Moving, MRF's and Multi-family

I'm back! After my trashiest summer yet, I am ready to dive back into the world of blogging and trash-u-cation!

So where have I been? and what have I been doing? Glad you asked faithful readers...

I learned! I networked! I read! I watched! And...

I moved! It was the least exciting thing I did but has proved to be the most trash-u-cational...

Moving is hard, everyone knows that. Doing it while also keeping your waste in check is actually a lot easier then I thought it would be. I snagged some boxes from work, packed a lot of my breakables in my linens to cut down on packaging, got a new counter top compost bin and have gotten all of my furniture from thrift stores, craigslist and curbside, which I am mighty proud of and so would Macklemore.

But it wasn't until I was ready to bring my moving boxes down to the recycling bin that I realized the most disheartening thing about my new home: my building DOESN'T HAVE A RECYCLING BIN. I was shocked to learn that the single dumpster is the only receptacle available to me and the 16 other units in my building. Our private waste hauler won't name names but it's shares a name with a city in Greece...brings all of our waste to a "Dirty" Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) where they hand sort out the trash from the recyclables.

...Wait, to a what and a who now? A MRF (rhymes with smurf) is where recyclables (and sometimes trash) are sent to be hand sorted by laborers. Most MRF's only accept single stream recyclables (paper, glass, cans, plastic all in one bin) and have a good system for sorting and recovering recyclables. Although jury is still out on if single stream recycling is the ultimate solution. Here's a nifty video to explain what a MRF is:

MRF's that also accept trash in addition to recycling, "Dirty MRF's," as they're referred to in the biz, are not nearly as efficient as the MRF in the video. It is much harder to separate trash from the recycling without having a contaminated recycling stream. What they do recover is often low quality and not valuable on the recycling market.

I was devastated. I was going to become a Dirty MRF-er. The idea of throwing away my food scraps and recyclables into a dumpster was so overwhelming that the recycling in my apartment took over the entire dinning area. Boyfriend was not pleased...

But then the week after we moved in I noticed an extraordinary site...I feel a #TrashGirlSolution coming on...I now live next to a fire house yea, didn't realize that when we signed the lease who does put out their blue recycling bins and green lawn bins each week.

It's a trash Rainbow! 

So I've been sneaking all the recycling and compost into their bins. The first time I did it, I didn't realize what day they put them out, so I was 20 minutes late to work because I ran 4 trips of recycling and 1 trip of compost down to the bins one morning...I know. It's a bit much. 

I know that most people and all of the folks in my building will not have the commitment or motivation to recycle and compost like I do. I'm working on a proposal to bring to my landlord to get rid of the dumpster and get a more sustainable solution to the residents of my new home. Multi-family recycling (residents with more than 4 units) in Los Angeles have to sign up for recycling services from the city but it's free so I think he'll go for it. I'm hoping a good ole' grass root effort will purge at least this complex of its addiction to the dumpster. Stay tuned...

Knowing where your trash goes is important. Communities and municipalities that have curbside recycling programs work better and recycle more than communities who don't. They not only are more cost effective but promote more consumer buy in and get people thinking about their waste. Know what services are available to you so you can conveniently recycle, compost and reduce your landfill trash. Or, check out the trash bin rainbow at your local firehouse.  

***

Open letter to the fire station next door:
Dear Fire House,
The thought of throwing away recyclables and compost-able organics in my apartment complex's dumpster makes me hyperventilate. Thank you for being so diligent about your recycling and yard waste and providing my refuse with a refuge. And not catching me using your bins yet..or ever..or if you do catch me letting me continue using your bins because it's adorable how obsessed I am with trash and I care too much for you to not let me do it. And, as invested as we both are in our civic duty you will relate to me on some level. I hope. Please. Thank you. 
Sincerely,
Your neighborhood Trash Girl

***

#DownWithDirtyMRFs !

A FroYo Fix

Last week I had a #TrashGirlProblem that I just can't shake...and it may or may not be solved by eating as much frozen yogurt as possible while I mull it over...

I have a long standing relationship with frozen yogurt. Spring semester of my Junior year of college, a business called The Frosty Parrot opened up just steps away from campus. It was love at first taste—  colorful, customizable, affordable and down right delicious. Frozen yogurt became my weekly and sometimes bi and tri weekly event that year. But like any lover caught with their trousers down or, with a plastic spoon in their mouth, my first love Trash caught me by surprise when he pointed out the overstuffed trashcans full of one time use FroYo bowls. It wasn't until I came to LA that another low impact trasher I met at a panel provided the love triangle counseling session I needed.

Less than a week after my counseling session I was having a FroYo kind of day. You know those days, where the world tries to tear you down and your roommate put his recyclables in the wrong bin..AGAIN and your only solace in the cold, dark recesses of the dumpster that is your day is the bright cheer of a self serve yogurt shop...Armed with my own carefully selected Harry Potter Butterbeer Mug & spoon I headed into my local YogurtLand for a low impact, high sugar, treat.

