I Can't Believe how much trash I generate !!

Fordy: If you don't already a lot of volume can be reduced simply by crushing (stepping) on plastic containers. For my household trash I have a 30-gallon or so can in the laundry room. Every so often I get in it to pack it down. When I take a bag to the dumpster it is a VERY solid bag. Works for me being in a larger single wide, but likely wouldn't for you in a smaller one.

Recycle place won't accept it, but you can pack a whole lot of soft plastic (e.g., newspaper sleeves, single cheese wrappers and other wrapping) into a one-gallon plastic milk-type jug. Use a short section of broom handle to really pack it in.

Local recyclers don't want glass, so I crush it in a 5-gallon plastic bucket with a sledge hammer. May not reduce weight going to landfill, but sure reduces volume.

(I remember about 25 or so years ago they were experimenting with adding ground up glass to asphalt for road paving. Saw a test strip in Utah. A bit shiny. Don't think it was every used much.)

I sell extensively on eBay so a lot of what would ordinarily be trash (e.g., plastic shopping bags and broken up styrofoam trays) goes into cushioning. And, yes, I know, it is just pass the trash.

What you can and can't recycle seems to vary significantly from location to location. Here basically all they want are plastic clean/opaque liquids bottles, newspapers and cardboard. They still accept tin cans, but woman at center told me they are having a hard time finding a buyer for them.

County has a separate program for metal. Someone pays them so much per ton to haul it off.

................Yep , I should apply for a job crushing old Plastic , one gallon containers ! I'd be good at it too , they'd call me ..."Three step louie" , lol ! , fordy

There's only one of me, and I produce so little rubbish that my bin goes out for collection only once a fortnight. I collect plastic shopping bags and use them as bin-liners and for all sorts of assorted purposes; cardboard or paper containers/wrapping gets recycled; food scraps - well, there aren't a lot of them, and what I have goes into the soil where it composts down.

For the life of me, I can't understand how one person could generate as much rubbish as you do. Even when I had a family at home, we had trouble filling our bin every week!

Isn't it possible to avoid buying things which come in plastic, and choose cardboard or paper containers instead?

Also, if you buy items which have excessive packaging on them, stop now and complain to the manufacturers. A few years back, my preferred brand of soap suddenly started being wrapped in no fewer than FOUR layers. I assume I wasn't the only person who wrote to complain, and within a matter of weeks (during which time I, and presumably many others boycotted the product), it lost 3 of its layers of packaging!

It is we, the consumers, who dictate what is acceptable and what isn't. We express our disapproval in writing, and by not buying a product. When the bottom line shows a fall in numbers, manufacturers will act quickly to consumer demand!!

Fordy,

Are recycling facilities available in your area? Do you have drop off bins of any type?

Clove

Now a word from the Trashman

You would be surprized at how much the trashman knows about you!
Its AMAZING how much peoples trash output varies, we have a family of 8 that has 4 adults and 4 kids that makes less than 20 gallons of trash a week.
A single guy that makes about 200 gallons(two carts) a week and everything in between!
Your trash output tells us a lot about your life, when the 7 bags a week house turns into the 2 cases of beer and 7 pizza box place we know the wife moved out.
On the other hand when the single moms place suddenly doubles in output and adds a case of beer we know the BF moved in. (Go Lisa)
When the old guy that lives by himself's trash went from 7 small bags a week((20 gallons total) to NONE we knocked on the door an peered in the windows wth trepidation. We were very relived to find out he had gone to see his son!



WE hate them diapers! They are heavy and NASTY! if your on a bag route (where they pick up bags and throw them in the truck) please use real good bags and spread the wieght out so you dont overload the bags.
Shouldnt human waste go into the sewage systen not the landfill?

Which water distiller do you have? Do you like it? Where did you get it?

Thanks in advance!
Deb
in wi

..............Clove , they did have them at different spots , but since the economic crisis I believe the pickup points have been shutdown . I was W. Mt. about 5 PM today(12-23) buying groceries and you'd think we never really had under gone any kind of problem , the store was plumb full and people were lined up at checkout registers with toys and food and beer . Lots of traffic and congestion . , fordy

I guess we're lucky. Our recycling station in town takes the following FOR FREE. It is open 24/7 too!
glass
cardboard
plastic jugs, bottles, etc
tin cans
aluminum cans
paper

Recycling combined with backyard composting and feeding scraps to wildlife results in barely a trash bag of garbage every two weeks. We dump that bag in the dumpster at WIHH's office. Consequently, we pay $0.00 for trash disposal per year.

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

i'm sorry you feel the need to buy water..that has to really suck..we have the best water in the planet..even had water bottling companies trying to get it..but we resisted.

We separate everything, have compost piles, recycle everything that can be, burn the paper trash, and yes, all newspapers are collected for fire-starting in the Winter. All shop refuse is handled the same way & all steel scraps are either utilized for other projects or sold when we have a load. Actual trash? I'd estimate 1 medium trashcan every two weeks. We take our own garbage to the dump a few times/year & regularly drop off our recycling. Anything our chickens can eat, they get, too.