Author Topic: Reducing Waste & Recycling at Home: Glad Waste in Focus  (Read 19154 times)

nikki

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Reducing Waste & Recycling at Home: Glad Waste in Focus
« on: April 18, 2014, 08:42:52 PM »
http://www.glad.com/trash/waste-in-focus/

This website is appalling. I knew people were wasteful, but this is ONE WEEK'S WASTE for each of the pictured families.

Plastic water bottles and plastic bags are completely unnecessary now, you know?

I'm so disappointed in humanity right now, and I'm frustrated that my efforts and enthusiasm on this topic won't be changing many minds. I'll just keep on keepin' on, challenging myself to produce even less waste than I already do.

wizlem

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Re: Reducing Waste & Recycling at Home: Glad Waste in Focus
« Reply #1 on: April 18, 2014, 10:04:25 PM »
It is a little saddening to see how many had bottles from bottled water in their. I think bottled water is evil.

This seems more representative of upper middle class americans though. My experience is lower income people (tend to) produce even more garbage.

It's kind of hard to avoid a lot of food packaging though. I get annoyed that almost all of my landfill garbage is packaging and a great majority of that could have been avoided. Why does my brocolli come with styrofoam?

That first family must sure like to drink.

gooki

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Re: Reducing Waste & Recycling at Home: Glad Waste in Focus
« Reply #2 on: April 19, 2014, 02:24:12 AM »
Why does my brocolli come with styrofoam?

This made me laugh. What fucked up shop sells broccoli in styrofoam?

1967mama

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Re: Reducing Waste & Recycling at Home: Glad Waste in Focus
« Reply #3 on: April 19, 2014, 02:29:03 AM »
This blog is a nice contrast to the glad.com families:

http://zerowastehome.blogspot.ca

So inspiring!

nikki

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Re: Reducing Waste & Recycling at Home: Glad Waste in Focus
« Reply #4 on: April 19, 2014, 02:34:57 AM »
Why does my brocolli come with styrofoam?

This made me laugh. What fucked up shop sells broccoli in styrofoam?

Almost all of my vegetables come with some sort of plastic or styrofoam, too. That's what most of my waste is, probably. Fortunately, all of that is recyclable here. Not so in America.

It could be really interesting to keep track of what I toss and recycle, though I won't be able to weigh it like they did in the Glad thingy. It takes me over a month to fill up a 2 liter garbage bag, but I'm not sure how much it weighs. Usually a lot by the time I toss it because of cat litter.

In Korea, we recycle food waste, and it took a bit of effort setting it up at my apartment because no one else cared to do it (they still don't, but at least I can). One of my colleagues actually said I'd produce less waste (he meant food waste) if I just bought pre-made salads and cookies and things like that. Um... ya... less food waste for ME to dispose of, but certainly more food waste wherever the salad, sandwich, cookie, whatever was created. And I wouldn't even be able to use the veggie scraps to make stock! AND then I'd have the additional packaging to deal with. So even in Korea, where almost everything is recyclable, people are still lazy.

nikki

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Re: Reducing Waste & Recycling at Home: Glad Waste in Focus
« Reply #5 on: April 19, 2014, 02:49:06 AM »
This blog is a nice contrast to the glad.com families:

http://zerowastehome.blogspot.ca

So inspiring!

It's been a while since I've been there. Thanks for reminding me about it!

horsepoor

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Re: Reducing Waste & Recycling at Home: Glad Waste in Focus
« Reply #6 on: April 19, 2014, 09:20:54 AM »
That's sort of a strange page.  It would be better if they looked at the waste and discussed how it could be reduced, though why would a company that sells garbage bags want to do that?  It's a good illustration of another reason to avoid processed food though - lots of juice containers and frozen pizza boxes.  I'm wondering why the first family has cans in the trash, but plastic and glass containers in the recycling - perhaps it's the opposite of here, where glass recycling is pretty much non-existent.

And more people need to compost!  Why are the only low-landfill trash families from San Francisco?

I'm in a constant struggle with getting my husband to recycle.  He'll do pretty well on much of it, and then randomly toss mail in the trash.  He laughed at me when I dove in and retrieved a newspaper grocery ad that he'd tossed in 5 seconds earlier.  If nothing else, those are good for cleaning windows or starting fires!  And it's actually more convenient to put scraps in the compost bin than the trash, but yet half the time he'll walk vegetable peelings over to the trash instead.  Gives me many *facepalm* moments, but I was raised on recycling and he was not.

nikki

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Re: Reducing Waste & Recycling at Home: Glad Waste in Focus
« Reply #7 on: April 19, 2014, 09:10:37 PM »
I think Glad is trying to present a good image, but going deep into reducing waste really isn't in their best interest. Agreed :-p

I don't know about the sorting... I couldn't find an explanation on the page. I'm pretty sure glass isn't recyclable via curbside pick-up at my grandparents' place in Texas, but if you bring it to the bins outside the library or Whole Foods it is.

