastic bags, which we are looking to skip as well or buy bags of rice in bulk. Also, we are lucky that we can save ready-made food from the workplace’s canteen, which keeps us away from buying plastic-wrapped grocery items. Needless to say, when buying things, we look for items made of metal, wood, glass and we are trying to buy food packed in paper, cardboard, glass, and tin cans.

What is in our garbage bags?

As said earlier, we have a little cardboard box, where we store three little plastic bags. We are collecting paper/cardboard, packages, and garbage. Organic waste is collected to a bowl, which we empty daily to our building’s organic waste bin.

Below are descriptive photos of our garbage bags on a random week.

1. Paper/cardboard

It contains Alpro yogurt container’s paper wrapping, toilet paper roll’s inside, some teabag wrappers, and a towel’s tag.

2. Packaging

Here you can see a bag of rice, kidney beans can, and a cookie wrapper. You can’t see Alpro yogurt container, as we reused it for something else.

3. Garbage

Here you can see mostly tissue paper, wet tissues, floss, Alrpo yogurt containers aluminum lid, some dust, and lint.

The photos above change weekly, depending on our consumption habits. But we are glad that we have managed to keep our three little garbage bags quite minimalistic. We are not into buying things and consume plastic – so I guess we have a head start.

Please read our other article, how we are sorting garbage in our kitchen.

Zero-waste is not possible

You most likely have come across the photos of the waste jars of zero-wasters all around the world. Their little containers hold almost nothing of what they trash in a year. Their jars look perhaps like an average person’s hourly trash, if even. Don’t be intimidated by the little waste they are creating. It is impossible to live completely waste-free, as things may break down, things that are not recyclable and are made of plastic. Though you can come across households, which contain no plastic and traditional paints whatsoever. Goals, uh?

But it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t try to eliminate plastic from your household or consume less. Yes, please do that, it is good for our planet and your wallet. Buy less, buy only what you need, try to find it without plastic and try these three zero waste disposal options, before trashing the goods.

Just make a clear plan for yourself of what you want to bring home and how you can have a clear overview of your expenditures. Such little container with three little sections works the best for us.

How have you organized your garbage collection and how you avoid plastic? Share your experiences with us!