Video: Renton families take 'garbage diet' challenge

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RENTON, Wash. - Need a little inspiration to shed a few pounds? Six families in King County have spent the past month on a "garbage diet," pledging to cut down on the amount of trash they throw out.

Six families, who live in a Renton, have spent the past five weeks putting their garbage cans on a diet. And with just a few changes, they've been able to significantly cut down the amount of waste they throw away.

Each family brought their trash out for the final weigh-in Thursday, and it was impressive. Most have cut their amount of waste by half. The Gallagher family was the winner, starting out with 16 pounds of waste a week; now they're throwing out just three pounds of trash a week.; They've basically reduced their waste by 82 percent.;

"It shows how easy it is by increasing recycling," said Tom Watson, King County Waste Management, "by increasing recycling and putting your food waste in your yard waste."

When the competition started five weeks ago with the six families, their garbage was dumped out on a tarp.

"It was a lot stinkier because it had the food waste in it. It was a lot messier," said Watson. "Now that they can put the food waste separate and not in the garbage - in a compostable bag most often and then in the yard waste - it's just a lot cleaner."

For more information on recycling, go to King County Solid Waste Division's Garbage and Recycling Services page.