Take the One Jar Challenge at Water Resources Center

Could you fit all of your personal trash for a whole month into one pint-sized jar?

It’s a tough target for anyone living a consumer lifestyle in this land of plastic packaging, planned obsolescence and recycling caveats that defy common sense (yes to plastic tubs, but no to plastic lids; yes to all kinds of paper, but not wet-resistant cardboard that holds beer or soda bottles).

But Jenica Barrett, a Portland environmental activist, and Clark County Green Neighbors, the county’s waste-reduction and sustainability effort, invite you to try the One Jar Challenge. Start by showing up at the Clark County Green Neighbors sixth birthday party at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Water Resources Education Center. Green Neighbors staff will distribute free Mason jars, along with other gifts and incentives to sweeten the deal (including a drawing for an iPad), and they’ll encourage everyone to share their progress on social media at #onejarchallenge.

Barrett, who’ll give a talk about personal-trash reduction at the Green Neighbors party, is actually a graduate student in speech-language pathology at Portland State University; she said her surprising detour into environmental celebrity happened only because of a New Year’s resolution she decided to take seriously. Everybody knows those resolutions are meant to be broken, but Barrett’s vow for 2015 took on a life of its own.

“I saw someone on social media keeping all their trash in a jar, and I thought, I bet that’s so easy,” she said. Which only underscores how ignorant she was, she said. “I kept my trash for a whole month. It was way more than I could ever fit into a jar. I didn’t understand how I could generate so much waste” when she was already living what seemed like the minimal existence of a college student — eating in a cafeteria and sleeping in a dorm room at Western Washington University, “a 5-by-5 box,” she said.

Steps toward zero

After that, the modest steps she started taking toward “zero waste” are familiar to many: reusable coffee mugs and shopping bags instead of disposable paper and plastic ones. Natural cleaning and toiletry products like homemade toothpaste and shampoo. Going “old school” with a reusable safety razor instead of disposable plastic ones. Replacing rolls of paper towels with stacks of washable hand towels. Transforming old clothing into cleaning rags.

“One of the biggest things is buying food in bulk” — an excellent way to get food staples with a minimum of packaging, she said. But not everyone can do that, she acknowledged. “I feel like bulk is growing, but there are still grocery stores where you have no bulk options.”

Overall, Barrett’s efforts to stay mindful and minimal about trash were both promising and frustrating. “It was fascinating to see the way trash seeped into my life without my noticing,” she said. “I realized how much waste I was still making. It all just kind of spiraled” as she started a blog called College Girl Compost and started posting all her findings, and the monthly contents of her trash jar, for the world to see and discuss. The blog’s name has since changed to Zero Waste Wisdom.

People take to it, she said. They especially enjoy commenting about things like the occasional candy or single-serving food wrapper — which helps them remember that Barrett is only human and isn’t judging anybody about anything, she said.

Having the public paw through your garbage — if only electronically — is “definitely weird, but it keeps me humble and honest. I’m a sucker for Top Ramen,” Barrett laughed. “I’m not a perfect environmentalist.”

But she keeps trying and keeps teaching, she said. She’s aware that household trash reduction is one piece of a much bigger issue that has to do with overall management of resources, she said. Barrett watches her carbon footprint and use of fossil fuels, she said, but she still owns a car — and she won’t be taking the bus up to Vancouver on Sunday, she said.

The title “Zero Waste Wisdom” is more a symbol for caring and making an effort than any claim to perfection, she said. For all her trying, Barrett certainly hasn’t achieved “zero waste,” she said, and doesn’t expect to anytime soon. For more tips and advice about taking your own steps toward zero, try the Clark County Green Neighbors site at https://clarkgreenneighbors.org.

Barrett said she’s painfully aware of climate change trends and a dire new report just released by United Nations scientists that warns of real environmental crisis — extreme drought, wildfires, floods and food shortages — as early as 2040. What’s really needed now, she said, is a combination of practical personal action and political activism.

“No, in a simple sense, this is not enough to turn things around,” she said of Zero Waste Wisdom. “But that’s no reason not to do it. Everyone can’t do everything, but everyone can do something.”