Keeping Track of Our Progress

One of the key motivations behind Zero Waste and the recyclanator’s initiative is the removal of carbon from the atmosphere. So for every ton of waste making its way into recycle bins, three metric tons are removed from the air.

This has inspired us to keep track of how much paper and plastic we save from the garbage. But the measurement proposed a little problem solving to streamline the process.

D’ali demonstrates our dilemma.  For example on Friday, our crate full of paper weighed 13 pounds. The kids quickly realized that the total amount of paper recycled was not 13 pounds…

Valentina demonstrates the first solution.

A bit messy and imprecise.

Fortunately, our chief recyclanator had a more elegant solution.

 

The empty box weighs five pounds.

Then by subtracting 5 from 13, the amount recycled was calculated to be 8 pounds.  

Next we will figure out how long it will take to reach 2,000 pounds, and then the average amount of carbon we are removing from the atmosphere on a daily basis.

Daily Figures