I'm the one responsible for getting my grandparents to recycle anything. They only drink Pepsi from cans or bottled water, and now they mostly recycle all of those things. Also cardboard. But come meal or snack time, they only eat off paper plates, which then go in the trash. I'm sure they create more trash than any of the families on the Glad page. I got so angry last time I visited them because my grandfather kept egging me on about how wasteful they are. It's not a joke.

Jack

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Re: Reducing Waste & Recycling at Home: Glad Waste in Focus
« Reply #8 on: April 19, 2014, 11:13:22 PM »
Why does my brocolli come with styrofoam?

This made me laugh. What fucked up shop sells broccoli in styrofoam?

Aldi, which is sad because it's so incredibly inexpensive otherwise.

wizlem

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Re: Reducing Waste & Recycling at Home: Glad Waste in Focus
« Reply #9 on: April 19, 2014, 11:25:01 PM »
Why does my brocolli come with styrofoam?

This made me laugh. What fucked up shop sells broccoli in styrofoam?

Aldi. While having cheaper produce, they tend to package a lot of it and until recently the brocolli came on a sytrofoam tray. I think having it all packaged reduces time spent weighing it by the cashier.

zataks

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Re: Reducing Waste & Recycling at Home: Glad Waste in Focus
« Reply #10 on: April 20, 2014, 12:01:34 AM »
This is insane!  Weekly trash measured in tens of POUNDS?!  I don't weight mine but I'd guess maybe 5 pounds/week. 
And that second family--the water bottles?!  GAAAAH.  This fucking kills me.  I feel it's just from ignorance--too few people have any clue or or understanding about the cleanliness of their tap water.


Disclaimer: I am a licensed drinking water treatment and distribution operator in two states.  Actually, only 1 state for treatment now; I left my former state treatment certs lapse because I have no intention of moving back there.

michaelrecycles

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Re: Reducing Waste & Recycling at Home: Glad Waste in Focus
« Reply #11 on: April 20, 2014, 12:07:15 AM »
Regarding the apathy/sarcasm/laziness some of you have mentioned, I really think it has to do with the fact that people just throw things "away." And then those things are gone from their lives. They don't see what happens after it gets placed in the trash bin.

I do believe everyone should visit a landfill at some point in their life. It is not pretty.

This isn't just about being less "wasteful" and reaching some more efficient ideal. It's about not burying crap in big soupy holes in the earth.

zataks

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Re: Reducing Waste & Recycling at Home: Glad Waste in Focus
« Reply #12 on: April 20, 2014, 12:13:31 AM »
Had a Brazilian couchsurfer around the time this was moving around.  She and I watched it together and it really opened my eyes.  Granted, supposedly Rio de Janeiro's landfill rivals (or is?) the largest in the world.  But even still; I work within maybe 1.5miles of the San Jose landfill and haven't yet gone to look at it; much of me does not want to know.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1268204/

Squirrel away

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Re: Reducing Waste & Recycling at Home: Glad Waste in Focus
« Reply #13 on: April 20, 2014, 03:30:41 AM »
I used to be terrible for buying bottles of water when I was out and about, buying a quality reusable water bottle cured me of that stupid habit.:)

GuitarStv

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Re: Reducing Waste & Recycling at Home: Glad Waste in Focus
« Reply #14 on: April 21, 2014, 06:16:30 AM »
Bottled water really bothers me.  It's been repeatedly tested and shown to be of similar quality or worse than most readily available tap water.  Such a phenomenal waste.  I have friends who always buy and use bottled water.  When over at their house I specifically ask to drink the tap water.  Can't change 'em, but you don't have to join 'em.

starbuck

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Re: Reducing Waste & Recycling at Home: Glad Waste in Focus
« Reply #15 on: April 21, 2014, 06:39:05 AM »
Why does my brocolli come with styrofoam?

This made me laugh. What fucked up shop sells broccoli in styrofoam?

The cheaper grocery store near me does this with a large percentage of their produce. It's the main reason I won't shop there, no matter how cheaply they sell things. I take my mesh produce bags to the more expensive store, thanks. Saving money isn't everything.

When I look in our trash can, it is basically all plastic packaging. It's how I can tell we've been buying more than normal - the trash can actually starts to fill up.

HairyUpperLip

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Re: Reducing Waste & Recycling at Home: Glad Waste in Focus
« Reply #16 on: April 21, 2014, 09:12:30 AM »
I live in Atlanta, Ga and I'm not surprised to see at all how wasteful the Atlanta families are compared to the California folks.

