Throwing away less

After not quite two weeks of eating only local food, I can see a big difference in the amount we throw away.

Our bagged trash that went to the curb this week was half as much as the week before we started the 100-mile diet. So that cut in half what we sent to the landfill.

Our recycling bin too was only half full, so it stayed in the garage. That’s because we’re not emptying any two-liter soda bottles, juice containers, spaghetti sauce jars, soup cans or cereal boxes. So much of our food is actually packaging.

On the downside, we're buying a lot more plastic sandwich bags, storage bags and freezer bags. Also, we've put on more miles on our cars foraging at farmers markets.