One of the biggest changes that I have noted about our transfer from home living to apartment living is trash.
In New Home, we had a dedicated trash bin and dedicated recycle bin. With four to five people living there at the same time, we regularly almost filled both bins. Now that we have relocated, things are quite different - in two ways.
The first way is simply in the amount of "trash" we generate. If I am here on my own, I possible generate one "full" kitchen bag of trash a week, if I combine changing the rabbit three times a week, collecting litter box waste every day, and the detritus of modern living (I go more often of course because of the waste, but it could be contained in a single bag). If The Ravishing Mrs. TB is here, perhaps we generate 1.5 or maybe 2 bags. Our recycle is much less as well, as cans and bottles are saved for a premium, leaving only cardboard and plastic to be walked to the dumpster.
Mind you, we do not pay less because we generate less. That is a percentage fixed fee.
The other difference is simply in how people use the recycle and garbage dumpsters.
The garbage dumpsters should not surprise me so much, but it still does. People throw all kinds of things away, things that - having seen Cambodia and Vietnam - would have been reused and recycled in some ways. Furniture. Bags of clothing. Sometimes they make it in the dumpster, sometimes apparently "close enough" will do the trick.
Interestingly, some of those same items make their way into the recycling dumpsters as well. Not just the cardboard and plastic I am used to, but furniture, bags of clothes, metal - literally almost anything. Recycle, in some cases, seems to be another word for "The other garbage dumpster".
If nothing else, this experience has made me very conscious of the things that I am buying - and throwing away. I do not know that we can ever reach the point of zero trash, but likely we can make it less than it currently is.
Other people's trash cans have always fascinated and appalled me at the same time. We have separate trash and recycling bins and our trash bin is rarely more than half full for a family of mostly four, sometimes five. But yet nearly every household in our area will have theirs completely full to the point of overflowing with more than a few purchasing extra bags that are stacked up along side. Every week! Like wise, I biggest recycling item is generally cardboard packaging materials. We just don't use very many canned or plastic contained items in our daily life. So mostly I set out recycling bins maybe once a month if that. Most of my neighbors don't recycle at all, hence the overflowing cans I suspect, but those that do really set out containers heaping full of plastic, metal and glass containers.
ReplyDeleteAll this just boggles my mind.
Ed, most of our neighbors back in New Home did not have their bins open, so it was hard for me to judge - although I suspect, like with your neighbors, their was likely similar things. Our packaging recycling is mostly cardboard and plastic related food containers (mostly berries).
DeleteIt really does boggle the mind.
Several of the neighbors on my street (it's dead-end) are like Eds', garbage cans overflowing which makes it easy to know when the truck has visited. While there are several sized garbage carts there is only one size for the recycling cart and there are plastic bags to be used for food scraps which are placed in the garbage cart. The city council went to having only one garbage company serving the town, cuts down on the number of biiiiig trucks cruising the streets.
ReplyDeleteNylon12 - Food recycling seems to be a thing here in the neighborhood of New Home 2.0 that we live in. It is kind of fascinating to me, as if there are not very regular pickups I can imagine things going bad rather quickly (pun intended).
DeleteHaving moved to a neighborhood outside the city limits, I miss the weekly recycling curb pick-up. We still gather recyclables and Hub takes it to the recycling center for our county. It's super convenient as it's a drive-through - literally, we drive into a large bldg and pop the trunk or they open the back door on my very old CRV and take the recyclables out for us. It is a nice service, but I am dismayed at the types of things we still have to throw away (plastic clamshell containers trip me up every time).
ReplyDeleteI find it confusing when an able-bodied someone says they don't recycled (with a tone that suggests they can't be bothered). I've stopped trying to convince people (not directly in my sphere of influence) that it's simply not hard at all to do. It's such a small effort that became part of the fabric of our lives decades ago.
Becki - I think part of the reluctance as we go on in recycling is the fact that there is no easy to grasp impact. Yes, I know we may have saved "this many X" or "that many Y", but it has no direct outcome in most people's life. Certainly my daily environment is none the cleaner and certainly things cost no less (they cost a little more, actually) because of our recycling efforts. At best, we collect the money for the cans and bottles - but that is my money I originally paid.
DeleteThere is also a sense that it makes no difference in the long run and that it is an imposed duty rather than a choice.
I have observed that the only things we throw away are from purchased items. Mostly packaging. What we produce here can all be returned to the soil as compost or mulch.
ReplyDeleteSadly our recycle center is limited. They no longer accept glass nor cans other than aluminum.
Leigh - It is mostly packaging as well for us, although also some compostable things as we do not really have an easily accessible compost area.
DeleteInterestingly, I do not think I have seen a recycle center here. Most of the cans and bottles can be done through a stand alone kiosk.