Couple take 15 months to fill 1 bag of garbage

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Couple take 15 months to fill 1 bag of garbage

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1wifilibrarian
jan 26, 2016, 5:07 pm

A New Zealand couple have taken recycling and waste reduction to the next level by only throwing out one bag of garbage (rubbish for us) in 15 months. For me the things that help reduce our household waste are recycling most things and composting. Thankfully, recycling pick-up is free where I live and they pick up most plastics. Meat trays and any paper that's touched food isn't recyclable, so these people as well as being vegetarian, mustn't get pizza delivered. We use a 240L (60ish gallon) plastic bin called a wheelie bin, probably gets filled once a month. We could do a lot better.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/national/75524058/Kaikoura-couple-taki...

How many garbage bags a year do you fill? Do you even have them or do you use bins?

22wonderY
jan 27, 2016, 7:51 am

I'm trying to eliminate all voluntary plastic use from my home. I ask for paper bags at the grocery store. If they don't offer, I use cloth bags and cardboard boxes to carry my groceries out. If I've forgotten to bring a bag in, I use a shopping basket to carry stuff to the car.

The paper bags fit neatly into the kitchen trash receptacle, just as it did for my parents. Because I recycle everything possible and compost, my paper bag has to be carried out to the trash can once every 6 weeks or so. I do miss having a dog for cleaning up meat scraps, but the birds like them just as well.

The trash is clean of any food debris, there is no odor, so there is no reason to encase it in plastic.

I do eat fast food now and again. (Wendy's chili fries at this season) But I have them package it minimally (tray without the paper liner) and I carry a set of flatware and a cloth napkin to use instead of the throw aways. I'm toying with asking them to put the food in a china bowl that I provide.

3wifilibrarian
jan 27, 2016, 1:55 pm

>2 2wonderY: 1 bag every 6 weeks is pretty good.

I wish our grocery shops offered paper bags, at the moment I reuse plastic bags to line the kitchen trash receptacle, or bin. I've floated the idea of going bagless and washing the kitchen bin, but that didn't go down well in our household. Avoiding eating meat would mean we wouldn't have cooked bones, which you can't compost and can't give to pets, but I don't see that happening just to save on waste which seems to be what those people in the story did.

That's determined bringing your own cutlery for fastfood.

4MaureenRoy
Redigerat: jan 27, 2016, 4:58 pm

In the forseeable future, my family and I will still live sometimes in our suburban home, and sometimes in our remote forest home. Given that, we fill a standard size 13-gallon kitchen trash bag once every 7-10 days. Agreed, Zero Waste is a key parameter for a sustainable life. Our family is vegetarian -- no meat, dairy or cheese consumed, but eggs sometimes eaten in our travel between homes. (Few restaurants still serve beans, so we eat eggs then in order to get enough to eat.) For us, the great many health benefits of a whole foods, plant-based diet are why we go that route ... greater sustainability was the accidental side benefit.

Thanks for this thread topic.

Agreed that using plastic kitchen trash bags is not the way to go. During my childhood, I remember my family using paper grocery bags for kitchen trash. Someone could make a business of supplying compostable paper grocery bags.

At the Berkeley Bowl grocery store in Berkeley, CA, the on-site restaurants provide compostable utensils and compostable plates and cups with their menu items. Yessss!

5John5918
jan 28, 2016, 3:07 am

>3 wifilibrarian:

Just wondering why you don't give cooked bones to pets. Our dogs love them.

6wifilibrarian
Redigerat: jan 28, 2016, 6:07 am

>5 John5918: IF you're going to feed bones I think the only ones would be raw, good for teeth and of course what dogs ancestors would have eaten. But cooked bones are weakened and can break up and get stuck in the throat or digestive tract. Lots of information online regarding this, and our vet warned against cooked bones too. There's plenty of vets online saying raw bones are bad to as they can splinter. I've heard raw chicken necks are good to give, I imagine they'd be only cartilage so should be safer. For our dogs they'd immediately want to bring a bone inside, ideally to eat it on the couch, so they can only have clean treats. Also anything too good and one of our dog goes a little nuts tries to bury it under the cushions, so it can't be too tasty.

72wonderY
jan 28, 2016, 10:21 am

I'm glad to have a source of paper bags. They are so versatile, and have several lives in my household. Remember covering school text books every year? I keep one bag going just for paper which will go to the recycling center, but I dump the contents in the bin and bring that bag home again until it falls apart.

82wonderY
jan 28, 2016, 3:05 pm

>4 MaureenRoy: I've got an experiment going with two one-use plastic drinking cups. One is supposedly compostable, the other is just a regular plastic cup. They've both been sitting on my sunny deck and holding soil and water for close to a year now. They are both still intact.

