I'm not sure where the proclivity came from, but I am a little obsessed with trash. Why do we have so much of it? Why are we the only animal species on the entire planet that creates trash? Why do restaurants by default put trash in our drinks (plastic straws)? I am that friend that excavates the trash at parties to separate out the recycling, gives ChicoBags and To-Go Ware for birthday and Christmas gifts, and wraps presents in reusable items like cloth napkins and woven hala baskets. When I first started dating my boyfriend, a close girlfriend of mine warned him, "One thing you need to know about Jen, she is really into recycling. I mean really into recycling."

In August of 2010 I was beside myself when I found out that the City and County of Honolulu was making plans to send our garbage across the Pacific Ocean because we apparently had no other place to put it. I looked around in the news for great signs of protest, but saw none. Why wasn't the public raising vocal objections to this idea? Where were there "Malama the 'aina" and "Three is a Magic Number" sign holders in front of the capitol, demanding that we improve our management of waste? Then, I wondered if perhaps I was the crazy one thinking we as individuals could actually do something. So I decided to see what it would be like to significantly reduce my own trash impact. In the process of deciding an acceptable level of trash I would generate (should my weekly accumulated trash be able to fit in a bucket, a shoe box, a small trash can?), I thought, why not try and produce no trash at all. Hence, my Trash-Free Year lifestyle experiment, and blog to keep me honest, was born.

In order to see if it was in fact possible to live a year without creating trash, I needed first to define a few terms and set some parameters or rules. First off, what is trash? I define trash to be any item that cannot be composted, recycled or reused here in Hawai'i that would normally end up in my trashcan at home, at work or while I am out and about. Although it does go in my trashcan, I did not include my dog's poop in the definition of trash. Since I was planning on collecting and saving any trash I did acquire over the course of the year, dog poop became an exception to my experiment for obvious reasons. I define recyclable as any item that can be accepted for recycling here on O'ahu, and a compostable item as any item that will break down into soil if I put it in a compost pile or worm bin.

I set three basic parameters for myself. 1) The experiment will be from January 1, 2011 to December 31, 2011. 2) Since this is an experiment to challenge my everyday choices of 2011, which are primarily consumer choices, any choices I have made before January 1, 2011 do not apply. For example, I still had boxes of rice milk that I purchased in December 2010 when I began the experiment in 2011. Rather than donating them to avoid the net non-recyclable containers that the milk comes in, I will continue to finish them and do my best to reuse them if possible. 3) Trash items that are given to me when I do not have a choice in the matter do not count. This would include things like gift-wrapping, disposable plates and disposable cutlery. I will do my best to recycle, reuse or compost the items, however refusing them will not be allowed as the point of this experience is to challenge my own personal choices (not make others feel like they need to accommodate me and my crazy idea).

After 12 months of forcing myself to keep my trashcan empty, I learned that trash-free living boils down to being mindful about consumer choices and adopting new habits. Some of my resulting trash-free lifestyle changes were pretty easy; however, there were definitely challenges and a few surprises along the way.

Trash-free Easy

Giving up paper towels and napkins was probably the easiest change to make. Although my boyfriend, who lives with me, was not completely on board with my experiment, he did give up these disposable paper products with me. In their place we used a collection of dishtowels and cloth napkins that were thrown in the wash once a week.

Dealing with the paper napkins at restaurants or paper towels in public restrooms required a bit more forethought. I carried around a cloth napkin in my pocket or my purse. If I was wearing a skirt with no pockets, I wore my cloth napkin like a little sash. It is perhaps not the most fashionable look (not yet, that is), but it works! If I forgot my trusty napkin and was forced to use a disposable one, I brought the used paper product home and threw it in my compost bin.

Another trash category that was easy to avoid was disposable eating ware. Prior to starting my experiment I already had a set of bamboo eating utensils dangling from my purse. With my new trash-free goal, I made sure to carry my fork, knife, spoon and chopstick set everywhere. I also have a bowl that collapses and fits in my purse. These tools came in very handy for eating food from vendors at fairs and food trucks, where my request for a meal or beverage to be put in my own container was rarely turned down.

Thanks to the bulk food bins at my neighborhood grocery store, I was able to escape a lot of food packaging trash. I learned early on that you can find cereal, oats, couscous, quinoa, powdered vegetable broth, peanut butter and local honey in bulk. About halfway through the year I discovered that they also sell bulk loose leaf tea as well as dish and laundry detergent. To maximize my trash-free purchases, I brought my own bags and containers to fill up and wrote the item codes on a scrap piece of paper to read off at checkout rather than using the stickers or twist ties.

Trash-free Not So Easy

Living trash-free wasn't always easy. Chocolate, for example, which I love, is practically impossible to find sans packaging. Samples from a chocolate festival and good friends who occasionally "gifted" me chocolate were the only ways I could eat this delicious treat and still be trash-free. Bread, meat and cheese, staples of an omnivore's diet, are also not commonly found without some sort of plastic, non-compostable packaging. I discovered that there are very few bakeries around that sell loaves of healthy bread available for purchase without any kind of packaging. Grocery stores with bakeries in my neighborhood all put their bread in paper bags that have clear plastic windows. Even at one of the only old fashioned bakeries in town, if you don't get there at the right time or order your bread ahead of time, the freshly baked loaves are stuffed into clear plastic bags and closed with plastic twist-ties. Of course, I could have baked my own bread, but that would mean buying yeast, which also comes in non-recyclable, non-biodegradable packaging. Other than a bagel here and there, I basically gave up bread.

