TRASH AUDIT STATS:
.
NAME: Adrian Hawk
.
LIVING SITUATION: Adrian + Nathan + a Baby Hawk on the way (this will explain some of the embarrassing trash!!!) + 2 Cats, Stanley & Stella
.
WASTE THAT SHOWED UP THE MOST?: Plastic wrappers, food stickers, gum + wrappers (Grrr!)
.
BIGGEST SURPRISE: All the small pieces of plastic and just how many things are unnecessarily individually wrapped!
.
Things I noticed:
.
1) I chew too much gum! Chewing gum is like a hunger suppressant to me so when I’m hungry I chew it to keep from eating! I know there are alternatives out there but they are really expensive. I could maybe try mints or something that doesn’t have wrapping as an alternative. I will explore this for sure.
.
.
2) Since Baby Hawk has started to grow, my taste for healthy things has gone totally away! Notice there aren’t any hummus containers? Normally, there would be at least 3-4 of them a week! Now the thought of hummus makes me queasy. Instead, I’ve started to enjoy things that are NOT healthy for either of us (like Reese cups and Snickers bars), which come individually wrapped (darn it!). Even the wonderful Endangered Species chocolate (that came in recyclable packaging) sounds gross to me now…so strange! We are definitely buying things we wouldn’t normally buy just because it is something that I and Baby Hawk are craving!
.
3) Being at home more means cooking more and that means more trash thrown away at home. I am sure I throw away much more in other places of my life (school, the gym, the nature center, etc) but now it is all in one place…which sure made this audit easier! We don’t eat out much and we definitely don’t nowadays but it is good to have control over all the waste (like we can recycle things that restaurants don’t and compost any food waste, which I’m guessing most places don’t do either).
.
Not included in photos: Cat litter! Oh if only we could potty train Stanley and Stella!!
Also not pictured: Large amounts of styrofoam from the packaging of our 4 new raised vegetable garden beds that we ordered! I completely forgot about the trash audit and threw all the styrofoam away into our gross trash can before remembering (I wanted to spare you the visual since we all hate styrofoam anyway). This is a one-time purchase of something that is going to help us eventually cut down on our plastic waste but it came at a cost on the front end.
.
I think this was an excellent exercise in awareness and would highly recommend it to anyone who is trying to make some meaningful changes.
