Barney- My Bag of Trash

I haven't taken a picture yet of Barney, because the day is not over, but I wanted to make sure to get this post up tonight.

I was pleasantly surprised to bump into other people doing this with me. Students in my classes proudly brandished their bags at me. One student waved it like a flag at me from across the quad. I received reports of students asking other faculty, "Where's your bag?"

Still more interesting were the questions about the "rules" and the people who didn't think they could attempt it but thought about trash all day anyway.
Do tissues go into the bag? Yes.
Does used toilet paper? I say, "No." because you wouldn't put it in the trash anyway. But...I admit that I did think about where all of it goes today...and how much of it there must be.
Do my kids diapers go in there? Technically, yes....but ummm...no. Just like, think about it or something.

I'm really pleased that people who didn't actually do it still thought about their trash throughout the day. That's kind of the point. And while carrying around the bag all day was kind of annoying and even sometimes embarrassing it was also a good Earth Day conversation piece. But I admit I'd be hesitant to do this on a non-Earth Day. On Earth Day it seems vaguely political...the other 364? Ummm...you might be a weirdo. I got some interesting looks in the grocery store.

I've received a few reports from other folks who took the challenge.

Janel says, "I don't know if you meant the end of the business day or the actual end of the day, but at this point I have in my bag the following:
a few Q-tips
paper towel
packaging for individual servings of apple sauce
packaging for Pillsbury cinnonmon rolls
(two) granola bar wrappers
a bottle top, and
a plastic sandwich bag

I'd love to know if I could recycle any of that. :)"

I told her that the applesauce containers could be recycled if she was willing to go through some rigmarole, the Q-tips and paper towels could be composted and the sandwich bag could be washed and reused.

Nancy wrote, "Besides the banana peel and apple core and some stems of grape vines which were not composted, there was a plastic wrapper from a popsicle (the stick was recycled) and two napkins from lunch and dinner in my bag. I might be disqualified by the fact that I did not take the bag with me on my walking today, but I thought I'd enter to be a part of the earth day initiative."

Babysitting the bag was kind of a chore. It was easy to remember it at work because I kept it with my keys but once I got home it was hard to drag it around. When we walked around the neighborhood with it I felt self conscious at first but then I kind of forgot about it.

Cherylann did really well. According to her, her bag had, "Air, nothing but air. I only used reusable containers today, and recycled my drink cans/bottles and my school papers I didn't need anymore. LOL, I was really conscious about what I used today. But sad to say, I'm not that conscious every day. Today is the first day (I think EVER) that I didn't take a bag of trash out to the dumpster, either. " This makes me wonder what her bag would have been like if we did make her count the dirty diapers!

Personally I am surprised, not by the amount of trash that I made, but by some of the items in it.

My bag contains (so far):
1 yogurt cup (I could recycle this by washing it and taking it to a collection site since the curbside recycling won't take it....but I never do this so it goes in the bag.)
1 eye make up removing pad (compostable? dunno what it's made out of)
4 fruit/veg stickers
A million paper towels from work (compostable...in theory)
1 Hansens drink mix packet
1 cream cheese foil
1 plastic fork

I referred to this bag throughout the day as my bag of shame since it contains many things that I could deal with properly but I don't. I could wash and reuse that fork but I won't. I could collect all of my paper towels from my day at work, bring them home, and put them in the compost but I probably never will. I could collect a stack of yogurt cups and bring them to the museum but the best I've ever done is to reuse them for starting seeds. One of my co-workers told me she just puts the yogurt cups in the curbside recycling even though she knows they won't take them.

The thing that struck me about doing this was the way I felt about it. The first time I used the bathroom at work I came out, washed my hands and thought, "Darn it. This goes in the bag." It had NEVER occurred to me on previous bathroom visits that I'd ever do anything but put that towel right in the trash. At home I compost paper towels as long as they don't have anything really grody on them but I'd seriously never even thought about that for an instant at work.

Another dilemma came when my new shipment of glasses came in. Blake ordered them as a gift for me, half of the glasses were his but I opened the package. Does this go in my bag or his? I asked Gavin and he said, "I'll settle this. It goes in my bag!" and promptly threw it in the trash.

The cream cheese wrapper was for dessert for everyone's dinner, half of the cream cheese was gone and I hadn't used any of it. As the last person to use it was the disposal my burden? I put it in the bag.

I eat vegetables and fruit all day every day. I also make most of my own food at home from scratch. Tomato sauce, dried beans and hummus are staples in our diet that I make to avoid the salt and sugar associated with the prepackaged counter part. I've been getting weirder about this in the last few years. Now I'm washing my produce in homemade produce wash. I bring this up because without my recycling and compost bins at home I'd create a lot more garbage. We sometimes generate two mixing bowls filled with food scraps and peelings in one day. It's nice to not have to dump it in the trash and in the summer when my garden is in full swing it's fun to get creative with the kitchen castoffs. Plastic is unavoidable though. Plastic produce bags, plastic stickers, plastic bean bags and other doo dads must be stripped off of all of the produce before it can be used.

As I get more feedback about this experiment I'll try to post it. I'm really interested to find out how everyone's day went and I am completely floored to think about all of the people who collected their trash for more than a week!