Reducing Household Waste

Our municipality just announced that effective January 19, the bag limit for curbside collection will be reduced from four to three.  Our waste collection here is testy at best.  There is a 40 lb limit per bag and if there are more bags put out than there should be, they simply don't pick up any.  Seriously, if the limit is four and you put out five, they take none!  This is rather discerning since sometimes a resident forgets and waste not picked up quite often is driven into the country side to be dumped in ditches.  The recycle collectors are not quite as testy but they will pull items that shouldn't be in the recycle bin out, leaving them on your lawn to blow around.  At any rate, those not playing to the rules end up with problems.  There is a bit of resentment too since those living in apartment buildings apparently have no restrictions so it does take a bit of adjustment if they move into a residence with curbside collection.

There are a multitude of ways to reduce your household waste.  We seldom have more than one kitchen catcher size of household waste per week in addition to our recyclables that are collected every two weeks.  I personally think we still produce too much actual waste so am working on reducing it, ideally to one kitchen catcher per month or less.  Here are a few ways to reduce household waste put to the curb:

• kitchen scraps - garburator, compost, give large bones to friends with dogs
• paper - go paperless wherever possible including newspaper and magazine subscriptions,
• cardboard/packaging - avoid excess packaging especially single serve items, avoid blister packs, buy loose produce instead of packaged, avoid wrapped produce
• plastic - use reusable shopping bags
• miscellaneous - repurpose or donate

The easiest and quickest way to reduce household waste is to avoid all excess packaging since a good portion of packaging cannot be recycled.  A good portion of excess packaging is food packaging, mainly single serve foods like snacks.  Replacing these items with alternatives that have less packaging can not only reduce your household waste but also save you money.

Curbside waste should be the last consideration for any household item that can either be repurposed or donated.  There is something inherently satisfying about repurposing an item that is no longer needed for its intended purpose.  Even old socks can be repurposed for crafts or dusting.  Old T-shirts can be turned into pillows or cut into strips then crafted into throw rugs.  If you truly can't repurpose and item then consider donating it. 

Curbside Waste and Privacy

Back when I was knee high to a grasshopper, there were a few town folk who were regular garbage pickers.  Like clockwork, they would come to rummage through your trash before the garbage collectors picked it up.  It was small town Canada, a gentler time and my Mom knew them so never minded.  Over the years the garbage pickers persist but quite often especially in larger areas they are not so benign.

Household waste put to the curb for collection can tell a lot about the residents living there.  Personal information can sometimes make its way to the curb making it easy pickings for someone trying to get information on you.  Items in your trash can give a would be thief not only personal information but clues about what may be in your house, your interests and your lifestyle.

We have a garburator and paper shredder which significantly reduces what goes to the curbside.  We seldom have much more than a kitchen catcher size garbage bag of waste and our recycle bins when we are home.  Our curbside waste never goes out the night before collection mainly due to a few folks who like going through the recycle bins for cans to sell.  Most of our cans go directly to the recycler anyway so it isn't a big concern other than having to clean up the mess they make looking for can.  If the weather is nasty or I don't plan on being home to pick up the empty recycle bins as soon as they are emptied, then the curbside waste waits until the next collection date.

Surprisingly, even though there is no personal information or food scraps there is still a lot to be learned about us in those bins.  Some of that information could be used negatively, mainly to determine where we shop or some of the activities we are involved in.  I'm not concerned because it would take a lot of extrapolation on the part of anyone snooping through what little there is there in the very short window of time it is out there.

However, certain items put to the curb can be a potential problem or present privacy issues for some.  For example, an unnamed employer here had the practice of checking employees recycle bins for alcohol containers then finding a way to get rid of those employees where he found the containers because he was against the use of alcohol.  He was wrong, definitely overstepping his bounds, and finally got caught but just like incriminating Facebook posts, incriminating items in your curbside waste can have negative effects.  Curbside waste can be a target during a nasty break-up.  Packaging from electronics can be as good as an open invitation for someone to break in.  Children's schoolwork can end up in the recycle bin giving a stalker at the very least your child's name but sometimes their grade and/or teacher's name.  Armed with that it's easy to find where your child goes to school.  Some items can even give would be thieves clues as to when you're away from home or what type of security measures you are using. 

