Trash Trooping is Contagious!

This morning, the pups and I ran into one of our neighbors and her two dogs. (It's the same neighbor who saw me picking-up trash last week and asked me if I was doing my civic duty.) Turns out, trash trooping is contagious. She said that after watching me pick-up trash, she and her partner did the same thing, only at other parts of the neighborhood that I had missed. Very cool!

We talked about doing this again. I had been thinking about doing another trash-trooping exercise, although I don't want to make this a daily habit. My neighbor suggested doing this once a week. I've been inclined to doing this once every two weeks, but we'll see now that she's planted that thought into my head! :0)

Trash Trooping Results: Part II

Heather and I went to Rum Village today to join the Trash Troopers. When we arrived at the park, however, we didn't see anyone. We asked the fellow who was working at the front desk if he had seen anyone picking up trash; he didn't. So we figured we might as well do it without them.

We walked just a bit past the Nature Center and quickly found a host of trash strewn in the woods. This time I had gloves on, so it was easier to deal with the trash and focus on not getting stuck by sticker bushes. Similar to my neighborhood trash-trooping experience, it didn't take us long to fill up our bags with discarded materials. In comparison to Heather, I did not find too many digusting items. She found a pantyliner, a bottle of beer (or urine! Who knows? We didn't open it to find out!), and part of a raccoon's tail. But I did find a used condom, which made me want to gag. Oh, for the love!

Not long after the condom encounter, we spotted the Trash Troopers. They were fairly conspicuous in their green attire. Heather and I apparently did not get that memo - I was wearing a pink shirt and she was wearing a yellow pullover. At any rate, we decided against joining the gang because we thought it would be best if everyone dispersed in their trash-collecting efforts. Plus, we were nearing our 1-hour commitment.

So as we wrapped things up, I brought up the question that Nate recently posed: By picking-up other people's trash, are we really enabling others to litter and pollute? Sheesh, this is a good and tough question to answer. It feels like a catch-22. No, it's not okay to litter and no, I don't really want to pick-up after strangers (especially that used condom; disgusting!). But it's also not okay to turn a blind eye to this problem. "This is what diffusion of responsibility looks like", I told Heather, as I carried a full trash bag. It's not pretty, but as you can tell from the picture, we did have a good time making Rum Village look more like a hospitable park, and less like a landfill.

Trash Trooping Results

I started with an empty Seventh Generation trash bag on yesterday's afternoon walk with the pups. It didn't take me long before I started picking up discarded candy wrappers. And it certainly took no time before that trash bag started to get full. A few of my neighbors were outside enjoying the warm weather. "Feeling environmental today?," one of my neighbors asked. I said it wasn't a big deal as I was just picking-up trash along my regular walking route. I noticed a piece of paper on their lawn. "I'd pick that up, but it's on the other side of the fence." "God bless you," was their reply. (I noticed that piece of paper was picked up this morning.)

Another one of my neighbors asked me if I was doing my civic duty. I guess so, I thought to myself. But I can't take sole ownership for this task. Hopefully, this is our civic duty, right? Who really wants to see strewn styrofoam cups, candy wrappers, cigarette packages, beer bottles*, or condom wrappers? (All of those items, by the way, were picked up on yesterday's walk.)

I did not, however, pick-up any cigarette butts, although I did see plenty of them on the grass. I wasn't wearing gloves and believe it or not, it wasn't long before my back started to complain from all that bending down. (Yes, I'm getting old!) Plus, as some of you know, those Seventh Generation trash bags can't really handle a lot of weight. I actually had to stop picking-up trash midpoint of my walk because the bag was starting to rip at the bottom. So if it doesn't rain today, I'll bring another bag and do a second round of trash trooping in my neighborhood.
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* I took the beer bottles out of the trash bag; they're now in my recycling bin.

Trash Trooping in my Neighborhood

As I was walking the pups this morning, I noticed more trash than usual strewn on the sidewalk and grass. It reminded me of the Trash Trooping I'll be doing on Sunday. But why leave my own neighborhood in neglect? Don't get me wrong - I'm happy to clean-up a public park, but the truth of the matter is that I walk in my neighborhood everyday. So why not make my daily walks more pleasant for me, my dogs, and neighbors?

When I take the pups for their afternoon walk today, I'm going to bring an extra bag to pick-up the neighborhood trash. It's probably no worse than picking up pet waste (I hope). I'll take a few pictures of this neighborhood Trash Trooping adventure and share them with you soon.

Trash Troopers!

