Surprise! Our family’s waste for the year 2015 fits in a pint size jar! That’s half the size of the previous years. Although, I have to confess: I pushed hard to make it fit, and I broke a jar in the process (the dishwasher spoke pictured below got stuck in the rim at closing).
Here is a rundown of this famous jar’s contents, clockwise:
House repair: A sanding belt, the backing of some pads, bits of electrical repairs, old caulking from the kitchen sink, a bit of toilet paper used to wipe excess caulk, worn-out foam strip.
Smartphone case: I was so excited to find a secondhand case to protect Leo’s phone that I overlooked its end of life. Silicone is not recyclable, so when it ripped, it ended up in the jar ;(
Bathroom: A couple of empty medicinal packets given to Scott by his doctor, a broken spray top, contact lenses stickers, a compress and a Band-Aid (not sure where from, because we don’t buy those things), the melted head of a bamboo toothbrush, a tampon wrapper from a guest who did not know about our lifestyle (I threw a surprise 40th party for a girlfriend).
Office: Bits of tape from shipments received, sticker backing of stamps (that we send) and UPS labels (that we occasionally receive), paint shavings of a found broken pencil (I composted the rest).
Hobbies: Worn-out foam padding from a biking helmet and sticker backing of its replacement, trims of laminated tabs that I cut to fit my homemade notebook, hair fishnet from volunteering at the food bank.
Kitchen: produce stickers, plastic label of a wheel of cheese, bubble gums from guests, the wrapper of a chocolate waffle (given to the boys?), rusted spoke of our dishwasher rack.
Travel: Luggage sticker (Scott had to check in his luggage for some reason), laminated info page of an expired passport (we recycle the middle pages and send the covers to an artist for his art piece).
Wardrobe and décor: Unsightly ties, tags and warning labels off of respective backpack, clothing, and cords.
Not that we tried harder to reduce our waste than the previous years (we apply the same rules every year), the reduction in half just so happened, but I can already tell, that 2016 won’t be as glorious!