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On Wa$ted, fraternity brothers were paddled by the show's host, Annabelle, for their 8,840 cumulative pounds of garbage in a year. That's a lot of trash, but closer inspection reveals that even with their party lifestyle, per person they are wasting less than the average American. Fraternities and sororities, in a stretch of the definition, are forms of communal living.
Communal living drastically reduces resources and expenses. The morebrothers and sisters crammed into a space, the fewer resources are needed per person. In other words, the more sardines, the fewer cans are needed. Really, it is not so squashed. In a well-organized communal living situation, there is a good balance between personal space and shared space. Each occupant usually gets their own private room, while sharing the common areas, such as the kitchen. This was the model used for the Crow House in Portland, Oregon and many other intentional cooperatives like it.
The best way to calculate the efficiency of a living environment is to divide the total waste by the number of people in that household.
We would like to hear from you about your communal living experiences. Become a Planet Green Member for free and start chiming in on the discussion.
This post was inspired by Wa$ted.
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