My friend Heather emailed me today about becoming a Trash Trooper with her this weekend. Trash Trooper? What the heck did I get myself into this time? ;0)

It's actually a simple plan to pick-up trash at Rum Village (by Ewing). We'll be cleaning up the park for an hour, and with 20 volunteers already on board to help, this should be a cinch (I was going to say a walk in the park, but that would be too cheesy!).

This clean-up adventure also reminds me of the St. Joseph River Clean-Up I did last year, which I thought was fun (and reflective).

So, we're going to get there at 3pm on Sunday - hey, anyone else interested in becoming a Trash Trooper? :0)

Do Recycling Lids Really Matter?

Have you ever wondered whether recycling lids are really effective at reducing the amount of recyclables thrown in the trash and increasing the recycling rate? Or does having these lids on somehow encourage folks to toss items into the trash?

I recently had this conversation with a friend....but he's no ordinary person; this guy likes to conduct experiments! So Experimentaholic wanted to determine the effectiveness of using these recycling lids - and "naturally," he rigged an experiment at his school just to find out.

Here's the general set-up: At both ends of a long hallway were several containers. Some of the containers were for recycling cans, paper, and plastic; another was for trash.

To examine whether the presence or absence of these recycling lids affect the recycling rate, Experimentaholic took the lids off one set of bins (i.e., experimental group) and kept the lids on the other set of bins (i.e., control group). At midpoint of the week, he switched the lids in order to rule out hallway location as a potential confound. For one week, Experimentaholic counted the number of items in each container. (Ewww....gross!!)

So what do you think happened? We have three options to consider:

A. Recycling lids don't influence whether someone recycles their materials or not

B. Recycling lids increase the recycling rate (i.e., people are more likely to recycle)

C. Recycling lids decrease the recycling rate (i.e., people are more likely to use the trash bin)

I'm really curious to know what you think happened- check out the poll on the blog and cast your vote regarding Experimentaholic's latest discovery! (I'll post his results after the poll ends.)

Beth Reflects on Tess' Trash Challenge

Beth from Fake Plastic Fish was interviewed by Tess Vigeland on NPR's Marketplace regarding her participation with Tess' Trash Challenge.

Well, I'm glad I listened to the interview. I didn't know I could compost my paper plates and napkins. Those suckers will be relocated to my compost bin and deducted from my trash-collection spreadsheet. Sweet!! :0)

Thanks for the tips, Beth!!

Well, It Certainly Looks Like Garbage...

So today's my last day of participating in Tess's Trash Challenge. Woo Hoo!! I must say, I've been obsessed about how much trash I've accumulated this past week. I learned that while it was easy for me to produce less garbage when I was doing my usual routine (get up, go to work, come home, play with pups), it was exceedingly difficult for me to produce less waste when I was in a social situation (going to a friend's house, dining at a restaurant, going out for a hot chocolate or tea afterwards).

Overall, I think I did okay (though my data are at work, and of course, my camera was at home today, so I can't provide you with all the details at the moment--I've chalked this up to being a Monday!). One area for improvement, though, is for me to *remember* to bring a container for my leftovers when I go out to eat. And I was thinking that I should request a mug (or bring my own travel mug) when I go to a cafe, too. I thought of this when my friend Len and I went out for hot chocolate on Saturday night. But then two thoughts immediately followed: 1) I would've had to have ordered a medium or large-sized hot chocolate in order to use the cafe's mug (and I ordered a small) and 2) I didn't want to violate this social norm while I was out socializing with my friend. So as you can see, I successfully rationalized my way out of engaging in this eco-friendly behavior. As penance for this gross inaction, I've decided to hang onto my styrofoam cup and container for next Spring's IUSB Styrofoam Recycling Drive.

And really, this is only an approximation of how much trash I actually generated this week. I'm sure more trash was produced on my behalf when I went out to eat, for example. Case in point, last night my friend Dan and I went out to dinner. After eating our meal and having dessert at a nearby cafe, we inadvertantly walked behind the restaurant en route to the parking lot. The timing was perfect; employees were taking out the trash. "You see, this is what I was talking about earlier," Dan said. He was referring to all the indirect trash that's generated throughout the process of consumption. Indeed, we were walking through the underbelly of this Italian restaurant. Bags upon bags of trash were thrown into the dumpsters.

So, I must say, my eyes have been opened a bit more, thanks to this exercise. I'm glad I did this, and I would recommend you trying it for yourself. If you think you can't handle doing this for a week, then try doing it for 2-3 days. I promise you'll think about your trash (and your behavior) with a different perspective!

