What would happen if your trash can disappeared?
You walk outside, and your trash can is gone. Everyone’s trash can is gone. Only compost and recycling bins remaining. You call your trash service and they remind you of all of the notices sent out that landfills are filling up at an alarming rate, and to reduce trash. This is your new reality.
Trash doesn’t disappear once you put it in the trash can. It goes to the landfill near someone’s backyard and has to be maintained. Once the landfill is full, it needs to be monitored for toxic leakage in the groundwater and gas for at least 30 years. Oh, and a new one needs to be created, near someone else’s backyard.
Imagine if we could prolong the lifespan of a landfill by creating less waste, reusing more, and reducing our consumption.
I’m pretty low waste
You might be thinking, I reduce, reuse, recycle and compost, why are the landfills filling up so fast? You are doing great! Some households haven’t realized this yet, and we all share the same system and landfill. That constantly overflowing trash bin you see down the street is connected to yours, whether you like it or not.
We live in a broken system with excessive packaging and few ways to avoid it. When we can avoid packaging, let’s choose that option!
At the grocery store or farmer’s market, opt for the package-free fruits and veggies.
Refill your containers as much as possible, even with the bigger refill options offered at the big box store, if you’re not near a refill store.
Reuse what you already have. Gift that delivery box to your cat or kiddo to create a fun new toy before sending it off for recycling. We all know they love the boxes more than what’s inside.
Reduce consumption. Pause before buying to make sure you actually need it and not just want it. Can something else you already have be used instead?
Reality Check
These numbers can feel heavy, but they’re worth remembering the next time we’re about to buy something…anything.
In 2024, per CalRecycle, Californians landfilled 40.5 million tons of waste, which included 21,277 tons of disaster debris. This equals about 6.2 pounds of trash per person per day.
In 2018, per the EPA, the United States generated 292.4 million tons of trash. We don’t have data available after 2018, but we all know this figure is higher now than it was back in 2018.
In 2021, CalRecycle did a waste characterization study and found that Californians toss about 277 pounds of plastic, 136 bags of packaging, 185 meals per person, 84 pounds of cardboard, and 315 pounds of paper…every year.
Packaging represents 27% of the waste stream by weight, and plastic represents 14% of the waste stream by weight.
Across the US, the EPA’s landfilling breakdown in 2018 had food being the largest component at 24%, plastics over 18%, paper and cardboard at 12%, and rubber, leather, textiles are over 11%.
Holy smokes, that’s a lot of trash!
Did We Hit the Easy Button Too Many Times?
Maybe we chose convenience that one time…that’s ok. Yep! I said it. Just try to not choose convenience every time.
We need to also talk more about the resources we are extracting to create all of these products.
When we buy online, even “zero waste” products, resources are used to make the box, the packaging, the label, and the transportation to get it to you. We personally reuse boxes we have from our suppliers, which are sometimes already reused and we love that! The more we can reuse something BEFORE recycling or landfilling, the better!
Every single item we own requires resources to exist. If we look at them as precious resources, would we purchase differently? Would we skip the cheap stuff and buy quality that could last longer? Would we go to the farmer’s market more?
Reducing Consumption Isn’t All or Nothing
While it would be amazing to grow our own food, or buy from the farmer’s markets and support farmers directly and cook every meal at home to avoid any extra packaging materials, is this totally realistic? Maybe.
Is this more affordable? That depends on how you look at it. The health of the environment would be better. Your physical health would be better because you’re eating healthier and moving more. Your mental health would likely be better interacting with other people and getting outside. The vibrancy of the local community would be better for sure.
So, what do we put a price tag on? The cost of that bag of out of season vegetable wrapped in plastic bought at a big box store with packaging that needs to be disposed of is probably less expensive, but at what cost? How far did those vegetables travel? Who picked and packed them? How were they grown?
I sit here writing as a person who has to make these decisions. It isn’t always doable to buy all of my veggies at the farmer’s market and some things get supplemented at the grocery store. I still end up with some trash whether it’s from the tags or the bags. =(
Food is where we struggle with trash. I like corn tortillas, they are part of our weekly meals, they come in plastic bags. I could choose to only have them once a month or buy the big bag of them, but then the question is, will I eat them all in time. Probably. But what if I don’t?
These are struggles that happen in my head…like a lot. I think we can be somewhere in the middle with making the best choices we possibly can when we can.
Reducing consumption isn’t perfection. It’s intention.
Buy Less, Buy Better, Wear Longer
Let’s move away from food consumption and waste and chat about clothing. I grew up with my mom making all of our clothes and if she didn’t make them, it was probably a hand me down from one of my older cousins and then they got handed down to my younger cousins. It’s what we did. Bought quality and when we outgrew it, we passed it on to someone else who could use it.
Now, we see the next trendy thing and just have to buy it. Man those marketing folks are good! Online and brick-and-mortar secondhand clothing and clothing swaps have been on the rise in recent years, which is great, but we can also overconsume there too. If you’ll wear it more than 30 times, it’s probably worth it!
EPA estimated that 14.5 million tons of textiles in 2018 were combusted or landfilled, and 2.5 million tons of textiles were recycled and generated 17 million tons of new textiles…in one year. Next time you want a new xyz, think about whether or not you’ll wear it 30+ times or if it is good enough quality to pass along at a swap or resale site when you’re done. I get it, I have a couple dresses in my closet from years ago that I’ve only worn a couple of times but I save them to wear again if they still fit. We’ve all seen the staggering images of clothing piled up in the desert and clogging shorelines. We can do better with our clothing choices. It saves so much in the long run to buy less and buy better.
Retail Therapy vs. Real Satisfaction
If you had to live with every item purchased forever, would you still buy it? I know I would think about it more if I knew I wouldn’t be able to find another home for it and wouldn’t be able to toss it.
Buying the next new item isn’t always necessary. Let’s use smartphones as an example. Do you need a brand new one? Can you get away with a used one that is 2-3 years old instead? Probably.
How about furniture? The resale market is wild when it comes to secondhand furniture. We’ve been able to save some items from the landfill by restoring them and either using them ourselves or reselling them. We go back to quality here. Less resources are used if it is good quality and can last for years to come.
How Do I Shift My Habits?
Start small.
Reduce one item.
Wait before making purchases.
Reuse what you have.
Don’t overhaul everything all at one time. Pick one category, start there and once your new habit has shifted, move on to the next category. We didn’t get into this overnight, it will take time to shift habits.
If your trash can disappeared tomorrow, what would you stop buying first…and what might you choose differently?