What sucks is that all these examples are from a "clean" country like America. Would be even cooler to see the same breakdown with families from Mexico, India, England, etc....

MissStache

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Re: Reducing Waste & Recycling at Home: Glad Waste in Focus
« Reply #17 on: April 21, 2014, 09:31:15 AM »
Bottled water really bothers me.  It's been repeatedly tested and shown to be of similar quality or worse than most readily available tap water.  Such a phenomenal waste.  I have friends who always buy and use bottled water.  When over at their house I specifically ask to drink the tap water.  Can't change 'em, but you don't have to join 'em.

I think bottled water is the single thing that best represents what is wrong with American (and perhaps Western) society.    We have strict regulations on our tap water, which give us the cleanest, purest, most reliably flowing water in the world.  And instead we go out and buy unregulated water at ridiculous prices which is delivered to our person by means of factories and gas-guzzling delivery trucks.  And we also get a handly little plastic bottle which will clog our oceans and landfills for a million years!

'MERICA!

HairyUpperLip

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Re: Reducing Waste & Recycling at Home: Glad Waste in Focus
« Reply #18 on: April 21, 2014, 10:22:27 AM »
Bottled water really bothers me.  It's been repeatedly tested and shown to be of similar quality or worse than most readily available tap water.  Such a phenomenal waste.  I have friends who always buy and use bottled water.  When over at their house I specifically ask to drink the tap water.  Can't change 'em, but you don't have to join 'em.

I think bottled water is the single thing that best represents what is wrong with American (and perhaps Western) society.    We have strict regulations on our tap water, which give us the cleanest, purest, most reliably flowing water in the world.  And instead we go out and buy unregulated water at ridiculous prices which is delivered to our person by means of factories and gas-guzzling delivery trucks.  And we also get a handly little plastic bottle which will clog our oceans and landfills for a million years!

'MERICA!

What really bothers me about watered bottles is how much of the water gets wasted. People seem to always think it's totally okay to take 2-3 sips and leave it. Really stupid.

JPinDC

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Re: Reducing Waste & Recycling at Home: Glad Waste in Focus
« Reply #19 on: April 21, 2014, 10:55:53 AM »
And more people need to compost!  Why are the only low-landfill trash families from San Francisco?

San Francisco has a mandatory recycling and composting ordinance. If you live in an apartment building and don't have access to a yard to compost at home, it can be hard to do so. http://www.sfenvironment.org/article/recycling-and-composting/mandatory-recycling-and-composting-ordinance

BlueHouse

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Re: Reducing Waste & Recycling at Home: Glad Waste in Focus
« Reply #20 on: April 21, 2014, 01:20:13 PM »
I live in Atlanta, Ga and I'm not surprised to see at all how wasteful the Atlanta families are compared to the California folks.
I lived in Atlanta and was part of a pilot recycling program back in the early 90's.  We had to pay for the privilege of recycling, but 6 weeks after the program started, one of the news channels followed the garbage/recycling trucks around and found they were all getting mixed together.  How frustrating!

No Name Guy

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Re: Reducing Waste & Recycling at Home: Glad Waste in Focus
« Reply #21 on: April 21, 2014, 01:21:12 PM »
'Tis amusing to see folks in this thread bash the US on the bottled water thing.  I was just on a business trip to the intersection of Europe and Asia and let me tell you in at least THAT country, it's bottled water everywhere I went - they even poured bottled into the glass in some of the restaurants.

Heck, on the train there, they even had little foil top covered CUPS (call it 100 ml) of water in the box lunch they served.

Oh, and the US was far cleaner overall.....not nearly as much trash (and empty bottles) blowing around in the wind. 

BlueHouse

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Re: Reducing Waste & Recycling at Home: Glad Waste in Focus
« Reply #22 on: April 21, 2014, 01:28:03 PM »
Bottled water really bothers me.  It's been repeatedly tested and shown to be of similar quality or worse than most readily available tap water.  Such a phenomenal waste.  I have friends who always buy and use bottled water.  When over at their house I specifically ask to drink the tap water.  Can't change 'em, but you don't have to join 'em.
I was at the Dentist last week and there was a laminated diagram in the waiting room to show the acidity in different brands of bottled water.  I was intrigued because it compared some of the brands PH Levels to battery acid, so I tried to find the image online.  Couldn't find the exact one, but I found similar info here:

http://www.justgoodenergy.com/2009/09/11/is-your-bottled-water-acidic/
 
Although some of the ads seem to encourage acidity in bottled water, the dental perspective is that we are kissing our tooth enamel goodbye with bottled water. 

rocksinmyhead

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Re: Reducing Waste & Recycling at Home: Glad Waste in Focus
« Reply #23 on: April 21, 2014, 04:31:25 PM »
'Tis amusing to see folks in this thread bash the US on the bottled water thing.  I was just on a business trip to the intersection of Europe and Asia and let me tell you in at least THAT country, it's bottled water everywhere I went - they even poured bottled into the glass in some of the restaurants.