The idea was easy:
1. weigh my bowl prior to yogurt and toppings selection
2. fill my cup with frozen bliss
3. subtract weight of bowl from final weight. Go Math! 

Easy, simple! Right?

Nope.

Not only did the cashier have a hard time understanding what I was asking her to do, she told me the "scales don't work like that." They automatically subtract the weight of the disposable paper cup from the overall weight. My awesome HP Mug was going to be heavier and would therefore cost more than their cup.

What the crap technology! 

At least I brought my spoon... 

Would I need to give up self serve frozen yogurt to lessen my environmental impact? File that under: questions Google was made for. 

Some FroYo establishments are already cleaning up their act by offering bowl alternatives or discounts to their customers who bring their own. FroYo joints in Austin, Portland, of course, the hipsters are showing everyone up, San Francisco, San Diego and British Colombia, Canada all have frozen yogurt places that offer reusable bowls on site. A "for here" option similar to what coffee shops do with their reusable mugs.

Blogger FroYo Girl (man, there really is a blog for everything) bought this cool FroYo bowl at a shop in Palo Alto, CA that gives a discount for bringing your own.

Totally digging the Monsters Inc vibe

Other ways of "greening" FroYo are the options for recycling or composting the cups & spoons. However, recycling only works if the town the business is in collects plastic lined paperboard cups (that's what FroYo cups are) and not all do. However, even more restrictive is the fact that the cups are contaminated with food waste. Most recycling centers don't accept any recyclable materials with food residue and the plight of the pizza box continues... 

Compostable cups & spoons are only any good if the town has the facility to compost it. The cups and spoons will degrade more quickly in a landfill than if they were plastic but it still gets thrown "away" like any other garbage. The whole point of making it compostable (to let it biodegrade back into soil) is lost! 

So we're back at square one: reusable bowls.

I went back to my own YogurtLand and did a little research. Their cup, empty was .41 oz. My spectacular Harry Potter mug was 3.7 oz which would equate to an extra $1.66 on top of how much yogurt I bought. One of my plastic tupperware containers weighed .5 oz which would add $0.21 to my over all frozen yogurt. Much more manageable, like a sustainable yogurt tax but not as cool as my HP mug..

Left: My superb HP mug, made for FroYo indulging 

Right: Yogurtland's paperboard cup 

Typical tupperware container 

 Now as a reminder this is a straight trash blog- for the sake of simplicity and truly diving in to a deep understanding of how, what and why we consume I am ignoring the Life Cycle Assesment (LCA) that can be done between reusable and disposable items. In my world, reusable is always Thor, the strong, reliable brother & single use is always Loki, the evil annoying brother who just won't die! 

According to YogurtLand their "eco friendly" practice is their new re-usable spoons. But the spoon is a LIE! Those spoons go into the trash just like any other single use plastic spoon would. 

Like most frozen yogurt chains YogurtLand is a franchise. According to their franchise FAQ's, "supplies are purchased from approved vendors," meaning that YogurtLand, and their franchisees could instill more sustainable practices by implementing in-house reusable bowls or discounts to those who bring their own. There was even a change.org petition to YogurtLand CEO to design reusable cups so folks could do just that. 

Frozen yogurt joints as well as most other grab n go businesses haven't been as environmentally sound as they could be. But they seem to be working on it slowly. When I asked the employee to weigh my empty cups for this post he replied, "We can't do that, yet". Yet?! There's hope! 

Rethinking reusable bowls would not only lessen FroYo shops environmental impact, but would improve their overall bottom line by reducing operational costs and catering to a growing conscious consumer base. Until then, trashing less starts with the trasher herself. I am willing to take the 21 cent hit for my soul renewing frozen delicacy. Hey, what can I say? I like my yogurt frosty! ! 

I will eat FroYo in the name of science or Trash any day! 

#TrashGirlProblem

When you bring your own bowl to the Frozen Yogurt place, and are told you can't use it, and are forced to choose between disposable bowls or not getting FroYo at all. #TrashGirlProblem #TrashTag #AtLeastIBroughtMySpoon

#TrashGirlProblem

When you see a plant and a pot on the side of the road and you it's just begging you to take it home- and when you bring it back to the office, your co-workers look at you with a "say whaa?" face

But he was so cute! How could I resist! and I didn't even reach into  trashcan to get him... plus he came with a pot!

 Meet Pacific, named for the street I found him on! 

But joke is on them, because Pacific my street saved plant is thriving and quadruple the size from when I found him! 

Pacific today! 

#TrashGirlProblem

The maintenance people in my office look at me like I'm crazy when I repeatedly ask if we have single stream waste pick up since they put all the trash and recycling in the same bag. Then they laugh when I say I'll take it home to recycle it...this has been going on for a year.