On Wednesday, we wake up with a focused intention to create no garbage. We bring our water bottle, our coffee mug- and don't buy or use anything where the packaging can't be composted or recycled- and we try not to generate any food waste.

Nearly everything can be recycled or reused, but certain materials pose greater challenges. Plastics is one. The simple truth about plastic We have massive numbers of types of plastic, and each has a resin identification code. They must be sorted before they can be recycled, so they cost more to recycle. Plastic is made from oil, natural gas and chemicals. That means it is a nonrenewable resource that will last as long as 100 years in a landfill.

This is a game that everybody in the house play. This has been done on college campuses, and even as a publicity exercise on a national morning show. It is a very effective and fun way to tune into the issue of the resources we waste, especially in the form of packaging! This has even been done by companies - in Japan for example, 2800 companies vowed to get to Zero Waste within a year, and they all succeeded.

"Waste is a resource in disguise. It represents a failure of our processes and products and a loss of money. We recommend that the entire concept of waste should be eliminated from our thinking and the word resource be substituted."- Zero Waste Alliance

Composting is a great first step - it's easy, inexpensive and has a big impact.

Recycling is really about changing the way you think about the stuff that comes into your life. When you fully appreciate the energy and the resources that have gone into making something and don’t want to see that energy go to waste, then your thinking has shifted to that of being a recycler. When you take the time to make sure something can be used again, and make the choice to prefer recycled products when you acquire things, then you are an active player in the virtuous circle of recycling.

Electronic Waste (computers, other technical devices) presents a staggering challenge. Tom Arnold, our friend and founder of GreenT Services, a company that helps IT departments to safely dispose of their eWaste, sent us the following data to help us understand it's magnitude: Electronic waste represents only 2%‐3% of landfill volume but 60% of the toxicity.

Join Alex, from San Francisco's Department of the Environment, as he discusses take-out food packaging, and asks for your help!