It’s Time for a Garbage Makeover

Year Of No Garbage, , , ,

Who doesn’t love a good makeover? I’d say our poor, neglected garbage cans are definitely overdue. I mean, we all recycle and throw things away every day, but there’s so much misinformation out there that I feel like we need a Garbage Czar— or at the very least a Garbage Miss Manners— to help us all get the facts straight.

I officially volunteer.

Here are just a few facts to help revamp the way you discard:

Paper, cardboard and boxboard

Paper, cardboard and boxboard (what cereal boxes are made of) are of course, all recyclable. We do a pretty decent job of it too: according to the EPA 68% of paper produced gets recycled. But what about if your envelopes or boxboard or cardboard have little cellophane windows? Or stickers?

Turns out that when paper gets to the mill for recycling, it is shredded and then pulped in giant vats with water and chemicals to help break it down. This liquid is then run through screens to remove paperclips, staples, cellophane, tape and anything else that isn’t paper. No worries! Your phone book with the binding still intact, and your pasta box with the plastic window? Is still getting recycled.

Glass

Glass is of course recyclable. Glass gets sorted by color and then pulverized. Broken glass gets filtered through a series of screens which separate out non-glass material, after which heat is introduced which burns away remaining paper and other non-glass bits.

Here’s the problem though: because so many garbage services have switched to single stream collection, glass is getting broken and hard to sort in the waste stream. Even though glass manufacturers want this material, the U.S. has never managed to recycle more than 30% of glass produced, whereas the EU recycles 75 % of its glass. Proof that single stream isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

All will fear the wrath of the confused-looking Garbage Czar

Tinfoil

Tinfoil is one of those things most people probably don’t realize they can recycle as long as it is clean: just lay it on the sink bottom and drag your sponge across it in horizontal strokes, then lay it in the dish drainer to dry.

The trick is to save up a bunch of pieces of tin foil so you can ball them up into the size of a potato or a softball- just big enough to ensure they won’t fall through the cracks of the recycling sorting system. Or- now that its clean- you could reuse it!

Multilayers

Multilayers are one of those materials that you’ve probably never heard of that are absolutely everywhere: chip and snack bags, frozen food bags, coffee bags, much of the shrink wrapping around meats, salad mix bags, pet treat bags… They’re all made with Frankenstein combinations of micro-thin layers of many different kinds of plastic and foil, mylar, paper and still more plastic.

Recyclable? Not in a million years.

Rigid plastic

Rigid plastic doesn’t get recycled most of the time. In fact, 95% of plastic produced does not get recycled- with those odds, trying to recycle your plastic is like trying to win the lottery.

Technically the plastics marked with RIC numbers (resin identification code- the numbers inside the chasing arrow triangle) 1 and 2 have the very best chance. On the other hand, recycled plastics have their own unique set of problems, so there’s an argument to be made we shouldn’t be recycling them at all- more on this in a future post.

Garbage Miss Manners always puts things on her head

Plastic Wrap

Plastic Wrap manufacturers want you to think their product is recyclable. If you call many of them and ask, as I did, they’ll tell you it is. The problem is that it totally isn’t: no one wants this stuff gumming up the works at their recycling center- period.

Instead, why not head over to Grandma’s, or the local charity resale shop and pick yourself up some pretty, lidded Pyrex? This was plastic wrap before plastic wrap was invented, and you know what? It is beautiful, functional, and infinitely reusable.

Do YOU have a Garbage Makeover question? Ask me! I am the Czar after all. AND I have a tin foil tiara.

Can Mardi Gras EVER go Green?

Year Of No Garbage, , ,

The annual New Orleans celebration of Mardi Gras is unlike anything I’ve ever seen anywhere. Its focus is parades: lots of them. Between January 6 and “Fat Tuesday” they have literally dozens of them. This year there were over seventy parades, each with its own theme, costumes, paraders and music. It’s a celebration that is beautiful, funny, overwhelming and raucous, and it is steeped in a wealth of arcane and fascinating tradition.

It’s also a particularly obnoxious example of waste run amok.