9margd
jan 28, 2016, 5:45 pm

>5 John5918: >6 wifilibrarian: Cooked bones, especially chicken, splinter and can pierce their intestines. I boil cooked bones, etc. and use the broth, which my dog loves, in her food. She gets raw bones, split elk antlers, and cauliflour cores to chew on.

Another hugely bad thing for dogs is (used) dental floss which can tie their innards up in knots. (We use lidded waste baskets in the bathroom.)

(My dog, the little terrierist, eats anything and everything... She just got the all-clear after eating bromethalin, a mouse poison with no antidote, so vet induced vomiting and gave activated charcoal, and I had a couple sleepless nights on watch. If seizures etc., I would have had to rush her to 24h pet hospital, though little they could have done. At least with anticoagulants, there are diagnostic tests and vit K shots... So now I have to figure out how to dispose safely of the bromethalin...and how to control the many rodents in the garden shed.)

10wifilibrarian
jan 28, 2016, 8:26 pm

>9 margd: glad your dog is okay. Could she catch the non-poisoned mice in the shed? Our dogs are dachshunds and love to catch mice.

Speaking of dogs, what dog owners do with their waste. When I'm rich (ha) I might invest a EnsoPet waste composting system. Really it's just a fancy bottomless bucket which you dig into the ground and put the waste into and it composts down. They sell an activator that I guess might make things more hygienic but you still can't use the compost with edible plants. http://www.zingbokashi.co.nz/product-category/pet-waste/

11MaureenRoy
feb 12, 2016, 6:49 pm

12wifilibrarian
feb 25, 2016, 8:12 pm

>11 MaureenRoy: thanks for sharing Maureen. I do admire someone who can do that but it sounds so exhausting. This is someone who only shops once a week and who has to be very organised. It doesn't suit someone who's lazy or unorganized.

As the writer says:

"This process took more than a year and required a lot of effort."

"Before I adopted my zero-waste lifestyle, I would find myself scrambling to the supermarket before it closed, because I didn't shop properly, ordering in takeout because I didn't have food, always going to the pharmacy to get this scrub and that cream, and cleaning constantly because I had so much stuff.

Now, my typical week involves one trip to the store to buy all of the ingredients I need..."

"I didn't start living this lifestyle to make a statement..." but she wrote this article, even runs a blog, and runs a business about living a zero waste life.

Inertia is a big factor in trying to live with less waste.

13MaureenRoy
Redigerat: mar 7, 2016, 6:58 pm

Mice in a shed? I remember the warning offered by the Hopi Indians: The man and the mouse should never live together. In other words, put a floor in that shed and seal any wall cracks. The diseases carried by mice are truly bad. Hanta virus is just one example ... there are other lethal incurable diseases carried by mice. Don't go there.

14MaureenRoy
Redigerat: apr 6, 2016, 11:16 am

I just started going through the website of the Zero Waste Institute. http://zerowasteinstitute.org/?page_id=18 It is extremely helpful. I want to create a list of pertinent books as well, starting with:

The Design of everyday things
Getting to zero waste

15MaureenRoy
apr 6, 2016, 11:12 am

2wonderY and everyone, most compostable cups carry the fine print explanation that they are compostable in a commercial composting facility, where compost temperatures run higher than in a single family composting setup.

16MaureenRoy
Redigerat: apr 6, 2016, 11:42 am

Further thoughts on a zero waste life: I suspect that only the first year is difficult, because of my experience in changing to a natural foods diet 8 years ago. Due to eye problems, I switched first to macrobiotics 8 years ago, then in this last year the Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease diet. During that process I discovered that no part of those changes is as difficult as the first year. I suspect the reason has to do with the human subconscious mind: The subconscious mind has no awareness of the passage of time ... everything exists in the "now." After that first year of change is completed, however, the new normal becomes the "now" and the power struggle becomes much much less of an effort.

Here's another individual perspective on the process of zero waste:

http://www.zerowastehome.com/

Her best-selling book of the same name: Zero waste home

17margd
apr 6, 2016, 12:46 pm

>13 MaureenRoy: Were it were only mice in the shed! We are invaded by so many critters. Most recently ants, which we took care of with borax & jelly in jar lid. Last fall, downy woodpeckers sought entrance to attics through redwood siding. (Fingers crossed that silver disks dangling from rafters have permanently discouraged them. Plus I didn't hang suet this past winter.) The rodents in the shed were the teensiest squirrels I'd ever seen--but very destructive. A couple years ago, chipmunks by the dozens sought to make our home theirs. Before that woodchucks under the shed and the deck. Mice in the garage... We live-trapped squirrels, chipmunks, groundhogs, and mice--at first! Only the occasional raccoon, deer, and wild pig have rampaged through, thank goodness! (Though a family of raccoons were hooked on my birdfeeders for a while there...)

