Zero (or minimal) waste [Archive] - Simple Living Forums

Chicken lady

2-13-17, 1:50pm

So for the second time in 2017 I have had to call the trash service and complain that they did not empty our trash can. Also, there were two weeks I didn't even take the can up. I am paying $25 a month for this service. However, it is tied to my recycling.

i'm trying to find a drop location to take my recycling and then I want to cancel the trash. Dh is very opposed to cancelling the trash. I'm going to try to get him to commit to 30 days. (We can sign up and cancel every 30 days without penalty, so at the very least I could cut the trash bill in half by making the same number of phone calls I'm making now just to complain.)

my boss has told me in the past that I am welcome to throw away any household trash that fits in my wastebasket at school (I work twice a week and my wastebasket at school is bigger than the amount of trash We usually generate in a week) and that leaves summer - there is a trash can next to the grocery cart return, and 90% of my trash comes from the grocery store in the first place, so I think that about does it.

Things like the bucket with a hole in it we could put in a trash can and then sign up for trash service, say, every August? If we need to.

but I'm trying really hard to not create trash.

is anybody here living/aspiring to the zero waste lifestyle and interested in offering support?

Float On

2-13-17, 3:15pm

I can tell you we gave up trash service years ago and save a ton. We take our trash cans to the transfer station about every 6 or 8 weeks and it costs us $5 (based on scales weight). We recycle at our community recycle center. I compost everything I can. I miss my chickens they ate everything.

Chicken lady

2-13-17, 4:00pm

I would be happy to pay a reasonable amount to dispose of my trash, but my choices are:
$25 a month service to have it (sometimes) picked up at the road
$50 "tipping fee" plus poundage and gas to take it to the dump myself
use "free" (to me) public/work/customer trash cans. (Although I am subsidizing the customer cans through prices and some of the public cans through taxes. My classroom waste basket is a 'perk')

i compost (in fact 2 days a week I reduce the school garbage by putting out and bringing home compost pails)
i have chickens
i can recycle type 1&2 plastics, plastic bottle tops, metals, glass, paper, cardboard (although I use some in the garden) plastic bags, light bulbs, some electronics, eyeglasses, batteries, and clean fabric. But some of that is curb pick up, so I need to find a drop location.

do you eat meat or buy snacks like chips Float On? If so, what do you do with the packaging?

Teacher Terry

2-13-17, 4:32pm

In some places it is not allowed to cancel your trash. I found this out when I had an empty house we were trying to sell and I tried to cancel the trash. They did give me a reduced rate but that was ridiculous.

Chicken lady

2-13-17, 4:49pm

nope, I asked. I can cancel my trash. (I have open zoning, I could build a landfill in my front yard. Kinda scarey.)

Tybee

2-13-17, 5:29pm

In SC the transfer station was totally free. Those were the days! They took recycle and yard waste and washers and driers and couches and yes, I miss it!

Rogar

2-13-17, 9:22pm

I have a friend who has gone off trash service for months at a time. His town had a convenient recycling center and a place to drop off yard debris. Even at that he ended up with small amounts that needed to go to landfills. For a time he was dumpster diving and I think made a few "exchanges". And another period he had permission from a neighbor to combine small amounts of trash. I have thought about it and have not come up with a way for a typical frugal lifestyle to have zero landfill waste.

Chicken lady

2-13-17, 10:08pm

Total actual garbage generated today:
sticker from my grapefruit
sharp (collected to drop at vet) and syringe (I have a goat on Abx for a tooth abscess)
plastic candy wrapper
piece of plastic tree label found in yard
napkin and plastic cup (left at restaurant where purchased)

dh is thinking about it.

Tybee

2-14-17, 12:51pm

Float On

2-14-17, 12:58pm

do you eat meat or buy snacks like chips Float On? If so, what do you do with the packaging?

Since I don't have chickens anymore when we eat meat and have leftovers that the dog can't eat like bones then I usually store it in a bag until we are ready to go to the transfer station with our garbage. That's why we go 6-8 weeks...we still generate enough trash that isn't recyclable. We can't recycle shredded paper here so anything I shred has to go to the transfer station, same with any food cardboard that has a wax lining like a cardboard milk carton. I feel guilty about taking 6 cans to the transfer station but weekly when I drive by my neighbors who put out the big trash company bin plus a couple of trashcans around the bin...every week...then I don't feel quite so guilty. I wish more people would make the effort to recycle even if they only picked one thing.

