Lesson in Sustainability Comes to Windsor

Imagine the contents of the garbage and recycling bins you roll to the curb each week. 

Now multiply those contents by 52, and stash it all in your basement.

That's what Dave Chameides — who Time Magazine calls "the Man who never takes out the trash," but is simply known as Sustainable Dave to many the world over — did when he decided not to throw anything out for one year.

A radical proposition, indeed, but Chameides felt compelled to do so after failing to answer a simple question: "Where is away?"

People's daily lives are filled with using things and then throwing those things away. But unable to exaclty pinpoint where "away" is, Chameides couldn't help but imagine "away" being his backyard, and how unpleasant it would be to toss everything he transported to his curb each week into his yard.

"I decided I wanted out," says Chameides of his leap off the disposable bandwagon in 2008.

Let Patch save you time. Get great local stories like this delivered right to your inbox or smartphone every day with our free newsletter. Simple, fast sign-up here.

365 days later, he had successfully built a lifestyle that not only challenged his concept of what waste was, but also challeged him to make changes in the choices he made each day.

He started a worm farm, turning much of his waste into compost. He turned his own home into "away," keeping all of his waste in his basement. He cut out single-use disposable items.

Chameides preached his gospel of sustainability to Windsor's Loomis Chaffee students Friday at the school's Hubbard Performance Hall.

Armed with a backpack of sustainable tools he uses throughout his daily travels, the West Hartford-native delivered a talk aimed at opening the eyes of tomorrow's leaders to the reality of waste, and he offered up a few tips on how one can decrease their ecological footprint each day.

In order to make a difference today, Chameides says you can:

• Stop drinking bottled water — Stating 1,500 water bottles are tossed out each minute in New York City, Chameides added that bottled water quality is not regulated, and greatly contributes to the accumulation of plastic waste.
• Ditch plastic
• Get a re-useable coffee mug/water bottle.
• Provide your own dishware  — Chameides carries around a collapsable bowl (purchased at REI), a spork and a metal fork and knife in an old toothbrush container.
• Drink tap water
• Instead of reduce, reuse, recycle, people should refuse, reuse and recycle. Chameides urgest consumers to think before they buy.