WILKES-BARRE - In March, Dave Wasilewski and his wife, Karen Fisher, set a personal record for garbage.
For 16 straight weeks, the Luzerne County couple fit all their garbage into a single 39-gallon bag. "An entire winter's worth of trash," as Mr. Wasilewski puts it.
A wild mushroom enthusiast and a member of the Wyoming Valley Mushroom Club, Mr. Wasilewski said he and his wife strive to keep their output low by recycling, composting and buying strategically to reduce their own impact on the Earth - and to minimize their contribution to landfills.
"It seems to me like there's a very large amount of things that flow through our refuse system that can be kept out of the refuse system," said Mr. Wasilewski, a 57-year-old math teacher at Luzerne County Community College.
One might imagine their house reeking like a landfill. But your garbage, less than a week old and filled with old bread and spoiled lunch meat, smells a lot worse than their 4-month-old trash. In fact, Mr. Wasilewski said theirs doesn't stink at all.
The Hunlock Creek couple compost all plant material and biodegradable cat litter outside, keep animal and fish waste in a bag in the freezer and first rinse the stuff they do throw in the trash. They also avoid throwaway packaging as best they can, and recycle everything else.
Today being Earth Day, it's perhaps appropriate to note that the average American generates nearly 4.5 pounds of trash every day, and the country dumps more than 130 million tons of it into landfills every year, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Erik Foley, the director of sustainable operations at Penn State University, an office that helps the college be greener in areas like purchasing, transportation and building, urges people to try to reduce their own garbage. To help do so, he recommends everyone visit a landfill to get a firsthand look at where our trash goes.
"It's a pretty life-changing experience to see that there is no 'away,'â" Mr. Foley said. "We say we throw trash away. There really is no 'away.' It does all go somewhere."
Recycling as much as possible is one way to keep material out of landfills and in use in society, Mr. Foley said. And cutting down on the garbage we produce by recycling and using less saves a lot more than just landfill space.
"It takes a lot less energy, obviously, to get aluminum from old aluminum cans than it takes to mine it and all the water and energy it takes to box that out of the Earth," Mr. Foley said.
To motivate the family, Mr. Foley recommends having household competitions to see who can produce the least trash, as he does with his wife and two school-age children.
Mr. Wasilewski's own children have grown up and moved out, so there's no need for competitions in his house, but he still pesters them to be vigilant when they return for a visit.
"The environment is a person's home. ... And you should try and take care of your home," Mr. Wasilewski said.
Contact the writer: pcameron@citizensvoice.comTrimming waste
âEight tips for reducing the amount of trash produced in your household:
-âStop or cut down on using plastic bags. Keep a resusable cotton or mesh bag with you in your car. Recycle the plastic bags you have rather than throwing them away; many supermarkets have receptacles to do just that.
-âSet up your recycling in a convenient place. If your recycling bins are in the kitchen or nearby, you're probably more likely to drop something in there rather than in the trash.
-âRecycle everything you can.
-âCompost your fruit and vegetable waste. Composters are available at big hardware stores and range from $35 to $100.
-âStop or cut down on using takeout containers from restaurants. Bring your own containers or keep some in the car.
-âCheck the package before you buy something to make sure it's recyclable or made of recyclable material.
-âBuy secondhand. Reuse someone else's stuff - it comes without packaging.
-âLet businesses know how you feel. If you buy a product that has a lot of packaging, call or write the company and complain. Politely, of course.