Networked Urbanism

design thinking initiatives for a better urban life

Design critics: Belinda Tato and Jose Luis Vallejo, principals of Ecosistema Urbano

The average American throws away 4.5 lbs of trash every day. Added together, that’s the same weight as 2.3 million Boeing 747 jets every year just in the U.S. Trash disposal has been proven to be harmful to environment, costs billions of dollars in taxes, and disproportionately impacts poor communities surrounding landfills and incenerators.

Trashless Tuesdays is a public awareness and public commitment campaign that aims to reduce the amount of waste going into our landfills and, through incenerators, into our atmosphere. If every American committed to produce zero trash just one day a week that would mean over 50 BILLION pounds of trash diverted from landfills each year. And the added benefit is that once people start paying attention to their waste stream even just once a week, research shows that they will continue to pay attention and change their consumption and waste disposal choices the rest of the week as well.

So here’s how it works:

1. Go to http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/trashlesstuesdays/ to sign the Trashless Tuesdays petition as a sign of your public commitment and to see which of your friends, neighbors, countrymen are also signing.

2. Starting this coming Tuesday, eliminate all trash from your day. You can compost. You can recycle. But avoid the landfill.

3. Some helpful hints: think ahead, bring your lunch, use non-disposable coffee mugs, water bottles, plates, and utensils, use cloth towels instead of paper towels, and pay attention whenever you buy a food or product to whether the packaging is destined for the landfill.

4. Document your experience, tell your friends, and join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter (#trashlesstuesdays).

5. Have fun with it.


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