Live during one month without producing any garbage. And document it. An idea from Joan

Very nice idea! I suppose organic waste doesn't count as garbage, right?

I wouldn't say so, indeed. I know some belgian guy did this for quite some time, so ideas on how can probably be found

most of the organic waste should be made into compost

I'm curious what creative ways he must find to perform everyday simple tasks.

I agree that if the organic waste is made into compost it doesn't really count as garbage, because it just becomes soil. But what about glass that has a deposit? Is that garbage?

As long you can return it I would assume it doesn't count as garbage.

Though recycling of glass/paper etc is producing waste, isn't it?

Yeah, probably recycling glass/paper does create waste. I would need to check that to make sure.

well, if u want a beer just get an old glass bottle, go to a bar and fill it up :)
i guess this would help not buying containers

there for not producing garbage

...I think you are right. I saw this documentary that claimed that recycling paper consumes a lot of energy, hence is not so environment friendly....but unfortunately I can't remember the title of the documentary.... :(

Check this out. The Zero Waste Johnson Family: http://earth911.com/news/2011/04/13/zero-waste-johnson-family/

katerina, it was on Keurings Dienst van Waarden.
true it does cost water and engery to recycle paper. But it wasnt clear weather that is worse or better then cutting down new trees for paper

paper used to be made out of rags in early days. i wonder if that would be a good thing to do again. maybe it cost lots of energy. I know that about three quarters of paper is recycled nowadays. Almost all the wood that is used for the rest is made in special maintained forests (and replanted). So i wouldn't worry about the material, more about energy to produce.
But energy is not waste, is it? Returning a glass bottle costs energy as well, but does it create waste? And what is worse: using energy or waste? I find this very confusing... i can imagine that green energy is better than waste.

anyhow, the point of this idea is so see if it is even possible to live for a period of time without throwing anything away, right? More as some sort experiment to become aware of how much waste we actually produce on a daily bases (and to see if we can maybe also reduce it once this month is finished).
I think in "normal life" (meaning the rest of Maartens life) it is absolutely fine to use paper/glass if the alternative would be plastic and as long as it's been recycled.

If all the consuming would follow the principles of a 'cradle to cradle' production the world would already be a much better place than what it is now.

people all ready say that garbage does not exists
it becomes ground material for new products
how about that !!!!
it would be nice to see what is the journey of some thing that you throw away and if this is exactly true

Indeed we may exclude garbage that allows recycling, so this part of the garbage that is recollected and recycled (as you say ´ground material for new products´). But this would make the challenge much easier, because I think in Rotterdam they also recollect plastics, isn´t it?

I hope this idea that Maarten will put in practice maybe very soon will highlight the importance of
- Buying just what you need, so you have to throw less
- Buying more locally produced food, as normally this requires less packaging, etc
- Of non-food stuff, making sure it allows also recycling, reparation, etc.
As such, this challenge has both a strong social as well as environmental component.

Very exciting that the last day of the month is getting closer and this is the top most popular idea. Just as mentioned above in different ways,
it might bring focus to the 'reduce, reuse and recycle'- the waste hierarchy, and what is really the more desirable way to deal with the accumulation of stuff we tend to get lost in.
I assume what might be the biggest challenge is all the packaging material for food, at least that is what my garbage bin mainly is filled up with.
Secondly, I am happy that 'my' suggestion would need to become an essential part of taking on this challenge, the compost!!!

Yep, the last day just started! (in my timezone) And it looks like this idea will stay number one!!! Even though everything is still possible... :-)

In Rotterdam we don't collect plastic separately, neither organic waste. And I think they burn everything they collect and generate energy with it, but I'm not sure about that. Would be interesting to find out.

Now that I started thinking about this more, I realize one of the hardest things is to stop producing waste indirectly. Because what about having a dinner in a restaurant? I won't produce any garbage as long as I finish my food and don't use the napkin. But other people produced lots of garbage while preparing the dinner! And that's still because of me!

But maybe it's best to first focus on all the garbage I produce directly, like packaging, etc. And then try to also limit the indirect garbage, because otherwise I might get lost and starve :-)

@sara, compost it will be indeed!! It's nice that some ideas will be included in the execution of this one.

I really don't think you could do this, but I'm just dying to see you trying!

Hey Maarten, I don't know if you know about a guy who calls himself "No Impact Man". He documented his life trying to live without impacting the environment a couple of years ago. Made a docu about too. Check it out and ask Ingetje! http://www.noimpactdoc.com/index_m.php

Thanks Kasper. I recently got the movie but didn't watch it yet, I'm actually curious because probably I can learn a thing or two. There is also another one that I still want to see which is called Garbage Warrior. Which is supposed to be interesting: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1104694/

Héj, yes very cool too. I could drop it to Ingetje too. You would have to use electricity to see it though.

Hehe, electricity I'm still using... Maybe that's for another month :-) I actually got the movie as well, have to watch it still though... Maybe I should organize a cinema evening :-)

Cool nice idea. I am offering to ride a bike generator type thing to generate the electricity we need during the screening. :-)

Seeing what issues you come across doing some of No Impact Man's things I maybe should read through his blog about it because in the docu you don't hear about the real little issues he came across.
(BTW He composts with a worm box inside the house)

Cinema evening? sounds interesting!

Hehe, maybe I should ask Davide to build a bike generator type thing, one that makes music at the same time :-)

I think we'll watch No Impact Man tonight, I'm curious...