We are now partway through week 2 of our Eco
Action Project. In Week 1, we were shopping as normal to establish
our typical waste throughput. I live with my family of four; here is what we generated on the first week.
Garbage
 |
Hard Plastic
 |
Cardboard
 |
Soft Plastic
 |
For scale, the ruler is 30 cm. As week 2 is not yet complete, we have no data regarding that yet; however, as we were consciously avoiding waste while shopping, it already appears as though there will be less waste this week. However, since our sustainable shopping didn't start until this week, we will still see carry over from the first week for a while yet.
One of the biggest challenges I have encountered was motivating my family to be on board with this project. We already recycle or compost most of our waste and use canvas bags for groceries, but convincing them to avoid plastic when shopping was very difficult. A lot of food seems to only come in plastic now; meat and bread, for example. We haven't yet found a place to buy meat, but I have been making bread and bagels by hand at home to meet our family's need.
I was unable to convince my family to track compost waste. Most of it (vegetables, coffee grounds, teabags, etc) is put in our composter in our backyard where it decomposes naturally. The rest (eggshells, meat, bread, etc) is put in a separate bin for collection by Oak Bay's kitchen waste collection program. I don't foresee much change in compost waste over time, but as I was unable to track it, I can't give an accurate representation of that.
One of the biggest challenges I have encountered was motivating my family to be on board with this project. We already recycle or compost most of our waste and use canvas bags for groceries, but convincing them to avoid plastic when shopping was very difficult. A lot of food seems to only come in plastic now; meat and bread, for example. We haven't yet found a place to buy meat, but I have been making bread and bagels by hand at home to meet our family's need.
I was unable to convince my family to track compost waste. Most of it (vegetables, coffee grounds, teabags, etc) is put in our composter in our backyard where it decomposes naturally. The rest (eggshells, meat, bread, etc) is put in a separate bin for collection by Oak Bay's kitchen waste collection program. I don't foresee much change in compost waste over time, but as I was unable to track it, I can't give an accurate representation of that.
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