Trash Talk

How much time do you spend thinking about trash? The few minutes it takes to get the bag from the kitchen to the curb? Those few seconds of smelling something happily rotting away before you slam the lid and retreat to another room?

I think about trash All The Time!

Which is new.

And kind of exciting!

I have to admit that I've always given a few casual thoughts to trash throughout my day to day - thanks to my Earthy Crunchy Mama (backstory and guess blogs to come!) I have always recycled and composted whenever possible. But since I was introduced to the idea of Zero Waste and dove head first into reading up on it I spend So Much More time thinking about trash than I ever thought I would! Instead of just Throwing Things Away I both stop to consider if there are alternative fates for it - and if I should even be using such an item in the first place!

I always took for granted one use only items (being a middle class, suburban child of the '90s, they were a fact of life). I never got frustrated that the lid of my disposable cup at the pizza parlor (rather than a washable cup, as we were dining in) had a recyclable lid and the pizza parlor had no recycling bin!

I have already announced that Zero Waste, should it ever become a realistic goal for me, is too far down the line of even making it a goal at the moment. I'm working on doing the Small Doable Thing. Which means taking a cue from Mrs. Almost Average over at The Rubbish Diet, and "slimming my bin." To that effect I have started to keep track of how frequently I take our 13 gallon trash bag (the heavy duty black ones are just too ridiculous - and much bigger than my trash can!) out to the curb. I was noticing (before the new year, when I got a new calendar and officially started watching my habits) a 1 to 1.5 week bag life.

Looks like the most recent bag will be lasting a FULL TWO WEEKS!!!

So there goes my goal... which was to keep curb trips down to once every week and a half. If we can go for two weeks once, we can do it again!!!

But how did I manage it? Well, as started, I recycle like a madwoman. I also compost. Obsessively. But what about the smell? (Composters don't enjoy meat products. Or things that have been close personal friends with meat products. I know there are options out there for the composting of such items, but as the property I am living on is not presently my own - my options are a bit limited) To start it helps that our trash can has a fancy shmancy odor blocker in the lid. I also stole someone's idea (I forget whose blog I yoinked it from) and have started using the freezer! Gross chicken saturated styrofoam and shrink wrap? Bits of chicken fat that you trimmed off before cooking? Shrimp tails? Grab one of those lingering plastic grocery bags (because they WILL find their way into the house when you're not looking), throw it in, tie the bag, and shove it in the corner of the freezer. (Obviously you don't need to use a new bag every time. Just untie the old one and add to it until you are ready to make a trip to the curb!) Now I don't have any more horrid smells coercing me to remove the trash bag before it is full!

I just saved plastic, money, time, and have a more accurate idea of just how much trash we generate! Yay me! ^_^

I also have only 2 bins in my house. The aforementioned kitchen trash and a tiny bin in the bathroom. Nothing in the bedroom. Not one in the spare room. If I want to throw something away, I have to get up and walk to the kitchen.

How many times a week/month/year do you take your trash out? How many bins do you have tucked around your home? What would happen if you took one out of play for a little while? Would you notice? Do you have any bin slimming tips to share???

Goal: Consistently go 2 full weeks between emptying kitchen trash! (Future goal: 3!)

To do list: Visit the city's waste disposal site and make sure that I am recycling everything appropriately/find out if I can recycle more! Maybe send some email for clarification...?

Make bags for buying produce! (To be fair, this will be on the to do list for a while as the fabric that I need, which I already own, is in the far back corner of my storage unit...) (Yes, my pack rattery will eventually be addressed)

Mend clothes! (Yes, sewing machine, I can here you snickering at me over there from your corner!)