Saturday is Earth Day, so it seemed good time to start this thread.
In other threads I’ve mentioned composting (most recently in Random Questions), reuse, declutter item giveaway (bag a week) and packaging concerns. Thought it would be good to have a consolidated discussion and learn some new tips together.
In our case, we don’t do home composting. But we do take advantage of the city curbside compost pickup. In the compost bin we can get rid of yard waste and food waste. (Until recently we could include napkins, shredded paper, coffee filters etc … but now just food waste because the processing vendor could not handle all the other misc stuff)
That enabled us to switch to smaller 48 gallons trash bin (still rarely filled with just two people) and save $5/month. We’ve considered going to bi-weekly pickup on the smaller can, but too much stress if we miss putting out the can.
Here’s how it works in our area (we do Value Package)
D1’s childhood friend opened up a zero waste grocery store here in San Diego. She is very passionate about trash/waste reduction and we try to shop there when we are in the area.
Looking forward to seeing all the different ideas. We have always had three bins. Trash, recycling and green waste. Over the years what can go in recycle bin has changed and now a lot of plastics aren’t ok to go in bin. I need to find out if I can put compost kitchen scraps in the green waste. Our green waste gets filled to the top every week by the gardeners.
One year a lot of years ago I asked for a big yard compost bin that the county was selling for earth day. The dogs loved to knock off the lid and investigate. I’d end up with veggie and fruit scraps all over the yard.
I got into the local Buy Nothing group when I was moving, and have joined the one in my new community. The culture of my new neighborhood is to reuse as much as possible, and the group sponsors a number of events in which to donate/pick up clothing, toys, etc. People frequently ask on the group if someone has something before buying.
The most interesting things come up on BN. People have extra produce, or packaged products their kids wont eat, or they bought too much… and they post it. Someone will want it. A member is currently collecting used socks - all colors/fabrics/etc. even socks without mates or with holes - as long as they are clean. She found a place which recycles them (I dropped off a bag).
Oh man, I have a big bag of scrap socks waiting to read of a need on social media (FB Buy Nothing or NextDoor). There was a time where we used them in Sunday School for making hand puppets.
We do have a hard-to-recycle county dropoff, but I think it only accepts larger clothing items.
I use old socks as ‘hand dusters’; they are also good for cleaning the slats in shutters / blinds
Covid taught me to waste less food. I’m now a pro at making meals with “whatcha got in your refrig/pantry” and have much less food waste.
Our neighborhood (another habit enhanced by Covid) is big on people putting still usable items near the curb, first come first served. Last night I picked up 3 items that I truly was going to purchase!- a brand new watering can, a tall like new metal trellis and a perfect clay plant pot with saucer. Thanks neighbor!
I also am religious about my reusable bags and despise the plastic store bags
Recycling is our big thing. They have a bin at H’s school where you don’t even have to sort it. Just dump it there. With that, we typically only generate 1 kitchen trash bag/week plus the cat litter bags.
We have the medium sized can which is PLENTY big. We could go 6 weeks without it needing to be picked up. My big boss (trash pick-job is part of our job) says that most people need the giant ones, and often 2 if they have families. From what I see around the city when I run in the early am, this is true.
We have curbside single stream recycling here (everything can go in the same rolly bin). It’s as big as the regular garbage bin, which we only have one size of. We compost in the backyard. I try not to buy too much stuff that is overly packaged, but sometimes that is hard. We do use empty chip bags and the like for cat and dog poop disposal.
I do get confused about what can go in the recycling. They keep changing it.
We still generate too much trash, but we have at least as much recycling or more.
I love our Buy Nothing group - I am surprised by how quickly something I wouldn’t have thought twice about tossing or donating to Goodwill gets snapped up by a neighbor. And I’ve been able to pick up a few really great items myself.
It’s been my biggest “trash reduction” in the last 2 years -
Well, I love this. We have only large trashcans in my city, with pickup once a week. We also have large recycling cans, with pickup every other week. There is no composting pick up. Residents can put up to 25 clear plastic bags of yard waste at a time per week.
I’m trying to figure out what we pay for our trash/recycling pickup. It seems to be connected to our water usage? I’ll do some more research and come back to edit. From your chart, we’d do the cheapest rate – Super Value without Composting at $6.50/month. I am all for pay for what you use. Why should we pay the same as the ones who use multiple garbage cans and recycling cans?
