Author Topic: 7~12 bags of trash per week!  (Read 20764 times)

Cinder

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7~12 bags of trash per week!
« on: January 24, 2014, 06:27:02 AM »
I don't know how my neighbors do it, but I really started to notice when I was home for my Christmas break.

The week after Christmas, I saw a LOT of trash out there on trash day.  OK.. Consumerist culture, lots of boxes and packaging for their kids, not to much of a strech right?

Last week, I went over and counted.  12 of the HUGE black trashbags loaded and stacked by the curb! about a half dozen boxes folded up and out for recycling. 

This week...  See attached photo. 

Every week, 7~12 bags of garbage!  How does someone produce that much trash?  I think they produce more garbage in two weeks then I do in a year!  And I don't feel like I'm going out of my way to reduce trash or anything.  We send out one to two 'kitchen' sized bags of trash (about equal to one of their large black trash bags) sometimes weekly, sometimes bi-weekly.  I didn't even bother taking my trash to the curb today since we didn't have more then a single bag outside in the can.


Indio

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Re: 7~12 bags of trash per week!
« Reply #1 on: January 24, 2014, 07:18:37 AM »
Maybe they are using their home service to get rid of office trash or maybe they are doing an early Spring cleaning.

We haven't had any garbage waste since January last year. Everything is recycled or composted here. Between the chickens, worm bins and outdoor compost nothing is goes to the landfill.

ghatko

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Re: 7~12 bags of trash per week!
« Reply #2 on: January 24, 2014, 08:07:15 AM »
Or maybe they are doing renovations? I know we greatly increased the amount of trash we put out when we are working on something in our house. We would just put some out each week, rather than pay someone to come and collect it.

GuitarStv

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Re: 7~12 bags of trash per week!
« Reply #3 on: January 24, 2014, 09:47:08 AM »
In Toronto they pick up the garbage every other week (alternating with recycling), and if you want to throw out more than about 1 medium sized bag you have to pay a yearly extra fee.

EscapeVelocity2020

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Re: 7~12 bags of trash per week!
« Reply #4 on: January 24, 2014, 10:14:15 AM »
Norway was quite an adjustment when we got there, they give you a green (cardboard), brown (food waste), and black (everything else) trash bin.  Black is collected every other week and green and brown roughly once a month.  We ate almost exclusively at home and had a child in diapers, so we always seemed to be overflowing with trash.  It was a real wake-up call (especially if we missed trash day) just how crazy our trash was compared to everyone else.  But eventually we mastered the lifestyle, recycling cans, thick plastic, metal and glass at the store and reusing bags.  Maybe your neighbors could help Norway and Sweden with their trash scarcity problem:  http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/recycling/blogs/norway-a-recycling-happy-nation-in-dire-need-of-trash

Albert

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Re: 7~12 bags of trash per week!
« Reply #5 on: January 24, 2014, 10:25:27 AM »
I'm sure there is some rational explanation there.

In my neighbourhood general waste is picked up twice a week and it has to be placed in special blue bags. Those blue garbage bags are a form of payment for garbage removal (every town has different ones). They are sold in every grocery store in town and cost about 25$ for a pack of 20. Plastic and glass you have to carry yourself to recycling points, paper is picked up once a month. Twice a year you can also leave larger pieces of junk such as old furniture or metal on the street for collection.

BlueMR2

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Re: 7~12 bags of trash per week!
« Reply #6 on: January 24, 2014, 10:31:04 AM »
My next door neighbor (family of 6 total) does 5-6 bags of trash every week, but I see him doing lots of woodworking projects.  Probably lots of waste there, plus the kids.  The single Mom (1 kid) across the street does about the same amount.  Not sure how she generates that much.

I always feel really bad about our 1 bag every week.  It's usually not full, but my wife makes me put it out as-is since it usually smells bad.  If I lived alone I'd keep it in the garage an only put it out when full.

Jamesqf

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Re: 7~12 bags of trash per week!
« Reply #7 on: January 24, 2014, 11:25:47 AM »
...but I see him doing lots of woodworking projects.  Probably lots of waste there...

Throwing away perfectly good firewood?

