Garbage In

Zero Waste is a core concept common to both the sustainability and permaculture movements. In a nutshell (bio-degradable!), it is life without a garbage can. Those in the trash lane, who have been using their car windows like garbage receptacles, probably won’t notice trash cans have been removed from their bio-region. Others will respond to this ecological ideal with the perfunctory Yeah, right. It’ll be a cold day in Leningrad, when that happens.

However, if you already re-use yogurt containers for leftovers, bring your own mug into Starbucks, and actually manage to bring your ChicoBag into Whole Foods, this is just another turn of the wheel in the direction you’ve been moving all-along.

You may ask, What will garbage night look like in a Zero Waste World?

Well, you’ll still have curbside pick-up for those daily newspapers that pile up unread, and those magazines on auto-renewal you keep forgetting to cancel.

There will still be a green can for grass clippings, hedge trimmings and kitchen scraps. And, lastly there will be either an anything goes (in) recycling container or one of those duplex models for mixed paper on one side, plastic and glass on the other.  What you won’t have, though, or pay a premium to subscribe to, is the once ubiquitous garbage can.  How can that be, you chime? What will I do with all that stuff that isn’t compostable, bio-degradable, or recycle-worthy. In other words, how does one divert stuff from going into landfill? 

Have no fear, it’s Brennan Blazer Bird (AKA “B”) to the rescue. His Personal Landfill Device, or Bottle Brick, is a prime example of solutionary thinking. If necessity is the mother of invention, then B gets an A in the application of that principle.

The Bottle Brick is one of those inventions that’s so obvious, you wonder why nobody has thought of it before.

Here’s what you’ll need:

A plastic bottle (retain the cap for later), a short and narrow piece of dowel (about a foot long), a piece of string tied around the neck of the bottle (this maneuver is optional, but useful if you plan to go mobile with your PLD).

Here’s how it works:

Whenever or wherever you encounter something which can neither be composted nor recycled, deposit it into your bottle brick and tamp down to compress.

Things that go into your bottle brick:

Dental floss, candy bar wrappers, cigarette butts, weird thingies like those plastic sleeves that hold 6-paks together, Styrofoam peanuts, etc.

And when nothing else will fit in the brick?

Pour sand into bottle filling in any air spaces. Replace cap.

What happens next?

Gather bottle bricks in your community, sorting by bottle type. When your have lots of one type, use to construct schoolyard or public park benches.

And after that?

Sit down with somebody new and share your stories.

To learn more: http://www.bottlebrick.com/