That's Garbage
I was pulling Donna’s leg on her blog the other day. She wrote about having to dig through her garbage to find something she had thrown away. She said she dug through coffee grounds, carrot peels and cardboard boxes. Anyone that has a garden, or chickens, or a dog and a local place to recycle things should have a minimal amount ofgarbage.
I am always shocked when I see that someone has thrown a newspaper or a can or bottle in the trash. Anyone that stays with us gets to hear how we separate things and we encourage them to follow our ways while they stay with us. I have a compost bucket under the sink for coffee grounds, banana peels, egg shells and things I don’t feed the chickens. That stuff is mixed with our horse manure and lawn clippings and eventually ends up in the garden.
There is another container that I use for kitchen scraps for the chickens. The horses get any apples or carrots that get old. Any fat or bacon grease gets melted down and mixed with bird seed and turned into home-made suit cakes that I store in the freezer to feed the birds the following winter. Cardboard, cans, bottles, office paper and newspaper gets recycled. I burn the paper that can’t be recycled.
I know that people find it hard to believe that I only take my trash to the transfer station once a year and that it all fits in one load in my six foot truck bed. As a better example, I saved an empty two and a half pound nut jar from Costco and I’ve been putting my un-recyclable trash in there for the last two weeks and I’ll probably get one or two more weeks of content in there before I can no longer fit anything in it.
I’m sure I’ll still have a full truck when I go to the transfer station this year. There will be broken things and construction waste from when I re-roof my shop this summer and when I replace some broken glass from the greenhouse, but it is always my goal to create a little waste as possible.
posted by The Guy Who Writes This at 4:00 AM
10 Comments:
If it makes you feel any better... we recycle aluminum cans. ROFL!
In Toronto we have one bin for recycled goods, one for composting items and one for "other" garbage. I often wonder if each ends up where it actually should...
We do have a recycle bin for paper and metals and plastics and we use it. Now and then something gets thrown away that could be recycled, but we do try to keep up with it. I've often thought of composting my biodegradables but we don't garden and the dogs are just tearing up the lawn anyway, so what's the point? I figure some of that stuff needs to go to the landfill to help break down the other stuff that's going under the ground. I'm helping, in my own way. I'm sure it's not the "greenest" way to go, but at least I'm rationalizing it to myself.
And here our family is, on Western Oregon Waste's route with two 98 gallon trash cans, one for garbage, one for recylables, sorting, cleaning, smashing cans, the proper plastic containers and legal paper, storing both cans in my basement as a raccoon deterent, doing their work for then in essence and these clowns want to raise their rates because their profitability isn't penciling out with their buyers the way they like?
Jeeeeeesh!!!
We have the exact same program as Guy.
Everytime the compost bucket is full and I carry it to the compost pile I marvel at how much weight is saved from the garbage trailer.
Although its overall contribution to the compost pile is like spitting in the ocean, It surely is the ideal despensation.
By the way, I may actually till the garden in a few days!!!
A couple years ago, our renter racked up over $400 in garbage bills...and I am PRETTY SURE she didn't recycle. How does the garbage company let someone rack up that amount in garbage bills? We recycle, reuse (like plastic jugs), have SEVERAL bins for old food for the chickens and pigs. We are salvaging most of the old/new barn materials (it fell due to this winters snow). I drive an old car...I just couldn't justify buying a new one when the old one just needed a new engine. There have been times when I have given my hubby the stink eye when he's brought home another "treasure" (probably from a dumpster or something being thrown out at work) but low and behold, he ends up using those treasures. One mans junk is another mans treasure :)
Donna, Does it make you feel better?
That's what matters.
Beth, one for compost? That's pretty cool.
Darev, do realize that those you guard rationalize what they've done, too. ; )
Patrick and your service in town is mandatory so you are encouraged to make sure you get your monies worth. Though I must say before the mandatory service, folks from town would come out to the country and toss bags on the side of the road. I haven't seen much of that since the old days. Can't you go on once monthly service? My annual garbage bill when I make my pilgrimage to the dump is $25 a year.
Gearhead, to bad the Mrs. won't let you keep chickens. They are very appreciative of compost.
Ginger, that was so sad about your arena, I'm glad you can reuse the materials. Funny thing was that I collected used windows so I could use them to build a greenhouse. One night we had a wind storm and all the windows I collected fell over and broke. Within two weeks I collected enough windows again to build the greenhouse.
Ooohhh. That was dirty pool, Guy.
i love it. in the apartment i live in, there's not much in the way of recycling "rules." i admit that i generate entirely too much garbage for one person, but i'm working on it.
Darev, I never said I was nice.
Dalia, Take command and whip those neighbors into shape.
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