RomanceClass.com Forums Romance Organizing and Cleaning Trying to go without trash service

That's a good point, I would agree that putting trash ANYWHERE so it's in a stream to go into the ground is an important thing to try to reduce as much as possible. But there may simply always be things that have to go in that direction. If we all at least reduced it, that would be a huge step in the right direction.

I've learned a lot from your postings; I guess since where I live we do not have the option of not having garbage service, we pay whether it is used or not...not having it is just not a consideration.

To be fair though everyone must also recycle everything possible and we are only allowed so many pounds of trash a week.

Now if only I could find a place to keep all these bins for sorting!

Kathy

Wow, the idea of having a community only allow a certain amount of waste sounds very enlightened! How many bins do you need to have for sorting? Do they take all plastics? Does everyone in your community cooperate with all this?

I just read an interesting book on people who dumpster dive and it made me think of all the really good things people throw in the trash, that should be properly diverted to Goodwill and thrift stores instead.

I often fish recyclables out of dumpsters, and things that are donate-able, and take care of them myself. Sometimes there are cans in the trash right next to a bin to recycle cans, which always confuses me. can't people read? Do they really not care at all? I don't get it.

It's kind of an obsession. The recycling/waste stream thing. I am not sure why I am like this, or where I get it from.

Jilly - it's a great thing to be obsessed about! It's our world you're saving!

Kathy - it's so intriguing that they have a hard limit on the amount you can put in! I suppose technically I have a limit too - we have a weekly trash service and we can only put out this giant blue bin for actual trash. It holds I think 8 large trash bags. But we never even come close to filling it so it hadn't occurred to me. But what if we were a family of 8?

Last year everyone had to buy a trash bin from the city, there were 3 sizes. Although we rarely fill it we purchased a large for those odd times when there is lots of trash, like after holidays.

They take almost all recyclables except plastic #5, so we are careful not to purchase that one. I think we have 4 or 5 bins for recyclables. We get far too many newspapers and magazines. We're letting those expire and reading online.

Every so often there is a day where everyone can put out things like old furniture, fridges etc and the city will pick it up. I believe there is a small charge. All waste from the yards (clippings and such) has to go into a bag for that purpose, There is a charge for each bag. Composting would be ideal but houses are very close to each other here and yard space is minimal.

I believe for the most part everyone cooperates with this system as we don't have any other choice.

Kathy

Kathy, that is so great you are careful to try not to purchase #5 plastic. We all tend to forget that part - that not buying an unrecyclable item is important. It's even better than recycling, which is still just a bandaid on the main issue of overconsumption. Good on ya!

Also, I so hear you on the magazines and papers. I bring all my used magazines to thrift stores or the RV libraries, but still. It's just better to read things online and not use up more resources in the first place.

This is very interesting, that that city takes yard waste for composting, or at least to turn into mulch. Again, very enlightened town! You must have a great mayor or active community.

I think i will start a thread on composting, as the lack of space is a very real issue, and there has got to be a way.

When I lived in Flagstaff, I LOVED curbside days. I'd drive around and pick up the BEST stuff. It makes me wish I had a big flatbed truck so I could grab it all and either recycle or goodwill everything, or bring it to a salvage yard.

None of that stuff should be taking up space in landfills.

I wonder if people would pay me to do this kind of thing. I will have to think about that when I get to Oklahoma.

An awful lot of the stuff gets picked up...either by people cruising for stuff or some people who sell metal or I sure some people use it for garage sales. Sometimes I can't believe the brand new looking kids toys that get put out on the curb.

I don't know if we're so enlightened or if its by necessity. There are 5,000 people per square mile here and there just isn't enough landfill space for all of the refuse.

Kathy

You guys bring up excellent points about magazines and newspapers - I'll start a thread on that!