The Berger family never takes out the trash! Over the past 20 years, Chris and Cindy Berger have never taken out the trash. This is because the entire Berger family only produces 340 grams of garbage per year.
Cindy and Chris decided to live without household waste in 1970, inspired by the first Earth Day in the United States. They had just graduated from college then, and there were no recycling programs in their hometown of Whitney Point, New York.
“At the time, a lot of people urged governments and big companies to pay attention to the environment,” says Chris. "We agreed, but we felt we needed to be personally involved."
For starters, Chris and Cindy learned to use leftover food as compost.
When they bought the house, they installed bins for different types of waste in every corner, abandoning the services of garbage collectors. Iron cans were taken to scrap metal, and glass cans were taken to a glass factory. When Chris and Cindy had children, they only bought diapers that could be washed.
Now the Berger family does not buy anything that cannot be composted or sent for recycling. Over the past 20 years, they have never filled their only garbage bag where they put non-recyclable waste. They call the contents of this package "our mistakes".