I see much the same piles of trash behavior from some of my neighbors.  Like the ones who stuff leaves & grass clippings into plastic trash bags - and there's another thing: people who buy special bags to use to throw away stuff in.

greaper007

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Re: 7~12 bags of trash per week!
« Reply #8 on: January 24, 2014, 11:32:05 AM »
I notice the same thing in my neighborhood.  I compost just about everything I can, food scraps, paper etc and recycle as much as I can.    I end up throwing out about one kitchen size bag of trash a week for a family of 4.   

I wish more people composted, it's ridiculously easy and doesn't really require and special equipment.

Albert

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Re: 7~12 bags of trash per week!
« Reply #9 on: January 24, 2014, 11:34:55 AM »
I wish more people composted, it's ridiculously easy and doesn't really require and special equipment.

Wouldn't work for people like me living in a city apartment, though.

greaper007

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Re: 7~12 bags of trash per week!
« Reply #10 on: January 24, 2014, 11:35:26 AM »
Maybe they are using their home service to get rid of office trash or maybe they are doing an early Spring cleaning.

We haven't had any garbage waste since January last year. Everything is recycled or composted here. Between the chickens, worm bins and outdoor compost nothing is goes to the landfill.

Awesome, how do you guys manage that?    There's a lot of plastics that I can't recycle in my town.   Along with disposable diapers that my daughter still uses at night (our cloth diapers can't last an entire night).   Where do you live that you manage to recycle everything?

oldtoyota

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Re: 7~12 bags of trash per week!
« Reply #11 on: January 24, 2014, 11:45:13 AM »
I wish more people composted, it's ridiculously easy and doesn't really require and special equipment.

Wouldn't work for people like me living in a city apartment, though.

One can purchase under-the-sink compost bins.

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Re: 7~12 bags of trash per week!
« Reply #12 on: January 24, 2014, 10:36:21 PM »
My city provides 96 gallon bins (everything is bigger in Texas) which are emptied once a week.  Ours (2 people plus 4 cats) is never more than a fourth full.  The next door bin is always overflowing for 2 adults, 2 dogs and 2 cats.  Even worse is the single guy on the corner who's bin is can never close because it's so full.  Needless to say, neither house ever has anything for the biweekly recycling.  But I can't understand how one or two people can generate that much trash every week.

greaper007

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Re: 7~12 bags of trash per week!
« Reply #13 on: January 24, 2014, 10:51:10 PM »
I wish more people composted, it's ridiculously easy and doesn't really require and special equipment.

Wouldn't work for people like me living in a city apartment, though.

True, though a lot of cities are going to curbside composting.   I know Boulder has it (if you could stand to live with all the mountain dew commercial type people in Boulder) and I think NYC might be offering the program.

gooki

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Re: 7~12 bags of trash per week!
« Reply #14 on: January 25, 2014, 01:25:38 AM »
Nappies/diapers, lots of prepackaged food and no recycling is my guess.

Indio

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Re: 7~12 bags of trash per week!
« Reply #15 on: January 25, 2014, 11:05:28 AM »
Maybe they are using their home service to get rid of office trash or maybe they are doing an early Spring cleaning.

We haven't had any garbage waste since January last year. Everything is recycled or composted here. Between the chickens, worm bins and outdoor compost nothing is goes to the landfill.

Awesome, how do you guys manage that?    There's a lot of plastics that I can't recycle in my town.   Along with disposable diapers that my daughter still uses at night (our cloth diapers can't last an entire night).   Where do you live that you manage to recycle everything?

Our town started offering single stream recycling in 2011, which means they take all plastics, cardboard milk containers, dental floss, etc and sort it out at the recycling center. We don't eat a lot of meat so we don't have bones/fat to compost. When we eat meat, it's chicken and I save those bones to throw into summer backyard bonfires. The burnt bones are great addition to my garden soil (I know it sounds really odd but that's how bone meal is made).  We mostly eat fresh veggies so we don't have lots of food packaging to dispose. Always carry about 10 reusable shopping bags in the car so whenever I buy anything, I use my own bags to carry it home, including bags for store bought produce. I registered with stop junk mail catalog site so we don't have lots of junk mail coming in. I potty trained the cats so we don't have any kitty litter to dispose of. When the kids were little, I potty trained them as soon as they could walk to cut down on the diapers. On road trips, I carried the kiddie potty so we didn't need diapers. All of the school homework papers get shredded, used tissues, cat fur, rabbit manure, dust bunnies, shedded human hair, etc is used for compost -- it's a great source of carbon. We don't use paper napkins or paper towels. Anything that we don't use or need any more doesn't get thrown out, it gets donated to a school tag sale, thrift shop or given away. If something breaks, I take it apart and try to fix it, such as vacuum cleaner engine and hot oil radiator. Wood leftover from woodworking projects gets chopped into small pieces and composted too.

