From the vantage point of our cleaned-out garage, my husband gazed at the two overflowing trash containers and five full recycling boxes taking up half the sidewalk in front of our house, and sighed. Deeply.

“How is it that we generate so much garbage?” he bemoaned. I leapt in to remind him that we’ve been on a mission this year to clean out every room of our house. Three years after moving here we’re still getting rid of stuff the previous owner left behind (how many miles of pool-cleaning hose does one person need?). “But it looks like that EVERY week!” he retorted.

I had to admit he was mostly right. Our family of 2 adults, 3-4 kids, one cat and 3 fish do toss a lot. Last week’s massive output begged us to ask a big question: how can we generate less stuff for our landfills and trash barges?

Recycling is certainly one part of the answer, and we do recycle. A quick survey of the empty containers in those blue boxes revealed whipped cream cans that could be replaced by the freshly made stuff. Take-out containers could be replaced by a little more time spent in meal planning. And because Martin enjoys the challenge of solving problems in order to bring more ease into our lives, we’ll be tackling this question before our next pilgrimage to Costco or the supermarket.

However, after decades of meal planning, food shopping, food preparation, and kitchen clean up, I am feeling some burn out. Those deli containers hunched in the recycling boxes are evidence of my exhausted response to the constant query “Ma, what do we have to eat?” Try some ramen. “Ma, I’m sick of ramen, I want something GOOD”. In order to address the trash problem, and to set an example for my kids, it looks like I’ll need to address the food preparation front. Boy, you ask a question, you get more questions…

But let’s get back to the trash situation. Like other yoga teachers, I talk about concepts like ahimsa (nonviolence) and asteya (non-covetousness) in class. Students are urged to not push beyond their edges into injury and to approach their practice with patience, as strength and flexibility in the body increase. We try to focus on the ‘private island’ of our mat; it can be hard to resist comparing ourselves with others. We are often reminded to leave our ego at the door, and to come to the mat with a certain level of humility and compassion. But we ARE asked to practice our yoga, at class, at work, and in other daily interactions.

How do concepts like non-violence and non-covetousness relate to an excess of trash? For me, it means lessening my impact (‘footprint’) upon this earth and its resources, and digging deeper into the ‘whys’ of my personal consumerism. ‘Consume Less’ as one environmental mantra goes. And while this sounds good in theory, I know my family and I will be challenged every day to look at what we use, how we use it, and to ask “Do I really need that?

Early last year, I spent a few days at Kripalu, a retreat and learning center in western Massachusetts. I ate only vegetarian fare, dishes based on grains, speckled with fresh herbs and juicy vegetables. I enjoyed eating most of my meals in silence. Although I brought books to read, they stayed unopened as I sat, chewed, and savored every morsel, grateful for the care and labor that someone else had lavished on the meal. I bought the Kripalu cookbook, and at home afterwards started to prepare some of their salad dressings. That was my jump-start back to vegetarianism. I ate good food, lovingly prepared, in a way that was conducive to savoring the simple act of eating. To be in the moment, which is much of what my yoga practice asks me to do.

My sons got me ‘The Idiot’s Guide to Vegetarianism’ for Christmas as a joke, but that backfired on them- I like the book and I still don’t eat meat. I have not been forcing this choice on anyone in the house; I still cook all the meat the guys want, and they are quite carnivorous. But the amount of take-out trash has me questioning my method.

If becoming vegetarian was a choice I made for both its personal AND political ramifications, then I have some work to do. And if ‘Trash Modification’ is truly a priority in this household, then we all have some work to do. There might have to be a system of rewards for good behavior. Maybe the boys will appreciate homemade treats at the end of the month, or some new hemp shoes, or a cool tee shirt made from soy. The possibilities for ‘green’ rewards for good ecological acts are endless, and the infernal consumer in me looks forward to my next trip to Whole Foods.

Which brings up another topic: addressing the Shopping Monster. What a perfect time of year to do that!

Here are some suggestions for a ‘Let’s Not Make the Trash’ project:

• Bring cloth bags to each shopping venue. Leave a stash of those bags in each vehicle the family drives.
• Keep an area for the ‘Returnables’; give the chore of returning those to one person each month. They get to keep the proceeds.
• Cut down on one food product group per month. This month it will be ‘Drinks’ in our household.
• Locate places to buy in bulk, and bring your own containers to package it in. Try 1-3 items this month (grains, herbs, and seeds or nuts are good ones to start with).
• Open your explorations to other ways of lessening your personal footprint (consolidate on car trips, bring your own mug to Starbucks, tap into your creativity!).