I had better success with meat and cheese, but at a cost. With a little convincing, staff at my local grocery store deli came around to putting freshly sliced deli meat and cheese into my own containers. The deli crew at Whole Foods Kahala, the only place I know of other than Chinatown that sells chicken and beef not pre-wrapped in plastic and Styrofoam, also allowed me to put chuck roast steak and chicken breasts into my own containers. I walked away from these situations trash-free, but with less money in my pocket than if I had purchased pre-packaged meats and cheese.

By far, the most difficult thing to get around without creating trash was medicine. I got sick twice during my trash-free year. The first time, honey got me through a lot of the experience. I made ginger-honey cough drops and drank lemon-honey tea. My boyfriend, however, gifted me some of his Ricola lozenges and Nyquil when my homemade concoctions just weren't cutting it. The second time I was sick for over a month. After three weeks of miserable sneezing and coughing, feeling better took precedence over my experiment in trash reduction. Why must most over-the-counter medicine, prescribed antibiotics, and not to mention birth control pills, all come in plastic blister packs that can't be recycled? This is certainly an area where I and other consumers should speak out in favor of more eco-friendly packaging.

Trash-free Surprises

My first trash-free challenge was one of the most surprising‹dental floss. Most dental floss, I discovered, is made out of Teflon. There are biodegradable options made out of silk, but they still come in plastic dispensers. I ended up choosing a floss product called EcoDent that is not biodegradable, but comes in a container that I will be able to put in my compost container. As for the floss itself, I am saving it (after cleaning it, of course) to perhaps make into twine or for homemade Christmas tree garland.

The prevalent usage of straws at restaurants really surprised me. If I was chatting with a friend and preoccupied with conversation when the server asked what I would like to drink, it was almost certain that my drink order would come with a straw. When I would remember to include with my order, "...and I don't want a straw," most servers smiled politely and obliged my request. There was even one waitress who approved of my decision with a cheerful, "Good for you!" Straws are not served with beer or wine, so why the paradigm that we need a straw to drink soda, juice or even water?

The most surprising thing I learned as a result of my trash-free year is how much of our everyday trash can be thrown into a compost pile or bin and be made into rich soil with very little effort. Not only did I throw my vegetable and fruit scraps and dried leaves into my homemade trashcan compost bin, but I also included things like tea bags, coffee grounds, toilet paper rolls, tissue paper, Quiznos and Subway sandwich wrappers, paper napkins, paperboard boxes, egg cartons, paper wrappers from soup cans and toothpaste boxes. To speed up the decomposition process, I either tore up or shredded the paper products using a paper shredder.

Whenever our fruit and vegetable scrap container was full, I would dump it in the bin and add a layer of dry ingredients. Once a week I would roll the bin to mix it up. When the trashcan became too heavy to lift, I used a pitchfork to stir up the decomposing mass. With this very minimal effort, after six months, everything magically turned into soil. I didn't even need to use a worm composting system because worms found their way into my bins on their own. Imagine how much trash we could reduce if instead of throwing everything in the trash, biodegradable items were tossed in a compost bin and turned into soil. Perhaps we would never have to think of sending our trash away again.

At the end of my yearlong experiment all of my trash fit into a 1-gallon Ziploc bag and weighed three-quarters pound. Between two homemade compost bins, I also gained enough soil to fill a 32-gallon trashcan, which I will use this year to try my hand at growing my own vegetables. Living mindful of my trash impact, I also learned how to eat healthier, non-packaged meals, and make my own non-toxic cleaning supplies out of baking soda and vinegar.

Although my goal this past year was to generate absolutely no trash at all, I have to say I did pretty well considering that the 2010 statistics from the Environmental Protection Agency state that the average person in our country generates over four pounds of trash per day.

Some may claim that I was able to reduce my trash so significantly because I am economically able to make the choice to spend more on fresh fruits and vegetables rather than buy cheaper packaged meals, and have the time to visit a special store to buy food and cleaning supplies in bulk. I would not disagree with these statements; however, I learned through first-hand experience that a lot of trash is generated everyday due to habits of convenience, many of which have been pushed on us by consumer marketing and businesses. Our grandparents never used paper towels and paper plates and survived just fine, yet according to the plethora of television commercials promoting disposable paper products, we apparently can't live without them. There was a time when the neighborhood coffee shop used to serve coffee in a ceramic mug. Visit any Starbucks any you'll be hard pressed to find any customer that chooses to sit and drink their coffee using a ceramic mug. And single-use plastic bags have only been around since the 1980s. Prior to that, people were using paper bags, and before that, reusable bags made out of cloth‹go figure.

In Hawai'i, the trash we generate everyday ultimately ends up in a landfill, even if some of it is burned in a waste-to-energy plant first. But landfills in Hawai'i are unsustainable solutions for solid waste because someday we will run out of land to fill. The only truly sustainable solution is reducing our trash, and that change starts with each one of us, by being mindful of the waste we create and having the courage and foresight to adopt the lifestyle choices and new habits to live as smart, accountable consumers.