Oscar the Grouch would not like this :)

Yesterday I read an article about Amy and Adam Korst, a couple who reduced their waste so much that after one year, they only had one small box of trash. Trash-Free-for-a-Year.  I was astounded. I hate trash--hate it--and yet I make so much! As a part-time secretary I've thrown away tons of paper and each sheet I watch flutter down into the pit that is the garbage can makes me sad. Over the past couple of years I have managed to rescue some and it sits in stacks in boxes and desk drawers. My youngest brother and sisters recently acquired of those machines that uses shredded bits of old paper to make new sheets plus they're always making paper airplane's and stuff so I will most likely gift them with all of my surplus. But then there's all of the fast food wrappers and junk mail and grocery bags and paper towels...I try to buy things in reusable containers and choose cloth rags over paper towels and I never buy disposable plates or utensils but obviously that's not enough. I live in a house with two of my sisters and we all throw away much more than I'm comfortable with. And when I think of all the food we've wasted I feel even worse. All four years in college I belonged to a student organization that focused on poverty and homelessness and we ran a local soup kitchen. At first, the school would give us untouched pans of cafeteria food for the kitchen but after they signed a contract with an outside company (yuck) giving us leftovers became a legal issue. So the school paid the outside company (yuck) to prepare a main course, while we the organization were responsible for sides and drinks. And guess where all of the untouched extra cafeteria food went. That's right--straight into the garbage. It was depressing. Several days ago, before I read about the Korsts, I was standing in my kitchen making a sandwich and thinking, gosh, imagine how much money we would save if I made bread instead of buying it? And look at all of the plastic packaging this cheese comes in! Then there's the produce--I love fresh fruits and vegetable but I usually buy frozen because it keeps longer. You know, I could freeze them myself or make preserves or learn how to can (which should be called "jarring" instead of "canning" because you don't really put the food in a can. Anyway). I am responsible for managing the household finances--and although I'm far from an expert, I can say that we have yet to be without water or electricity and we are still on good terms with the landlord--so the idea of saving money and reducing waste is quite appealing. The Korsts reused, recycled, composted... Check out their blog for more tips and tricks. http://greengarbageproject.adammathiasdesign.com/ I could, perhaps grow my own vegetables etc. but I won't make any promises about that! The idea of strolling through a carefully tended garden patch, picking tomatoes and pumpkins and peas is very romantic but hardly realistic.  Besides, shopping at the farmer's market would benefit both me and the farmers :) All this talk of canning fruits, baking bread. "It's because she was homeschooled," you might think, dismissively, "and homeschooled girls are like that." Or, perhaps you think I am an earth-loving, tree-embracing, hippie kid. Ok, so my mother was a vegetarian for years and years, which of course means that all of her children were also vegetarians (and to this day, I don't eat very much meat), and yes we did shop at thrift stores or on clearance racks for most of our clothing, books and toys (actually, we still do. I bought a lovely dress last week at a "real" store, on sale for $20, and felt like I was spending a fortune), and yes we recycled diligently when I was a child. Going to college and falling in with the community service, anti-poverty, fair-trade crowd certainly sealed the deal. I'm alright with that :) The Korsts took some pretty extreme measures and I'm not sure I can do everything they did, partly because some of the suggestions could be a bit costly and partly because I anticipate either feeling lazy or being too exhausted at times to be waste cautious. All in all though, this could be very cool...