For the record, Bainbridge resident Van Calvez likes to talk trash, or rather, he likes to talk about how little he generates. In 1992, he challenged himself to reduce his trash to nothing. Nada. Zip. 0.

“Zero-waste is an ideal,” he said.

“I asked myself if I composted my food and recycled as much as I could, what would be left?” he wondered. About half what he was generating, as it turned out. And from there, he made adjustments – some little, some big – to reduce his trash output even further. He decided that he would simply not throw anything “away.” Meaning, he wouldn’t send anything to a landfill.

Changing how and what he ate seemed to make the biggest difference. As he ate more fresh foods rather than packaged, he generated less waste, particularly that of the “individually wrapped” genre. By 2005, his “best year,” his personal trash for the entire year fit in a small plastic (recycled) bag.

He said there’s a point of diminishing returns, however, and he realized it was more efficient for him to focus on encouraging others to make a few small changes that would quickly slash their trash output, than for him to tinker with the final 5 percent.

He’ll be doing that this weekend, along with fellow islanders Liesl Clark and Michael Bryan-Brown at the Matinees that Matter showing of “No Impact Man.” The 90-minute film runs at 5 p.m. Nov. 28 and 29 at Lynwood Theatre and is sponsored by Sustainable Bainbridge.

The event is timed to launch Bainbridge Island’s “Road Map to Zero Waste,” researched and written by Clark, a documentary filmmaker whose work aired just last week on the National Geographic channel.

“I’m not an environmentalist,” Clark said. “But I’ve been so alarmed by what I’ve seen and the more I read.”

After embarking on her own quest to reduce the amount of trash generated by her family of four, she assembled a Bainbridge-specific list of resources and a who-accepts-what list that is available on the Sustainable Bainbridge Web site. It specifies a host of items including balloons, wine corks and empty toothpaste tubes.

“Bainbridge Disposal has done a great job on their Web site , as has www.kitsapcounty.gov,” she said.

Doing research for her next film, she discovered the largest type of waste generated by households is food waste. Combined with information from the Environmental Protection Agency that says “anaerobic decomposition of waste in landfills produces methane, a greenhouse gas 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide,” she realized that composting food waste may be the most important contribution a household can make.

Michael Bryan-Brown knows a thing or two about composting. His company, Bainbridge-based Green Mountain Technologies, manufactures industrial-sized composting equipment, including the one used at Bainbridge High School. His background is in recycling systems for municipalities, and it doesn’t get any trashier than New York City where he previously worked. Bryan-Brown will share a few words about composting after the Sunday showing.

“No Impact Man” follows Colin Beavan, a guilty Manhattanite who goes cold turkey in reducing his environmental footprint, and taking his shopaholic wife and baby daughter along for the (bus) ride/walk/carpool.

For more information, or to see the “Road Map to Zero Waste” compiled by Clark, visit www.sustainablebainbridge.net.