Heck, on the train there, they even had little foil top covered CUPS (call it 100 ml) of water in the box lunch they served.

Oh, and the US was far cleaner overall.....not nearly as much trash (and empty bottles) blowing around in the wind.

that is really interesting! was it Turkey? I was there a few years ago and we only drank bottled water but I might have just been paranoid, it was my first time outside the US :)

nikki

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Re: Reducing Waste & Recycling at Home: Glad Waste in Focus
« Reply #24 on: April 21, 2014, 07:36:52 PM »
'Tis amusing to see folks in this thread bash the US on the bottled water thing.  I was just on a business trip to the intersection of Europe and Asia and let me tell you in at least THAT country, it's bottled water everywhere I went - they even poured bottled into the glass in some of the restaurants.

Heck, on the train there, they even had little foil top covered CUPS (call it 100 ml) of water in the box lunch they served.

Oh, and the US was far cleaner overall.....not nearly as much trash (and empty bottles) blowing around in the wind.

that is really interesting! was it Turkey? I was there a few years ago and we only drank bottled water but I might have just been paranoid, it was my first time outside the US :)

South Koreans don't drink tap water either because of lead content. Instead, they buy home filtration systems, have filtration systems in public buildings, and, yes, buy bottled water.

I have a Brita filter and water bottle (for public drinking) that keep me away from plastic bottles, but a lot of expats I know just buy big jugs of drinking water weekly. It's an unnecessary hassle and expense in my eyes :-/

chicagomeg

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Re: Reducing Waste & Recycling at Home: Glad Waste in Focus
« Reply #25 on: April 21, 2014, 08:22:00 PM »
Can we talk about how much wine the first family drank in a week? 14 beers & 5 bottles of wine, plus one that looks like hard liquor! Sheesh! Maybe they had a party or something...

horsepoor

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Re: Reducing Waste & Recycling at Home: Glad Waste in Focus
« Reply #26 on: April 21, 2014, 09:21:26 PM »
a lot of expats I know just buy big jugs of drinking water weekly. It's an unnecessary hassle and expense in my eyes :-/

I'll cop to this one, though I refill my own 5 gallon jugs at the store every few weeks.  I plain drink more of the purified water than I do the tap water.  I'm actually drinking tap water right now because I haven't gotten around to refilling the jugs, but I do love my water cooler.  Also has fewer minerals, so it's better for my fancy pants espresso machine.

horsepoor

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Re: Reducing Waste & Recycling at Home: Glad Waste in Focus
« Reply #27 on: April 21, 2014, 09:23:39 PM »
And more people need to compost!  Why are the only low-landfill trash families from San Francisco?

San Francisco has a mandatory recycling and composting ordinance. If you live in an apartment building and don't have access to a yard to compost at home, it can be hard to do so. http://www.sfenvironment.org/article/recycling-and-composting/mandatory-recycling-and-composting-ordinance

Somehow I find it more depressing that people have to be forced to do it.  It would be nice to show a family choosing to compost and reduce waste in various ways.

Squirrel away

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Re: Reducing Waste & Recycling at Home: Glad Waste in Focus
« Reply #28 on: April 22, 2014, 02:42:46 AM »
I was reading some article interviewing an older person and she was saying that in today's world you see a lot of people walking around drinking drinks although it wasn't the done thing when she was young unless it was very hot or you were going on a long walk. It is true that you see people rushing to get a coffee when they have probably just left their house where they could get coffee.;) I think people drink bottled water as they think it is healthier than a soft drink too.

'Tis amusing to see folks in this thread bash the US on the bottled water thing.  I was just on a business trip to the intersection of Europe and Asia and let me tell you in at least THAT country, it's bottled water everywhere I went - they even poured bottled into the glass in some of the restaurants.

Heck, on the train there, they even had little foil top covered CUPS (call it 100 ml) of water in the box lunch they served.

