Trash Audit
You read right. But before you completely dismiss the idea, hear me out.
It’s easy to say “Let’s do this” and then end up not knowing where to begin or beginning without a plan. That’s exactly what I did last year. Out of excitement I just started swapping out items for something that came in less single-use packaging.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with that. But I realized I could have done it better. I started by refusing straws only to realize after that we didn’t really consume much to begin with.
So last week I did a trash audit. This allowed me to see what we sent to be land filled the most.
We all have different purchases. Doing a trash audit will really help you determine what you need to swap first by seeing what you consume the most.
Here are the different steps I took to complete my trash audit.
1. Get a big paper bag to put your DRY trash in.
I used those big paper bags from the grocery store. You can also use a mid sized cardboard box so it’s easier to fish out the trash after one week.
This was not an issue for us since we don’t throw away our scrap food or anything wet in our trash. This might be different for you if you don’t compost yet. My recommendation based on what I’ve read is to reuse the plastic bags you get from the grocery for anything WET.
2. Do not change anything
Throw stuff that you normally would. Now is not the right time to be conscious about it.
3. Make a list
After 5 to 7 days, fish out as much trash from your DRY bag and start tallying. This is what I ended up with:
January 7 to January 12
Receipts - 11
Tissue - 11
Scrap Paper - 7
Cardboard Box - 2
Plastic Handle - 1
Plastic Packaging - 3
Paper Bag - 1
Gift Wrapping - 1
Take out plastic box and cover - 1
Take out plastic bag - 1
Take out ice cream cup and cover - 1
Take out sauce cup and cover - 5
Plastic spoon and fork - 4
Plastic line paper - 5
Plastic lined paper cup - 1
I got a little bit lucky because some of these things we’ve figured out how to keep them from the landfill.
The cardboard boxes I kept because we reuse them. We make boxes out of them to ship out our lotion bars, shampoo bars and other zero waste products that we sell.
The plastic bags are stuffed in our ecobricks. We use these to make items for the farm like concrete stumps or concrete stools. More on this later.
Any other plastic items that I can’t stuff in our ecobricks we will be sending to Envirotech Waste Recycling in Zambales. More on this later, too, but feel free to google it.
So i was left with just these:
4. Plan your first few switches
Now that you have a baseline you can start planning what your first few switches will be. If you have too many plastic grocery bags you can switch to reusable bags. If it’s too much plastic water bottles you can start bringing and using reusable water bottles or sippy cups. You get the point. Choose one that’s easy to swap.
In my case, even if we are able to recycle or reuse most of the things that ended up in our trash, we identified TAKING OUT FOOD TO GO as our biggest source of trash. So one of the things that we will REDUCE is taking out food. This is going to be difficult because I’m a working mom of a four year old and I don’t have a full time yaya. But when it comes to protecting the environment that my son lives in, it’s either GO BIG OR GO HOME.
5. Sustain and start over
Once you’re done reducing or eliminating one source of trash you can start the exercise again or revisit your original list to tackle the next.
ARE YOU READY? Great!
Let me know if you have any questions. You can comment below or leave us a message on our FB or IG: Go Zero and Be a Hero.
It’s easy to say “Let’s do this” and then end up not knowing where to begin or beginning without a plan. That’s exactly what I did last year. Out of excitement I just started swapping out items for something that came in less single-use packaging.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with that. But I realized I could have done it better. I started by refusing straws only to realize after that we didn’t really consume much to begin with.
So last week I did a trash audit. This allowed me to see what we sent to be land filled the most.
We all have different purchases. Doing a trash audit will really help you determine what you need to swap first by seeing what you consume the most.
Here are the different steps I took to complete my trash audit.
1. Get a big paper bag to put your DRY trash in.
I used those big paper bags from the grocery store. You can also use a mid sized cardboard box so it’s easier to fish out the trash after one week.
This was not an issue for us since we don’t throw away our scrap food or anything wet in our trash. This might be different for you if you don’t compost yet. My recommendation based on what I’ve read is to reuse the plastic bags you get from the grocery for anything WET.
2. Do not change anything
Throw stuff that you normally would. Now is not the right time to be conscious about it.
3. Make a list
After 5 to 7 days, fish out as much trash from your DRY bag and start tallying. This is what I ended up with:
January 7 to January 12
Receipts - 11
Tissue - 11
Scrap Paper - 7
Cardboard Box - 2
Plastic Handle - 1
Plastic Packaging - 3
Paper Bag - 1
Gift Wrapping - 1
Take out plastic box and cover - 1
Take out plastic bag - 1
Take out ice cream cup and cover - 1
Take out sauce cup and cover - 5
Plastic spoon and fork - 4
Plastic line paper - 5
Plastic lined paper cup - 1
I got a little bit lucky because some of these things we’ve figured out how to keep them from the landfill.
The cardboard boxes I kept because we reuse them. We make boxes out of them to ship out our lotion bars, shampoo bars and other zero waste products that we sell.
The plastic bags are stuffed in our ecobricks. We use these to make items for the farm like concrete stumps or concrete stools. More on this later.
Any other plastic items that I can’t stuff in our ecobricks we will be sending to Envirotech Waste Recycling in Zambales. More on this later, too, but feel free to google it.
So i was left with just these:
4. Plan your first few switches
Now that you have a baseline you can start planning what your first few switches will be. If you have too many plastic grocery bags you can switch to reusable bags. If it’s too much plastic water bottles you can start bringing and using reusable water bottles or sippy cups. You get the point. Choose one that’s easy to swap.
In my case, even if we are able to recycle or reuse most of the things that ended up in our trash, we identified TAKING OUT FOOD TO GO as our biggest source of trash. So one of the things that we will REDUCE is taking out food. This is going to be difficult because I’m a working mom of a four year old and I don’t have a full time yaya. But when it comes to protecting the environment that my son lives in, it’s either GO BIG OR GO HOME.
5. Sustain and start over
Once you’re done reducing or eliminating one source of trash you can start the exercise again or revisit your original list to tackle the next.
ARE YOU READY? Great!
Let me know if you have any questions. You can comment below or leave us a message on our FB or IG: Go Zero and Be a Hero.
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