CINCINNATI — The United States has a garbage problem. With the nation's waste tripling over the past 50 years, recycling, composting and food management have helped cut down on the growing heap of trash filling our landfills, but curbing the trend means addressing the problem at the source.
Every month, the EPA estimates the average American throws out 147 lbs of garbage and nearly half of it goes straight to municipal landfills. This month though, a global movement, “No Waste November,” challenges anyone willing to try to get their number to zero.
A global initiative from the Jane Goodall Foundation, the month-long challenge asks participants to try to produce as little trash as possible.
This is Marielle McIntosh’s second year participating though said she’s been working toward zero-waste living for much of her adult life, ever since she learned how much garbage is piling up across the planet.
“When I was in college, I took my first class that ever taught me about sustainability it was called ‘trash talk waste in our world,’ and it was all about where our trash goes and I was mind-blown by a lot of what I learned in that class.”
McIntosh said she started following zero-waste bloggers and applying their tips on composting to reduce food waste and conscious consumption, aiming to reduce the packaging of the products she buys.
It’s also how she found her job at Simply Zero in Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine neighborhood. There, McIntosh sells sustainably-produced and sourced products in bulk, allowing customers to refill and reuse their containers.
“So from small to large lifestyle changes, it’s looking at ways that we can help our planet,” she said. “By making the choice consciously to not support things that are ultimately going to end up in a landfill and polluting the planet that’s like step one.”
This month though, McIntosh wanted to take things a step further, finding another use for any trash she does produce.
“For the month of November, I will essentially have no waste because I will have at the end of this month, I will have an art piece,” she said.
As an artist, McIntosh said she’s found re-using trash to be an inexpensive and easily accessible canvas that speaks louder than any other medium she could choose.
“By making art out of trash you are making a statement on how we can use creativity to help reduce our waste,” she said.
In November, she teamed up with friend and fellow artist, Valeriya Maynich, who was also taking part in the challenge to find ways to put her garbage to use.
“A lot of conversations focus on problems and you wonder, ‘What can you do?’” Maynich said. “The solution-based conversations are the next step.”
The pair see art as part of that next step. While not their final project, the pair visited Cincinnati’s Recycling and Reuse Hub to gather supplies and put their trash-art skills to practice.
Sorting through piles of plastic cups, takeout containers, bottle caps and straws, McIntosh said they were able to find everything they need while also putting their work into perspective.
McIntosh said it’s difficult to deny the impact of single-use plastic when you’re looking at mountains of it.
“You think one straw is nothing but then we’re looking at hundreds of people thinking one straw is nothing,” she said.
Despite her efforts though, McIntosh acknowledges her lifestyle is far from perfect.
“The way that society is set up right now it’s pretty hard to not have any trash,” she said.
To her “No Waste November” is about recognizing what waste you produce and why. From there she said you can consider ways to cut back.
“At the end of the month, I’m going to end up with a lot of coffee cups I’ll have to figure out what to do with” she said.
For their mid-November project, Maynich and McIntosh chose to create a mushroom sculpture, inspired by the discovery of a species of mushroom that’s able to break down plastic.
As for the final piece made from the rest of the trash, McIntosh said she’s still working out what that might be.
“I feel like that’s art a lot of the time,” she said. “You don’t know what you’re doing but if you just start the project, then the creative flow will probably take you right where it needs to go.”
Like the trash problem as a whole though, McIntosh sees creativity as the answer, because there’s no one-size-fits-all answer to reducing, reusing, and recycling everything we consume.
McIntosh and Maynich are hoping to partner with businesses and locations around Cincinnati to showcase their pieces of upcycled art to raise awareness of “No Waste November” and other efforts to reduce waste.