Oh, and the US was far cleaner overall.....not nearly as much trash (and empty bottles) blowing around in the wind.

that is really interesting! was it Turkey? I was there a few years ago and we only drank bottled water but I might have just been paranoid, it was my first time outside the US :)

If it was Turkey then I only drank bottled water there too because I didn't want to get a stomach bug. It can cause you to get a bug and it wouldn't be fun to be ill on holiday.:)

rocksinmyhead

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Re: Reducing Waste & Recycling at Home: Glad Waste in Focus
« Reply #29 on: April 22, 2014, 06:41:53 AM »
'Tis amusing to see folks in this thread bash the US on the bottled water thing.  I was just on a business trip to the intersection of Europe and Asia and let me tell you in at least THAT country, it's bottled water everywhere I went - they even poured bottled into the glass in some of the restaurants.

that is really interesting! was it Turkey? I was there a few years ago and we only drank bottled water but I might have just been paranoid, it was my first time outside the US :)

If it was Turkey then I only drank bottled water there too because I didn't want to get a stomach bug. It can cause you to get a bug and it wouldn't be fun to be ill on holiday.:)

yeah that's why we did it too. not worth the risk!

Can we talk about how much wine the first family drank in a week? 14 beers & 5 bottles of wine, plus one that looks like hard liquor! Sheesh! Maybe they had a party or something...

haha, I know! I didn't think of the party option. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt on that one... we've had some parties where I look at the recycling bin afterwards and think, wow... that looks TERRIBLE. (but at least we can recycle glass and aluminum... I've actually never lived anywhere I couldn't, that would suck)

a lot of expats I know just buy big jugs of drinking water weekly. It's an unnecessary hassle and expense in my eyes :-/

I'll cop to this one, though I refill my own 5 gallon jugs at the store every few weeks.  I plain drink more of the purified water than I do the tap water.  I'm actually drinking tap water right now because I haven't gotten around to refilling the jugs, but I do love my water cooler.  Also has fewer minerals, so it's better for my fancy pants espresso machine.

you know, bottled water is one of those things where I find it so easy to rip on people (OMG can you believe they waste money on that?!?) when in reality, I should be thinking, "I'm lucky that I literally can't taste the difference between most kinds of water, have never lived somewhere with truly awful tasting water, and will drink an absolute fuck ton of water every day no matter what, so it's not a hardship for me AT ALL to never drink bottled water." I think that about a lot of frugal things, both in that way (things where it's very easy for me to be frugal and takes basically no thought or sacrifice) and in the other direction ("wow, must be nice for the teetotaler introverts on here who don't give two shits about going out to bars with friends").

MissStache

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Re: Reducing Waste & Recycling at Home: Glad Waste in Focus
« Reply #30 on: April 22, 2014, 07:45:46 AM »
'Tis amusing to see folks in this thread bash the US on the bottled water thing.  I was just on a business trip to the intersection of Europe and Asia and let me tell you in at least THAT country, it's bottled water everywhere I went - they even poured bottled into the glass in some of the restaurants.

Heck, on the train there, they even had little foil top covered CUPS (call it 100 ml) of water in the box lunch they served.

Oh, and the US was far cleaner overall.....not nearly as much trash (and empty bottles) blowing around in the wind.

I'm actually totally OK with this, because those are regions where the water quality may not be great, or reliable, or easily accessed (like on a train!).  I think bottled water has a place, but that place isn't America for everyday, general use.

rosaz

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Re: Reducing Waste & Recycling at Home: Glad Waste in Focus
« Reply #31 on: April 22, 2014, 11:13:02 AM »
I think it may depend on where in the country you are. I'm in Boston now and yeah, I can't imagine buying bottled water regularly now. But I used to live down in Plano, TX a few years ago, and there you could smell a cup of tap water a foot away. So I drank bottled water at work (Brita at home).

I just did a bit of googling to see if this was still an issue, and came to a site with this quote: 'My father in-law came during Christmas and drank some tap water and exclaimed "That is the worst tasting water I've ever had in my life! And I've been face down in a crap infested rice paddy in Vietnam!"' I thought that summed it up pretty well :)

MissStache

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Re: Reducing Waste & Recycling at Home: Glad Waste in Focus
« Reply #32 on: April 22, 2014, 11:30:49 AM »
I think it may depend on where in the country you are. I'm in Boston now and yeah, I can't imagine buying bottled water regularly now. But I used to live down in Plano, TX a few years ago, and there you could smell a cup of tap water a foot away. So I drank bottled water at work (Brita at home).

I just did a bit of googling to see if this was still an issue, and came to a site with this quote: 'My father in-law came during Christmas and drank some tap water and exclaimed "That is the worst tasting water I've ever had in my life! And I've been face down in a crap infested rice paddy in Vietnam!"' I thought that summed it up pretty well :)

Hahaha!  That's a pretty good comparator, I think!  I suppose I should be thankful that I've always lived in places with delicious tap water. 

