Getting to Zero Waste: Q3 Results

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Getting to Zero Waste: Q3 Results

I rushed home from work today to weigh my trash. I know, I’m weird like that: driven by results, a bit of environmentalism, and in love with personal experiments. It’s the end of the third quarter and the weigh-in must be done, as I attempt to get myself closer and closer to zero waste.

Without further ado, in the third quarter of 2013 (July-September), I tossed out:

  • 20 lbs of paper
  • 21 lbs of trash
  • 12.5 lbs of plastic & glass
  • 53.5 total lbs of trash = 0.48 lbs / day

To compare the quarters, it looks like this:

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Social Media Image Sizing Cheat Sheet

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Social Media Image Sizing Cheat Sheet

Properly sizing a social media image, whether a Facebook cover, Twitter profile photo, or custom YouTube thumbnail, can be the bane of any marketers existence.

Just looking at this infographic and all of the details that go into properly imaging social media accounts makes my head hurt.

But thanks to this cheat sheet from LunaMetrics, I’ve got a quick and handy reference:

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Rafflecopter: The best times to run raffles and giveaways

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Rafflecopter: The best times to run raffles and giveaways

“Rafflecopter is the world’s easiest way to run a giveaway.” Especially on social media, raffles are a great way to encourage and reward engagement as well as, possibly, increase followers or subscribers.

I’ve run two giveaways in the past year and have been really satisfied with the experience. I’ve kept things pretty simple by asking for Facebook Likes, Twitter follows, tweets and e-newsletter sign-ups, in return for packages of freebies designed for chefs, commuters, athletic folks, teachers, and anyone interested in a free baseball cap, coffee mug, etc.

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Getting to Zero Waste: Q2 Results

Posted by On Filed under Voluntary Simplicity / Minimalism 3 Comments
Getting to Zero Waste: Q2 Results

I’ve been chronicling my attempts to get down to zero waste this year and it’s been an eye-opening experience. In the first quarter of the year (January-March), I averaged 0.79 lbs of trash per day. This included food scraps, plastic, paper, glass, and anything else I took down to the garbage cans. You can see the details and category breakdown here.

Fortunately, this is much lower than the American 4.4 lbs per day average, but still much more than I’d like to be responsible for. So I continue to keep track.

In the second quarter of the year (April-June), I averaged:

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A Long Way from Zero Waste

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A Long Way from Zero Waste

As I’ve simplified my life in many areas (by getting rid of 800 things, crawling out of debt, and living a voluntarily simple life), I’ve started thinking about trash. Garbage, plastic, glass, food scraps, paper, and so much more.

The complexity of my trash situation hit me as I was cleaning out and organizing my kitchen cabinets for the Reverse 100 Thing Challenge. Under the sink, I have my regular trash. In two other cupboards, I have recyclable soda bottles and cans and another bag of recyclable plastic and glass. Another cupboard holds only a paper grocery bag with paper and cardboard in it and then there’s the plastic bag full of plastic bags. There’s another small bin for garbage in the bathroom.

As I was trying to organize and minimize this mess, I wondered how much trash I actually create.

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Reverse 100 Thing Challenge: How I Decluttered 800 Things

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Reverse 100 Thing Challenge: How I Decluttered 800 Things

For the past 15 months, I’ve gotten rid of 800 items in my home. It all started with Dave Bruno’s 100 Thing Challenge and then Courtney Carver’s Reverse 100 Thing Challenge. I thought I’d never be able to part with so many of my possessions that I’d achieve Bruno’s goal of owning only 100 things. Even Carver’s goal of just getting rid of 100 things seemed slightly impossible.

But in one year (2012), I easily decluttered 500 items, while only bringing 100 new items into my home. And I just got rid of 300 more items in these first three months of 2013. Keep reading →