Audit Then Reduce the Trash You Create

While you’re at home, take some time to understand your own trash footprint.
We can help with an easy how-to video on conducting your own personal trash audit. This simple activity will show you how much of different types of waste you produce, then provide ideas for reducing that trash.

Our video focuses on plastic trash because it is one of the most frequently found types of litter during Keep Tahoe Blue beach and community clean-ups, and because plastic trash doesn’t decompose. Instead, it sticks around as microplastic pollution, which persists in the environment and was found in Lake Tahoe for the first time ever in 2019. After learning more about the waste you are creating, find out what happens to it by watching our waste management panel.

April is Earth Month, and you can do your part to Keep Tahoe Blue, even while you shelter-in-place.

CLICK HERE to send the DIY instructional video to a friend. 

Download this worksheet in advance to help with the activity. With the completion of the worksheet and the activity, this lesson meets 6th – 12th grade NGSS standards.
(Meets NGSS standards MS-ESS3-3 and HS-ESS3-4)

Here are some useful resources about reducing plastic trash: “40 Easy Ways to Avoid Plastic Waste.”

We love to see your photos! Send pictures of the results of your trash audit to events@keeptahoeblue.org. Tag us on Instagram too, #keeptahoeblue & #litterfreetahoe for a change to be featured on the League’s social media and entered to win an Earth Month prize!