Why I lived with my garbage for a year.

• Author: Blazer, Brennan Bird
• Position: VOICES

From Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2010, I saved every piece of my garbage.

No, I'm not homeless, and I didn't lose my mind. I decided to save my trash--in my bedroom--because I started to realize how living in a consumer culture like ours means using a lot of "disposable" products.

We buy things, use them, then throw away the packaging, largely unaware that most of our trash ends up in landfills where it can sit for decades, contaminating the soil and ecosystems around it. Even recycling uses more energy than most people realize. Reducing the amount of garbage we produce in the first place is one of the best ways to save the planet. Keeping all my trash meant literally living with the impact of my daily decisions, which led me to make dramatic changes in my lifestyle.

I should clarify that I saved all my nonbiodegradable trash-things like glass, foam, and plastics, which don't rot naturally. I set aside banana peels, coffee grounds, eggshells, and other biodegradable waste for composting, which returns nutrients to the soil and transforms waste into a valuable resource for growing more food.

Just as I washed my dishes, I scrubbed my soda cans, potato chip bags, and juice bottles with soap and water and hung them on my dish rack to dry. "Doesn't your trash stink?" people often asked. As long as I washed and dried everything, it didn't smell.

I believe that "waste" is actually a resource that can be used rather than discarded. Saving my trash allowed me to recycle or "repurpose" it into resources I value. I'm an artist, and I plan to use my glass bottles to create garden dividers, glass mugs, and wind chimes. My aluminum cans can be melted and used to make sculptures.

Rather than throw out my plastic bags and wrappers, I'll stuff them into plastic bottles that can be used as "bricks" to build bus stops, benches, and even houses. This spring, I was part of a group of students at the University of California, Davis, who used plastic bricks to create a...