Counteract the privacy concerns of curbside waste by putting it out as close to pick-up as possible.  Be conscious of what you put to the curb.  Don't put electronic boxes to the curb.  Take these to the recycle station yourself.  Remove shipping labels as well as labels from containers that you might not want neighbours know you are using.  Really, does your neighbour need to know your hair colour is from a box?  Crush smaller boxes and containers, then put inside larger ones.  Shred anything with your name, address or other personal information.  When it comes to paper waste, if in doubt, shred it.  Take a pro-active approach when it comes to curbside waste and your privacy.

The Garbage Truck

I have a serious love/hate relationship with garbage trucks.  First and foremost, I don't want to put anything into the garbage truck that could be reused, recycled or anything else.  Second, the garbage truck takes away stuff I don't want so out of sight, out of mind BUT the garbage trucks are out to get me.  I'm not kidding!  Take this morning for example when I am running down the street in my pajamas and slippers with my kitchen catcher sized garbage bag at 6:50 AM.  Umm, the town says to have your garbage out to the curb by 7:00 AM so by default I had 10 minutes BUT no they decide to race through our subdivision collecting the garbage 10 minutes early.  HOWEVER, if I had put the garbage out the night before they would show up somewhere around noonish.  Garbage trucks are seriously out to get me!

I have a real issue about putting out garbage the night before partly due to living in a rural location and really not liking cleaning up any mess from marauding animals so our garbage goes to the curb first thing in the morning.  A few years ago, we had someone rummaging through our waste mainly looking for aluminum cans but good gosh, they made more mess than an animal would.  I just don't like the idea of garbage sitting out overnight if it can be helped.  So on waste collection day, I'm up bright and early to get our small bag of waste and recycle bins out before 7:00 AM.  I'm usually taking everything out around 6:45 AM and always before 7:00 AM.

These waste collectors are beyond testy.  They won't take anything over 4 bags of trash although you can cheat by putting two bags into a trash bin so technically with two trash bins and 2 bags you can get away with putting out two extra bags.  That's not a problem for us because quite frankly, I don't even think the 4 kitchen catcher size bags of garbage we produce in a month would fill a large black garbage bag.  These guys have it easy when it comes to us.  Seriously, rather than put anything large out to the road, we take it to the waste station ourselves.  That include any brush and yard waste.  We are gone pretty much 3 months of the year which means they only have to stop for a small garbage bag at most weekly, 9 months of the year but sometimes we just let it accumulate until we have a full large bag so they really only need to stop at our house 9 to 10 times in a year.  AND I give them a holiday bonus (card with gift card)  PLUS I never complain to the town when they are being testy so you would think they would be just a wee bit nicer to us.

Smelly Garbage

We have been on a waste reduction goal for a few months now.  I am very pleased to announce that it is working.  On average, we have a bit less than a kitchen catcher garbage bag of curb side waste that will end up in the landfill.  We are working on reducing that further.  Part of the reduction in household waste is due to the installation of an Insinkerator food waste disposal last August but the rest is due to an increased awareness with respect to packaging that can't be recycled.

Kitchen waste tends to be smelly and while the food waste disposal takes care of most of this problem, it does not take care of all of it.  Smelly garbage is problematic on a few levels.  We spend extended periods of time away from our main home.  If we miss garbage day before leaving, that garbage can sit for a month or so attracting rodents while stinking up the garage.  Our last home was rural so stinky garbage attracted racoons, skunks, squirrels and birds.  Let me tell you, crows and grackles are horrid for ripping apart garbage bags if they get any hint of a smell.  This home is urban bordering on farmland so again, stinky garbage attracts the pests especially the birds and occasionally dogs.

