Man Keeps All of His Trash for One Year

Posted by Alex in Everything Else on April 1, 2008 at 5:25 pm


Dave Chameides of 365 Days of Trash blog wrote to us about his project of keeping all the trash he generates in a year:

The idea for this project came about six months ago as I was throwing something away in the garbage. It occurred to me that I was doing nothing more than that. I was making it go away, not dealing with it, not accounting for it, simply removing it from my sight. [...]

So starting tonight at midnight, I am not going to throw anything away for 365 days in order to see what my impact is. It sounds sort of nuts at first (perhaps for a bit after that as well), and believe me, while I am intrigued by the concept, I’ll admit that there are parts of it that I am dreading. Am I really looking forward to going on vacation and bringing all my trash home in a suitcase? Hardly, but that said, I need to be honest about this or it’s not worth doing in the first place. My hope is that, as the experiment takes shape, I will be able to quickly ascertain what waste I can simply cut out through choices, what waste is necessary but that can be dealt with in a sustainable way, and what waste I just simply can’t do anything about.

He’s keeping all the trash in his basement and you can follow his "progress" at his blog here: Link - Thanks Dave!



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COMMENT

15 comments to "Man Keeps All of His Trash for One Year"

  1. Katelyn
    April 1st, 2008 at 5:32 pm

    I’ve heard about him. That’s a pretty interesting idea. My question it what is he going to do with all his trash at the end?

  2. jessleigh
    April 1st, 2008 at 5:52 pm

    I love that he uses worms to compost his trash.

  3. bean
    April 1st, 2008 at 5:53 pm

    If I knew this guy’s address I’d call the cops to notify them of hoarding.

  4. xander
    April 1st, 2008 at 6:06 pm

    Or he could recycle.

  5. CheeseDuck
    April 1st, 2008 at 6:31 pm

    Hasn’t Neatorama featured this guy like 5 times…? XD

  6. Geekazoid
    April 1st, 2008 at 8:46 pm

    Probably CheeseDuck. I could just imagine him thinking, hmmm, someone already took a picture of themselves everday for a few years, playing video game tunes on my harmonica is so yesterday, what else can I do to get “famous?” Yea, that’s it, I’ll save my trash for one year, document it online, and become the next big thing since soy milk!

  7. Barbwire
    April 1st, 2008 at 11:10 pm

    It’s an interesting blog. I learned some stuff I didn’t know about getting rid of junk mail. Thanks for the post.

  8. MadMolecule
    April 2nd, 2008 at 1:12 am

    That’s going to be one seriously smelly basement.

  9. Jon8591
    April 2nd, 2008 at 1:42 am

    Cool concept, definitely some educational value. Seeing that he’s just 1/4 done, I’m curious if he’s going to fit it all, the basement doesn’t look like it may be large enough….?

  10. luke
    April 2nd, 2008 at 7:05 am

    I think I roomed with this guy in college

  11. fsmarch
    April 2nd, 2008 at 10:02 am

    I’m glad I don’t live down-wind of him! Imagine the stench?

  12. JoBo S
    April 2nd, 2008 at 10:56 am

    I can see that this would be both educational and just down right gross. Course to make a drastic change in your life you have to take a drastic course I suppose.

  13. Dean Venture
    April 2nd, 2008 at 11:37 am

    I attempted this a few years ago. I managed to fill a small 8×8x8 shed of compact, sorted garbage. It was not an enjoyable experience to sort/recycle the aftermath, but was a good exercise in reducing my personal consuption.

  14. empty-minded
    April 2nd, 2008 at 4:15 pm

    It’s nice to see someone do this without it being a result of mental illness.

    Of course I think he could also do a decent job of weighing his trash week to week and looking at reasonable methods of cutting down each week. That would avoid the whole smell and explosion in disease causing scavengers/vermin and, of course, the eventual outbreak of bubonic plague.

  15. su.wei
    April 2nd, 2008 at 11:30 pm

    i admire his dedication! i cant wait to see the results and pick up some tips on how i can reduce my trash!


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