This week’s rubbish diet challenge is the trash even trash talkers don’t like to talk about… bathroom waste.

I do a lot of waste audits for work, and in an office building we count bathroom trash as a separate category since the bags are light weight and contain mainly paper towels.  When we do residential waste audits I tell my team not to delve too deep into the bathroom trash.  Aside from the stray shampoo bottle and gobs of hair from a brush clean out, there are usually unmentionable lady products.

Unmentionable lady products are one thing I’m not going to tackle this time around, but there are plenty of other opportunities where I can reduce my bathroom trash.  Part of my week 5 trash was a small grocery sized bag of bathroom waste (probably about three weeks worth).

Karen Cannard has some good tips for reduction in this area including taking inventory of your toiletries, reducing packaging, buying refillable and looking at recycled content of paper products such as tissues and toilet paper.

In taking a look at my own hygiene habits, I’m doing ok.  We buy gigantic shampoos and recycle any empties.  I recently swapped out cotton balls for reusable cotton face rounds.  I buy make-up and skin care from companies that will take back the packaging, and always recycle the cardboard toilet paper rolls.  I buy bar soap that comes with next to wrapper. I have aspirations of buying Preserve toothbrushes, but am hooked on Radius (which is a pretty green company).

What more can I do?  I need to stop using facial tissues and switch to hankies (something my hubby did long before I even met him).   We also don’t buy the most eco-friendly toilet paper (I buy whatever is on sale in bulk).  I should be buying Marcal, which is local (in New Jersey) AND uses 100% recycled content.   I’m curious to know how others are faring with this week’s challenge.  I could use some extra tips!