Have you ever looked at your trash can and wondered, "How do I produce this much waste every single week?"

Well, you’re not alone! The modern lifestyle makes generating trash easy, invisible, and often times automatic, but it comes at a cost to our planet, wallets, and peace of mind.

So this June’s sustainability challenge is designed to change your relationship with waste by helping you understand what you throw away.

This month, I'm challenging you to conduct a simple yet eye-opening - home trash audit.

This is one of the very first things I recommend to anyone eager to shrink their trash because you can’t reduce what you don’t measure.

Why This Challenge Matters

Most of us don’t truly know what’s in our trash bins. We often put things in our bins that are carted out once a week. Then a little truck picks it up, and you never have to think about it again. Classic out of sight, out of mind.

But, have you ever really thought about where you waste goes? And what about all of the things you tossed? Because each item has an environmental cost. Each item started out as a natural resource somewhere on this planet.

It was extracted, manufactured, molded, created, shipped, touched by dozens or more human hands, and then it came to you - where it was discarded.

So what if we could changed this relationship and start to honor, value, and try to waste less?

Conducting a waste audit can:

• Reveal surprising patterns about our consumption habits

• Identify easy swaps that drastically reduce our trash

• Help us shift from passive disposal to active waste reduction!

Creating a Trash Audit System that Works

While I’ve mostly done these audits on a small scale at home, last fall I participated in a full company-wide audit with MegaFood. It was eye-opening, surprisingly fun, and solid proof that this method works.

The good news is you don’t need industrial scales or complicated spreadsheets to get started. And in fact, I don’t really recommend a scale for at home audits?

While it’s beneficial for a company, it’s not going to help you on an individual level. So, this is the easiest and most fool proof way for you to uncover surprising patterns to help you make smarter and more high-impact swaps.

If this newsletter has helped you rethink shopping, save money, or live more sustainably, consider becoming a paid subscriber. The support of paid subscribers keeps this work going and takes these conversations even deeper.❤️