Used to think recycling my cans was climate action, then I did the math on my own trash for 30 days

Miles Carter · 2026-10-11T02:05:05.856138+00:00

I used to feel pretty good about hauling a bin of cans and bottles to the curb each week. Then a guy at my city's recycling center in Boise told me most of what I toss in there is wishful thinking, not real recycling. So I kept a tally for 30 days, weighed everything, and found out 61 percent of my bin was stuff the program won't even take, like greasy pizza boxes and those black plastic trays. That meant two extra bags a week going to the landfill that I thought I was saving. The bigger thing was food. I was throwing out about $40 of spoiled groceries a month, which is methane in a hole and money in the trash. So now I plan meals around what expires first and I stopped buying giant bags of spinach I never finish. It feels dumb that a trash audit taught me more than any article did, but here we are. Did anyone else ever actually weigh their own bin, or am I the only one who was this off?

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Used to think recycling my cans was climate action, then I did the math on my own trash for 30 days | Climate Action - Vivisector