Let's talk trash, one product at a time. (Part 1)
Wrappers, packaging, boxes and bags—trash feels inevitable, especially around the holidays.
When everything from carrots to conditioner comes in single-use packages, waste piles up fast, even when you’re eco-conscious.
If you’re like many people we know, you’ve heard about the folks adopting a “zero waste” lifestyle. Yet, far from being inspiring, the advice is often intimidating, unrealistic, expensive and time consuming. It can leave people feeling guilty and overwhelmed.
We may grow some of your own food, choose reusable products and borrow, swap or thrift instead of buy, when possible. Yet most of us still roll the trash bin to the curb on trash day. Heck—we live in neighborhoods that have a trash day every week.
What’s a family to do? What’s anyone to do? In order to sustain our planet, we must adapt and change. And we can do it, one product at a time.
So, let’s talk trash. Let’s look at one product swap at a time and see if we can do better. If we can get people talking trash together, and sharing product swap successes and failures, maybe thoughtful, simple swaps will become a collective habit. It’s worth a shot.
Trash talk has rules
For this trash talk series, we promise you two things:
Product swaps won’t cost too much. Actually, the swap should cost less in the long run—but it won’t require a large investment at the beginning. Sustainable should be affordable and attainable.
Swaps will be simple—no complicated processes or unrealistic DIYs.
Trash Talk #1: Milk Cartons
While some recycling centers can handle coated milk and juice cartons, they’re actually pretty tricky to recycle. Here in Austin, the city’s handy “what do I do with…” recycling app tells us to place milk cartons in the trash can rather than the recycling bin.
Can we do better?
Plastic milk containers are at least more recyclable than the cartons in most places, but we’re trying to avoid plastic when we can. As for glass? We did find a few local options for buying or refilling glass milk containers, but they required spending a lot more, driving a lot more or both.
Can we do even better?
Consider these two solutions:
We can drink less milk. Instead of buying more when we run out, we set a weekly limit, and when it’s gone, it’s gone. Need milk for a recipe? See suggestion number two.
We can make our own nut milk. I promise that this option doesn’t break the rules of simple and cheap. It’s easier than you think, and nut milk works great in recipes. Check out our recipe, or this super simple version from Bon Appetit.
Our 2020 vision? A world with less trash, starting with a household of less trash.