shira

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Re: 7~12 bags of trash per week!
« Reply #16 on: June 02, 2014, 01:41:14 AM »
I have noticed that people with kids tend to generate a lot more garbage. The sudden increase in waste at our house after my daughter's birth, encouraged me to start taking some serious measures to reduce the amount of garbage we were generating. I used cloth diapers at home and only used disposable ones at night or when we went out. All my wet kitchen waste is just chucked into our flower bed and covered up with soil. And my husband takes all our recycling to the center when needed. We have been taking our scrap metal to Sims in Jersey City twice a year for the past three years. The money we get is enough for a romantic dinner for two at a cozy restaurant!

Zikoris

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Re: 7~12 bags of trash per week!
« Reply #17 on: June 02, 2014, 12:20:38 PM »
I wish more people composted, it's ridiculously easy and doesn't really require and special equipment.

Wouldn't work for people like me living in a city apartment, though.

I'll be starting up an worm composting bin on my 5th floor apartment's very small balcony in a few weeks - it doesn't need much space, just the size of about three shoe boxes.

miked

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Re: 7~12 bags of trash per week!
« Reply #18 on: June 02, 2014, 12:26:09 PM »
Where are you getting worms from? I found 1lb on Amazon for $40, but wanted to see if there are other options.

seanc0x0

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Re: 7~12 bags of trash per week!
« Reply #19 on: June 02, 2014, 01:36:27 PM »
See if you can find someone around who does composting and has worms. My sister got her worms (and a ton of advice) from a group that gives away worms to interested people. It may help that she lives in Vancouver, though I've seen ads here as well. There are a lot of people who are really, really enthusiastic about composting!

Zikoris

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Re: 7~12 bags of trash per week!
« Reply #20 on: June 02, 2014, 02:13:59 PM »
The City of Vancouver subsidizes most of the expenses of getting set up - they give you the bin, starting material, worms, a reference book, and a 1-hour hands-on class where you go through each stage, from setup to harvesting. Total cost = $25. I'm looking forward to it in a few weeks!

RootofGood

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Re: 7~12 bags of trash per week!
« Reply #21 on: June 02, 2014, 03:08:32 PM »
My city provides 96 gallon bins (everything is bigger in Texas) which are emptied once a week.  Ours (2 people plus 4 cats) is never more than a fourth full.  The next door bin is always overflowing for 2 adults, 2 dogs and 2 cats.  Even worse is the single guy on the corner who's bin is can never close because it's so full.  Needless to say, neither house ever has anything for the biweekly recycling.  But I can't understand how one or two people can generate that much trash every week.

+1 on the 96 gallon bins (here in NC).  Same weekly pick up schedule.  Our family of 5 (1 in disposable diapers) fills a cart ~2/3 full about every other week, and I don't haul it to the curb until it's about that full (skipping every other week roughly).  Our neighbor seems to fill hers up every week, and it used to be overflowing often.  There's just one of her, and she's out of the house a lot.  She probably also spends more than our entire household and definitely brings home more take out and shopping bags filled with stuff! 

+1 on the remodeling possibility.  We've used our trash can as a construction debris removal service before.  Easy way to avoid $250 for a commercial dumpster rental and disposal fee if you don't have a full 5 CY or 10 CY load or whatever the dumpster sizes are.  Just load the trash can full every week and let them haul it away! 

MayDay

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Re: 7~12 bags of trash per week!
« Reply #22 on: June 02, 2014, 06:44:52 PM »
I have noticed the same here (OH).  We have a small can that we already owned, just he old fashioned, traditional sized outdoor trash can.  We typically fill it half full, or maybe all the way full if we have company.  Even when we had a baby in sposies, we never had more than one normal sized can a week. 