Float On

2-14-17, 12:59pm

Float On

2-14-17, 1:04pm

I'm still struggling with food waste. I had to put 3 avocados and a whole bag of grapes (I didn't even know my husband bought grapes and he tossed them in the back of the fridge) in the compost. I found a container of cottage cheese we never opened and was iffy and I had to put down the garbage disposal. I miss my chickens!

Chicken lady

2-14-17, 1:14pm

I put the very rare bones in the woods and the coyotes enjoy them. My issue is the bloody paper/plastic the meat was wrapped in.

sounds like you still have almost a can a week? I can recycle any paper without food, wax or plastic, so that helps me.

today I have a plastic bag from nuts (but I have a plan to buy nuts in bulk when I need more)
sticker, sharp, and syringe,
and two type 5 flat plastic lids so far.

there will be more stickers off the vegetables when I make dinner. Also I'm going to make pretzel rolls, so that will result in a sheet of greasy parchment paper, but since it's cold out, I'll use it to start the fire this evening.

Chicken lady

2-14-17, 1:55pm

Oops, Float on, I missed the second page.

Yesterday I brought home three little (ketchup cup sized) plastic containers with lids from the restaurant. I took the lids specifically because with lids the containers are used in my classroom and eventually crack and need replacing - costs me about $3 a year from my supply budget. They're washed and ready to go in tomorrow.

i felt bad about not bringing home the water cup for reuse and napkin for composting, but dh gets annoyed when I do that and he was already frustrated with my inflexible kitchen desires. The cups slid into my pocket.

Today:
grapefruit peel, coffee grounds, and egg shell to compost bowl
plastics, metal, and paper to recycling bin
saved one piece of string
and everything else in my life today was eaten, flushed, or already in use and reusable. (Dishes, coffee maker, clothes, feed buckets....)

Rogar

2-19-17, 1:36pm

Coincidentally one of the public radio programs today had a woman who claimed to have only a mason jar of trash from the last four years. She has a web site promoting zero trash. Might be worth checking out. I intend to study it a little.

http://www.trashisfortossers.com/

Chicken lady

2-19-17, 5:31pm

I've seen her before. She's interesting, but some of her solutions are very location dependent and often pricey and choice limited. The conditioner jar makes me cringe, but maybe she doesn't have a tile shower.....

I have found a recycling drop! I will be taking the can up on Thursday night, and then hopefully cancelling the trash on Friday. I need to find out if they will refund the $25 for March.

this should be pretty simple through the end of May and then again starting some time in August (whenever classroom set up starts) but I'm not sure about June and July. We'll see. If I have to sign up for trash service every July I can. $25 a year is a lot less than $300!

Chicken lady

2-25-17, 8:40am

Well, I didn't get home in time to cancel the trash last night, but they did empty the can, so I am planning to cancel on Monday. I was almost half a can of trash this week because I didn't take the trash up last week, and, knowing I was planning to cancel services, I emptied the wastebasket in the basement that hadn't been emptied in over a year, the one in the laundry room and the three in the barn - which all hadn't been emptied in months, and every other can in the house. I also threw away a broken bucket, and most of dh electric work trash. (Packages, wire insulation, small pieces of drywall)

yesterday I fed the chickens two tubs of very expired macaroni salad they gave me at the food bank. I was able to wash the tubs and put them in the recycling at school (also recycled a battery and an ink cartridge in the school bins). But I have put the two pieces of film that sealed the tubs into the ziplock bag I saved out of my trash - it used to have a pound of walnuts in it and is the wrong type for recycling.

the ziplock bag is my new "kitchen trash can" when it is full I will take it to school and throw it away.

Chicken lady

3-3-17, 4:14pm

So today would have been my trash day. My ziploc bag was not quite full, but as I now have a second one from dh deli meat, I went ahead and zipped it shut and dropped it in the big garbage can on my way into the building this morning.

i didn't drop off the recycling, because I only have one paper grocery bag full and I decided I would wait until I have at least two before making the one city block detour to drop it off.

iris lilies

3-4-17, 10:33am

This is related to waste:

I often take, in the store, products that are slightly damaged because I dont want them thrown out, and I think the average shopper is too prissy to take them. For instance, at the small international food store last week I took the three cans of lite coconut milk that were slightly dented.

I take products that are slightly crished, or that have a label falling off, or etc.

of course I wont take food products that are damaged in such as way as to risk spoilage.

