the one-bag challenge

See how much recyclable garbage we kept out of the landfill today?
Our county doesn't make it super easy to recycle. There is a twice-monthly drop-off location to which you can take your recyclables, but only if you live in certain townships. There is no curbside pickup or anything like that. So, we save up our recyclables in old laundry hampers in our garage and take them to the drop-off a few times a year. We don't go every month, basically just when the recyclables are threatening to take over the garage. Still, it feels good to know that stuff isn't going into a landfill.
We also recycle all our fruit and vegetable garbage, dryer lint, coffee grounds and eggshells by putting them in a pile out back for compost. I have used some great dirt out of the compost in my gardening!
Still, though, with the rest of the garbage we generate, including dirty diapers, we tend to fill a garbage can with a couple bags each week, so I'm presenting a challenge to myself to find a way to reduce our waste even more and limit ourselves to one bag of trash per week at the curb. I am not exactly sure how I will go about it, but I'm going to try. I'm even toying with the idea of picking up some cloth diapers.
One way I know we, as a family, can reduce our impact is by drinking out of our stainless steel water bottles rather than buying cases of bottled water at the store. We've become accustomed to just grabbing a plastic bottle on the way out the door instead of using the tap water.
But I'm stumped as far as other ways to reduce our garbage. Do you have any tips? Please leave a comment!
I encourage everyone to join in the one-bag challenge.