Many of the people who have heard of my endeavor have immediately gone to a place
of seeking contradiction or hypocrisy or pointing out some way that I am bending the rules or being dishonest. I'm fascinated by this element of human psychology.
- Save all trash the I create first hand in my personal life – packaging of any kind, junk mail, to-go containers, electronics packaging, wax from melted candles, dental floss, etc.
- Save all recyclable products that I create first hand in my personal life – glass, plastic, aluminum, all of it
- Compost all organic matter. Every single food scrap gets turned back into fertilizer to feed the earth
- As the rules suggest, I keep everything I generate first hand in my personal life. I don’t keep all of the trash I generate at work for work specific purposes. It would be far too vast. But, trash that I create for personal use at work does have to be kept. For example, if I go out for lunch and get a burrito during work, I have to keep the aluminum foil that wraps the burrito. If I get a bag of chips, I have to keep the bag. If I get a drink, I have to keep the bottle or can. However, if our company orders boxes of food from our organic wholesale distributor, I don’t take the empty boxes after the chefs empty them.
- If I go out of town, I have to bring everything back with me. I went to Hawaii for 2 weeks during February of 07. I brought home roughly 15 lbs of trash with me in my suitcase.
- If I go out to eat and there is a white piece of paper covering the table instead of a linen, I take that piece of paper home with me. If I order French fries and they are served on top of a piece of paper I take that piece of paper home with me.
- I keep dental floss. I keep condoms.
- I don’t keep toilet paper, but I keep the toilet paper rolls so I know how much I’ve used in a year.
- If I go backpacking for a week and take a ridiculous amount of packaged food with me, it all comes home with me at the end.
- Virtually every time there is a judgment call to be made, moments in question where I have to decide if I keep it or leave it behind, I keep it. Seriously. I have been diligent, disciplined, committed, and determined to stick to the spirit of this challenge. It’s been an amazing meditation.
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