18margd
apr 8, 2016, 7:10 am

Cool--old tires made into traps that control species of mosquito (Aedes, Culex sp) responsible for yellow fever, dengue, Zika, West Nile Virus, (etc.?). Low-tech/DIY, cheap, effective, and environmentally friendly not only in that it uses old tires, but reduces need for pesticides. Ingenious: concentrates mosquito pheromones, and so becomes more effective over time.

Ulibarri G, Betanzos A, Betanzos M and Rojas JJ. Control of Aedes aegypti in a remote Guatemalan community vulnerable to dengue, chikungunya and Zika virus: Prospective evaluation of an integrated intervention of web-based health worker training in vector control, low-cost ecological ovillantas, and community engagement version 1; referees: awaiting peer review. F1000Research 2016, 5:598 (doi: 10.12688/f1000research.8461.1) http://f1000research.com/articles/5-598/v1

News release:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/04/160407111521.htm

19spiphany
aug 3, 2016, 12:27 pm

I hope it's ok to post this. I work for a research institution that studies the connections between environment and society. Most of the work is more-or-less historical, rather than specifically praxis-oriented, but we recently published a volume that might be of particular interest to people in this group. The contributors explore the concept of "zero waste," whether it's actually feasible, and provide some examples real-world challenges and successes.

It can be downloaded for free here: http://www.environmentandsociety.org/perspectives/2016/3/future-without-waste-ze...
The journal is open access so feel free to distribute.

I don't agree with all of the authors -- there are a couple who I feel are a bit one-sided in their arguments -- but on the whole I think it's a fairly balanced volume that has a nice mix of optimistic and more skeptical perspectives. I particularly like that most of the articles look at social and institutional structures surrounding waste and changes that can be made at that level. I feel like the most visible parts of the zero waste movement focus on how we can take action as individuals, but this places a huge burden on the consumer. And there are limits to how much impact we can have as consumers unless manufacturers, municipal waste management, technological infrastructures, etc. also change accordingly.

202wonderY
aug 3, 2016, 1:14 pm

Hi Brenda. I welcome you pointing to this publication. Sounds like good reading.

21wifilibrarian
aug 7, 2016, 7:30 pm

>19 spiphany: totally agree regarding the need for industry to lead the way in reducing or eliminating waste, it's great to feel you are doing your bit but if it's only you in your community it's can feel like a pointless exercise. Retailers also have a role in choosing to sell products with recyclable packaging or no packaging, and trying to move away from plastic shopping bags.

22LibraryCin
okt 30, 2016, 9:40 pm

I am on my own, and unfortunately still throw out a bag of garbage once every 2-3 weeks. But, a good portion of that is cat litter.

The good news where I am is that, in addition to the garbage and recycling pick-up we already have, next year we will also have an additional bin for compost materials, including cat litter!!!! This makes me so happy. I am curious to see how often I take out a bag of garbage after that starts. I'm hoping for only once every couple of months or so.

23LibraryCin
okt 30, 2016, 9:42 pm

>3 wifilibrarian: That's determined bringing your own cutlery for fastfood.

I started carrying around plastic cutlery (that I gathered quite some time ago, but couldn't bring myself to throw out) in my backpack, so I always have it with me. If I'm grabbing my own cutlery, I will use what's in my backpack; if they give me cutlery, I need to try to remember to ask them not to. Also, I'm just now trying to train myself to remember to ask for no straw in restaurants.

24LibraryCin
okt 30, 2016, 9:46 pm

Ah, I have to admit to still using plastic garbage bags (mostly). I have recently also started using old cat litter bags and cat food bags as garbage bags once they are empty now, as well.

25wifilibrarian
okt 31, 2016, 11:37 pm

>22 LibraryCin: cat litter is a pain to dispose of sustainably, we used to go through a lot with our elderly cat who decided to become an indoor cat.

>23 LibraryCin: they can make cutlery out of corn or potato starch, some you can even eat, I think that's gotta be the future for all those lazy people like me who don't carry cutlery around.

>24 LibraryCin: I don't know why they don't just make paper bags if plastics make such an environmental impact. That could be legislated for. Is paper much more expensive or worse environmentally than plastic?

The Green party here (New Zealand) is trying to introduce legislation to charge 15c per plastic bag when out shopping, with the money going to charity. They talk about single use but we reuse all our shopping bags at least once.

26southernbooklady
nov 1, 2016, 7:40 pm

>22 LibraryCin: I am on my own, and unfortunately still throw out a bag of garbage once every 2-3 weeks. But, a good portion of that is cat litter.


Cat litter is an issue for me. I switched to something called "the world's best cat litter" (https://www.worldsbestcatlitter.com/) which is available at my local market, and hugely expensive, but on the other hand it is flushable, safe for septic systems, and one big bag lasts me almost six months. And I have seven cats at the moment. it is a corn based product, so there's that, but they say it is "sustainable corn" -- I don't know what that means, though.

