Getting Started on Plastic Reduction

Our dog performed a waste audit for our family. The other day, I came home to find he had knocked our trash can over, spewing last week’s trash across the kitchen floor.

While I was mad about the mess, our dog taught me some useful lessons. First, I was reminded to always make sure the pantry door where we store the trash can is securely closed. And more importantly, seeing all our trash laid out in front of me showed me exactly what materials we were throwing away.

Fortunately, because we compost much of our food waste in our backyard compost bin, the trash on the floor did not include much rotting food. While not vegetarian, we had not eaten much meat, chicken, fish or dairy the past week. These food scraps would normally go in the trash, not the compost.

What I did find among the trash can innards was plastic. Lots of plastic. It was like the whale found in Italy with 48 pounds of plastic in her stomach.

As the director of GreenWorks, I live, eat and breathe recycling. My family recycles everything we can. Our big blue recycling cart is full every two weeks when we take it to the curb for pick up. We take our plastic bread bags and shopping bags to Ingles every few weeks to be recycled. We save up any styrofoam to take to GreenWorks’ Hard 2 Recycle events.

Despite our best efforts, there are many plastic items that can’t be recycled in the big blues, as we call the recycling carts. Among the trash on the floor were the straw and lid from a soft drink, an empty tortilla chip bag, a plastic fork from a takeout lunch, the black microwaveable tray from a burrito and the resealable pouch from my dog’s rawhide chews. All these items were headed to the landfill.

My plastic waste woes are part of a much bigger issue. The peer-reviewed journal Science Advances published a study in July 2017 that provided the first-ever global analysis of all plastics ever made and where they end up. Of the 8.3 billion metric tons of plastics that has been produced over the past six decades, 6.3 billion metric tons has become plastic waste. Of that, only nine percent has been recycled. The vast majority—79 percent—is winding up in landfills or in the natural environment as litter.

It became clear to me that I need to do more than recycle if I’m going to play a role in moving Asheville towards its zero waste goal. I have to engage even more in the other three R’s -- refuse, reduce, reuse -- that come before recycling in the eco-friendly hierarchy.

For guidance on how to refuse, reduce and reuse, I look to two of my plastic reduction sheroes, Hilary Drake of Mind Your Plastic and Crystal Dreisbach of Don’t Waste Durham.

I met Hilary after an inspiring news story on WLOS News 13 about her family’s journey towards a plastic-free lifestyle. In her mindyourplastic.com blog, Hilary details the trials and tribulations of saying no to plastic and yes to creative ways to forego plastic, like bringing her own containers to the store to fill with items from the bulk food section.

GreenWorks is partnering with Mind Your Plastic to launch a plastic reduction challenge during the month of May. Participants in “Mind Your Plastic May” will receive daily tips on how to reduce plastic throughout all aspects of their lives.

Crystal Dreisbach, the director of Don’t Waste Durham, launched a one-woman letter writing campaign six years ago, writing to over 250 local restaurants about their use of plastic and styrofoam takeout containers and asking if they would consider an alternative. Only one restaurant wrote back, but that was enough for Crystal to kick off the GreenToGo initiative - a community-owned trash solution that lets people check in and check out boxes that are washed and sanitized in commercial dishwashers. Started in 2016, the program is now in 28 Durham restaurants.

There might come a day when I’m rocking the four R’s (five if you add “Rot” for composting) so well that I won’t even need a trash can in our house, especially if Asheville starts a GreenToGo initiative here. Thanks to my dog Finn, I’ll also be more mindful of how I can reduce my plastic use even more, like not getting fast food, bringing my own utensils for meals on the go and buying snacks in bulk. All it takes is a few small steps and the occasional trash can raid by the family dog. (Finn is available to perform waste audits at your home, if you’d like).

- Dawn Chávez, Executive Director, Asheville GreenWorks

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