September 30

Today I threw out: this little sticker from an apple.

September 29

Today I threw out... a bunch of stuff, but none of it was at home, so it doesn't count? I did not want to take time out from my evening class to photograph and empty Cheetos bag. You can imagine it...

September 28

Today I threw out: tea packaging.

September 27

Today I threw out: some Nerds (but not the plate).

September 26

Today I threw out: another butter wrapper.

September 25

Today I threw out: a puffy sticker depicting an alien.

September 24

Today I threw out: more cheese packaging!

September 23

Another no-trash day... for real this time!

September 22

Today I threw out: this junk mail.

September 21

My post yesterday, while not full of lies per se, was a little premature. In my bid to shut down all screens before 10pm (supposedly better for sleeping, not that I have a problem with that), I blogged too early, and ended up creating trash after boasting that I had not.

So, YESTERDAY I threw out: this feta cheese wrapper.

September 20

Today I threw out: nothing, yay! Our trash bags have definitely gotten lighter since I started this blog. Just ten days left to go; hopefully these new habits will stick.

September 19

Today I threw out: this popcorn bag from Trader Joe's.

September 18

Today I threw out: whatever this thing is.

September 17

Today I threw out: this scrap of wax paper stuck to the bottom of a stick of butter.

September 16

Today I threw out: an old credit card.

September 15

Today I threw out: this little twist tie.

September 14

Today I threw out: this waxed cardboard insert in the lid of the peanut butter jar.

Could this trash have been avoided? Let me put it this way: I love peanut butter, I love peanut butter jars, and I am completely indifferent to the stuff you can grind yourself at the supermarket.

September 13

Today I threw out: this piece of paper. It was wrapped around some fudge that for some reason I have been working on for at least three weeks.

September 12

Today I threw out: a butter stick wrapper.

September 11

Today I threw out: the sealing strip for a Netflix envelope.

September 10

Today I threw out: basically nothing! Well, with all the caveats I listed earlier: dirty diapers, face cloths, all the crap I threw out at work and so many Kleenex that photographing them all would have been alarming. But other than that, nothing. Is that a cheat?

September 9

Today I threw out: more tissues! Way more than the one pictured.

September 8

Today I threw out: this cupcake liner.

September 7

Today I threw out: this wadded-up tissue full of my son's snot.

September 6

Today I threw out: an empty bag of frozen mixed pepper strips. 

September 5

Today I threw out: this straw. But I used it to drink iced tea from a reusable cup! 

Could this trash have been avoided? I suppose so, but I really like straws. They make cool drinks more refreshing, and it's much easier to share drinks with my kid when I'm not worried about spills or excessive backwash (the less said about that, the better).

I did some baking tonight, which involved throwing out a butter wrapper (recycled the box), a cream cheese wrapper (recycled the box) and two toothpicks. Stay tuned tomorrow and the rest of the week for a constant stream of cupcake liners. Does anyone know if cream cheese foil wrappers are recyclable?

Tonight I threw out: this. What is it? I don't know. I just found it in my kitchen, orphaned and alone. Could it have been avoided? Well, I certainly could have avoided throwing it out, but ignoring random trash doesn't answer any of my trash questions.

Tonight I threw out: empty milk carton, the little stopper from the new carton. Could this have been avoided? Considering how much money we spend on organic milk (at least $75/month), it feels weird that we just throw the cartons away, but is there something else we can do with them? I doubt the coated cardboard is recyclable, and the plastic spout doesn't give me any info whatsoever. I assuage my guilt by flattening the cartons before I throw them out.

ETA: I just remembered that I threw out another cheese wrapper yesterday but accidentally deleted the photo. We love cheese. 

ETA: Also this: 

The box is probably recyclable? Though it has a weird coating on it. But the metal spout fell inside and I didn't know if I should saw the box in half to get it out, along with the remnants of dishwashing powder. 

September 4

Today I threw out: this plastic banana bag. Could this trash have been avoided? Yep, I bet there are supermarkets in my neighborhood that sell bunches of bananas not in bags. Will think about this. What I didn't throw out: the two edge-of-overripeness bananas that were left (they went into the food processor and then the freezer for smoothie ice pops) and the peels and stems (compost).

Also: this plastic yogurt container from Fairway (see above re: smoothie ice pops). Mini-rant: why is it so hard to find full-fat yogurt? When will Big Yogurt come around to the "fat is good" movement? 

Okay, digression over. Could this trash have been avoided? Well, I could have not made smoothie ice pops, but that seems extreme. The obvious trash avoidance possibility here is recycling the plastic container (I did recycle the foil top), but here I must avoid: I am agnostic on plastic recycling. First of all, I heard somewhere many years ago that only plastic that says "1" or "2" inside the recycling arrow is recyclable, and I've been treating it as gospel ever since (this container says "6"). But why do they even have a recycling arrow there if it isn't recyclable? The other distressing thing I have heard is that once oil prices go down, it is no longer cost-efficient to recycle plastic, and it all ends up in the landfill anyway. Can someone please tell me if I could have/should have recycled this yogurt container?

ETA: I guess I could have also made my own yogurt, which is something people do. Much respect to home yogurt-makers. 

One last thing that bothers me about plastic recycling: how clean does it have to be? My moisturizer comes out through a little pinhole in the top of the bottle—will the last bits of moisturizer clinging to the inside ruin everything? This whole thing feels impossible to navigate.

I also realized today that a couple of trash habits are so ingrained that they don't even register, and I haven't been noting them. 

1 – Cleaning out the drain catcher post-dishwashing—that goes directly into the trash, even though it could/should go into the compost.

2 – Using disposable facial cleansing cloths as part of my nighttime toilette. I just really, really hate washing my face with my hands and dripping water down my elbows. I do use the cloths to wipe down the sink afterward, so maybe on some level that mitigates the wastefulness.

Also, happy to say that based on Emily's comment, I composted a peach pit today with no fear of overfertilized peach trees coming for me next summer...

September 3

Today: plastic part of a bag for a baguette. 

Could this trash have been avoided? Only if I want to bake my own baguettes, which I do not. What I didn't throw away: the paper part of the bag (recycling).

September 2

This morning: plastic baggie from the dentist's office, part of toothbrush packaging, lens wipe.

Could this trash have been avoided? If I hadn't dropped my eyeglasses right next to the litterbox this morning, I probably wouldn't have felt the need to give them a little wipedown, so... yes. And I suppose I could have asked my dentist to skip the party favor accoutrement and simply hand over my new oral hygiene supplies. But given that I am occasionally going to switch out my toothbrush, and that I would like my new brush to be sterile, I don't see any way around toothbrush packaging. Thoughts?

September 1

Today: mozzarella package.