Update: Show Us Your (Plastic) Trash Challenge

As I mentioned yesterday, many of you have taken the challenge… so many in fact that I felt a separate sub-blog was in order to collect all the tallies. And so (drum roll please) I hereby announce the inauguration of the

which can be found at http://fakeplasticfish.com/showyourplastic/.

Here is a recap of the challenge rules as well as two ways to post your photos and tallies to the blog. It’s not too late to join the fun or just leave comments for the other participants with your ideas, suggestions, or bursts of inspiration. I’m sure those who have posted already would love some support.

THE RULES:

1) Collect all of your own plastic waste, both recyclable and non, for a minimum of one week. If you want to go for more than one week, great! Just keep each week’s collection separate.

2) What qualifies as yours? Anything that benefits you. So, if your housemate or significant other brings home a tub of yogurt that you both share, the tub goes in your tally. But if you hate yogurt, never touch the stuff, and wouldn’t have bought it for yourself in a million years, it’s not your responsibility. What about stuff for your kids? I’ll leave that up to you. Whatever you decide, just be consistent about collecting it. Personally, I’d be very interested to see how much plastic waste is generated by babies, since I don’t have children myself.

3) Live normally in the first week. It doesn’t help to artificially reduce your plastic consumption for the sake of a one-week tally if you will go back to living with more plastic afterward. Think of this exercise as a scientific experiment. Nothing more.

4) Guilt is not encouraged. Nor are comparisons with other people whom you perceive to be doing “worse” or “better” than you in terms of plastic waste. This exercise is for purely educational purposes. Guilt doesn’t help.

5) Take a photo of your stash and list out the items at the end of each week that you participate. You might also want to include details about what things are recyclable in your community or not. If you have a sensitive food scale, you might consider weighing your plastic as well. A bathroom scale won’t really be accurate because plastic is so light weight.

6) Guilt is unnecessary.

7) There is no time limit for doing this exercise. This is an ongoing challenge.

Guilt will only get in the way of understanding. It’s not needed for this challenge.

9) Seriously.

POSTING YOUR RESULTS:

After you have completed the exercise, there are several ways to post your results. First, complete the following questionnaire. Then, choose Option A or Option B.

Show Us Your Plastic Trash Results Questionnaire

1) Week #:
2) Name:
3) List of Recyclable Items (write out in list form and include the recycling # at the bottom and how it gets recycled in your community, as far as you know.)
4) List of Non-recyclable Items
5) Total number of items
6) Total weight of plastic stash (if you are able to do this)
7) Analysis. Answer the following questions as best as you can.

• What items could I easily replace with plastic-free or less plastic alternatives?
• What items would I be willing to give up if a plastic-free alternative doesn’t exist?
• How many of these items are from “convenience” foods that could be made from scratch with less packaging but might take more time to prepare?
• What items are essential and seem to have no plastic-free alternative?
• What lifestyle change(s) might be necessary to reduce my plastic consumption?
• What one plastic item am I willing to give up or replace this week?
• What other conclusions, if any, can I draw?

Personal description (As much of the following information as you feel comfortable sharing — Geographical location, gender, housemate/relationship status, work status (at home or away from home), children living with you, etc. These factors might influence the amount of plastic waste you generate and would be interesting to know, but are completely up to you of course.)

POSTING METHOD A:

If you are familiar with blog software and are willing to post the results yourself, hurray! I’d love to give you access to www.fakeplasticfish.com/showyourplastic/ so you can not only enter data for your first week but also continue to track your plastic on the site in future weeks if you choose to do so. Just email me. Send me a photo of your plastic waste (so I know you are a for real person) and let me know you’d like a log in. I’ll send you an invitation from Blogger to post to the site.

When posting, please include your photo first and then answers to the questions afterwards.

***If you have your own blog, feel free to post your tally, etc. there as well. And include the URL to your blog in your post here. Feel free to promote yourself! I will add your blog to the Blogroll on the sidebar.

POSTING METHOD B:

If you are not a blogger or simply don’t have the time to do the posting yourself, go ahead and email your photo and answers to questions and I’ll post your tally for you.

Questions? Comments? Can’t wait to get started? Let me know!

Comments

Comments

5 Comments on Update: Show Us Your (Plastic) Trash Challenge

howgreenismyvalley on Tue, 2nd Jun 2009 9:06 am


I’m in for next week.

KAY PERE on Tue, 2nd Jun 2009 4:55 pm


My husband and I both collected our plastic trash for a week recently, separately, his and hers.

The posting instructions are very helpful. Soon!

knutty knitter on Tue, 2nd Jun 2009 5:41 pm


I just put it on my blog. My only peeve round here is the limited amount of recycling for plastic. #1 and #2 are it. We have cut heaps out but there is still work to be done

viv in nz

howgreenismyvalley on Tue, 9th Jun 2009 9:18 pm


After some thought, I've decided to do this in two parts. Part One is now up.

howgreenismyvalley on Mon, 15th Jun 2009 11:04 am


Part 2 is up.

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