Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout

This week for my Environmental Science class I had to pay close attention to the trash we produce at home. Well after completing the experiment what can I say? I think Mr. Shel Silverstein said it already:

Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout

Would not take the garbage out.

She'd wash the dishes and scrub the pans

Cook the yams and spice the hams,

And though her parents would scream and shout,

She simply would not take the garbage out.

And so it piled up to the ceiling:

Coffee grounds, potato peelings,

Brown bananas and rotten peas,

Chunks of sour cottage cheese.

It filled the can, it covered the floor,

It cracked the windows and blocked the door,

With bacon rinds and chicken bones,

Drippy ends of ice cream cones,

Prune pits, peach pits, orange peels,

Gloppy glumps of cold oatmeal,

Pizza crusts and withered greens,

Soggy beans, and tangerines,

Crusts of black-burned buttered toast,

Grisly bits of beefy roast.

The garbage rolled on down the halls,

It raised the roof, it broke the walls,

I mean, greasy napkins, cookie crumbs,

Blobs of gooey bubble gum,

Cellophane from old bologna,

Rubbery, blubbery macaroni,

Peanut butter, caked and dry,

Curdled milk, and crusts of pie,

Rotting melons, dried-up mustard,

Eggshells mixed with lemon custard,

Cold French fries and rancid meat,

Yellow lumps of Cream of Wheat.

At last the garbage reached so high

That finally it touched the sky,

And none of her friends would come to play,

And all of her neighbors moved away;

And finally, Sarah Cynthia Stout

Said, "Okay, I'll take the garbage out!"

But then, of course it was too late,

The garbage reached across the state,

From New York to the Golden Gate;

And there in the garbage she did hate

Poor Sarah met an awful fate

That I cannot right now relate

Because the hour is much too late

But children, remember Sarah Stout,

And always take the garbage out.

http://mste.illinois.edu/courses/ci407su01/students/north/kristy/Project/K-Poem-Net.html

Why the poem? It was the first thing that came to my mind when I saw the amount of trash we had collected. Why did I collect trash? Well, the rules of the experiment were pretty much the following:

  1.)    Keep track of the trash you collect for three days.    
  2.)    Find ideas of ways you may reduce the amount of trash you produce.  
  3.)    Implement these ideas and once again keep track of the garbage    collected.

So here is the bad news, I feel like this is a great idea BUT it came at a very bad time for me. You see I started the experiment on Friday morning and was to complete my first three days on Sunday. Now I was to be hosting a bridal shower for a girlfriend on Sunday evening and so I was worried that we would be creating large amounts of trash, and well my fear was correct. 

First I must state that we already try to create the least amount of trash possible. We try to purchase the items we can that are packaged in recyclable containers. We have quite a collection of glass jars that we use for various things from drinking jars, pencil holders, and flower vases. My kids have a great time painting the outside of large tin jars that we then use as planters for flowers that we put on our porch. 

Friday and Saturday we went about our daily lives as usual and we created relatively small amounts of trash. After the first two days we had some plastic wrapping, a Coco’s pie box, a plastic milk gallon, some napkins, a plastic mustard container, and some foil. All in all we had less than ¼ of a tall kitchen trash can full. And as always we separated the recyclables from non-recyclables. I was feeling pretty good about the whole thing but I was sure that Sunday would put a dent in our low amounts of trash produced. 

Sunday:

I woke up early and headed for the grocery store. On the list:

Fish, radishes, limes, tostadas, chiles, tomatillos, onions, garlic, avocados, cilantro, tomatoes, oregano, and tortillas. 

All of these things came wrapped in plastic either because they were prepackaged or because I put them in a thin plastic bag at the store so that I could purchase them. I came home unwrapped them threw the plastic in the trash and started the cooking process. As the day progressed friends started showing up with more food and other items that were to be used for the day. By the end of the day we had THREE full tall kitchen trash cans of waste. These included things such as plastic cups and plates, forks, spoons, plastic wrappings, wrapping paper, tissue paper, napkins, plastic containers that many desserts came in, some 2 liter plastic soda bottles, and a few empty glass bottles of wine. I must state in my defense that we did separate the recyclables from the non-recyclables. 

I felt a little bummed that we created so much trash but I tried to make myself feel better about it, by reasoning that this is not an everyday thing in our house rather this is the exception. 

And so after feeling like Sara Sylvia Cynthia Stout I decided that the kids and I would be working extra hard to make up for the large amounts of waste we created on Sunday. I researched “waste reduction strategies” and obtained 3,310,000 results for my search. I read about how schools, cities, communities, and companies are committed to reducing waste and have implemented ways of doing so. Here are a few tips I read about reducing waste at home:

• Buy in bulk

• Reuse products

• Buy products with less packaging

• Purchase refillable products

• Cancel magazine subscriptions

• Avoid single serving products

• Avoid throwaways such as: straws plastic utensils, wood chopsticks

• Compost organics

• Use less hazardous cleaning products

• Donate your used items instead of throwing them away

I decided to implement a few of the tips provided. First after last Thursday’s class and after some internet research I decided we are done with Windex which I use a lot. I will not create as much trash because I will not have the plastic container to deal with and I will at the same time help our indoor air quality become better. I will avoid throwaways, when we visit restaurant places we will use our own mustard, ketchup, and silverware instead of bringing individually prepackaged items home that will create waste. I will try to purchase items that are wrapped in less packaging, purchase refillable items, I hope to use cloth napkins, I am going to try and not use plastic bags at the grocery store, and when I can buy in bulk. Also I am going to try to compost our organics.

The next three days:

Once again we went back to creating smaller amounts of trash. We went to Albertson’s and instead of using their plastic bags we took our own large canvas bag that we put our items in. It was kind of nice because the bag is one of my favorites but I had not used it very much because of its size. Well I have now found a great use for it. It really helped reduce the amount of trash we would have created. Instead of bagging our milk gallon we simply carried it by hand. We also used cloth napkins rather than paper. 

Tonight when I went over what we had in our trash can we have: a few organics, a paper cup, dust from sweeping, a plastic cereal wrapper, and a chip bag. 

Our family has been trying for some time now to reduce our waste and I am proud of what we have accomplished to date; but I also see that we still have a lot more that we can work on. In order to do better I know that we do have to switch to cloth napkins, we have to continue to take our own reusable bags with us when grocery shopping, we must put together and use that composting bin we have in the shed out back and we must avoid throwaways. We must also find ways of reducing our trash when we host gatherings in our home. 

http://www.recyclingsupply.com/blog/?tag=ez-can-recycler-system

This week’s assignment was great. It reminded me that I must continuously try to improve our way of living.