apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

How about yourselves? Abby asked a similar question earlier this year, but we don't normally weigh our trash output and mostly measure by total bags that hit curbside. And be sure to mention how many are in your household, since we understand this corresponds directly with the total.

We've consider going plastic trash bagless, but this isn't such a great idea when you have to dispose of cat litter regularly, so we just try to keep it in check and stick to paper bags for our recyclable collection (and yes, we bring reusable canvas bags when we shop). Donating instead of throwing out, throwing a yard sale, and just offering our friends extraneous items has culled our total possessions and waste output quite a bit too (trust us, let it go...you'll feel better after the initial discomfort of giving "it" up).

Beth put together an excellent list of ways to cull back your weekly trash output here. The one we're battling is the ongoing delivery of junk mail, despite contacting a million junk mail lists to stop the insanity (yet another reason to shop local). We've also given up on bottled water except in exceptional circumstances while traveling (Kleen Kanteens are excellent replacements). We guess our next step is do a trash audit and break down exactly what and where the bulk of our waste is coming from and make necessary changes. But perhaps after the holidays, since the amount of trash during the holidays is always exceptionally more than normal.