GuitarStv

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Re: Reducing Waste & Recycling at Home: Glad Waste in Focus
« Reply #33 on: April 22, 2014, 12:01:37 PM »
I think it may depend on where in the country you are. I'm in Boston now and yeah, I can't imagine buying bottled water regularly now. But I used to live down in Plano, TX a few years ago, and there you could smell a cup of tap water a foot away.

http://www.plano.gov/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/1532

As of 2011, the water in Plano appears to be pretty safe. . .

rosaz

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Re: Reducing Waste & Recycling at Home: Glad Waste in Focus
« Reply #34 on: April 22, 2014, 12:31:10 PM »
Oh, to its credit I think it was always quite safe. It's just that "earthy" might not be quite the taste you're going for when you reach for a glass of water.

GuitarStv

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Re: Reducing Waste & Recycling at Home: Glad Waste in Focus
« Reply #35 on: April 22, 2014, 12:47:34 PM »
You just don't appreciate the city waters terroir.

nikki

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Re: Reducing Waste & Recycling at Home: Glad Waste in Focus
« Reply #36 on: April 22, 2014, 07:19:04 PM »
I think it may depend on where in the country you are. I'm in Boston now and yeah, I can't imagine buying bottled water regularly now. But I used to live down in Plano, TX a few years ago, and there you could smell a cup of tap water a foot away. So I drank bottled water at work (Brita at home).

I just did a bit of googling to see if this was still an issue, and came to a site with this quote: 'My father in-law came during Christmas and drank some tap water and exclaimed "That is the worst tasting water I've ever had in my life! And I've been face down in a crap infested rice paddy in Vietnam!"' I thought that summed it up pretty well :)

Grand Prairie/Arlington native here. I've heard similar complaints, but have had it before without problems. I find all water tastes better very cold from the fridge--even better with a Brita filter!

My grandparents have a filter/ice maker built into their fridge and still won't drink it. I drank only that while I was there, and it tasted ...like water!

MayDay

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Re: Reducing Waste & Recycling at Home: Glad Waste in Focus
« Reply #37 on: April 23, 2014, 07:47:20 PM »
I am appalled at the sizes of trash cans that our neighbors fill.  Around here (rural, so unlimited room for landfills, wheeeeee!) trash is a flat rate, you can have as much as you want.  We generally produce one trash bag a week, and half that is probably kids art projects. 

One thing I don't understand is people who say they have zero trash because they either compost or recycle everything.  And I am saying that is a fairly zealous composer/recycler myself.  But there is ONE facility that recycles #5 plastic east of the Mississippi in the US.  And guess what, it isn't in my city.   In fact our "recycling" company does single stream recycling but ends up throwing away the vast majority of it- they only actually recycle clean, dry corrugated cardboard out of all the paper that gets thrown in the recycle bin, for example.  And a small fraction of the corrugated cardboard that gets recycled ends up still be clean and dry by the time it goes on a truck ride with all the other crap thrown in the recycle bin.  So, um, yay for you that you threw all that stuff in the recycle bin, hope it makes you feel better, but you didn't save the planet. 

I am currently trying to pound "reduce, don't recycle" into my childrens' heads. 

kite

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Re: Reducing Waste & Recycling at Home: Glad Waste in Focus
« Reply #38 on: April 25, 2014, 06:01:31 AM »
I am appalled at the sizes of trash cans that our neighbors fill.  Around here (rural, so unlimited room for landfills, wheeeeee!) trash is a flat rate, you can have as much as you want.  We generally produce one trash bag a week, and half that is probably kids art projects. 

One thing I don't understand is people who say they have zero trash because they either compost or recycle everything.  And I am saying that is a fairly zealous composer/recycler myself.  But there is ONE facility that recycles #5 plastic east of the Mississippi in the US.  And guess what, it isn't in my city.   In fact our "recycling" company does single stream recycling but ends up throwing away the vast majority of it- they only actually recycle clean, dry corrugated cardboard out of all the paper that gets thrown in the recycle bin, for example.  And a small fraction of the corrugated cardboard that gets recycled ends up still be clean and dry by the time it goes on a truck ride with all the other crap thrown in the recycle bin.  So, um, yay for you that you threw all that stuff in the recycle bin, hope it makes you feel better, but you didn't save the planet. 

I am currently trying to pound "reduce, don't recycle" into my childrens' heads.

