What do you do with your trash?

Tin cans are easy to get rid of. Actually get a little money for them. Just take them to a local scrap yard. I just took a load of tin cans off of my land last week.

Most folks where I live burn plastic. Burning shingles and tires are a big no-no.

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http://www.xanga.com/shackman A blog about whatever

Our garbage collection is paid for with a parish wide tax and it is picked up weekly as well as tree limbs and even large appliances. They are so picky on limbs and such that I generally burn it instead of the hassle of cutting it a certain length and bundling it just right for them to pick up. Hazardous materials are collected at various sites twice a year so until then you have to hang on to paint cans and anything else that could contaminate the land fills.

Right now we are in the process of rebuilding and moving everything from our commercial property to here so we rented a 20 yard dumpster and this huge bright red elephant thing is sitting in my front yard. We filled it to the top the first day we had it. They emptied it and brought it back and we are well on our way to filling it again but the rain interrupted our progress. I did cull out all of the iron and metal for my dad who sells it at the scrap yard to supplement his retirement.

We recycle all paper, but we have friends that keep a separate compost pile for all the stuff they fear could harm their vegetable garden: inked paper, dog poop, blighted tomato plants, meats, etc. That's the compost pile they use for their flower gardens. Worst case, it could be spread on grass.

P.S.: yes, I know that the above when composted at the right temperature can be made harmless, but I'm just suggesting an alternative for those that have too small a compost pile, or too high a fear.

Burning garbage is illegal in all of Ohio.

We have trash pick up per township mandate. But we still recycle glass and most plastics and some paper. All documents with any personal info that are "trash" get used as firestarters in the woodburner. Trash wood gets burned in the wood burner. Meat and bone waste gets put in the trash as well as the duck skins and entrails when I butcher. We usually have just one bag of trash a week plus the bag of bags from the maintenance and feeding of the critters. All vegetable matter gets composted and egg shells get fed back to the ducks.

Ques, for those who burn wood for heat.... What do you do with the ash? There's only so much you can put on the garden and the driveway isn't that big.

there is generally township annual toxic waste pick up ..and there is also township dumpster days for larger items here..small appliances can generally be recycled as metal scrap and larger appliances that break can be picked up by your utility company in many areas and some will even give you money for them.

Here in Michigan they give you $100 for a refrigerator and haul it away.

check with your township and your utility provider

we put all of our clean paper and cardboard through a shredder (as well as credit cards, cd, dvd's etc..esp those that come in junk mail..) the shredder stuff goes on as mulch..and i don't worry about the bits of plastic as they will help to aerate the soil even if they don't decompose ..they add tilth.

wouldn't use a lot of it..but the small amount doesn't hurt anything.

you can use some of the paper when you start fires in a wood stove too..so save the "dirty" paper for that..like food use paper.

you can also burn some of the meat type scraps if you have an outdoor stove..as long as they aren't greasy..that saves from having to add it to your compost pile.

of course metal and glass can be recycled..but styrofoam is a huge problem here..we put it out for trash pick up..as it is not recyclable in our area...but you can often ask for no styr in your shipping, but some things they won't ship without it.

The previous owner of my place had the same idea. They weren't very diligent, though. They burned on open ground, not in a barrel. The wind carried half-burned scraps of paper and plastic everywhere. They threw bottles and cans in the trash, which obviously didn't burn, and left behind the charred remains. The carcass of a dishwasher was abandoned outside the garage. Broken toys were everywhere.

In my first summer here, I hauled (I think) 7 truckloads of trash to the township dump. GRRR!

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"I love all of this mud," said no one, ever.

Burning trash is also illegal in Minnesota. With that said, many families still do it and the gubbermint looks the other way when reported.

We do not burn any trash for the simple reason that we don't want to start any forest fire. The gubbermint would not look the other way it we were responsible for a wild fire.

We recycle everything that we can....newspaper, plastic, cans, cardboard, etc. We compost organic materials. We still generate one garbage bag of trash every two weeks or so, which we haul to the local "recycling/dispsoal center" and pay the $5/bag fee for disposal.

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This is the government the Founding Fathers warned us about.....

