All Who Waste are Welcome Here!

Despite the various times I've blogged about falling off my bike or Jello wrestling (in my past lives) this blog will most likely be the most embarrassing.  In order to eliminate waste from my life, I will have to examine, well, the contents of my own trash can in order to be born anew into a less wasteful, more mindful way of living. 

I have given myself permission to take up to two years to transition to a totally waste-free household.  Yes, we will still recycle, but our goal is to try and minimize the amount of refuse of any sort that leaves our residence.

We have an unfair advantage in terms of attemptig a zero waste lifestyle because our house is only 700 square feet, with no yard and no garage.  There isn't any room for anything nonessential!  In addition, we only have one toilet and one shower using water, and a place for one trash can (in the kitchen) in the entire house.  There isn't a lawn to water or a yard to light up a night.  Because we live on the second story, our house stays pretty warm all winter long, and we rarely turn on our own heat (unless our neighbors downstairs go on vacation...).  I wasn't that surprised when I recently learned (at a work-related seminar) that the CO2 emissions produced by automobiles pale in comparison to what is produced by physical buildings.  Alas, so many years of so much effort in biking/carpooling/public transit, when I really should have been examining my HVAC, lighting, and water use practices.

I first decided I wanted a zero waste lifestyle when I discovered the Johnson family.  The Johnsons live practically in my own backyard, in Mill Valley, California, and have become icons for the zero waste movement.  Anyone who is struggling to figure out how to begin eliminating waste from daily life need only visit the Johnsons' website to be inspired:

Zero Waste Home

What I like the most about this family is that they are totally normal!  I definitely had some reservations that a zero waste lifestyle would be fraught with overly abstemious, patchouli-scented choices that would surely make the children into repressed oddballs well before they made it to eighteen.  The Johnsons reassured me that no such fate looms large.  So, my confidence fortified by the experience of this good-looking family, I set out to tackle my first zero waste task: creating a baseline.