Day 4b: But It Doesn't Help to go Dancing

Well, folks, I fell off the wagon. It happened tonight when I attended my dance lesson. After teaching stats at 6:45pm on Thursdays, I go to Dan O'Day's Ballroom for my group lesson, which starts at 7:15pm. Tonight, we covered the foxtrot and swing, which was fun (but that's besides the point). And after the group lesson, there's a party from 8pm to 10pm.

So all that's to say is that I was absolutely starving by 9pm. And it's at this point when I began committing the following infractions:

1. I used 4 paper towels tonight (two trips to the girl's room).

2. I had refreshments and ended up using one styrofoam plate, one plastic fork, one napkin, and one plastic cup.

3. I threw those disposable products in their trash bin since I forgot to bring my own trash bag with me.

So there you have it. I'm not proud of this, but I'm not going to give up on myself so quickly. Tomorrow's another day, another chance to hop back on the wagon.

Day 4a: It Helps to Work From Home

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I spend half of the day working from home, which means generating much less waste because I'm not using disposable products as often. So far, I've added two paper towels to the bag this afternoon. And that's it. Honestly, the real challenge for me has been trying to write an interesting blog about this experience!!

Day 3: The Bag's Bulging (a little bit)

Well, the bag's gaining a little girth: In addition to my growing paper-towel collection, I'm now carrying a salad bag and a cereal bag. Yah, and more floss was added to the bag.

I decided to bring my bag to my statistics class this morning. I think some of my students were somewhat amused that I would collect data on my garbage. A student asked me if I was reusing my paper towels--I am--as I told my student, those paper towels were used to dry my clean hands, so it doesn't bother me to reuse them, especially now that I'm carrying them with me everywhere I go.

I also showed my students my data-collection sheet and told them I would conduct some descriptive stats on these numbers. I don't think they were too impressed by my penchant to run the numbers, but I told them how this challenge has really made me become more deliberate about my behaviors (i.e., what I choose to do--and not do--like eat chicken wings--I am not going to carry around chicken bones in my bag for a week!). And it really has challenged the notion of throwing my garbage away and forgetting about it. A few students nodded in agreement. I wonder if any of my students would participate in Tess' Trash Challenge.

Day 2: Paper Towel Waste

So far, there's not a lot of trash data for me to report. Yesterday I used six paper towels, 1 coffee stirrer, and dental floss. (Thanks for the coffee-stirrer tip, Meghan!)

And today, I've used only two paper towels. That's it. Really. And the only reason why my paper-towel usage has declined today is because I worked from home this morning, so I used a cloth towel for drying my hands.

Ho hum, these data are not compelling. (I know, I know, I should probably be rejoicing for not generating a lot of waste!)

But I was confronted with a challenge last night when I went out to dinner. I was determined to eat everything on my plate--I didn't want to stow uneaten food in my bag, nor did I want to carry a styrofoam container after I was done with my leftovers. With that in mind, I ordered curry fries and a steak salad. Not bad, though with the size of food portions these days, I was quite stuffed afterwards. In fact, when I woke up this morning, I was still full from last night's meal!

Data Crunching w/ Trash

Beth from Fake Plastic Fish has encouraged me to join the Tess' Trash Challenge from American Public Media. I had been debating on whether to join this trash challenge for a couple of days, but with a little prodding, I decided to participate. I guess I figured this really wouldn't be a challenge for me; I already compost my food waste, reuse items regularly, and recycle like a fiend. I know I'm beating the national average when it comes to generating waste. (Each day, a person generates about 4.5-6 lbs of trash.)

But maybe I'm being overly confident about my trash collection. (This is me playing Devil's Advocate with myself--gosh, am I my own worst critic or what?) Besides, I reasoned, I love statistics. So why not track how much trash I generate? I've decided to collect my garbage data for exactly one week, starting today. So far, I've used three paper towels and one coffee stirrer. (I may actually hang on to that coffee stirrer for later use. Lord knows I need the coffee!)

So let's see what'll happen this week as I become more cognizant of my trash--yah, here's the catch: As part of the challenge, you're supposed to carry your trash with you throughout the day. I've stowed my garbage in a compostable bag, which you can see in the photo. Now I'm no goody-two shoes...because I'm throwing away items that will end up in the landfill, including that bag, there's no chance for that bag to decompose. (Landfills lack sufficient oxygen for biodegration, so I might have well have used a plastic bag.)