Rumble, rumble, screech, thud, thud, thud, the early morning sound of the garbage truck along with garbage cans hitting the ground after being emptied woke LJ.
If its Thursday, it must be garbage day, LJ thought. He glanced at the clock; yup, the week is almost over. I will be glad when we don’t need garbage trucks anymore because there is no garbage to pick up. He glanced over at Annie, who smiled at him.
“LJ, I should know better than to try and meditate early on Thursday mornings because the garbage trucks make so much noise it’s impossible to concentrate.”
“Maybe meditating later in the day? I wasn’t meditating, but I am thinking about how far we have come to live garbage-free.”
Annie laughed, “I’m pretty proud of us too. We are an official reuse, recycle and renew household. It wasn’t that hard either it just took a decision to stop consuming for the sake of consuming and focus on what’s really important; family, friends, community, and earth.”
“That is right, a conscious approach to what we buy has saved us money, and decreased our environmental footprint, which means reduced pollution of our air, oceans, and earth. Did you know in 1985 the United Nations designated the first Monday of October as World Habitat Day?”
“Yes, I do. The annual event is 35 years old, and we have been active participants for several years. I think our biggest changes have been around food and home maintenance. By shopping weekly at the farmer’s market, we buy only as much as we need, and we bring Grove Collaborative’s Resealable Food Storage Bags with us. Our composting scraps go into a Scrap Sack, and what little trash we do produce goes into 100% Recycled Plastic Tie-Top Trash Bags. As for our cleaning products, I love Grove’s Zero Plastic Complete Bundle, which includes 36 tablets each for washing clothes, dishes, the dishwasher, kitchen, bathroom, toilet bowl, and handwashing.”
“Some interesting early morning conversation, huh,” remarked LJ. “I just read that eastern Siberia is experiencing an intense fire season. Who would have ever thought that one of the coldest regions on earth is on fire, and this is not the first year? Now the fires are burning through peat soil; decomposed organic matter that, when it dries out, burns longer, and emits huge amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. Mother earth is flashing a red warning light.”
“I hope more people begin to make changes. I am routinely asked what simple but significant steps a person can take to get away from plastic. I say stop buying water bottled in plastic bottles. The average plastic bottle holds 16 ounces. The average reusable bottle holds 32 ounces. Since we need about 64 ounces of water a day to stay hydrated, each of us would save 1,460 plastic bottles a year if we used a reusable container. Put another way, if you drink four single-use bottles of water a day at the cost of about $2.00 per bottle, you’re spending $3000 annually just on water.”
“We’ll continue to live sustainably. Every time we reuse anything, we are protecting the earth. The adjustment is easy. Our grands did not use plastic. It didn’t exist when they were growing up. We can model their lifestyle, and we will be better for it. Now, how about a sustainable breakfast of eggs from our chickens,” said LJ.
“Wait, when did we get chickens?!?!”

Annie and LJ are a fictional couple introduced to the readers of the Healthy Healing Eats blog in January 2020. Their storyline promotes healthy eating and earth-friendly practices.