July 2025

Talking Trash: Progress Over Perfection
By Teton Valley Community Recycling

Did you know that it’s both No-Buy July and Plastic-Free July? If you’ve spent time on the internet lately, you’ve probably seen challenges like these. While we’re already into the month, you could still try a mini version. What if you went just one week without buying anything made of plastic? What changes would you need to make in your routine?

Try making a list of those changes, give them a shot for a week, and see which ones feel realistic to stick with long-term. The goal isn’t perfection, it’s progress.

Sustainable habits don’t have to be all-or-nothing. At my house, we aimed to cut our trash collection from every two weeks down to once a month. That meant rethinking some of the everyday items that were consistently filling our bin. We swapped paper towels for cloth ones and we actually like the cloth ones more. That said, we still keep a roll of paper towels on hand for pet accidents. We use bar shampoo with paper packaging, but still buy facewash in a single use plastic bottle. Most of the time, we use reusable sandwich bags or Tupperware for lunches, but we also save plastic tortilla bags to reuse as ziplocks.

These changes worked for us. We now only need trash pickup once a month! But there’s always room to improve, and we’re still testing new strategies. Many of the swaps we made came with a small upfront cost, like cloth towels or reusable sandwich bags, but they’re saving us money over time by reducing how often we need to restock disposable items.

The key? Flexibility. Sustainable shifts tend to stick when they feel manageable. We didn’t let the idea of going 100% paper towel free scare us off. We gave it a try, made a swap, and left room for exceptions.

Want to try some single-use plastic swaps yourself? Here are a few more to consider:

• Reusable cloth produce bags instead of thin plastic ones

• Toothpaste tablets in a glass jar instead of traditional toothpaste tubes

• Bar soap instead of liquid soap in plastic bottles

• Beeswax wraps instead of plastic wrap

• Period underwear or a cup instead of pads or tampons

• Concentrated cleaning tablets with a glass spray bottle instead of single-use plastic cleaner bottles
  
  

Even small changes can lead to a big reduction in waste, and you don’t have to do it all at once. Let us know if you have any waste reduction strategies that you’d like to share!

Teton Valley Community Recycling (TVCR) is a local nonprofit working to reduce waste and promote reuse in our community. In this monthly column, we’ll share practical tips to help you cut down on trash, save a few bucks, understand our local waste management system, and rethink what we call “trash.” Have a topic you want to learn more about? Email us at info@tetonrecycling.org.

Stay tuned for more trash talk!