Empty garbage can envy

Last spring, as we were gearing up to launch EnviroMom, I was feeling pretty good about our garbage. We had the smallest can on the block: 20 gallons/week. Then at our first GreenGroup meeting, I learned that one of the gal's had me beat: 32 gallons, once a month.

Now I don't think of myself as highly competitive. But I figured if she could do it, so could we. So we did. We bumped our service down to 32 gallons, once a month. Mostly it's do-able. Once in a while, we seem to have a very wasteful month and it's a stretch to get to that pick up date. Regardless, I feel pretty good about the garbage thing again. I even got this great email from a neighbor:

"Renee, I drove by your house on garbage day and saw how little you put out for 4 and I want our garbage day to look like that! We are bringing in less, making buying choices based on packaging as well as other features and now I want to get organized on composting."

So then I find out there are local families who can get by on (drumroll please...) one can a year. Or, better still, they are Zero Waste. We met a bunch of people in our Master Recycler class who had set this goal for themselves. I'm not saying this is my goal. I'm still feeling pretty good about once a month curbside trash pickup. But I am wondering how you do it if you are Zero Waste? We'd love to hear from you...