I've joined a new challenge. Because, you know, the challenges of pregnancy & toddler parenting in the middle of nowhere while my husband is gone for 3 months isn't quite challenging enough.
Check out the groovy new badge in my sidebar, too. It's the brainchild of EnviroMom. She writes a really wonderful blog full of ideas and musing about living an environmentally gentle lifestyle. She's pushing her readers to reduce their trash output to one curbside can per month. I think it's a great idea.
I've had my own Eco-challenge ping ponging around in my head for a while but it's not ready for the light of day yet--later this summer for sure. In the meantime, this is a great goal to strive for. Even if you don't succeed, just thinking along these lines might help you reduce some. Which is a hell of a lot better than reducing none. Maybe you can get it down to one can every other week. That's progress, too. At it's foundation, this challenge is about actually focusing a tiny bit of attention on something you usually just don't think about at all: How much trash you generate. It's about not just rolling the can down to the curb without consideration--not that I have a curb, more of a patch of dirt at the end of the gravel drive.
I talk a fair amount about Reduce, Reuse & Recycle. Reduce is definitely the red-headed stepchild of the threesome. It just doesn't feel as creative as Reuse or as outwardly satisfying as Recycle. Plus we are just such a consumer driven culture. It's hard to break that indoctrination even when you're a pretty crunchy person. I've always got a list of things I want and have several orders on the way even now. But the truth that's hard to swallow is that there's a reason Reduce is first. It's the most important.
So, take the One Can a Month Challenge and start thinking about what you put in the trash, what you buy from the store, what you choose to bring into your house. Is it really just trash waiting to happen?
And check out EnviroMom starting July 1st (now too, always cool stuff there), for tips on how to reduce your family's trash.