Amen.  I don't actually believe claims of zero.   We can approach it, but honestly alot is just transferred to someone else to dispose of later.   Everything we buy that isn't consumed does become landfill at the end of its useful lifespan.   So you are absolutely right that reduce should be the main goal.  We have gotten our trash down to about one grocery bag every other week and a similar size volume of cans/bottles every other week, for a houshold of 2. I shred paper and cardboard and throw it in our hot composter.  My motivation is more about being lazy and saving money than saving the earth.   Nicer to have free compost than to buy it, and I can get rid of waste immediately instead of having it sit and wait for pick up day and remember to haul it to the curb.

horsepoor

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Re: Reducing Waste & Recycling at Home: Glad Waste in Focus
« Reply #39 on: April 25, 2014, 09:39:06 AM »
I have wondered about the zero waste stories myself.  What do you do with used up pens, windshield wipers (OK, don't have a car), furnace filters and so on?  Do you not use band-aids?  What about light bulbs?

Reducing waste is something I need to keep working on, so I'm not trying to diminish the efforts of People who Suck Much Less Than Me, but these are things I wonder about.

Just last night, I had to rescue 3 small brown paper bags from the garbage can. It is totally beyond me why DH throws this stuff away - they are the best thing evah for draining cooked bacon.  I would think BACON of all things, would be a bigger motivator for him to RRR.

On the stores that wrap their produce - I think they do that so the customer is forced to purchase a set amount of the produce, and can't rummage through and leave the less desirable pieces that then end up getting tossed.

zataks

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Re: Reducing Waste & Recycling at Home: Glad Waste in Focus
« Reply #40 on: April 25, 2014, 08:31:59 PM »
Just last night, I had to rescue 3 small brown paper bags from the garbage can. It is totally beyond me why DH throws this stuff away - they are the best thing evah for draining cooked bacon.  I would think BACON of all things, would be a bigger motivator for him to RRR.

Thanks for this, I always struggle in dealing with bacon grease.  And I will totally agree, bacon is the ultimate reason to RRR. 

Side anecdote regarding bacon, went to try a new pizza place last night with GF, "whatcha want to get, GF?" "It doesn't really matter I want it to have bacon." 
One of the best things she's ever said to me! =)

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Re: Reducing Waste & Recycling at Home: Glad Waste in Focus
« Reply #41 on: May 04, 2014, 10:19:34 AM »
OT - bacon grease is wonderful for cooking.  I don't get to use it much because it also does wonders for dog kibble, and my dog expects a gourmet breakfast.

joleran

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Re: Reducing Waste & Recycling at Home: Glad Waste in Focus
« Reply #42 on: May 04, 2014, 11:28:58 AM »
Oh, to its credit I think it was always quite safe. It's just that "earthy" might not be quite the taste you're going for when you reach for a glass of water.

I grew up on a farm with well water, so I love tasting earthy water.  I also love the smell of real black dirt from the ground (way different than potting soils), right up there with fresh cut grass and that smell you get after messing with motors.

kyanamerinas

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Re: Reducing Waste & Recycling at Home: Glad Waste in Focus
« Reply #43 on: May 04, 2014, 11:35:06 AM »

On the stores that wrap their produce - I think they do that so the customer is forced to purchase a set amount of the produce, and can't rummage through and leave the less desirable pieces that then end up getting tossed.

although a lot of packaging is excessive, apparently some food (cucumbers in partic i seem to remember) keep better wrapped, therefore preventing food waste (in theory). i think i read this in tristram stuart's book on food waste.

ruthiegirl

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Re: Reducing Waste & Recycling at Home: Glad Waste in Focus
« Reply #44 on: May 04, 2014, 12:10:32 PM »
Some of those families seem quite conservative.  The 2 families from San Francisco clearly have access to an excellent recycling program.  They were both able to recycle food scraps and what looked like plastic clam shells. 

The family from Atlanta either doesn't bother recycling or doesn't have access, because their landfill side was full of metal/aluminum cans.  Those are some of the best items to recycle. 

If I was buying that much bottles water, I would think seriously about buying in a water filtration system. 

A couple of those families make me shudder.  All those sugar cereals and packaged pastries, chips and frozen pizzas.  Blech. 

I wonder what my weekly tally would look like? 

ZiziPB

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Re: Reducing Waste & Recycling at Home: Glad Waste in Focus
« Reply #45 on: May 06, 2014, 03:12:17 PM »
Quote
A couple of those families make me shudder.  All those sugar cereals and packaged pastries, chips and frozen pizzas.  Blech.

Agreed.  The waste and recycling pictures and this comments made me think of this series of photos.  Fascinating:

http://fstoppers.com/what-a-week-of-groceries-looks-like-around-the-world

Tempe

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Re: Reducing Waste & Recycling at Home: Glad Waste in Focus
« Reply #46 on: May 06, 2014, 07:03:05 PM »
Oh, to its credit I think it was always quite safe. It's just that "earthy" might not be quite the taste you're going for when you reach for a glass of water.

