Rubbish

I took my trash out this morning - not a particularly noteworthy event except that it was the first time in eight days. Ever since moving downtown, I have become a recycling fiend - there is a recycling center a few blocks away which has drop offs for just about every material you can think of - paper, cardboard, aluminum, other metals, glass, plastic bottles, plastic bags, Styrofoam - you name it, they accept it. The only things I end up throwing away are fruit peels and used napkins - both of which biodegrade quickly in your average landfill - and now it takes me about a week to fill up a medium garbage bag.

I'm not writing this to boast - I'm writing it to say that it really is possible to reduce the amount of waste you produce by an order of magnitude with very little effort on your part. The facilities exist and they are horrendously underused. Can you imagine a world in which all we throw away are fruit peels and used napkins? I couldn't before, but now I can.