Where is this magical place called out?

I saw an interesting story on Time Magazine's website this morning about a guy named Dave Chameides who is not throwing any trash out for an entire year to help him visualize what his "waste footprint" is. I think this interesting because not too many people stop to think how much trash they throw "out" or where this place called "out" really is.

I've thought about how much garbage my girlfriend and I throw out and where it goes on a few occasions. (Mostly as I'm lugging it down from our third floor apartment and across the parking lots to the dumpsters at the edge of our apartment complex.)

I don't think that we throw out as much as the average partially because our apartment complex recycles most recyclable plastic, glass and cans but we still throw out quite a bit.

It seems to me that a good portion of our waste is the plastic and printed cardboard packaging that pretty much everything is packaged in. It wouldn't be so bad if all of that packaging was actually necessary but in MANY cases it's not even close to necessary.

I'll have to look into ways to help reduce this. (Buying in bulk and things like that will probably help a lot!)