(You can also find this video on my IG and TikTok)

It’s been long accepted that the festivities of Mardi Gras annually trash the city. (I first wrote about this phenomenon back in 2020.) Mere hours after a parade’s conclusion, the city clean-up crews hit the streets with all the subtlety of an amphibious assault. In fact, being able to handle such an onslaught of litter even seems to be a point of pride, as in “We may not be able to fill the potholes, but we know how to clean up after a parade!” Until fairly recently, New Orleans officials used to judge the success of their Mardi Gras tourist season by measuring the amount of trash that was collected in its wake.

Of course, the more trash, the greater that year’s success.

Parading in anticipation of Lent has been a New Orleans tradition for a long, long time: over two hundred years. In his book Mardi Gras Beads, Doug MacCash explains that it wasn’t until the 1870s that throwing inexpensive trinkets to parade watchers became part of the tradition. And at least as early as the 1920s, newspapers were commenting on the disaster left behind.

“Empty boxes, shreds of paper and broken favors,” as one Times Picayune reporter described. In that same article, one young girl reportedly asked her mother, “Can God see all this mess?”

How it started… how it’s going: cheap hand-strung glass beads gave way to industrially produced plastic beads

But really, they hadn’t seen anything yet, because in the 1950s came the advent of a magical material that was durable, dirt-cheap, and could be made into almost anything. In just a few short decades this material would find its way into every aspect of the Mardi Gras celebration. From the ubiquitous bead necklaces to cups, toys, beer cozies and stuffed animals, not to mention the plethora of wrappers and bags they arrived in, these days it’s hard to even imagine a Mardi Gras without the presence of plastic.

But I’m going to argue that we can and we should. Further, I’d argue that even if you don’t give two figs about Mardi Gras, it matters.

Fresh flowers, aluminum cups and biodegradable glitter were all parade throws I’d never seen before

As you can see in my video above, there are signs- lots of them- that many Mardi Gras paraders are thinking about what they choose to throw from their floats and choosing alternatives to plastic. In the handful of parades I attended this year we saw aluminum cups, ceramic medallions, glass beads, wooden train whistles, biodegradable glitter, cloth bags and even fresh flowers being thrown.

Another thing I saw for the first time: boxes in hotel lobbies for “Bead Recycling.”

Evidence that the terms “sustainable” and “Mardi Gras” can co-exist in a sentence without killing each other

And lastly? I saw a lot of non-Mardi Gras efforts at sustainability too— admittedly some better than others— but all of which told me that plastic, waste and sustainability are issues on the minds of many New Orleanians.

I appreciate this coffeehouse’s efforts to offer a cup that folks might reuse at home, but #5 plastic is neither recyclable, nor should it go in the dishwasher. A better choice? Washable ceramic mugs and encourage patrons to bring their own refillables.
Green Heritage Pro is recycled paper TP.

I was also delighted to have the opportunity to visit Vintage Green Review, New Orleans’ first zero waste supply and bulk refill shop. Unlike some “sustainability” shops I’ve been to that feature clothing for people who want to play Little House on the Prairie, and don’t mind paying $300 for a handmade butter dish, Vintage Green Review focuses on real world stuff that you might actually need: natural rubber hair ties, plastic-free Q-Tips, toothpaste tabs. They’ve been in business since 2021 and I’m kind of jealous. I want one in my town.

Sarah Andert owns and operates the Vintage Green Review

So, despite everything, there are signs that things at Mardi Gras, and in New Orleans, are changing.

But what does this matter to the rest of the world?

I think the reason it matters is that we all celebrate things. Mardi Gras is an outsized example, but in our current culture, plastic waste is virtually synonymous with all types of celebrating, from Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade to a four-year-old’s birthday party. And I think often, when we’re presented with the need or opportunity for change, we mistakenly believe the choice is between going on as we have been, or giving up on the activity altogether.

Do we have to give up on Mardi Gras— or parades or parties— if we want to stop using single-use plastic? 

Of course not. Once upon a time we had celebrations without disposables, and we can do it again. We just need to think differently. Change will follow.

And the really good news is? In New Orleans that process has already begun.