- Something went horribly wrong.
I'm a worm murderer.
This month I tried to live zero waste.
I had no idea what I was doing,
but I learned along the way,
from just trying not to make any trash day to day,
and from speaking to experts along the way.
(upbeat funk music)
The average American makes about
4.3 pounds of trash in one day.
And I'm going to be trying to make no trash.
Whenever I hear about where the environment's going,
I get really scared,
and it makes me feel very powerless.
How much waste does the average person in LA make per month?
- About 150 pounds per month.
- Wow.
I think this is gonna be really hard for me.
And I'm not necessarily really looking forward to it.
I'm struggling with how I'm supposed to eat,
because most food comes in packages.
Maybe I should try to go into the woods
and forge for some nuts and berries?
I'm having a hard time figuring out
where the line ends and begins.
I'm eating these tacos, and they're on plates.
Maybe I'm not even supposed to be doing this.
I wash my hands, and I unconsciously waved my hand
and now I have this.
I'm cranky because I've been going hungry a lot.
So I need to find a better solution
than just eating bananas.
(groaning)
How important is it that we reduce our waste?
What's really at stake for us if we don't?
- We're stewards of this land,
so every time we negatively impact the system,
we're actually jeopardizing our ability
to breathe, drink water, consume food.
- So I went to the store,
and I brought my jars and I was able to fill up
with some quinoa from the bulk bins.
And some other items.
The nice side effect of this is that
I am forced to eat very healthy.
Because I'm not able to eat anything
that comes in packaging.
Which is most processed foods.
I am realizing that being able to do this challenge
is a privilege in itself.
Because a lot of packaged, processed foods
are the cheapest foods.
And fresh produce can be really expensive.
But collectively, I'm spending less money.
These are the food scraps from a stir fry I made.
And I'm not going to eat them, but I can't throw them away.
I'm keeping my compost in my freezer
until I can figure out what I'm gonna do with it.
I used to think that I needed different soaps
for different things,
but now I'm realizing that soap is just soap.
This is a meal I made.
It was harder to get all the ingredients zero waste,
but feeling pretty good.
I'm here at Griffith Park Composting Facility,
on a Saturday morning, and I'm gonna take a class
to learn how to compost.
I learned in the workshop
that a vermicompost would be the best for an apartment
that didn't have access to soil.
So I set about making one.
I'm starting my in home worm bin,
and I have egg shells, and egg cartons for roughage
then I have my red wigglers, and I'm very excited.
- [Friend] Ahh!
- (bleep) you, that's so gross.
Let me see.
- Oh my god, no.
- [Woman In Challenge] They're kinda cute, right?
- Yeah, I kinda like them.
- And look, see they're burrowing down.
And they're gonna eat the food scraps.
This is getting easier everyday,
and it's feeling really nice actually.
Cause I always would feel kind of bad
about all the trash that I was using,
and it's awesome to like,
put that feeling into action,
and actually do something about it.
Another zero waste meal.
Where does the trash in LA go?
- The trash goes to a transfer station,
where it is sorted and then it is trucked out
to a local landfill.
- So how many pounds of waste does Sunshine Canyon
take in per day?
- About 8,500 tons of rough use in per day.
- Wow.
- The majority of that comes from the city of Los Angeles.
And there's quite a few other facilities around the area
that handle the remaining 70%.
If you think of the old garbage dump, right?
That people refer to.
It's nothing like that anymore.
These are highly engineered.
- Why does a landfill have to close,
and what happens to a landfill once it closes?
- The landfill will reach a certain elevation,
where then it can be closed
and put back as best as it can, right?
To the way it was before.
Unfortunately, the trash is in there.
- I'm done.
And I feel very happy, sad.
I made this in a month.
Tags from reusable bags.
Some Advil.
Tags from the Mason Jar.
A delicious drum stick.
A teabag.
This was like what the socks came in.
Floss.
I couldn't reuse this part.
What can an average person do to reduce their trash?
- Reduce, reuse, recycle.
- We all like to buy things packaged real nice,
knowing no on touched 'em.
The reality that is creating a lot of extra packaging.
- [Bonny] We need people to start thinking about,
is the disposable product that they're using
really adding that value to their life?
- I think one person can make a difference.
- One person can really evaluate
everything that they're consuming,
and make some changes.
You don't have to give up everything,
but start with one thing.
And what I've noticed is it spreads throughout your choices.
(ambient electronic music)