One woman's two years worth of trash is another woman's two hours worth. (via Kickstarter)
How much trash have you produced already today? Once you start to add it up, it's kind of terrifying how quickly we create garbage. I've been sitting at my desk most of the day, and I've already managed to throw away a wet plastic grocery bag, the packaging from a toy, a plastic envelope that arrived in the mail, and more.
New York Magazine has an interview up today with a woman who can fit all the trash she's produced in the last two years in a mason jar. Lauren Singer, a 23-year-old with a degree in Environmental Studies, attempts to live her life with "zero waste." What she can't reuse, recycle, or compost, goes in the jar. It's mostly "packaging" from food, with the occasionally plastic straw.
Lauren blogs about going trash-free at Trash is for Tossers. Among other things, she describes her glee at getting a wooden toilet bowl cleaner. It's the little things.
Now, Lauren wants to spread the no-trash love. She launched a Kickstarter to fund The Simply Co., which will produce a three-ingredient laundry detergent. They've already been funded (and then some) and sold out of the product.
For people who want to go trash-free themselves, Lauren has three big pieces of advice: 1) figure out what's in your garbage so you can start to reduce it; 2) do some easy switches like reusable grocery bags instead of plastic bags; and 3) start making your own household cleaning and beauty products.
Even if you fail at producing zero waste, you'll have a ball making your loved ones feel bad about how wasteful they are.