Waste Not Want Not

Lucky number 10, that's right this is blog assignment #10. This one was pretty interesting because it was interactive and eye-opening. This assignment was about reducing my waste and the first part directed me to keep track of the total amount of waste I produced in 2 days. So how much waste did I produce in those first two days, well not much but that's kinda normal for me. I am a vegetarian and I cut my processed food consumption down a lot, so as a result my waste production is generally small. As you can see below, this was my waste for the two days. Not pictured would be some apple cores, orange peels, and kiwi peel. I use a lot of reusable containers, and try to purchase things that don't come in a lot of packaging already. There's a mix of recyclables like the milk carton, the naked bottle, and a few others things that I do in fact recycle. 

Now onto part two which had me look up waste reduction strategies. I found this website http://www.clearwater-fl.com/gov/depts/solid_waste/docs_pub/wrtips.asp which had a lot of useful tips (some of which  I already do). So, after reading this we were instructed to apply some of these strategies and keep track again for two days. At the end we were once again suppose to find out how much waste was reduced after those two days when we were conscious of it.  So, I stayed away from packaging by purchasing fresh products, I drank only from my reusable bottles, and when I made my meals I only used small amounts and put whatever I didn't need in reusable containers. I also refrained from any kind of takeout or any type of food that came in multiple packages As you can see from the picture I produced was less waste the last two days. The only things that were in it were apple cores, peels from fruit like oranges and kiwi, and 1 plastic bag. Needless to say there wasn't a lot to throw away during those two days. 

The strategies I really used were reducing the amount of packaging I buy, using reusable things, buying products that need to packaging, recycling things, avoid disposable things and refrain from paper plates and paper towels. These are all strategies  I will continue to sue in order to keep my waste production low, and hopefully I can get others in my house to follow. So far I have gotten them to recycle; some progress is better than no progress.