I grew up on a farm with well water, so I love tasting earthy water.  I also love the smell of real black dirt from the ground (way different than potting soils), right up there with fresh cut grass and that smell you get after messing with motors.
I'm with you there on the car grease smell, I can walk into a mechanics garage just be happy there, I love the smell. I have good memories of hanging out with my grandpa while he worked on cars.

I'm trying to cut down on how much garbage we toss, but with my bf leaning towards the more processed foods at times it piles up. So much plastic on everything that isn't processed as well. I'm glad my hamburger meat isn't going to ooze over things, but do cashiers really need to put it in a plastic bag while it is already wrapped in plastic? I'm slightly more wary of the more bloody stuff that could get punctured and leak. I'm just trying to cut down on the meat in general now.  I'm a huge fan of the mesh bags and the reusable grocery bags, but my bf didn't bring it into the grocery store and just used it to carry the food from the car, 4 more plastic bags I didn't need. *sigh*
I have been bad at work with plastic cups, so I'm going to get a water bottle or something to get away from them.

horsepoor

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Re: Reducing Waste & Recycling at Home: Glad Waste in Focus
« Reply #47 on: May 06, 2014, 09:05:53 PM »
Quote
A couple of those families make me shudder.  All those sugar cereals and packaged pastries, chips and frozen pizzas.  Blech.

Agreed.  The waste and recycling pictures and this comments made me think of this series of photos.  Fascinating:

http://fstoppers.com/what-a-week-of-groceries-looks-like-around-the-world

Thanks for that!  Makes me want to haul all my food out of the fridge and take a snapshot (but I won't or if I do, I won't tell anyone). 

I'm actually surprised at the amount of processed/packaged stuff in some of the other countries, but then on second thought, I'm not.  The Turkish and Indian families' foods looked best to me.  Some of them are sad; not much diversity or abundance to be had.
« Last Edit: May 06, 2014, 09:10:50 PM by horsepoor »

libertarian4321

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Re: Reducing Waste & Recycling at Home: Glad Waste in Focus
« Reply #48 on: May 13, 2014, 04:28:40 AM »
I'm always impressed with the salesmanship of Coca Cola and the other bottlers who managed to turn the USA into a country with essentially ZERO bottled water consumption 30 years ago, to a society where a ridiculous percentage think they "need" bottle water.

Biggest hoax/rip off in the history of consumerism, to say nothing of the environmental effect.

Water is water, folks.  MOST of the "bottled water" you buy is FREAKING MUNICIPAL TAP WATER put into a plastic bottle (maybe it's carbon filtered first- big deal- you can do that at home for a tiny fraction of the cost).  In other worlds, filter out the chlorine (you know, the stuff that prevents cholera and dysentery and dozens of other bacteriological diseases), and store it in a plastic bottle that is essentially a chemical stew.  Then convince the ignorant masses that it's the "healthy" alternative to tap water and charge 100,000 times the cost of tap water to drink it. 

Brilliant, just brilliant.  You've got to give those marketing guys credit.

If you feel you must keep yourself attached to a bottle of water 24-7 to stay "hydrated" (because the average person sitting on his ass 8 hours per day in a climate controlled office is in severe danger of dehydration, right?). just buy a re-usable bottle use it.  Save your money and save the earth at the same time.

Did anyone ever notice that some of the biggest enviro-weenies are the ones who are "hydrating" constantly from a bottle of Dasani (filtered municipal tap water from Coca Cola Inc.)?  Morons...

rocksinmyhead

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Re: Reducing Waste & Recycling at Home: Glad Waste in Focus
« Reply #49 on: May 13, 2014, 07:51:28 AM »
If you feel you must keep yourself attached to a bottle of water 24-7 to stay "hydrated" (because the average person sitting on his ass 8 hours per day in a climate controlled office is in severe danger of dehydration, right?). just buy a re-usable bottle use it.  Save your money and save the earth at the same time.

Did anyone ever notice that some of the biggest enviro-weenies are the ones who are "hydrating" constantly from a bottle of Dasani (filtered municipal tap water from Coca Cola Inc.)?  Morons...

okay, to be honest, I like to stay fucking hydrated and I don't think you need to mock people for that! it's healthy! it keeps me from snacking too much and also from getting headaches. I keep a Nalgene of tap water at my desk, no big deal, keep your shirt on.

I'm not sure what your last sentence means or what an "enviro-weenie" is... do you mean people who consider themselves environmentalists often drink bottled water? because that sounds insane and has definitely not been my experience.

you seem really angry, man. I mean, I kind of get it, the extreme stupidity and ridiculousness of bottled water makes me angry too, but I think your anger might be slightly misdirected at "enviro-weenies" and also people who just like to stay hydrated.