I don’t know if it was in the air or what, but when I moved to Portland just a few weeks ago, I became inspired to be as carbon-neutral as I can be — even if it means going out of my way to do so. In fact, I want to go out of my way and try new things, learn new habits. So here, in these pages, I’ll document my attempts to be extremely eco-friendly.
To begin by examining my trash output seemed pretty elementary. After all, it was in first grade that I learned the 3 Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.
My interest in garbage was sparked three weeks ago, when I visited ecomaine — the factory-like plant off outer Congress Street that processes our trash and recyclables (see “Catering to the Lazy Tree-hugger in All of Us,” by Deirdre Fulton, May 11). I donned a hard hat and safety goggles, and got a guided tour from ecomaine’s general manager, Kevin Roche. First we stepped into an observation room that looked down on about three stories of trash that would eventually be burned into ash and transported to a landfill. Then we went over to a different building where we saw the plant’s new single-sort recycling system.
Seeing all this on the same morning forced me to contemplate how much trash I produce, and how often I throw away something that I could have recycled or reused. The average American chucks more than four pounds of garbage per day, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency. I estimate that I toss about half that, but I want to reduce it even more.
I challenged myself to pay attention to my garbage can, to generate as little trash as possible, to recycle more, and to compost food waste (more on that another time). If I can keep my trash confined to one plastic shopping bag per week, I figure I’ll have approximately one blue bag’s worth per month (good, because those are expensive!).
This means thinking about purchases, and how much waste they’ll produce, before making them. It means getting serious about bringing my own bags and containers to the store and buying in bulk, something I’ve never done before. It means checking the bottom of every plastic container to see if it’s recyclable. In general, I’ve learned that pre-planning spawns less trash.
I went as far as to e-mail Troy Moon, Portland’s solid waste manager, with a list of items for which I needed clarification. Turns out aluminum foil can be recycled, and the waxy paper that wraps sandwiches and such cannot. Now that I know for certain that plastic coffee-cup covers are rarely recyclable (unless they display the little triangle with a number inside), I’m even more motivated to remember my travel mug.
More daring and intense pioneers have been here before me. The blogosphere is full of people who have embarked on trash-free experiments. Check out some of these efforts at plasticfree.blogspot.com or noimpactman.typepad.com/blog. Compared to these zero-impacters, I’m still taking the easy way out.
