Wednesday, December 12, 2007

One small bag of trash . . .

Here is Ripley standing by our one small bag of trash. We have recently made a commitment to become more "green". After discovering that our trash carrier was not recycling, we have decided to head to the dump ourselves. There, we can recycle more things, plus, with our new commitment I've found recycling homes for our "stretch" plastic bags and batteries at Whole Foods. Also, at the Seekonk Department of Works on Rt. 44 (a nearby town) I was able to purchase a compost bin (that sells online for about $100) for a mere $25. So ... with all that, in one entire week we are only generating one small tall kitchen garbage bag worth of trash! Isn't that exciting?? Before our commitment we were generating one bag a day at least -- for a family of four. I have to say I have also made an effort to choose things when I'm shopping that don't have much packaging. I've been getting things from the bulk bins at Whole Foods using paper bags since I can rip those up afterwards and put them into my compost bin. I figure the less toxic plastic I use, the better for everyone -- even if it is recycled. For those of you unfamiliar with composting, you can put organic matter into this bin and after 6 months to a year (depending on your climate and the season you start) you will have beautiful FREE fertilizer for your garden and plants. What can I put in my Compost Bin? You can put all of your fruit and vegetable scraps in there, torn up paper, cardboard, toilet paper rolls, used Kleenex, used paper towel (w/o meat, dairy, chemicals) grass clippings, non-woody garden clippings (woody clippings just take longer to decompose and should go in another pile), hair (if you cut your kids hair, as I do), egg shells, coffee grounds and filters, your old jack-o-lanterns!, and hey, when you unload your fridge of things that you didn't use before they went bad ... at least you can make great dirt out of it ... put it in your compost! Next to the trash can under our sink is the kitchen compost container that Seekonk gave to me along with my $25 composter. Cool eh?

2 comments:

a. borealis said...

Excellent, excellent! It is amazing how much you can cut back on when you really try. I've experienced the EXACT same thing the past couple of years. I am mortified by the amount of trash we've tossed in the past.

Tyrone Patnode said...

Composting has a lot of advantages. Compost, when added to soil, provides organic matter, reduces potential for soil erosion and reduces fertilizer requirements. Just find the best compost container for you and you might enjoy composting too.