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Measuring Household Waste Production

I've decided to try to measure my household waste. All my trash ends up in a specific trash bin before I throw it out, and all my compost ends up in a specific compost bin. I take out the trash as infrequently as possible: it only happens when they're full or when they stink. So why not measure it while I'm at it?

Using the magic of my postal scale and/or my luggage scale, I measure each bin before it goes into my trash barrels. Right now I am only measuring compost and trash, because I find that easiest.

The Net Weight of my Waste

Without further delay, here is my Waste Weight log. I use grams because metric is easier in terms of the math. Just remember that 1000 grams is roughly 2.2 pounds.

Net Weight
2022-06-18: Compost.. 1594 grams
2022-06-18: Trash....  990 grams
2022-06-27: Compost.. 2712 grams
2022-06-27: Trash....  904 grams
2022-07-02: Compost.. 1288 grams
2022-07-02: Trash.... 1688 grams
2022-07-06: Compost.. 1144 grams 
2022-07-16: Compost.. 1194 grams
2022-07-16: Trash....  958 grams
2022-07-24: Compost.. 1342 grams
2022-07-24: Trash....  754 grams
2022-08-03: Trash....  956 grams
2022-08-07: Compost.. 1680 grams
 
So far, per person waste: 
 Compost.. 94 grams per person per day
 Trash.... 57 grams per person per day
 
Notes:
 - Two adults.
 - No children at home.
 - No pets.
 - [Empty Bins: Compost: 372 grams, Trash: 308 grams]

What is being measured?  What are the rules?

Trash generally includes things that I perceive to be un-recyclable and non-compostable. That includes things like plasticized or metalized paper, plastic films, quasi-paper products, soiled paper-like products, and weirder hybrid materials (think "juice boxes" and "k-cups", although I don't use those things). My general rule is that if I have reasonable doubt that something is un-recyclable, or if I have no idea what it might be made of, then it goes in the trash.

Compost includes food waste, household plant waste, paper towels soiled with non-human, non-pet, non-chemical crud, coffee grinds & filters, and other scraps

What's not being measured

The waste that I produce that is not included:

  • Things I donate, sell, or give away.
  • Recycling, including curbside or anything subject to specialty recycling, like electronics & clothes.
  • Bulk waste, like a sofa or building materials (very rare, but usually super-heavy)
  • Yard waste (leaves, sticks, etc)
  • Waste water/sewer (including soaps, various liquids, toilet paper & "bio matter") 
    • By weight, waste water is likely my largest amount of waste
  • Waste I produce while not at home (e.g., while away on vacation, at a restaurant, etc) 
  • Waste produced by consuming fuels & electricity
  • Indirect waste created to make the products I buy

I could cheat by "optimistically recycling non-recyclables" and "give away total trash", pushing my trash off to someone else. That's not my point of doing this. I am not in competition with anyone. This is just plain old me trying to realistically measure my own current impact, and to see how it changes over time, and to see if my behaviors are realistically changeable.

Other waste measurement ideas

For future consideration:

  • Electricity, natural gas, and gallons of gasoline used could be translated into a waste number.
  • Household water use could be translated into a waste number.
  • Recycling weight could be measured.

I speculate that it is probably more informative to measure the weight of all inputs (purchases) instead of outputs. But I'm starting by measuring my waste.

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