Chicken lady

3-4-17, 1:38pm

We went the the farmer's share breakfast this morning. I love the event, but we had to eat off of styrofoam trays. That made me sad. About as much trash in one meal as all week. (I think if I had folded up the trays I could have gotten both of them into a quart bag)

Zoe Girl

3-4-17, 4:12pm

I would love to do more, and yet my lifestyle is not going that way very much. In an apartment I am more limited, however would consider some compost options if anyone has ideas. I can recycle a lot, it is a pain to bring it to the recycle bin on site. If I take it to work there are big recycle bins but it is hard to carry one more bag down with how many other bags I carry.

I am bringing my own silverware and cloth napkins to work with my lunch which helps. I also use a lot of recycle materials in my after school program, egg cartons, lots of TP rolls, boxes, paper towel tubes.

Chicken lady

3-4-17, 4:50pm

Zoe girl, You have to decide how important the recycling is vs. the extra trip to your car.

the lunch thing has a pretty good impact. Visualize a pile of 180 paper napkins and forks!

also, i don't want to discourage you, but when you "use recyclable materials" in a classroom type of activity, what you are usually doing is downcycling - taking something and turning it into something closer to trash. Often classroom projects turn recyclables into something harder to recycle that the family is going to throw away. While that beats using new materials that the family is going to throw away, what is more helpful us diverting items that would have gone into the garbage instead of using new materials.

i'm starting my seeds in slices of cardboard tube (low quality recycling value) and bagged soil (I intend to wipe off the bag and recycle it when it is empty) instead of peat pellets or pots this year - then the cardboard will end up composted and I won't have all those tiny bits of plastic netting or processed, shipped, and packaged pots.

if you want to make changes, start slowly. Look for one thing you can change in you life to eliminate some trash - like, cigaret butts! See, you are already not giving yourself enough credit.

trade one packaged drink (even a recyclable package) for a glass of water every week for a year, and you just eliminated the need to create, fill, package, and shop 52 drink packages.

one thing about cancelling my trash is that it eliminates "just" throwing stuff away as an option in my home. I now have to personally remove each item that I bring in. It makes me think more.

Zoe Girl

3-4-17, 5:24pm

Oh yes, I have been on this for decades, sometimes better than others. I think having my kids take the recycling down is my best bet, I have to bug them but they eventually get it done. I also don't like the little ways we get plastic like in hand soap or small shampoo bottles. So I have ivory bar soap in the bathroom and shower, one small piece of paper as compared to a plastic bottle.

I agree on the downcycling, my reasoning is that much of that was not going into a recycle bin anyways. I 'rescue' things from the trash all the time. We are starting seeds in egg shells for spring break camp and making seed bombs. My 4 year old class is making their own cloth napkins to take home and tye dying with natural dyes like onion skins. We will see how hard that is, I have done easter eggs that way many years. So baby steps in many ways.

I feel the proudest of the lunches and grocery sacks, I use water bottles and make my own iced tea all the time. In the winter I have 2 great travel mugs for my hot tea. I probably buy a drink in a disposable container 2-3 times a month. And I am gone from home 10-13 hours a day most of the time!

What do people think about using the 'free and natural' type products, laundry soap, dish soap, etc. I have always bought them for my oldest kids sensitive skin, and I like to think they make a difference.

Chicken lady

3-4-17, 7:05pm

We've always used arm and hammer free and clear since my son had a problem with detergent (he went to stay with my mom once and I packed enough clothes for the week and on day four she called in a panic because his torso was covered with a red rash - she also sent a picture. I noticed the shirt and said "I notice he's wearing the shirt I sent him in. Did you wash it?" And she said "of course I washed it!" And I said "well, that's the problem then."). Anyway, we also have a septic tank that releases filtered water into the yard, so I'm pretty careful about everything.

goodguide can give you a hand on a lot of cleaners, although sometimes the cheap store brand Is as good or better if you read the ingredients.

do tell me how the napkins go- I have that on tap for a class next year! A little older though, 1st and 2nd grade.

Tybee

3-4-17, 7:18pm

Zoe, we make our own laundry detergent and can control what goes in it thus avoiding allergens. We use the Duggars recipe but instead of Fels Naptha soap I use Yardley soap from the dollar tree. We also drain our washing machine right to the outdoors and have a buried pipe with holes in it, to auto water a vegetable garden. We grew watermelons there last year.

