One Man - One Year - One Trash Can
Photography: Miles Parnell
Jeff Louden of Park City wouldn’t mind if you called him a “garbologist.” In fact, he would consider it a compliment.
Last New Year’s Eve, Louden contracted with himself to limit his household trash to one 55-gallon bin for the year. Yes, one bin — the entire year. The experiment began the next day with an empty big blue trash container. Evaluating each item he intends to discard, Louden sorts his trash using Park City’s Recycle Utah system of reduce, reuse, recycle and rethink.
“I recycle glass, cardboard, paper, plastic and metal,” says Louden. “And I compost.” Louden acknowledges that a small amount of non-recyclable items end up in his trash bin or the landfill. “Toothpaste tubes are not recyclable because of metal on the inside. Rubber, such as balloons and erasers, cannot be recycled, either. And the only option with construction waste like plywood, which contains glue, is to take it to the landfill,” he says.
Louden’s yearlong project is just one aspect of his lifetime dedication to living lightly on the planet. He takes his inspiration from a variety of sources, including The Lutheran Retreat Center in Cascade, Washington, where staff and guests work together to keep the amount of discarded trash to a minimum. Three hundred and fifty people might leave a total of one small bag of non-recyclable items a day. At the National Outdoor Leadership School in Wyoming, participants in a month-long wilderness outing are expected to leave no trace that they have passed through the environment. “If you can do that in the backcountry, why not in the front country?” Louden challenges.
In addition to recycling and composting, Louden carries canvas bags to tote his groceries home from the market (eliminating plastic or paper bag waste), and avoids produce and other products that are imported. “I look carefully at what I buy, to see where it comes from. I’m not going to buy an apple from New Zealand, because that represents thousands of miles of shipping. I’ll buy a Washington or Utah apple, instead.”
“I have to walk the talk and talk the walk,” says Louden. “This is our planet and our home. It’s the only home we have.”
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