Most neighbors have the big roll-away bins overflowing.  A few are obviously woodworkers, or have occasional garage cleaning weeks.  For most of them, though, it is every week, for no particular reason.  They just..... Make that much trash. 

I attribute a lot of it to packaged food.  Food that comes in both a bag and a box (like crackers or boxed cereal), things like that.  I don't think my neighbors recycle, either.

It makes me crazy.  My H thinks I am crazy to get so irritated, but I just think, if you are making that much trash, how can you notice and examine your lifestyle?  Meanwhile my children are the waste-police and will go up to people and tell them their plastic bags are wasteful.  Still working on those manners! 

capital

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Re: 7~12 bags of trash per week!
« Reply #23 on: June 03, 2014, 07:24:00 PM »
I wish more people composted, it's ridiculously easy and doesn't really require and special equipment.

Wouldn't work for people like me living in a city apartment, though.

True, though a lot of cities are going to curbside composting.   I know Boulder has it (if you could stand to live with all the mountain dew commercial type people in Boulder) and I think NYC might be offering the program.
NYC has pilot programs in a few neighborhoods, yep. The city is handing out little tubs and curbside bins to empty them into.
http://www.nyc.gov/html/nycwasteless/html/compost/collections_ocp_res-neighborhood.shtml#how

former player

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Re: 7~12 bags of trash per week!
« Reply #24 on: June 04, 2014, 01:27:26 AM »
Me: half a bag every other week.
My 99 year old neighbour: half a bag a week.
My other neighbours, couple in their 50s with one child away at uni and no remodelling: 4 bags a week.

The couple with the waste issues are the only ones with money issues.  It's probably a decent correlation - walk round your neighbourhood on trash collection morning to work out which of your neighbours is in financial trouble.

hoping2retire35

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Re: 7~12 bags of trash per week!
« Reply #25 on: November 30, 2015, 08:15:13 AM »
responding here because it is recent and seems relevant and I don't like making new posts.

Does anyone have suggestions for reducing trash. We have one of the 96 gallon curbside bins that is usually2/3 full and even overflowing if we have a clean "out something" week. 2 adults 3 3 and under and some outdoor animals. Disposable diapsers (I've done the math on the money and time and I'm not changing) which is only 1-2 small trash bags, all cardboard gets used in projects or burned to start bonfires, I know the milkjugs take a lot of room but usually only three a week. We almost never eat out/take out. We are on the path for early fire so we don't buy "stuff." Any suggestions?

Also, we have three little ones so we don't have  a good "system" for keeping the compost in the house. I tried having a temporary storage just out the kitchen door, but that lets out heat/ac so thats a no go. Also would need to separate the meat* compost from the veggies stuff. Any personal testimony or ideas?

jengod

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Re: 7~12 bags of trash per week!
« Reply #26 on: November 30, 2015, 08:55:10 AM »
responding here because it is recent and seems relevant and I don't like making new posts.

Does anyone have suggestions for reducing trash. We have one of the 96 gallon curbside bins that is usually2/3 full and even overflowing if we have a clean "out something" week. 2 adults 3 3 and under and some outdoor animals. Disposable diapsers (I've done the math on the money and time and I'm not changing) which is only 1-2 small trash bags, all cardboard gets used in projects or burned to start bonfires, I know the milkjugs take a lot of room but usually only three a week. We almost never eat out/take out. We are on the path for early fire so we don't buy "stuff." Any suggestions?

Also, we have three little ones so we don't have  a good "system" for keeping the compost in the house. I tried having a temporary storage just out the kitchen door, but that lets out heat/ac so thats a no go. Also would need to separate the meat* compost from the veggies stuff. Any personal testimony or ideas?

1. COMPOST: Get a plastic bin for your freezer. I use an old dishwasher pods container from Costco, but any small bucket would do. Put food waste in there when scraping dishes. Dump your Rachel Ray-style cooking "trash bowl" in there at the end of a meal prep session. Take it out to the main bin at your leisure or when full, whichever comes first. Bonus: It doesn't smell and won't get fruit flies. Double Bonus: Freezing and then defrosting may actually help the food break down faster.