We have virtually eliminated smelly garbage.  Now, we can leave for a month at a time knowing our garbage is not going to smell or attract critters.  It was actually easier than I thought it would be.    Here's a few things we have done to curb the smell garbage issue:

• food waste disposal - The food waste disposal takes care of most of the food waste the compost can't handle due to volume.  I do a lot of home canning so the compost cannot always handle a large influx of produce waste that can become rather smelly during the warmer months.
• bones and fat - Bones and fat can quickly become smelly during the warm months.  Larger bones and fat are not put down the food waste disposal.  Rather, large bones are given to a friend with a dog that really enjoys them.  Fat is scooped into a zipper style storage bag then discarded when full with the exception of bacon grease that is collected and used for cooking.  I also mix some of the fat with bird seed to feed the birds during the winter months.
• zipper style storage bags - I have a lot of this style bag used mainly for on the boat and traveling with a few used for food storage.  I don't throw them out and they can't go into the recycle bin.  If I have kitchen waste (eg. meat wrappers, fat, bones) that I know will smell that can't go into the compost bin or food waste disposal, it goes into a used zipper style storage bag.  Now, odours can escape from these types of bags so I keep the bag in the freezer until garbage day.  If I miss a garbage day, the bag simply sits in the freezer until the next garbage day.  At best, I may have about a half a quart bag of waste that could smell each week so saving it until the bag is full isn't a huge problem.  

Insinkerator® Badger® 5 (Model 5-86) Food Waste Disposal

I recently wrote about our new gaburator aka food waste disposal.    It is an Insinkerator® Badger® 5 (Model 5-86) half HP unit that was bought on sale and installed as a DIY project.  We have had food waste disposal units in two of our owned homes as well as our vacation home.  A food waste disposal is a wonderful asset when doing a lot of cooking and home canning especially in an urban setting.  Don't get me wrong as a food disposal unit is not meant to see how much food you can put down it, it is meant as a tool to help you manage kitchen waste. 

It took about two hours for my husband to install the food waste disposal.  He had to run wiring for the switch, cut into the existing plumbing then reconnect the sinks and dishwasher.  It was fairly straight forward with no real problems other than having to go to the hardware store for a part he needed.

As you can see, the food waste disposal does take up a bit of room in the cabinet under the sink but really it isn't too bad.  There is still plenty of room for storage.  I don't keep a lot under the sink to begin with.

The garbage bin is part of a recycling series of bins available at Home Hardware.  The flip lids are colour coded as to the type of recycle material to put in.  We only had room for the one bin which is fine as our larger recycle bins are in the attached garage just off the landing.  The food waste disposal in combination with the compost bin, black box and blue box has reduced our actual waste that goes to the curb to mainly packaging that can't be recycled and bones.  The larger bones go to our friend's dog so at least they don't go into the waste.

I processed 10 dozen ears of corn shortly after the food waste disposal was installed so it wasn't a good week to judge our waste reduction.  Still we didn't have a full pail of garbage at the curb which was down from our normal but in fairness we are still unpacking and decluttering so there is a bit more waste than normal.  Last week I did a bushel of peaches and started tomatoes.  I put out less than a full kitchen bag of actual waste to the curb for this morning's waste collection.  I still want to reduce further.  More on that to come...

Garden Gnome
©2006-2012

Household Activities That Increase Household Waste

Reducing our household waste is one of our goals this year.  Household waste is anything that cannot be re-used, recycled, donated or disposed of otherwise.  In short, household waste ends up in the landfill.  Landfills are not an eco-friendly way of dealing with household waste.  Some items can take decades to break down while certain plastics never break down in landfills.  The reality is landfills are becoming over filled so at some point everyone is going to have no choice but to reduce their household waste.   It may sound simplistic but one of the easiest ways to reduce household waste is to avoid buying those products that create household waste like blister packaging, plastic packaging, over packaged items,  and to eliminate buying anything packaged that you possibly can.  However, I have noticed there are certain household activities that can significantly increase household waste.  Here is how we keep these activities in check with respect to producing household waste:

