Failure - I'm Not a Zero

Think Green!



Okay, I'm not the world's greatest environmentalist, but I do try to do my part. I recycle everything I can at home and at work and have even picked up litter and recycled it. I don't use styrofoam; I take reusable bags with me when I shop; I frequent farmer's markets, lazily compost, and conserve energy at home by drying my clothes on a line and turning off water and electricity as much as I can. So when my workplace posted an Earth Week challenge, I thought I was all set. It seemed simple enough: turn your wastepaper baskets upside down and strive for zero waste. In fact, I thought they made it really simple -- they only asked us to do it for two days this week.

I was all set. As always, I packed my lunch in re-usable containers and took my coffee with me in my thermal travel mug. This was going to be a cinch! In fact, I doubted I ever really needed to use my wastepaper basket at work. After all, I only printed double-sided when I had to, then used old paper as scratch paper before finally recycling it. What did I need a garbage can for?

Cocky, cocky, cocky. I failed the Zero Waste project in my first hour at work. I spilled my coffee and wiped it up with napkins, then stood there confounded, staring at the wastepaper basket. I couldn't recycle soiled napkins, could I? Reluctantly, I dropped them in. I'd already made a mess of things. An hour later, I ate a miniature candy bar and couldn't figure out what to do with the wrapper. So I dropped that into the waste basket, too.

I'd failed the test. Boy, it was trickier than I thought! But then I started thinking about it, and what I could have done differently. I could have been zero waste if I'd made two simple changes. First, if I'd been at home, I could have wiped my coffee up with a rag instead of wasting paper products. But rags aren't an option at work. I'll have to work on the solution to that.

But what to do about the candy wrapper(s)? (Okay, I ended up eating more than one.) I couldn't think of a solution unless I could recycle the bits of plastic? paper? that the candy was wrapped in. And then it hit me -  I could just not eat food that comes in packaging that can't be recycled. Duh!

So, lessons learned. I failed my first Zero Waste Day, but feel much more confident about the second. Maybe after a few more baby steps, I will be able to get rid of my wastepaper basket once and for all. Success!