AN ASIDE ON MEAT IN COMPOST: If it's a few scraps here and there, don't worry about it. It WILL rot. Cover it with leaves or grass clippings or something else dense and carbonaceous if you are worried about rodents, but really, truly, I promise, it's not the end of the world if some crumbs of a meat casserole end up in the pile. Bones probably should go into the landfill trash until you have reached ADVANCED-LEVEL COMPOSTING.

2. GENERAL TRASH:

A. Do a trash audit. Seriously. Save your trash for a week, take it out to the garage, and sort it into piles. Yes, wear gloves. Yes, there will be some icky stuff. You'll start to see where the leaks are in your system. Oooohhh...we use a lot of those single-serving containers of yogurt, and those are all the plastic produce bags we used to bring fruits and veg from the store, and here's a plastic razor, etc etc. Just confront it all, and then when you are ready, see if there is non-disposable or bulk options for your main trash sources.

B. Get Bea Johnson's Zero-Waste Home book. It will give you PTSD at first, even though she is incredibly relatable and supportive, because it is just such a change. But it is a complete system for producing literally almost no household trash. (She produces a quart jar a year of trash for the past five years.) She has a blog and an Instagram as well as a book. This is the Sunset magazine feature on her home from when the book came out. Here is a clip about her from Morgan Spurlock's Inside Man CNN show. This is my favorite video feature on her from her YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y583QTbetsQ

C. Zero Waste Quick Start Guide from paris-to-go.com
« Last Edit: November 30, 2015, 09:47:40 AM by jengod »

MayDay

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Re: 7~12 bags of trash per week!
« Reply #27 on: November 30, 2015, 09:11:56 AM »
I posted above when this thread was first active.  We just spent 5 days at my parent's house, where a bag of trash was created about 3 times a day.  Granted there were 10 people home, but still. 

Hoping2retire, here are some thoughts:

Packaged food creates a lot of waste.  I know you identified milk jugs.  What else are you using?  Can you buy it in more efficient packaging?  This usually translates to cheaper, too!  I know we do buy some treat foods like crackers/chips/etc but we usually get them at Costco which is more efficient packaging.

What about single use paper towels and tissues?  We eliminated those.  We have flannel hankies and use dishrags and cloth towels in the kitchen. 

Do you recycle?  Can you eliminate some of those things from coming into your life? 

Re. composting, it took us awhile but we have a pretty good system, I think.  Get some kind of container with a lid- a large yogurt or ice cream tub, a big tupperware, etc.  Dump all your scraps in it (small amounts of meat and fat are fine) and keep it in the fridge or freezer.  Get something big enough to last about a week (longer is fine too).  Once a week, empty it into a 5 gallon bucket with a lid (I got our bucket at Lowes, they had the lids too- it is one of those paint buckets) that you keep in the garage/porch/etc, or dump directly into the compost pile. 

Sibley

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Re: 7~12 bags of trash per week!
« Reply #28 on: November 30, 2015, 09:29:23 AM »
Two adults, 2 cats in the house. Trash is picked up once a week. No recycling pickup where I live - the HOA is too cheap to get that.

We have a box in the garage for recycling (plastic/glass/cans) and periodically take it to our parent's houses. Which is funny, because my parents are 300 miles away. Whenever someone goes back and forth, we send recycling.

Trash is usually 1 kitchen trash bag a week, plus whatever I've scooped from the litterboxes. I use grocery bags for that. 2-4, depending on how much Arwen goes outside. The other small trash cans around the house get emptied when they're full or someone gets around to it. Those can go for a month or more, depending on how much use they get. I have allergies, so I go through a lot of Kleenex sometimes. Do not even mention the possibility of using cloth, unless you want to wash my snot filled hankies.

We could reduce our trash even more by recycling all the cardboard. Problem is that we already generate a lot of recycling that we have to haul somewhere, so I'm not willing to put up with that right now. My roommate is still half in "mommy will pick up after me" mode, but unless I want to move then I'm stuck with it. So I take the path of least resistance sometimes. But she is going to get a rude shock about what it takes to maintain a house at some point.

hoping2retire35

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Re: 7~12 bags of trash per week!
« Reply #29 on: November 30, 2015, 01:45:22 PM »
well, i currently only recycle glass, and I prioritize it (see syn gas from landfills *glass would be the big problem) I would recycle more, however I think the guys at the town just dump it if there seems like there are too many things in the bin ( I have seen them just dump it in the garbage truck) so instead of starting another fight with my town I only recycle glass.
I think we went about three months without buying paper towels, we do use them now(cleaning gross stuff) but mainly just the washable hand towels for cleaning. Most of our food comes from Sam's (local version of Costco) and I did notice that we cut down on packaging. The biggest thing I have noticed for money and trash volume is packaged chips and crackers the kids like to eat.