• home canning - Home canning is likely one of the most frugal and eco-friendly things you can do with very little waste being produced.  Jars are reused as are rings and some styles of lids (Tattler, glass inserts).  The metal snap lids can be put into the recycle bin or used in crafting projects.  A high influx of produce during the busy canning season can produce waste like corn husks, corn cobs, fruit pits, peelings, and containers while year round canning produces waste like bones, fat and minimal produce waste.  Corn husks can go to the burn pile as they don't compost well.  Dried corn cobs and dried fruit pits are given to a friend who burns them in his wood stove for heating his home.  I dehydrate some produce peelings to make vegetable powders and put the rest in the compost bin.  If there is more than can be dehydrated or composted they go into the food waste disposal.  I have several plastic hampers and fruit baskets so always take my own when going to a produce stand or orchard.  All bones, fat and meat trimmings are used to make stocks.  I freeze them until I have enough then make and can stock.  Fat from defatting the stock goes into the food waste disposal as does small bones.  Large bones are given to a friend who has a huge German shepherd that likes bones.
• large get togethers - This includes family events like holiday celebrations and family celebrations as well as entertaining, of which do a fair amount.  We actively encourage recycling by having appropriate bins easily accessible.  We discourage wrapping paper for any celebration opting instead to use reusable cloth gift bags or unique, non-disposable wrapping.  I bought bulk pack restaurant grade stainless steal cutlery at Sam's Club so I have more than enough for 30 place settings to eliminate using disposable cutlery.  I have five sets of dinnerware giving me more than enough for 30 place settings to eliminate disposable plates and bowls.  If the event is over 40, we get plates and cutlery from one of our friends who owns a restaurant/catering service.  Everything including serving ware is geared towards being reusable or at worst case can go into the recycle bin.  I love cooking from scratch which keeps kitchen waste to a minimum to begin with.  Quite often folks bring homemade dishes and goodies to these events usually in containers they can take home.  There is always way too much food!  Food waste can be a problem at larger events so we started a tradition where everyone takes home a meal for the following day.  This actually started with a pig roast we held for our 30th Anniversary with about 75 in attendance.  We realized there was too much food left over some that couldn't be froze or kept for much more than a couple of days.  It has become a huge hit with our family and friends AND we are glad the food will get used rather than wasted.
• small get togethers - We host monthly games night ten months of the year and we have spur of the moment get togethers like pool parties, games night and just having a few people over several times a month.  I very much discourage folks from bringing pre-packaged snacks like potato chips buy offering healthier, homemade alternatives without the packaging. 
• personal care - This is one area where it is difficult to reduce waste other than simply not use certain products, especially those sold in tubes that can't be recycled.  That includes sunscreens, toothpastes, medicinal salves, herbal remedies, creams and lotions.  If I can find an alternative in a jar, I buy that instead.  For the most part, we have simply reduced what we buy of products sold in tubes.  A lot of cosmetic containers like lipsticks, eyeliner, powders, nail polish and that type of thing cannot be recycled either.  I've opted for the natural look using aloe vera, sunblock and occasionally a mineral powder.  That has eliminated a lot of cosmetic containers.   Toothbrushes are still sold in eco-unfriendly packaging so unfortunately that does end up in our household waste.
• cleaning - The containers of most cleaners sold in plastic bottles can be recycled but some cleaner containers like the pressboard in powdered scouring containers cannot.  Aerosol containers can't be recycled.  We opted to use natural cleaners (eg. vinegar, household ammonia, baking soda, soap) and nix using commercial cleaners other than Simple Green, a non-toxic biodegradable concentrate.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2012

Plastic Shopping Bags

The debate over whether to use paper or plastic shopping bags is almost over.  Few stores use paper shopping bags and those that do only give them to you if you have more than a few items.  The Ontario government put a mandatory 5¢ charge on all plastic shopping bags encouraging consumers to use re-usable cloth shopping bags.  Most stores have their own inexpensive version of these re-usable shopping bags complete with advertising.  We seldom have plastic shopping bags even at our vacation home because we simply don't shop the way many consumers do.  Those plastic bags we do get are recycled at the local Walmart.  Here are a few things we have done to reduce our use of plastic bags:

• heavy plastic bins or totes - No Frills sold heavy plastic grocery bins for $5.  I think we have five of them.  They out perform cardboard in that they are reusable without breaking down or collapsing if they get wet.   They are stackable so we keep 2 or 3 in the vehicles for larger grocery purchases.  We have several larger totes for bulk purchases like meats.
• reusable cloth shopping bags - We have tons of these!  They are used for anywhere we are shopping not just the grocery store.  At first some stores didn't like this but now they are catching on that plastic shopping bags are no longer in vogue.
• nix shopping bags entirely - Quite often I walk to the grocery or hardware store.  If buying only a few items, I get just what will fit in my backpack.  If buying a bit more, a bring the collapsible tag-a-long shopping cart.  If running into a store for one or two items, I simply decline any bag and carry as is.  When we were getting ready for moving last year, I purposely used cardboard boxes from the grocery store for groceries that then could be recycled to pack our belongings for the move.
• produce hampers - A Canadian produce hamper holds 5/8 of a bushel.  Most are made of heavy plastic.  We have several of these because we pick our own, frequent fruit and vegetable stands and get tomatoes in bulk from a relative.  These sturdy hard plastic hampers can double as smaller rubbish bins or a child's dirty clothes hamper and they can be used to cart groceries into the house.  We keep a couple in each vehicle. 