I have two places for trash in the kitchen. I put burnables in a small trash can and nonburnables in a Walmart bag to take to the dumpster at the shopping center in town that we clean. Metal is taken to the junk yard and batteries are recycled (we get $6 for each car battery). Still haven't found a place for tires. Well, I take that back. There is a man that will pick them up if we pay him $2 a tire. I'm still looking for a place that will pay us.

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I think, therefore, I am. I am because of the Great I Am.

Here we take recycled items and garbage to the convenience center. Used to be free to country residents. Now there's an annual fee that's included with the property tax statement. Now, it's against the law to put some recycle items in the garbage. Plastic bottles, aluminum cans, cardboard, newspapers & magazines, are the items that come to mind right now. They also have containers for things that can be unloaded and toss into them. Scrap lumber, broken furniture, etc. No lawn debris. No commercial or contractor trash. Oh, they also accept vehicle batteries.

Appliances, shingles, pallets, old paint, yard debris has to be taken to the landfill.

Convenience center is about 5 miles from the house. We usually take the recycle items and the garbage that isn't appropriate for compost about once a week. Maybe once or twice a year, we'll go to the landfill. Family member runs a junk yard. He picks up anything from us that's metal. Recently he picked up the old electric furnace when we replaced it. Picked up several dead computers, and a bunch of other "junk" we'd saved for him.

I keep a number of things for personal recycling. Glass jars and bottles suitable for food storage, #10 cans & lids, liter plastic soda bottles (we don't have many of those), styrofoam meat trays (sanitized) for painting trays and crafts, bits and pieces suitable for scrollsaw work, jelly jars for candles, peanut butter jars for 'gifts in a jar', just to mention a few.

Believe that it's illegal here, too, to use a burn barrel. But, as others mentioned, some still do. We haven't here, for years, because of the fire danger.

Re: fireplace/stove ashes -- they can be lightly sprinkled over a lawn, in the woods, as well as being put in the garden and in driveways. Just make sure they are COLD. And in the case of a lawn, go easy so that it doesn't clump up enough to burn the plants. Good time to do it is just ahead of a rain, so the ashes will be washed off the leaves.

I burn alot of scrap wood in my shop that has nails in it. I have a spot, near a tree, where I dump those ashes. It's near the tree so there's no chance that a vehicle will run over those nails. I switch trees, from time to time, to keep the build up down. So far, I've never noticed a negative effect on the trees. Suspect the trees gobble up the nutrients in the ash. I never burn pressure treated wood, nor "wood" that's man made (plywood, OSB, etc.). Any scraps too small to use for another purpose goes to the landfield.

Lee

If you burn plastics, be aware that you, your family and your animals are breathing toxic smoke. If you don't dispose of the ashes, whatever is poisonous in the ashes will becomes part of your soil where your animals might be grazing or your food crops growing.

ibcnya - not very "earth friendly" in the least. And the next owners will be cursing you for years to come.

We recycle what we can. All cans, plastic bottles, glass, newspapers, magazines, and cardboard can be recylced around here. We compost what we can.

While we do have garbage pick up available, I'm too cheap to pay the high cost of it, so for years we took our 1 bag of garbage from 1 - 2 weeks) to our in-laws. Since then, we've been putting it in with my sister's garbage (she has unlimited bag pickup). We will be combining ours with my other 3 siblings, so each 1/4 of the year, we each will pay $41.00.

If you are really cheap, and want to be sneaky (and possibly not really an ethical thing to do), you could throw away what little real garbage (after recyling etc.) and either

A. Throw it away in a grocery bag when you buy gas.
or
B. Throw it away when you go to work.

(Like I said, not very ethical or honest, but you did ask!)

However, I would NEVER burn or bury on my property.

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Michael W. Smith in North-West Pennsylvania

"Everything happens for a reason."

We burn anything that will burn. It's probably not legal and maybe not "safe" but that's what we do. The tin cans get buried in a hole in the field. The aluminum cans get sold for money. I hate to admit it, but batteries and such (like AA, D, C, etc.) go into my pocket and I throw them in public garbages when we get to town. Appliances and the like end up behind our shed.

