- Trash trash lady.
- I see some plastic in there that you could have avoided.
- This is gonna take way too much time
and I don't wanna buy new things.
My name is Joyce and this my journey to
Ze ze ze ze ze, Zero waste. (chimes ring)
- I know you've talked to me about wanting
to be more zero-waste and stuff.
- [Joyce] Mmhmm.
- I have a challenge for you.
- What?
- I'm challenging you to gather
all your trash for 24 hours.
All the trash that you make, you put in that bag
and you carry it around with you.
- Are you sure this bag is big enough?
- Well we can get you another bag.
This is like a waste audit.
Do you think you can do it?
Is it too much?
- No I think it'll be fine, yeah.
- Good luck.
I'm so excited to see all your trash.
I'm really excited.
- You know what I think that's the most romantic
thing anyone's ever said to me.
(chimes ring)
So we're gonna start.
It's bagel day so I got a bagel I'm also really tired.
This cup, a ginger-ale.
I'm gonna put that all in the bag
and just walk around with it.
I also got a free donut so that's another thing.
I got a half a bag of trash right now which is lit.
What do you guys think of my trash bag?
- Honestly because you're carrying it, it's fashion.
- Oh, oh. - Fashion, Trashion.
- Not that much trash.
- Oh and I see you wasted food.
- Okay, I couldn't finish my bagel. (laughs)
all of the leftovers from Postmates.
I'm eating that for lunch today.
I also have this cup of water, another empty ginger ale.
Here's my trash so far.
I have a co-worker and a friend in real life
and her name is Auri and she's always bringing
forks and bowls she always just had everything she needed.
And I always thought it was so cool.
So I went up to Auri and I was like
I want to know this zero waste thing.
And we started having conversations about going zero waste.
So Auri gave me reusable plates
so no trash for the delicious tasty pie.
- Yeah we ate some pie, on our reusables in the the office.
- Zero waste.
So I'm waiting for my Uber home,
and I got this bag of trash, bout to go in my Uber,
my Uber's gonna think I'm (beep) crazy.
When I think about things about the environment
and what's going on I kind of feel very powerless.
So I believe going zero waste could be
my way of contributing to make a better world.
I'm getting dinner with my friend Ashley
and I didn't want to bring the trash bag into the restaurant
so here's all the trash I made
from my food that I finished.
I'm just gonna wrap it up and put it
in my purse, and put it in the trash bag.
Being zero waste is cool it's great for the environment,
but you know from my perspective,
it's for mostly the white and the rich and the privileged.
So it's gonna be interesting how much time, money, energy
it's gonna take for me to really get to my goal
because I do love the environment.
Sure I'm not gonna take a Instagram post of me
and a mountain, but I care about my mountains you know?
And what about my birds, and the bees?
I'm hanging out with my roommate
and you know we decided to have a night in.
So that's this bag of chips, this bag of chips,
a bottle, I mean I have to put this all in the trash bag.
- I'm very excited, - Yes.
- to dig in your trash. - Yes.
(laughter)
- We should get gloves.
- Oh!
- I ate a lot of chicken bones.
(beep)
- The thing about trash, it's mostly invisible.
We throw it away and we never think about I again.
- Yeah.
- If you're interested in reducing your waste,
looking through what you actually make is really helpful.
'Cause if you don't know, then
how do you know what to reduce?
This looks very standard.
The average American makes about
4.4 pounds of trash per day.
- Wow.
- So this is very normal.
- Oh it felt like this was too much.
- No.
So what we're gonna do is separate food waste,
from things that could be recycled, and landfill.
- She's like just handling my trash I'm like
ew don't touch that it's dirty. (laughter)
So this cup.
- That is actually trash because it's lined with plastic.
All utensils are actually trash because they're
so small for the recycling machine
so they're not actually gonna get recycled.
So this maybe could be recycled,
but it's covered in food and grease,
so even if you put this in the
recycling bin it's gonna go to landfill.
If you want to recycle something
you have to clean it out completely.
- Oh so if it clean it,
- If you cleaned it you could recycle it,
but only 9% of plastic actually gets recycled.
Okay, so looking at this I'm seeing some really good
opportunities for you to reduce your waste.
- [Joyce] Okay.
- What we're really trying to go
after is single use plastics.
- Okay.
- Do you think that you're ready for 24 hours of no waste?
- You know what?
We're here to learn.
I think my biggest worry is that this
is going to take way too much time
and I don't know if I want to buy new things.
- It's hard because then you have
to re-figure or change your routine,
and that always takes time and is an adjustment.
Not everyone has the luxury to think about that.
- [Joyce] Yeah.
- I don't think you need to buy anything,
and it's more zero waste to not buy anything.
(chimes ring)
- Okay.
- Let's just get what we already have, and use that.
In order to be zero waste throughout the day,
you need like a zero waste kit.
So you're prepared for any of the plastic that comes at you,
you can be like washaw, whatcha, whatcha, avoid.
(laughter)
Avoid the single use plastic.
- Okay.
(chimes ring)
Tell me to go my reusable cups that
I got, to get some coffee.
It's lunch time and I am using
the reusable plates, so I'm gonna get leftovers.
I would normally get a ginger ale,
which is my true drug, but today
we're gonna be a kombucha ho.
Guys this is my zero waste meal and this is not plastic.
- It looks plastic.
- Mhmm. - It does.
- [Joyce] Whatever.
You know it's not plastic.
Girl plastic don't make that noise.
- Okay yeah I'm proud of you Joyce.
- Thank you.
Okay so we're just gonna put this food
in the organic waste, and then we gonna wash these dishes.
Zero waste.
Can you believe I haven't made trash yet?
- Woo!
- I really really want, a piece of candy.
Should I get it?
It's waste, no candy today.
Well they're giving free drinks
and I'm gonna try not to make any trash, let's do this.
It's a long line for some alcohol.
So I have to be zero waste, so I can't use any plastic cups.
Can you please put this in a cup for me.
- (speaking foreign language)
- I am!
(laughter)
Yes, make that zero waste drink papa.
Okay guys so I'm at this theater,
and Jazz handed me this water bottle.
So I spent the whole day not making
trash and now I have trash.
So I'm blaming Jasmine.
- I feel bamboozled because no one
told me about this, I was just thirsty.
- I literally am carrying a trash bag in my purse.
So thank you Jazz.
- I, I was set up. - Thank you Jazz.
I had leftovers, but they came
in this aluminum packaging so this is also trash.
So so far, I've been doing pretty damn good baby. (laughs)
On my no trash day I used this water bottle,
this aluminum foil, and this ticket.
- And the water bottle was handed to you, so.
- It was handed to me.
- I don't think this one really counts.
You did so good. - You think so?
- I think you did amazing.
- I honestly was like, just going straight into it
was a lot and it just took a lot of energy.
- [Auri] When I did the month of no trash,
it was too much and what really worked
for me was just doing little steps one at a time.
- I would like to just make small changes over time.
And I think it would be great if you help me boo.
- Okay I will.
- Okay look, sustainability. - Eee.
- Thank you so much for watching.
Please comment below on ways you guys reduce your trash.
Next week I'm gonna try to get
fast food without making any trash.
(upbeat music)