Trashed on the road

I've been out west for 8 days. In the beginning i tried to keep up with my project documenting my trash, recycling and reuse project. As time went on I found that doing so was detracting from my ability to have a relaxing vacation so i relaxed my vigilance to some extent. However i did have some insights along the way. The first one is that other cities are way ahead of Atlanta on the path towards sustainability. Both the airports in Denver and Seattle have recycling containers readily accessibly throughout them. Wake up Hartsfield! The second is that it takes a lot of planning and discipline to eat healthy food and to tread softly on the planet while on the road. It has been suggested that we need to be more responsible about taking frivolous or unnecessary trips on airplanes anyway. I don't feel that was the case on this trip because i traveled to a workshop to learn about growing mushrooms. Once I put what i learned into practice i will more that offset the carbon expended on the trip by growing and using mushrooms and by teaching others how to do so as well.
More about that in future posts.

TRASHED DAY 4

Ok this is the dilemma for today. Aluminum foil can certainly be reused but this was wrapped around a turkey. I could probably clean it but with the water shortage.... also what if i didn't clean it well enough to keep the salmonella from developing? And what about using aluminum foil at all? Does it leach into the food and make us sick?
What would you do?

TRASHED DAY 4

This trash examination project is like opening pandora's box. First of all if i had remembered that i had to tell the world about it i never would have let down my guard and gone into Wendy's for lunch. I told myself i was tired of eating turkey sandwiches for 4 days straight but i was just lying to myself because i ate a turkey sandwich about 3 hours after eating the wendyburger and frosty. (i really love turkey sandwiches)(especially the mayonaise, organic of course).
And then, when i was ready to shave, here i am faced (no pun intended) with yet another example of ridiculous packaging and throw-away stuff. I don't use any shaving cream or gell crap when i shave, I depend on the lubricant on the little strip attached to the top of the 4 blade cartridge that will eventually end up in the landfill for a million years. that's right i dry shave and i don't change blades until i absolutely have to. Yea, i'm a real macho man.
Maybe i'll get myself a straight razor for christmas. ( but think about all the medical supplies that will be used once and thrown into the trash) geeez!

TRASHED DAY 3

A word about today's trash. I have a cold and have been using Zicam to make it go away quicker. The packaging is ridiculous! Check out my Facebook page and watch my video rant about packaging.

Trashed

In the latest issue of Orion magazine ( a great magazine, excellent writing, fantastic photography and art) there is a piece about Tim Gaudreau who photographed they stuff he threw away every day for a full year. He is a self-proclaimed recycler, is "ecologically conscious, limited what he bought and didn't participate in any of the traditional consumer holidays." Still he threw away a lot of stuff. And don't we all.
I've decided to follow in his footsteps and post photos of the stuff i throw away every day for the next year. I hope that this exercise will make me a better steward of the earth and maybe it will help you to be better too.
Being a recycler myself i think it would be only fair to also post photos of the stuff i recycle too. We can all learn from that as well.