I did nearly get PTSD from seeing a home that looked like a tropical resort hotel room... an all white house.

I didn't realize most people that compost just throw out bones. I like to get chicken thighs since its one of the cheapest sources of meat protein and got frustrated about trying to compost, but maybe give it another go.

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Re: 7~12 bags of trash per week!
« Reply #30 on: November 30, 2015, 02:11:22 PM »

+1 on the remodeling possibility.  We've used our trash can as a construction debris removal service before.  Easy way to avoid $250 for a commercial dumpster rental and disposal fee if you don't have a full 5 CY or 10 CY load or whatever the dumpster sizes are.  Just load the trash can full every week and let them haul it away!

Couldn't get rid of my broken dishwasher without driving an obscene distance to drop it off (no wonder so many rural people just throw them in the woods) so I just took a sawzall and chopped it up.  If it fits, it ships!

A little Johnny Cash to go with the moment:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWHniL8MyMM
 

jengod

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Re: 7~12 bags of trash per week!
« Reply #31 on: November 30, 2015, 02:59:44 PM »
I didn't realize most people that compost just throw out bones. I like to get chicken thighs since its one of the cheapest sources of meat protein and got frustrated about trying to compost, but maybe give it another go.

Bones are made to be sturdy and durable so they take a long time to decompose. That's why hear about "skeletal remains" being found when everything else is gone. You probably knew that, but ANYWAY, I've had luck with using them for stock (ideally twice: soup base stock and remouillage), at which point they are dramatically softer. I can crush/snap chicken bones in my hands at that point, and definitely crush them with a potato masher. Then into the compost they go.

Gone Fishing

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Re: 7~12 bags of trash per week!
« Reply #32 on: November 30, 2015, 03:04:09 PM »
I didn't realize most people that compost just throw out bones. I like to get chicken thighs since its one of the cheapest sources of meat protein and got frustrated about trying to compost, but maybe give it another go.

Bones are made to be sturdy and durable so they take a long time to decompose. That's why hear about "skeletal remains" being found when everything else is gone. You probably knew that, but ANYWAY, I've had luck with using them for stock (ideally twice: soup base stock and remouillage), at which point they are dramatically softer. I can crush/snap chicken bones in my hands at that point, and definitely crush them with a potato masher. Then into the compost they go.

Mine go in the woodstove after being boiled for soup.  After burning them, a couple whacks with the poker turns them into a phosphorus and calcium rich soil amendment.  A fire place or fire pit would work just fine as well. 

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Re: 7~12 bags of trash per week!
« Reply #33 on: November 30, 2015, 08:51:23 PM »
Have recycled a few cars over the years with a Sawzall. Cut it into pieces small enough to pitch in a metal collection dumpster. The high value stuff was already removed for other projects (antique restorations) and everything else given away to other car buddies. What went away was the rotten carcass.

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Re: 7~12 bags of trash per week!
« Reply #34 on: December 01, 2015, 05:10:47 PM »
I wish more people composted, it's ridiculously easy and doesn't really require and special equipment.

Wouldn't work for people like me living in a city apartment, though.

In some cities there is the option to compost in a multi unit building. In Minneapolis the city will pick the compostables up in a separate container.

zephyr911

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Re: 7~12 bags of trash per week!
« Reply #35 on: December 02, 2015, 09:56:49 AM »
My neighborhood is all like that. I feel like the 1 tall kitchen bag we make in an average week is too much and strive to reduce it... meanwhile, oversized bins that could probably hold 3 full-sized human bodies are overflowing all down the street. When I peek in, it's almost always generic consumerist/convenience lifestyle crap. Disposable food containers, leftover fast food, pizza boxes, cans and bottles that could be recycled, containers from cheap mass-produced "luxury" items, crap crap crap crap crap. Ugh.

fitfrugalfab

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Re: 7~12 bags of trash per week!
« Reply #36 on: December 02, 2015, 10:49:54 AM »
Seriously? DH and I moved into a tiny home (530 sq ft, no yard since it's a condo) and we rivaled that amount of trash for many weeks while we were moving in. Who knows why they have trash but why does it matter? What does amount of trash have to do with what's inside their house or how they live financially? It could be leaves for all you know. I know I may get hate for this but I don't care. It's weird that there pictures of your neighbor's home/business that you took and are posting on a public forum.

