What To Do With My Trash?!

[Farmfresh]

I lay down the newspaper, cardboard etc in the aisles and all of the way up next to the plants to block out light to any weeds. Then I top those paper products with leaves, straw or similar things to hold them down in the event of a strong wind. Each year they brake down and are replace and all of that organic matter adds to the garden loam. By the way newspapers almost all use soy based ink now days so never fear. The only thing that would be questionable is if you have a large amount of office type paper. The paper of this kind is bleached and the bleach may have adverse effects on the plants.

 

[tortoise]

I was thinking about this today and it seems the only fool-proof way to deal with the problem is to reduce what you are bringing into your home.

Catalogs, junk mail, bills and bank statements that could be done online, cancel the newspaper and get the online subscription.

If you don't buy beer or wine, you will most likely not have to deal with colored glass.

Don't drink canned beverages (improves your health!) and no worries about aluminum. Use covered casserole dishes and you don't need aluminum foil.

Steel (tin) cans are a little bit harder to get rid of, but completely possible. I stopped buying items with added sugar. There is one brand of canned vegetable I can buy. And I'd just as soon buy the less expensive frozen vegetables or spend a little more for fresh! Of course, canning food at home is always an option.

Talk to your neighbor - if you have an occassional colored glass item, I'd be surprised if they would mind you putting it in their bin.

Bringing less into your home is a fantastic way to reduce waste. The other tips you got for dealing with waste you already have are great too!

 

[LauraJean]

A lot of people are suggesting that I simply reduce my trash, but I live alone, and being alone I now have the freedom to do certain things that a spouse might not like, such as reusing paper towels (or using rags & rinsing them), most paper gets put into the kindling basket to start fires, I do not subscribe to newspapers or catalogs, I use reusable facial sponges instead of cotton pads, I don't drink soda at all, only water in a reusable bottle, etc etc. I could go on and on.

But the fact is, I still have trash! My cats need special food that comes in steel cans, and I buy in bulk to save money so they come on cardboard "pallets". So there's cans (3 cans per day), plastic that the cans are bundles in, and the cardboard bases just with the cat food alone. I have chickens so I don't buy egg cartons, I grow my own herbs & veggies, but there is still trash. Trash happens. I'm getting the vibe that if I were less wasteful I wouldn't have this problem, but I'm in fact quite stingy & resourceful.

I appreciate all the input and suggestions, don't get me wrong, but it's realistic that I will have trash. By the way, just to prove my point of how careful I am: I moved here in mid-December, and as of today I only have about 8 or so trash bags, which I think is pretty darn good. So it's not that I don't know how to minimize my trash, I just want to know if there are alternatives to do with the trash I do end up with.

 

[tortoise]

Even if your cats are on prescription diet, it is (physically) easy to make cat food. Knowing how to do it right is a little bit more complicated but we can help.

 

[DawnSuiter]

..........
I appreciate all the input and suggestions, don't get me wrong, but it's realistic that I will have trash. By the way, just to prove my point of how careful I am: I moved here in mid-December, and as of today I only have about 8 or so trash bags, which I think is pretty darn good. So it's not that I don't know how to minimize my trash, I just want to know if there are alternatives to do with the trash I do end up with.

Well I gotta say, I misunderstood your original post then, my apologies. Sounds to me like you need to put your paper in the gardens or compost piles, rinse out your cat food cans so they don't attract critters when stored as trash for the landfill and just head out to the dump 4 times a year is all.

Here are various suggestions for you cat food cans as well... I think making candles out of them sounds like a GREAT idea.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1219493/how_to_recycle_and_reuse_empty_cat.html?cat=7

 

[miss_thenorth]

We have to take our garbage to a depot also. As far as the recyclables go, we have a separate garbage can for them, and when it is full, we separate at the depot. We go later on in the day, once the mad rush is over, so we can take our time. WE burn all paper and cardboard. We usually save this up for our campfires, of which we have quite a few in the summer time. We realy don't accumulate very much garbage, but usually when the recyclable can is filled up, we have several bags of garbage.

Rinsing out your containers will reduce the chances of critters getting in, if you store them outside. Also, you can build or buy a critter proof cage to store them in until garbage day. People up north have them and they can usually sustain a bear attack.

Also, see if you can work out an agreement with a neighbour. I know we take turns with our neighbours, but perhaps you can barter something in exchange for them taking your trash.

Never hurts to ask.

 

[cjparker]

Hmm, neighbors have recycle bins, OP has eggs......could be a great barter in the making.

 

[LauraJean]

I appreciate all the suggestions, thanks. As far as using the neighbor's bins, that would be a bit awkward, it's not like they're big bins in his yard and I can just walk over. They are small trash cans lined up in his kitchen. So that would be incredibly intrusive. I'm not exactly sure what they do with those little bins once they are full, but I have never seen bigger bins outside anywhere.

Everyone around here, and I literally mean every single neighbor but me, has pickup trucks. I guess this is why?

As I said before, most of my paper goes into the wood stove kindling basket, but I will start separating the remaining cardboard/paper and burning and/or composting it. It's just so tough when my house is so small and I have no outbuildings.

I need to buy a shed, badly!! Wish they weren't so pricey.

Tortoise: I will look around for a thread on making cat food, there must be one, right? Although I'm a little squeamish about the thought of cutting up meat, etc (lifelong vegetarian). But I'll check it out and see if it's something I could do, thanks!

 

[DawnSuiter]

....
Everyone around here, and I literally mean every single neighbor but me, has pickup trucks. I guess this is why?

That is why we bought ours. Plus being self sufficient in the country we need to haul other things, gravel, mulch, dirt, sand, plywood, construction & garden timbers, firewood/down trees etc etc.

Around here we're the strange ones who don't also carry survival stuff in the back.. like a chainsaw for instance, when trees are down. We all expect everyone to be fairly self reliant in the mountains so far away from everything... there are no plows, no city services... heck.. there isn't even a city! We DO have a post office and that is it. It takes about 30 minutes for the fire trucks to get here... and if you want some police.... well... good luck with that. They'll get here if they can.

At first... I was in total culture shock.... now, 5 years later.. I'm good and happy with the lifestyle.

Good luck to ya!

 

[tortoise]

Tortoise: I will look around for a thread on making cat food, there must be one, right? Although I'm a little squeamish about the thought of cutting up meat, etc (lifelong vegetarian). But I'll check it out and see if it's something I could do, thanks!

I don't know if there is a cat food thread. There is a long dog food thread so I'm assuming some like-minded people must have cats that eat raw too?

If you don't want to cut up meat, chicken necks are a cheap and good base for a raw cat food diet. Once you know your cats will eat it, you can buy it in 30 lb cases at $0.30 - $0.50 per pound.

An average cat needs 1 - 2 chicken necks per day. Supplement with whole raw eggs, plain yogurt and that is the beginning of a safe raw diet. Once there is a nutritionally safe "base" diet, you can give plenty of variety in types of meat and "extras" (the essential parts of the diet in addition to meat).

Are you feeding 3 cats? You should be able to feed 3 average cats for a month and a half on $15, plus "extras" which you can forage for, grow, barter for, or can be leftovers of your food.

9Lives cat food would cost $50 for the same number of days. And I must say canned cat food is completely inferior - but we'll save that for a separate thread.

Save money, reduce waste/recycling, healthier cats. Good deal!