Living trash-free

My goal: To make as little trash as possible.

Could you live a trash-free life?

This past weekend, my husband, daughter, and I went on a day trip. Along the way, we listened to "Ask Me Another" on NPR, which featured a guest, Lauren Singer, who writes blog about her trash-free lifestyle called Trash is for Tossers.

All of the trash Singer has generated over the four years she's been living a zero-waste lifestyle, she says on the blog, fits in a 16-ounce Mason jar. Everything else she buys is either biodegradable, recyclable, packaging-free, etc.

I haven't done a whole lot of exploring on the blog yet, but I see it suggests alternatives for disposable products — bamboo instead of plastic toothbrushes, metal instead of plastic ice-cube trays, organic dryer balls instead of fabric softener, and so on. She also provides links or suggestions for where the products can be purchased.

I'm all for giving this a try. My biggest hurdle, as I've mentioned before, is that my community doesn't recycle paper and plastic, though recent local news had made me hopeful that may change within over the next year. Therefore, minimizing the trash, especially when my first-grader starts back to school next month and starts bringing home piles of papers, will require some creative thinking.

But I'm up for it.