MayDay

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Re: 7~12 bags of trash per week!
« Reply #37 on: December 06, 2015, 06:00:16 AM »
Don't worry, I judge the leaves too! Compost that shit!

As many of us have said, its pretty easy to tell who is renovating, who is moving or doing spring cleaning, and who is just wasteful.

horsepoor

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Re: 7~12 bags of trash per week!
« Reply #38 on: December 06, 2015, 11:26:40 AM »
Don't worry, I judge the leaves too! Compost that shit!

As many of us have said, its pretty easy to tell who is renovating, who is moving or doing spring cleaning, and who is just wasteful.

It is unbelievable how many people on my street put out bags and bags of leaves in the fall.  We are all on nearly half acre lots, so there is just no reason not to compost it.  Most of them purchase the big brown paper bags to fill up.  I have picked them up and taken them to our house to compost before, but need to carve out more time to up my game on that.

Food packaging is a huge part of it.  When ever there's a wind storm I am picking food trash out of my shrubs and I know it's not mine because I haven't eaten at McDonalds in years.  We have the ~100 gallon carts as well, and a couple houses have two of them.  Others fill it up each week and leave out a couple of the ~45 gallon cans routinely as well.

Thanks for the ideas on using bones.  Now I'm sad that I threw out all my beef bones after making stock.  Should have put them in the burn barrel!

cavewoman

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Re: 7~12 bags of trash per week!
« Reply #39 on: December 06, 2015, 12:38:33 PM »
Unrelated, but a fun story about trash and recycling:

I live in an area with high recycling, but not necessarily because of a populace that cares. We have a large population of homeless and indigent people who make their rounds ahead of the recycling truck to take out redeemable bottles and cans. Everyone who has done it at our place is very neat, they always clean up after sorting through. We have single stream recycling too, and one day I watched a man take a non recyclable item from our blue bin and put it in the trash bin. We were new and I thought it was recyclable but it wasn't. I can't remember what the item was. Not that big of a deal but it made me smile in the morning.

hoping2retire35

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Re: 7~12 bags of trash per week!
« Reply #40 on: December 06, 2015, 12:46:00 PM »
Ha! Kinda similar to my situation. Anytime someone has furniture or an appliance that is no good just be sure to put it by the road a few days before trash pickup and someone will get it.

serpentstooth

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Re: 7~12 bags of trash per week!
« Reply #41 on: December 06, 2015, 01:15:37 PM »
Maybe they are using their home service to get rid of office trash or maybe they are doing an early Spring cleaning.

We haven't had any garbage waste since January last year. Everything is recycled or composted here. Between the chickens, worm bins and outdoor compost nothing is goes to the landfill.

Awesome, how do you guys manage that?    There's a lot of plastics that I can't recycle in my town.   Along with disposable diapers that my daughter still uses at night (our cloth diapers can't last an entire night).   Where do you live that you manage to recycle everything?

Our town started offering single stream recycling in 2011, which means they take all plastics, cardboard milk containers, dental floss, etc and sort it out at the recycling center. We don't eat a lot of meat so we don't have bones/fat to compost. When we eat meat, it's chicken and I save those bones to throw into summer backyard bonfires. The burnt bones are great addition to my garden soil (I know it sounds really odd but that's how bone meal is made).  We mostly eat fresh veggies so we don't have lots of food packaging to dispose. Always carry about 10 reusable shopping bags in the car so whenever I buy anything, I use my own bags to carry it home, including bags for store bought produce. I registered with stop junk mail catalog site so we don't have lots of junk mail coming in. I potty trained the cats so we don't have any kitty litter to dispose of. When the kids were little, I potty trained them as soon as they could walk to cut down on the diapers. On road trips, I carried the kiddie potty so we didn't need diapers. All of the school homework papers get shredded, used tissues, cat fur, rabbit manure, dust bunnies, shedded human hair, etc is used for compost -- it's a great source of carbon. We don't use paper napkins or paper towels. Anything that we don't use or need any more doesn't get thrown out, it gets donated to a school tag sale, thrift shop or given away. If something breaks, I take it apart and try to fix it, such as vacuum cleaner engine and hot oil radiator. Wood leftover from woodworking projects gets chopped into small pieces and composted too.

