Enviromom is leading the pack by encouraging families and homes across the country to make (and fill) only one garbage can this month!

From the Enviromom website: “Have you ever looked in the trash cans scattered around your house? What’s in there? Paper towels and tissues? Food? Plastic packaging? There is a lot of stuff in our garbage cans that doesn’t really need to be there, and EnviroMom’s One Can A Month Challenge is going to help you reduce the amount of garbage your household generates down to one curbside can a month. Really!”

Are you game? Do you really want to join the challenge, but are wondering how exactly you will manage? Don’t worry. Go to the Environmom website to make your “one can pledge” and then continue to watch their site throughout the month for tips and ideas on how to manage your trash. I will also make a weekly post with an update on the Green Me Family experience with the one can challenge.

To start off, I have provided below, for your viewing pleasure, images of the inside and outside of my trash can on the eve of July 1, 2008!

As you can see, we have a rather large garbage can, so ideally my goal would be to only fill 1/2 or 2/3 of our can over the entire month. We shall see how that goes, as my son’s first birthday and my husband’s birthday are both next week. And, although we have started using reusable gift bags instead of paper and boxes in our home, we can’t control what other folks, especially well meaning friends and relatives give us! Otherwise, we are already pretty good about producing minimal waste (we think), so I see this challenge as an opportunity for us to really take a look at the waste we produce and see if we really produce as little as we think we do.