ETA: Well, it looks like our trash and recycling fee varies, but is between $20 and $30/month. I’d thought it was the same for every residence. I know that there was no fee at all for trash and recycling pickup, and when it was added in 2012, it was $10/month for every residence.
Our youngest just got us keeping metal eating utensils in our car so if a place we are eating offers us plastic ones we can politely refuse them prior to getting them. It’s easy to keep some in the car, replacing them with clean ones when necessary.
He’s very anti-plastic so takes a mug and metal water bottle with him too for drinks. If a place isn’t using glass and won’t fill his mug/bottle instead he refuses to get a drink from them. We haven’t gone that far yet, but might.
Like others, we use our own bags at all stores now. We’ve gone to so many places where that must be done and people still get groceries, etc, that we see no need for single use, esp plastic, bags.
All kitchen food/waste items that we don’t want either go to our chickens, in our garden, or out on the hedgerow. Nothing gets thrown into the garbage. We don’t specifically compost any longer, but it does decay or get eaten.
I agree on Covid making me realize I can pull together a meal even when I think I have nothing in my refrigerator. I did that this week. I had some lettuce that I used for a salad. I remembered I had some veggie patties in my freezer and two frozen buns. Topped with the two left pieces of provolone cheese in a package. Found a tiny avocado hiding in my fridge. I also realized I had a can of chili beans,I was quite proud of myself.
I live on over 2 acres mainly weeds and I often toss leftover kitchen scraps (vegetable and fruit) onto my hillside figuring they will decompose.
I’ve brought my own grocery bags to the store for many years. For a short while I had my own produce bags to avoid the plastic but I’ve misplaced them. Worth looking for them. I also used to bring my own silicone/metal straw out with me when they banned plastic and everyone went to paper or no straws. Again I’ve gotten lack. Going to pull that out now.
I always bring my own water in a metal bottle.
Making dinner out of fridge leftovers (from our kitchen and sometimes combined with restaurants/takeout boxed food) has been more of a thing for us since the kids left. Ha…sometimes when not quite substantial enough for a meal there is a cocktail hour/snacks ahead of it.
During Covid was the first time I ever shared leftovers with a friend. She was stopping by for a spontaneous backyard picnic and offered to pick up takeout. I gave her option to graze from our bounty of leftovers. She liked the idea, where she got to sample a few dishes. Says in her house they call it, “leftover buffet”.
I have a funny story about this. In my town, we don’t have trash pickup at your home. You can hire a commercial trash hauler or you take your trash to a transfer station (used to be the dump). The transfer station is also where you can recycle. There’s an area at the transfer station called “Take it or Leave it” where people can leave anything, except large pieces of furniture or appliances. I have friends who come home from the transfer station with all kinds of stuff. Anyway, I had several items in my garage–two folding beach chairs and a Weber Grill that my daughter and her husband left at our house before they moved to go to grad school. After a few years, it was clear they didn’t want the items. I took them to the Take it or Leave it area at the transfer station. As I was taking the grill from my car, there was a guy who followed me to the area and grabbed the Weber Grill the minute I put it down.
A few days letter, there was a message on the town’s Next Door website. It said: “To the person who left the Weber grill at the transfer station, you have a lot of nerve. The grill you left had rust inside. I suppose you think people want your trash.” I was shocked. I never looked inside the grill, it sat in my garage for two years. I responded to his comment saying that it had been my daughter’s and was sitting in the garage. I never opened or used it and had no idea there was rust inside. The guy didn’t respond and most of the folks who left comments said that the guy should have looked inside if he had been concerned about rust. Also, several folks commented that it was free and he didn’t have to take it. I thought the guy was just nasty and mean spirited.
That’s terrible! Maybe he should have taken a moment instead of nearly grabbing it out of your hands! He had a lot of nerve!
I feel like there is nothing that I’ve put out to curb that hasn’t been taken. Last week it was a chaise cushion that was in perfect condition. Except faded on one side. I love my deck and like to switch my cushion every couple years - it was gone quickly. Odd chairs. Faded but fine kids beach chairs. Plastic carts that held kids craft items. All gone quickly
Oh my, that was nervy. Possibly you could have gotten scrap metal money for it (as he could probably do now). But instead you kindly left it where there was a chance for reuse in another home.
He was probably PO’d because he thought he could sell it and make money
We have a compost bin. It’s not that big, but we throw stuff in it all the time and the level never seems to go up much. We finally emptied out some of the soil it generated. Wow! Our neighbor is a professional gardener and couldn’t believe how dark the dirt was. It really is cool - no work at all.
