A Year without Garbage

[The Straight Story]

A Year without Garbage

Adam and Amy Korst of Dallas, Oregon, have done something rarely attempted in modern American culture: go an entire year without producing any garbage. Sensitive to the volume of waste Americans discard into landfills, the Korsts have tried since July 2009 to be as garbage-free as possible.

They have documented their saga online through Green Garbage Project. http://www.greengarbageproject.com/

But even a couple dedicated to a life without paper or plastic waste haven’t been perfect—they reportedly have a shoebox-sized amount of stuff they’ve been unable to recycle, reuse or compost. They expect that by July, they will have avoided throwing away one ton of garbage, compared to their lives before the experiment.

The average American produces 4.6 pounds of garbage a day, of which three pounds goes directly to a landfill, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

http://www.allgov.com/Unusual_News/ViewNews/A_Year_without_Garbage_100406

[Oregone]

1. Cool. Weve almost become a "zero waste" family within the last few months

In many places weve lived since moving to Canada, they simply pick up the garbage ever other week, and not very much of it. So if we didn't change how we do things, we get backed up with crap.

So we just totally removed the garbage cans from our house. We have none at all. And its amazing how little you actually need. Just throw food in the compost, separate your paper and plastic, and you are solid. The only problem we can't get by easily is diapers for kids.

The motto in our town is "zero waste", and they pretty much force us to do it. But its nice knowing that you can do it, and its also sad knowing what you used to do

[The Straight Story]

2. It would help a lot if we had more recycling in some areas - around here

Where I live, there is no incentive at all. When I was living in CA they had deposits on glass/aluminum/plastic and people recycled a lot.

There were recycling places on most street corners, whereas here in Ohio they are few and far between (aluminum was $1.40/pound, here it is 40 cents if you are lucky).