Home waste audit. Part 1.

Home waste audit. Tedious or compelling? Definitely both, in my opinion. But also very much worth it. So much of what we do is on auto. Drop off. Pick up. Wash this. Arrive at appointment. Consume food. Toss trash. Repeat. When you look at it this way, a self-imposed audit is a really good idea.

Living unintentionally, weaving in and out of real levels of wakefulness, can be dangerous let alone careless. And creating waste on auto-pilot is downright dangerous - for ourselves and for the multitude of species we share a home with.

One way to reveal what - and how much - we’re really tossing into the garbage is to conduct a home waste audit. Architectural Digest defines a waste audit as “collecting trash over a set period and taking inventory of how much and what type of waste is produced in your household.”

There are a few ways to do this. Some are more tedious or messy than others. I think the bin strategy is most pleasant. So let’s review how to audit your food waste, trash, and recyclables - including waste that leaves the house, and items you purchase, consume, and toss outside of the home - the bin way.

Here’s how you do it:

First, pick a normal Joe-Schmoe week to conduct your audit - a week in the middle of an average, old month. No one just had their birthday, there’s not lots of extra packaging from presents or food containers from cooking and ordering food for 30 people. We want to get an accurate read here.

Next, set up your sich. Arrange bins for each category of waste you create (we’ll go over the categories together, too) and sort your trash into those bins throughout the week. For the waste you create outside of the home, keep a list going in the notes section of your phone to transfer to your chart/table later. Toting your piece of trash home to put in its appropriate bin just doesn’t feel like the thing - but if it does to you, go for it! 

Obviously, you’ll have to get the whole family on board for this. Little kids should be easy to rope into the process because sorting is fun. But older kids and spouses could be a little more hesitant to add this extra step to their throw-away routine. (Isn’t it wild how roused we get by the slightest inconvenience? It’s pretty laughable when you think about it, actually.)

Here are some waste bin categories to start with: food waste, paper, cardboard, aluminum, glass, hard plastic, soft plastic, and everything else. If you can think of another category that makes sense for your home, throw that one in too!

Next, go through the bins and record your results on a little chart. I think this is fun. If you’re not into spreadsheets and charts and such, I suggest you find someone who is. Surely they’ll jump on this and handle it for you, because charting results is a real joy for some of us. I used the table AD suggests as a starting off point [1].

Go bin by bin. Let’s say you’re starting with the hard plastics bin. On your paper, make 4 columns. The heading of the first column will be MATERIAL. For each item in this bin, you’ll write “hard plastic” in the material column. The next column will be ITEM, where you write in exactly what it is (for example, lemonade jug). Writing down each specific item will help illuminate the everyday ways you produce waste. The next column will be DISPOSAL METHOD, so you can see clearly where most of your waste is going - is it going to the landfill, recycling center, into the compost? The final column is QUANTITY, in case you have 10 lemonade containers. (Maybe you should make your own lemonade...?) 

Take a moment to take in your chart. Are there shockingly 50 rows in your chart for the soft plastic bin? Eke. It should be quite clear at this point where your waste is coming from, and where it’s going. Evaluate and proceed with a deeper knowledge of your trash and ultimately yourself. (Isn’t “you are your trash” a thing?)

Next week we’ll look at ways to cut down on waste and packaging so that the next time you do a home waste audit, you can be proud of the way you’re managing your waste! Happy sorting!!

[1] https://www.architecturaldigest.com/reviews/home-improvement/home-waste-audit

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