Written By Nate. On Oct 21. In Arizona, Daily Life, Environment, Flagstaff, Household, Indiana, Recycling, Sustainability, Sustainable living

Here in Evansville, Indiana, recycling seems to be somewhat antiquated.  Compared to the system we had in Flagstaff, Arizona, there are even fewer things the recycling program here will accept.  To make matters worse, they only provide you with one small bin to put all your stuff into.  I quickly made friends with the man who runs our curbside pickup (which by the way, only happens every two weeks and is a huge drawback for big time recyclers like us) because I watched him have to sort out every category of item and place them in specific bins at the curb.  I thought that just seemed a terrible waste of time for him and decided we would sort our own items into separate containers.  Using old plastic storage bins, we now have four containers we place curbside.

Yesterday, I completed a week’s worth of sorting duties on the back porch and was amazed at how much we actually recycle.  Each week, we generally only produce one or two bags of garbage thanks to composting the organics and sorting out the recyclables.  My  neighbors aren’t so diligent though and that’s when I ran across something they should watch.

A Canadian filmmaker has released a new project that is all about our waste: the trash you put in that container to be picked up and hauled away.  Andrew Nisker shot his documentary using the McDonald family.  The family of five were asked to collect every piece of trash they generated over three months and keep it in their garage.  What was generated three months later is said to be an eye-opener.

Garbage: The Revolution Starts at Home runs 76 minutes and explores the waste generated by the family as well as where the materials came from to generate the waste and where they will go in the end.  The film shows how we act with our garbage has a profound impact on our surrounding environment.  To learn more about the film or to order a copy, head over to their website by clicking the link above.  I think it’s worth a look-see and can’t wait to watch the film.