When I first heard this news, I was a bit scared. We have more trash than we would like, mainly because of dog and cat poop which has to be picked up and thrown away and can not be easily composted in an urban setting (we have been trying to compost some of our dog waste, but it is not really working on our very small piece of land). As soon as these changes were made to Portland's trash collection, we became diligent about being careful of what we put in the trash. We made sure that all food scraps were going to our backyard compost pile or to the city compost, but we also started being more diligent about saving plastics that could not be recycled curbside and dropping those off at a recycling center about once a month. And, we realized, with a couple small changes, we didn't really have as much trash as we thought.....this reduced trash actually works great for us, and in fact, we rarely even bring a full can out to the curb on trash day.
It has been a bit of a concern, however, when we have had big cleaning and purging sessions (like this past weekend). Some things are not recyclable and if we can't think of another use for them or a place to bring them that would find another use for them, then there is not much to do except throw it out. A good example is our car seats. Todd got in a car accident several months back and so the kid's car seats needed to be replaced. The hard plastic parts of the car seats can be dropped off at collection centers, where they will be recycled, but they will only take the hard plastic part. That means the belt and cloth sections are trash, as Goodwill and other similar places will not take them either. I racked my brain trying to think of a way to use them, but when you live with 4 people in 800 square feet, we don't have space to hang onto things that we will likely never use. So, into the trash they went. Another good example is styrofoam. It CAN be recycled in our area, but it is about a 30 minute drive each way and you have to pay to drop it off. So, for the small amount of styrofoam we had, it was not worth the drive. So into the trash that went as well. And this week our trash is full already, and we still have a few days until the trash will come.
Some Portlanders have complained about the new trash system, or have had to increase their can size to accommodate the bi-weekly pick up schedule, but I am happy about it. In general, it has made me much more conscientious of my trash and what I am putting in there. Can it be recycled? Can it be reused? I hope one day to take a Master Recycler course, however, right now that is a bigger commitment than I have time for.
In the meantime, I am still looking for ways to be creative and to reduce my family's trash even more. Does anybody have any great suggestions?
Wow, that's really cool that your trash system takes compost! I'm just excited that our recycle system finally accepts ALL plastics (for a long time it was only # 1 and # 2). And we might be getting roll carts soon for recycle, which would be awesome. = ) But, Georgia is a little slow on things like this!
ReplyDeleteBoo about the car accident- I wish we had a better system for garbage removal here-
ReplyDeleteWe have a good system in Oakland as well, but as careful as I am, with three animals and three kids we never have enough room in our trash bin even when we are good about composting!!
ReplyDeleteWe have a similiar system here with the compost and garbage collection, except they still collect garbage every week. We compost all of our food scraps so we don't use the compost collection.
ReplyDeleteWe also have pick up of cans, plastics, etc one week and paper and cardboard the next.
We don't accumulate too much garbage with all the different pick ups, which makes us feel pretty good. We usually have one small bag per week.
When we have big stuff to get rid of we try to find ways, like you to give it a second life, or recycle it, but sometimes it means a drive to the dump if we can't figure something out.
Have you considering throwing pet waste in the toilet? I don't know much about it, but always wanted to give it a try myself.
ReplyDeleteYour system sounds great, really. We used to live in University City, MO and they had the best! city recycling. All plastics, all paper/paperboard, everything else, and a local drop-off center accessible 24/7 where you could drop off electronics, clothes and other things. No compost, but they did have city-wide leaf collection in the fall.
Lubbock's system, on the other hand, is ATROCIOUS and truly shocking for a college town of 280.000. No curbside recycling, drop-off centers only open during business hours and limited hours on the weekends, not even yard-waste composting, and even at the recycling centers, they only collect the bare minimum. The plastics rule reads, #! and #2 only and "no tub-like containers." What?!? Shocking that such a city even exists anymore.
Sorry for the very delayed response! We were out of town.... Yes, I did think about flushing our cat waste, at least, but it is not recommended (and actually illegal in some places, including the state of California). The reason being that wastewater treatment plants are not set up to treat cat-bourne toxins (and don't test for them in the cleaned water) but they can still affect human health. And, we have big dogs so flushing their waste is out of the question. I hate being such a contributor to the waste stream through my pets, but I don't want to forgo having animals either. If only I lived on a huge farm...... (sigh!)
Deleteare you familiar with Bea Johnson? and the zerowastehome blog? There are only the 2 of us in our 1000 sq ft house, but I totally undertand the "no storage" problem. We still don't have curbside recycling here--but there is a grassroots recycling project we've become active with in town. We drag stuff there--as a result only have to put out the trashcan once a month--if that.
ReplyDeleteBea is way way way more diligent than I could ever be----but she has some fabulous ideas.
Sorry for the much delayed response.. and yes! I do follow her blog and she is amazing... but way more hard core than I am ready to be right now. I try to be careful about what comes into out home, but I also don't have strict rules and regulations either. I think as the kids get older their will be less waste (I hope so at least!).
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