Waste Not, Want Not (or, Think Before You Buy)

A sampling of the trash collected on neighborhood ramblings.

For the past year or so I have occasionally carried a grocery bag on my walks around the neighborhood to pick up trash. This, together with semi-annual Greenway trash cleanups, paints a depressing and dire portrait of consumption gone wild.

So many plastic bottles. So many plastic bags. Straws, pop and beer cans, milk jugs, candy wrappers. So many single-use items that just end up on the street or in a landfill (or, if we are lucky, a recycling facility). We can all do our part to make sure trash goes to the proper place, but wouldn't it be more efficient to prevent it from becoming trash in the first place?

Instead of single-use bottles of water, invest in a reusable water (and, if the taste of tap water is an issue for you, a filter). Instead going to the grocery store and using the individual plastic bags for your apples, broccoli, and tomatoes, invest in reusable mesh bags, and carry them home in reusable canvas totes. In some cases the more ecological option can cost a bit more, but in many cases you will save money in the long run.

I am certainly not throwing stones--my lifestyle is hardly the greenest, though I try. I am a lazy person, and I enjoy the convenience of individually wrapped nutrition bars. One wrapper a day, a couple bucks a day...I could do better. I found a recipe for "peanut butter cup balls" that used largely the same ingredients, and I can now feel better about a couple hundred fewer wrappers going to the landfill each year, and saving myself a couple hundred bucks as well.

I buy my beans in bulk and use a slow cooker instead of buying canned beans. It's cheaper and makes far less waste. The tradeoff, as it so often is, is convenience. If I forget to start them cooking in the morning, no beans. It is an incentive to be mindful and plan ahead (though I confess to keeping a can or two of "emergency beans" in the pantry for those days I mess up).

A mesh produce bag and washable stainless steel straws.

One of my worst vices is a fondness for fast food, particularly several chain sandwich shops. So much waste! The sandwich wrapper, the bag of chips, the drink cup/lid/straw. I can't bring myself to abstain entirely, but I make small changes. I bought a set of washable straws that I carry with me and use instead of the plastic straws. I take home any extra napkins instead of tossing them. I refuse bags for carrying the stuff whenever possible. Admittedly, these tiny steps are pathetic in the grand scheme of my wasteful lifestyle, but they help me be mindful of the impact my choices have on the world.


No one can be perfect. But we can all try to be a little bit better.