Garden Gnome
©2006-2012

New Garburator aka Food Waste Disposal Installed

My husband installed the new garburator (food waste disposal) today.  It is an Insikerator® Badger® 5 that we bought on sale and installed as a DIY project.  I did take a couple of pictures but really all they show it it installed.  The installation was problem free taking only a couple of hours.  This is a half HP unit, that will more than satisfy our needs.

We wanted a garburator as we have had them in the past.  Even though they do use electricity they are an eco-friendly alternative to transporting food waste to landfills if you have that option.  They cover any excess food waste during the busiest home canning season that cannot easily be added to the home compost bin.  Garburators are great for disposing of leftover table scraps and plate scrapings that cannot easily be used in another dish and they will handle meats bits, fatty foods and bones as well. 

Our goal is to reduce our household waste to under one kitchen garbage bag of actual waste per month.  Between the compost bin and [trust me in an urban setting we would produce way too much compost] the garburator we should essentially have no smelly garbage at all.  That means if we miss a week or two of curbside waste collection or forget to put it out before an extended stay at our vacation home, any garbage in the garage is not going to attract rodents or other wildlife and it won't smell.  I am really looking forward to odour free household waste!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2012

Garbage Day

Our garbage collection day is Thursday with pick-up usually before 8 AM.  It's an odd day and rather inconvenient for putting out garbage from the weekend when entertaining but overall it isn't bad.  Every other week they collect the recycle bins on the same morning so at least we don't have to worry about remembering a different day.  Several years ago I saw a news clip about a family in British Columbia that only had if I recall correctly two small shopping bags of garbage for the entire year.  Everything was recycled.  Ascribing to that ideal has proven to be almost impossible.  Even though we put out on average one large garbage bag each week and even though that is a lot less than our neighbours, I am still not happy about it.  We have cut back and cut back yet the garbage is still there!  Here's some of the things we do and yet still have garbage for pick-up.

• compost - We eat a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables which means a lot of trimmings.  I compost what I can but with the amount we eat even the compost cannot keep up.   In addition to the daily produce consumed, we go through a vast amount of produce for home canning and freezing at least a year's worth at a time.  Aesthetically and in terms of space there is only so many compost bins we can have and due to property limitations there is only so much compost we can use and give away. 
• non-compostable food scraps - Certain food scraps cannot go into the compost.  These include fats, oils, dairy, corn cobs, fish parts and type of thing.  Two houses ago we had a food garburator which helped immensely but until we move back into town a garburator is not an option.  I save larger bones for a friend of ours who has a dog.  I also save bones for stock making which gives me a useful product before having to toss the bones.  Cooking oil is a huge concern as the only way to dispose of it is in the garbage. 
• food containers - We use little in the way of food containers since I do a lot of home canning.  What we can't curb side recycle which is mainly plastic tub containers are used around the house and garden but what we can't use find their way into the garbage.  This concerns me and it won't be a problem when we move into town but for now it is a problem.  Short of not buying cottage cheese, sour cream, ice cream and ricotta cheese there isn't a way to eliminate these containers so finding a way to recycle them is the only option.
• burnables - We are technically rural so can have a burn pile or barrel but we don't.  While this is a ready solution and we have used a relative's burn pile for brush, burning normal household garbage just contributes to air pollution trading the landfill issue with air quality issues.  Although some household waste could be burned we don't take advantage of this.  
• excess packaging - We are quite diligent about reducing the amount of packaging we bring into the house.  Less in means less that has to be tossed out.  We  use reusable shopping bags as well as shop farm stands, farmers' markets and bulk food stores which eliminates a lot of food packaging.  We are at the point where we don't need to buy a lot of household items so that saves on packaging as well.  Still there is some packaging that is unavoidable but we keep looking for alternatives.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011