Can You Go JUST ONE DAY Without Generating Any Waste?

I'll take that challenge.

My motivation is just plain trying to live sustainably.

I'm the only person in my household, which gives me a distinct advantage.

I'lll need to get back to the group on the day.

What a great idea to get people thinking about how immune we have become to just tossing things away. Thanks, Linda! By the way, have you been able to go one day without generating any waste?

Okay, I'll give it a shot. Something tells me this is gonna be pretty tricky with 3 rugrats in the house, but I think that this will be a great lesson for them. They're old enough to understand why this effort will help the environment and I think that they'll be inspired enough to take it to the next level.

I want to do this because any positive example that my wife and I can set for the kidlets while they're really still so young and impressionable is a step in the right direction. They're so eager to help the planet already.

There are 5 total bodies in my house, plus 2 cats and 2 dogs. Gulp. We already recycle like crazy but judging from the pile of garbage that we made just this weekend alone, we're definitely not doing enough. I think that this exercise will help us to reassess what we do -- I'm sure that we can do it a little bit better.

I think that I'll go garbage free this Wednesday since everyone will be home (or maybe I should send them on a day trip that day so that I can have better success?!?!) -- ha ha, only kidding. Yup, Wednesday it is. I'll report back to you later this week!

Does compost and recycling of items consumed/used in a day count towards no waste? Is it waste only when it ends up in the trashbin? What about the "gray" water that goes down the drain during a shower, dishwasher, or laundry cycle? If my home was set up to capture the reusable water, it oculd be used in the garden. But since it doesn't, the water that goes down the drain could be considered as wasteful.

Despite the reusable water issue above, I do make great efforts not to generate waste by recycling, composting, and reusing everything when possible and by consuming less or none at all.