Does your apartment have any kind of outdoor shared garden space? if so, you can organize a compost pile on site, and invite all the neighbors to contribute kitchen waste. You can also compost junk mail out of the shredder. I use it around my rose bushes, then cover with straw.

19Sandy

3-4-17, 10:04pm

Can you share the Duggar recipe? I use a cheap detergent but not much because my skin is sensitive. Most people use too much detergent (ruins the clothing and is harsh on the skin).

Tybee

3-5-17, 11:02am

Can you share the Duggar recipe? I use a cheap detergent but not much because my skin is sensitive. Most people use too much detergent (ruins the clothing and is harsh on the skin).
Sure Sandy:
Homemade Liquid Laundry Soap(Front or top load machine-best value)

Ingredients:

4 Cups - hot tap water
1 Fels-Naptha soap bar*
1 Cup - Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda (http://www.meijer.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=117533&parentCategoryId=1498&categoryId=1582&subCategoryId=1587)**
½ Cup Borax

Directions:

-Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.
-Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.
-Stir and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser half full with soap and then fill rest of way with water. Shake before each use. (will gel)
-Optional: You can add 10-15 drops of essential oil per 2 gallons. Add once soap has cooled. Ideas: lavender, rosemary, tea tree oil.
-Yield: Liquid soap recipe makes 10 gallons.
-Top Load Machine- 5/8 Cup per load (Approx. 180 loads)
-Front Load Machines- ¼ Cup per load (Approx. 640 loads)

Chicken lady

3-10-17, 10:09am

So, I "rescued" the product wrap from the food bank last night to go to the recycling. Also brought home a few starting to go moldy snacks for my chickens that added a small amount of plastic trash and some recycling to my accumulation.

i threw out my not quite full quart bag when I got gas this morning (that makes 3 for March) and dropped off two not quite full paper grocery bags of recycling on my way to work. Snagged a box tops symbol that was sticking out of the recycling dumpster and turned it in when I got here, so my three cents in gas to recycle turned into ten cents for my school.

Tybee

3-10-17, 10:14am

Float On

3-10-17, 10:36am

CL - an update. DH took 5 cans to the transfer station. I asked him when was the last trip and he said it was 10 weeks ago. I'm sure some recyclable items were in there. There are only two types of plastic we can recycle, absolutely can't recycle food wraps. There is also a lot of paper and cardboard restrictions (no waxed paper like orange juice box or icecream containers.

I do buy most of my meat that I have to buy (we get a lot from the farm as well) from the counter. I can't decide if it's better to ask for it in plastic bag or wax paper since neither are recyclable.

Chicken lady

3-10-17, 1:44pm

I would think wax paper - definitely for me because I would use it to start the woodstove or a barrel firing.

the zero waste lady says to take your own glass jar (dish?) for meat.

Chicken lady

3-10-17, 1:48pm

Oh, and Tybee, I am definitely going to slide some of this in next year when I am teaching "farm Fridays" but I share lot with the kids in general conversation. I subverted another teacher's "service project" when I subbed a few weeks ago. The kids were supposed to make " don't litter" posters and hang them around school, then pick up trash on the playground. Instead I took them on a scavenger hunt and we recorded all the locations of all the types of recycling available in the building and added this to the posters. I suggested they should pick up trash on the pkayground whenever they see it.

Chicken lady

7-12-17, 8:38am

So, update, it has been 4 months since I last posted, plus another 12 days without trash service. Savings $99 (they did refund my $25 for March minus a $1 processing fee)

I have not had access to the school trash cans since May, but I have been able to keep up with the household trash and reduce the construction trash pile (two full former curbside cans, now 1.75) using the grocery store/gas drop method. I also found a recycling drop convenient to my grocery store to use during the months I don't drive to school. My family is not being very helpful as they continue to buy processed food in packaging and meat in styrofoam trays. The trade off is help with the shopping....

I currently have have part of a broken plastic shelf I need to dispose of. Also my friend visited this weekend and she broke her bike rack and left it in my yard because it wouldn't fit in her car with the bikes. She said she would come back for it if she can get a replacement part. (She lives 4.5 hours away) I told her she had to come back for it anyway because I had no way to get rid of it, but I don't think she will. I am thinking that I will toss those things into the school dumpster during set up week, because I usually rescue a lot of stuff from the school dumpster during set up week, and there is so much random stuff going in no one will really notice or care.