Thursday is also trash day. As I was gathering up the trash today, I noticed just how little trash we have for a family of four. I gathered up one kitchen trash bag and a few bags from the bathrooms, and as I put it in the bin it hardly filled up one-third of the garbage can that I roll to the curb. On most weeks, we could probably go two weeks between trash pick-up and have no problems with overflowing the garbage can.
This lack of trash is due to two things. We recycle cardboard, #1 and #2 plastics, and aluminum, and we also started a compost pile last year. I love having a compost pile, not only because I like to have vegetable gardens each year and it makes for cheap compost, but mostly because I do not have to empty the trash so often. It was the stinky peels and rinds and seeds and whatever else that would quickly rot and caused me to empty a quarter-filled trash bag.
Another factor is my obsessive list and menu making each week. I know exactly what meals I'm going to fix and if it will make leftovers, which means we don't throw out food.
Occasionally I like to meet up with friends and take the kids to Chick Fil A for dinner, particularly if Zach is going to be out late at an extracurricular event. I'm always struck by just how much trash one fast food meal generates. I mean, there's the wrapper around each piece of food, the piece of paper that lines the tray, the cup, the straw, the straw wrapper, the cup cover, the ketchup packet, the wrapper for the toy in the kid's meal, the kid's meal bag, the utensils, the utensil wrapper, the napkins, and on and on. That one meal generates more trash than three days' worth at home!
I don't proclaim to be an extreme Hippy Dippy Loon who is completely obsessed with saving the planet from being overcome by a sea of trash, but to me, if there is a way to cut down on trash by eating at home -- and be healthier because of it -- I'm all for it.
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Workout of the Day
One on One Volume 2: On One Leg for Legs
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