SHTF Waste Management

[tortoise]

An Unexpected Pandemic Consequence Frustrates Florida’s Biggest City (Published 2021)

Jacksonville is one of dozens of American cities that have struggled to pick up trash, yard waste and recycling amid a pandemic labor shortage.

www.nytimes.com

When systems shut down, garbage accumulates. SHTF solutions tend to rely on trash - mylar wrapped foods, plastic water bottles, etc.

Anything longer than a couple weeks will cause sanitation /rodent /space problems.

What is your short-term (less than a month) and long term (over a year) SHTF trash solution?

 

[JanetMarie]

Recently I've found shampoo and conditioner bars, packaged in cardboard and paper.

I've also found a laundry detergent, and hand soap by a company called Clean Cult, at a local large grocery store chain! It's packaged in paper milk carton material, and the top looks like plastic is made from plant material. All natural ingredients, and not expensive! The laundry detergent is very concentrated and I'm happy with the cleaning abilities of it.

More of this kind of packaging is going to become available, and as it does I'm obviously supporting it.

Too bad in getting ready for SHFT, I've already stocked up on a favorite shampoo---packaged in plastic !

 

[tortoise]

Yard waste isnt an issue for me. I use it in the garden. We toss sticks into the goat pasture to compost in place.

My upbringing had exposure to pit toilet, outhouse, and solar composting toilet. So many options!

Plastic food packaging is my #1 concern here. I try to get food in glass or metal. Plastic still adds up.

We produce 2 to 3 13-gallon trash bags per week for 4 people. It collects fast. Very frustrating.

In SHTF situation, DH would burn it.

 

[Hinotori]

We burn everything when camping. Best way to deal with cleanliness. Even the fishbones go in the fire.

Well not TP. That gets buried in the cat hole if hiking.

 

[JanetMarie]

We burn everything when camping. Best way to deal with cleanliness. Even the fishbones go in the fire.

Well not TP. That gets buried in the cat hole if hiking.

This is my plan.

 

[baymule]

I have a lot of waste right now, cleaning out rooms and around the farm, preparing to move. I got a burn barrel to burn documents. I have a couple of bags per week. Once I get past this and get moved, I'll probably use a burn barrel for most of my waste. I'll have to see how much throw away stuff I have.

I currently buy feed in 50 pound paper bags. There will be feed mills nearby where I can buy in bulk bags and transfer to metal trash cans. A $25 deposit on the bag and take it back each time I buy more.

In a SHTF, I would build an outhouse on skids. My Daddy was raised up very poor, there were no "services" on a farm. He told how the outhouse hole would get full over time, they moved the outhouse and started over.

 

[Hinotori]

We don't have a big trash can and missing a week doesn't effect us. Miss a month on the large recycling bin in winter was tough. Snow schedule skipped weeks.

I could reuse all the cardboard, but being sick and it being rainy made for not wanting to deal with that.

 

[Medicine Woman]

Exactly. After Hurricane Ida, so many people donated laundry detergent, shampoo and dishwashing liquid in plastic bottles that some stuff will last me a long time but I am anxious to start making soap again and I do wanna have laundry, shampoo and dish bars and maybe offer some as gifts to help people understand there are better ways to do things.
It’s really hard to keep track of DH’s filter water bottle but if I keep filling it he doesn’t have an excuse to buy bottled water. And for years I have leaned more towards Kool Aid than soda. I don’t so much mind burning trash as fire starters…say I need to cook on the camp grill or to warm up a bit but I guess I like to look at a box first and ask if it would fit neatly under my bed and hold yarn or important papers. Maybe the next door neighbor sells stuff on EBay and could use my extra boxes. It just seems like a waste to just burn something to get rid of it. When I worked as a nurse I would organize the med room when it looked like a disaster and I would keep one box whole and rip the rest and put them inside really tight. Then I would bring it home and use it as kindling. I could usually get a fire started with 3 pieces of cardboard and 3 small logs. I got the CNA coordinator to save me the diaper boxes that I would use to smother out the grass in the orchard under the trees.
As of right now I am using my larger plastic bottles for hydroponics in the windows with small baskets for the pebbles that support the roots. Not justifying the purchase of the plastic but as I am not in a position to omit certain purchases at least if I can make use of them.
If the day ever comes when we truly have to live by our wits and skills in self sufficiency I think we will regret the waste.

 

[Hinotori]

I grew up where burn barrel was a common solution to garbage. Usually just paper waste, though I compost much of that now. Yes, I know burning plastic is bad. We actually don't have a lot of plastic waste here. Mostly just the water bottles hubby takes in lunch, and in emergency situation those are more likely to be reused.

If I have to, I can scrape together enough materials to build an outhouse. Probably use some buckets under a platform instead of digging a pit because of our water table. Ash or sawdust in it after each use, cover full buckets with perforated lids, and put them out back somewhere to compost for a year before dumping.

Yard waste isn't an issue. I've piled blackberry cuttings in the autumn and they were decomposed by spring.

Now I'm off to fill up some buckets and the 30 gallon water trough I use for collecting rainwater for the chickens in winter. Big winds are expected tonight and that will let us flush.

 

[flowerbug]

dry composting in buckets works well for #2's and you could probably fit a week per bucket per person (at least). #1's are tree watering or used in a garden if possible. all organic scraps would end up in the worm farms as usual. if SHTF there wouldn't be as much plastic waste and everything else that isn't organic would be recycled eventually. metals would take on a lot more value and my guess is that there would be a return of local bottle works too and they'd take broken glass.

at least that is my guess.

reading up on humanure recycling was enlightening (the humanure handbook is usually freely found online and it's a fairly quick read). the problem here is the high water table i just can't store a pile anyplace on our property without it either getting washed out or chances of getting too much rain on it. the composting i do inside is the worm farm and i don't have enough room to compost all of our personal wastes but the septic tank will hold for years so we could probably eventually find someone who'd pump it out to use it on their farm or something like that.

[edit the can was changed to can't]