OT, but how did the early potty training go? My eight month old is starting to stand independently and I was hoping to give potty training a shot as soon as she was reliably walking because I hate changing diapers and she flips her lid if she doesn't have a clean and dry one.

Papa Mustache

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Re: 7~12 bags of trash per week!
« Reply #42 on: December 06, 2015, 07:26:57 PM »
Ha! Kinda similar to my situation. Anytime someone has furniture or an appliance that is no good just be sure to put it by the road a few days before trash pickup and someone will get it.

We have a very popular local alternative to Craigslist. You just list it for free and somebody will claim it within 24 hours. Also Freecycle and Craigslist as well to use.

We have country dumps (transfer stations). I ditch my trash in the compactors and anything worth reusing I leave beside the dumpster and somebody will take it. Anything that even the "pickers" don't want simply gets tossed into the dumpster at the end of the day.

clarkfan1979

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Re: 7~12 bags of trash per week!
« Reply #43 on: December 06, 2015, 08:17:21 PM »
To reduce this behavior cities are starting to adopt a pay system based on how much trash you produce. I have some acquaintances that really hate paying a higher fee for more trash. They have some interesting points to justify their behavior.

marty998

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Re: 7~12 bags of trash per week!
« Reply #44 on: December 07, 2015, 03:39:57 AM »
To reduce this behavior cities are starting to adopt a pay system based on how much trash you produce. I have some acquaintances that really hate paying a higher fee for more trash. They have some interesting points to justify their behavior.

such as?

LiveLean

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Re: 7~12 bags of trash per week!
« Reply #45 on: December 07, 2015, 08:00:45 AM »
We have a family that lives about a mile away in a 10,000 square foot house. Dad played Major League Baseball. All four kids are grown now, though it seems most of them still live at home. Every trash day (Monday) looks like the day after Christmas. The massive city-issued can is overflowing and they add a couple of their own cans, plus trash bags. The worst of is they always have a pile of cardboard boxes, even though the city also issues each home a massive recycling can that you can toss just about everything into -- no need to sort -- and that can is picked up on a different day (Thursday). This family can't be bothered with breaking down their cardboard boxes or taking a recycling can to the curb once a week. Not once have I seen the green can out on the curb.

zephyr911

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Re: 7~12 bags of trash per week!
« Reply #46 on: December 08, 2015, 08:53:54 AM »
To reduce this behavior cities are starting to adopt a pay system based on how much trash you produce. I have some acquaintances that really hate paying a higher fee for more trash. They have some interesting points to justify their behavior.

such as?
I'm too busy, I'm too tired, I'm hungry, I'm thirsty, I have to pee, Johnny's poking me, are we there yet, waaaah waaah waaaaaaah

Tom Bri

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Re: 7~12 bags of trash per week!
« Reply #47 on: December 14, 2015, 10:12:04 PM »
My wife often comments on how many garbage cans and bags people put out. We have 2 or 3 of those grocery-store shopping bags full every week.
Composting is easy if you have a back yard and don't stress out about it. Everything, including bone and paper can go in it. I have a garden, and I dig a pit about 2-3 feet deep. Dump a layer of garbage mixed with grass/leaves/paper/whatever in the hole and cap it with an inch of dirt. Keep doing that until it is full, put a thick layer of dirt on top and plant something in that. Then, dig another hole. It's great for the garden plants.
My goal is to find a way to recycle plastic at home. :-)

hoping2retire35

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Re: 7~12 bags of trash per week!
« Reply #48 on: December 15, 2015, 05:49:33 AM »
My goal is to find a way to recycle plastic at home. :-)

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Re: 7~12 bags of trash per week!
« Reply #49 on: December 15, 2015, 05:57:05 AM »