How would your life change if you couldn’t throw anything away for an entire year? La Porte County Solid Waste District educator Alicia Ebaugh is about to find out for herself.
Ebaugh, who teaches children and adults across the county about recycling and waste reduction, is collecting all the waste she creates throughout 2016 in hopes to educate herself and others about the effects of our waste production.
“We live in a very disposable society. It’s so easy just to throw something in the trash can. In our minds, it simply disappears after it’s taken to the curb. But nothing you throw away ever truly goes away, it just goes somewhere else,” Ebaugh said.
Through posting pictures of her own waste and blogging about it, she’s already begun to learn some interesting lessons about how her habits influence the types of waste she creates.
“When I’m at work I don’t always bring lunch from home, so a few times a week I find myself getting fast food. Each time, I end up with at least a bag, a few wrappers or containers, a napkin, maybe a ketchup packet or two. It doesn’t seem like a lot, but it adds up over time,” she said. “The bag is the only recyclable item there. If I want to avoid hanging onto the rest of that stuff, I’m going to have to plan to bring lunch from home every day.”
Ebaugh also hopes her efforts will help people connect the things they throw away to the use of resources from which they are made.
“Theoretically we all know that paper is made out of trees and that a plastic water bottle is made from crude oil, but these items are usually of no value to us after one use,” she said. “It helps to be mindful that the things we are using came from the earth. Do we really want to say that the materials for this water bottle or plastic fork were extracted from the earth, shaped by several people over a period of time and shipped, sometimes halfway around the world, so we could use it once and throw it away?”
Ebaugh said she will only keep items that are considered trash - not items that recyclable or compostable, as these methods put resources to use again. Recycling is already popular in La Porte County, Ebaugh said, as it is already provided to all residents through the District’s programs. She composts food, yard waste and other products at home in a designated space behind her garage. But it will all be included in the collection process, as her personal goal during this project is to focus on reducing all the waste she creates.
“Recycling is great, but I want to practice what I teach,” she said. “I always say the three Rs – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle – are in that order for a reason. If I use less stuff and reuse or repurpose things I already have, I will use fewer resources in the first place.”
You can follow her posts on the Solid Waste District’s blog at http://lpcorecycling.tumblr.com/. Posts will also be shared on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/LPCoRecycling/.
Visit the Solid Waste District website at www.solidwastedistrict.com to get a visual guide to home recycling, curbside recycling collection calendar and more.