27LibraryCin
nov 1, 2016, 10:28 pm

>26 southernbooklady: I use a wheat-based litter (used to use pine-based), and I'm sure they are supposed to be flushable, etc, but I've also heard that not all places allow for that, even still. I'd still be cautious about flushing it.

I have refused to use a clay litter for many years.

Since Dec. 31, though, I had to switch away from clumping (dust) litter, so I only really have three choices of what I can get here, due to one cat's asthma: wheat-based, pine-based, or recycled newspaper. For scooping (always trickier when it doesn't clump!), I've found I prefer the wheat litter. The pine was good, too, but I'm told that it's also not great for asthmatic cats due to the scent.

I am so happy that our city's "green bin" will soon take it, though!!

That's amazing how long it is lasting for you! I just adopted my 3rd kitty and I feel like I'm already going through more litter!

28LibraryCin
nov 1, 2016, 10:30 pm

>24 LibraryCin: they can make cutlery out of corn or potato starch, some you can even eat, I think that's gotta be the future for all those lazy people like me who don't carry cutlery around.

That would be cool!

I don't know why they don't just make paper bags if plastics make such an environmental impact. That could be legislated for. Is paper much more expensive or worse environmentally than plastic?

I don't know. I can't see it being worse than plastic, since plastic never degrades, right?

29margd
nov 2, 2016, 7:52 am

Paper has its own environmental downsides:
http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/paper-plastic1.htm

As with everything, reduce, re-use, recycle, I guess.

Carry re-usable bags. (Mine are in trunk, but I usually remember them only at checkout.)

Re-use bags for trash, etc. (Bought garbage bags contain more plastic.)

Recycle--and buy products made of recycled goods. (Article above suggests that plastic bags, while recyclable, tend to jam machines, so best to return to dedicated store collection sites?)

30.Monkey.
Redigerat: nov 2, 2016, 9:53 am

There's two of us and we take out the trash every 2 weeks. It's on the smaller side for trash bags but I'm not sure the exact size. There's literally no way we could have not been using these plastic bags, as they're mandated by the city. It's how you pay for trash pickup. However, they just installed new trash things in our area, you have a card with money on it that you swipe on these little...things, and they open and you toss your trash/recycle/compost in them. We've not had a chance to use them yet as it has literally only been a couple weeks and we still have to use up our bags (they're still collecting till the end of the year so people can use up their stuff). I'm glad that we will no longer have to use the plastic bags for the recycle, we can just use our regular bags and dump it out into the thing. Also we won't have to use the compostable plastic bags for the compost anymore, we'll just use either the mushroom containers as they empty, or else a small garbage bin, and just dump that in as well. There's been a lot of talk about those compostable bags actually not being much better than regular plastic because they decompose too fast so it releases too much chemicals, or something. So yeah, glad for both money & environmental reasons on those also. We have a whole lot of disposable plastic bags from American stores because my mom uses them as padding in boxes she sends, so I'm thinking we'll use those for trash to start. And then, I'm not sure! It'll be a bit, heh. We put our paper recycle in the empty cat litter bags. And the cat litter is flushable, it's made from some sort of wood pulp stuff I believe, German brand, it's nice stuff.

Also yeah paper is NOT the answer to no more plastic. Reusable is the answer. Which is why that's all that is available in Europe. Pay for bags or bring your own.

31LibraryCin
nov 2, 2016, 3:36 pm

Did I mention it already? This: Carry re-usable bags. (Mine are in trunk, but I usually remember them only at checkout.) I've been doing for about 30 years. Way before it became as "popular" as it is now (though there's still a long way to go).

32LibraryCin
nov 2, 2016, 3:38 pm

There's been a lot of talk about those compostable bags actually not being much better than regular plastic because they decompose too fast so it releases too much chemicals, or something.

I was using compostable bags for regular garbage but someone at the local "green" store recently told me that using them for regular trash is worse than using regular plastic bags. Sigh... Best I can think of (if not reusing a bag of some kind) is to buy bags made with recycled plastic?

33.Monkey.
nov 3, 2016, 6:08 pm

The kind of compostable bags we have here could never use for trash. Aside of being super thin (think of the bags available for bulk produce), they start degrading in only 2 weeks. During summer we always had to take the compost out every week even when less than half full, because if we waited for week 2 then it would already be falling apart at the bottom from the gathering moisture of the stuff. That was a pain in the butt.

34LibraryCin
nov 3, 2016, 8:24 pm

I did have it break down on me sometimes. I ended up double bagging it when that happened, thinking the next one would also just break down.

352wonderY
dec 11, 2017, 11:30 am

Another low volume trash recorder.

I like his idea to date label the trash container. I think I'll do that next time I empty mine.

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