Recycling: To the extreme
Friday, September 18, 2009 at 1:46PM 
As long as I’ve lived in Boston, I have always recycled and had learned to not have to think twice about whether this milk jug I’m holding goes in the trash or the blue bin. Then, I moved, and because I was living in a condominium complex, we couldn’t recycle unless we brought the items to the recycling center. This quickly (and embarrassingly) became a nuisance and led to us slacking in the recycling effort. For those that have found themselves in my shoes at one time or another, take a look at the project this couple has set up for themselves, and maybe you can find a few tips on how to make up for any recycling demons that may be haunting you….
Some of their efforts:
- Starting a compost in the backyard
- Making their own products: soap, butter, bread, etc.
- Supporting local businesses
- Donating to secondhand stores
- Legally burning organic material
Some of their rules:
- Medical/hygiene products cannot be removed from their daily living, so these will be counted towards the waste number in the end
- Feed leftover meat to their dog
- Vacuum cleaner dust and hair goes back out into nature
- Cat feces carries diseases, so it is unfortunately getting trashed
- Dog feces will be buried
Garbage:
Everything they toss will be weighed, cleaned and saved until the end so they can add up their waste and determine how much trash they have produced. Each American produces 4.5 lbs of garbage a day, 1,600 lbs a year; good luck to Adam and Amy in reaching their goal…it would be a challenge for anyone.
Maybe Adam and Amy’s efforts will encourage you to incorporate one or two of their tips into your daily life, but if not, then at least take away the understanding of how much work/effort really goes into dramatically reducing your own personal waste. I know that burning material and burying dog droppings in my landlord’s yard would probably not go over well, but I can still follow in some of A & A’s other efforts!
-Chelsey
Reader Comments (2)
David and I have been actively recycling for years.
Our town thankfully has curbside pick-up
and we have reduced our trash to one 30 gal
barrel every 7-8 weeks.
The best strategy seems to be to buy
less packaging, buy in bulk where you can
and recycle things like printer ink cartridges
at the retailers you buy from.
We can compost which takes a tremendous
amount of material from the waste stream
and even city dwellers can compost with some
of the newfangled gadgets out there like bokashi
and naturemill. And yes we have dogs, and yes
you can compost the poo in it's own area with
bio-activator. Creative thinking is all it takes.
Thanks for your comment Corrine. We actually get a $60 every few months from Staples by recycling our ink tanks!
For those curious about what a Bokashi exactly is, here is a good site for reference. http://www.bokashiman.com/bokashi/bokashi-at-work/