Growing up in the country with my grandparents we burnt everything except glass/alluminum pop bottles/cans. The barrel got full it was dumped and buried. We also had a business so there was lots of garbage. Today I bet there would be some big fines for doing this. There country isn't country anymore darn casino and tourists.

Thanks for all the responses and suggestions! Well, I've been making some phone calls and checking online. I cannot find any local place that accepts used AA, AAA single use batteries. Also, the local recycling center will only accept plastic that has the triangle-type stamp on it. They do accept newspaper, cardboard, magazines, glass, plastic with stamp, tin/aluminum cans, shredded notebook-type paper, and tires.

I keep looking around my house at things we typically put in the trash and trying to come up with an alternative. For instance, yesterday we had a birthday party for 3yo DD and 1yo DS combined. Needless to say, there's a lot of cardboard and plastic packaging materials from the toys they received. Most of the plastic doesn't have the triangular symbol. If we were already at our new place, what would I do with it? Burning plastic it is not an option for us. Our 4yo DS is mildly autistic. Chemicals increase his autistic behavior. The humming, pacing, and hand flapping instances skyrocket and last for 3-5 days. For DS's benefit we steer away from items with chemicals in them. So, that means no kool-aid, no smelly candles, no commercial cleansers, no perfumes, and no burning plastic for us. That's one of the reasons that we're purchasing our homestead, so we can be more in control of what's in our food and the land that our food is grown in.

My strategy right now is to recycle everything that we're able..either personally reuse or take to local center. I also plan to compost everything that we're able. I like the idea of shredding up all junk mail and using as mulch. Before I had just assumed I'd have to burn that. At this point, I think I may be one of those people that drops a few batteries in the gas station trash every once in a while. Still unsure about the unmarked plastic pieces though. We move in December 14th and Christmas is shortly after that. I know that we're going to have plastic packaging materials to deal with. Thanks for the ideas!

burn what I can, recycle what I can. put what is left in a walmart bag. takes a week to fill it up. put it in garbage can next time I get gas.

themrs,

pretty much the same set up where I live. I switched to rechargeable batteries years ago so those aren't an issue for me. unrecyclable plastic and metal are mostly what goes in the bag that goes in the garbage can at the gas station. I'm single so you may have more trash but it's usually at least a week if not more before I even have a walmart bag full of *everything else*.

At our landfill / convenience centers there's a compacting container for "household trash". It's for food waste, diapers, and misc household trash that can't be recycled. Not supposed to put anything in that trash that's considered hazardous waste, such a chemicals and such. Landfill only accepts hazardous waste in designated areas for the type of waste.

The "household waste" is what gets buried in the landfill. Milk jugs are a good example. They are biodegradable and are supposed to breakdown in the land fill.

Check with your local waste management operation to see what's supposed to be done with "household waste" that isn't designated for recycling. The may be city or county government depending on where you live.

BTW, around here, it's a big NO NO to put personal/household waste in trash cans and dumpsters of commercial establishments. I used to work for a business, where the dumpsters were "convenient" for some local residents. That is until the business opened the trash that was illegally put in their dumpsters. Easy to find out who dumped it. Especially since people like to toss junk mail straight into the trash.

Lee

The best thing is to not buy anything that comes in packaging that you can't recycle, compost or burn. IF you can't avoid it, open the item at the store you bought it from and leave it in THEIR trash can.

I compost paper and cardboard for my bait worms and cash in my aluminum, foodcan tin and polyester soda bottles that I dont use as seedling cups to the recycle center. Glass jars and bottles I hammer back into sand in a rock tumbler polisher from my youth.

I generally make 2 trips a year to the recycle center and put non recyclable household trash for pick up out at the road in two cans every 4 to 6 weeks.

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"I didn't have time to slay the dragon. It's on my To Do list!"

[QUOTE=Michael W. Smith;4129900]ibcnya - not very "earth friendly" in the least. And the next owners will be cursing you for years to come.

Just joking really. I burn but don't bury anything. I recycle cans and bottles. I have 2 old dumping areas on my property the way it is. I am just saying that is how they used to do it years ago.

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We have now officially entered the twilight zone.