At my house, I can’t wait for garbage day. I really look forward to it because it gives me the opportunity to see the results of my progress towards a more sustainable household. Through my efforts in the past year, I have been able to reduce the amount of garbage to just a single bag per week. That’s pretty impressive for a family of four that includes my wife and 2 little girls. I have a recycling system set up in the kitchen and the garage that for containers, paper, plastic bags, and paper bags. Much of what would have ended up in a landfill is picked up by my local trash service or left at a recycling drop-off point.
For only $3.75 a month, Waste Management will pick up our recyclables every other week. All we do is fill up the green tub they provide, and they haul it away. On those weeks, there are 2 disposal trucks that drive the route simultaneously. One picks up the garbage waste, and the other picks up the recycling. They pick up newspapers, junk mail, clear/brown/green glass, aluminum, tin/steel, and certain plastics.
While I am happy with this progress, there are still 2 problems that I need to work out.
- Waste Management doesn’t take every grade of plastic, and I have to divide them into separate bins – one for Peoria recycling and the “leftovers” for Bloomington recycling. In my area, they only accept plastics #1 or #2, but I do have the ability to recycle the rest by dropping them off in Bloomington-Normal where I work (yes, I am using a lot of gas and oil driving a total round trip of 86 miles each work day). Assuming I won’t be commuting forever, I need to come up with a better plan. I could find a facility in the Peoria area and drop them off. I could store them until I make the occasional trip to the twin cities. Better yet, I could reduce my purchases of products that have non-recyclable containers. Which leads me to my next area to address…
- Reduce the amount of products we buy that have non-disposable containers. I collect more than will fit in the Waste Management bin, and they don’t accept all materials. As an example, we have already stopped buying cases of bottled water. At the moment, we have been buying gallons of drinking water at the store, but this is only a small improvement. Our next step is to buy a reusable, 3 gallon water container and refill it on our return trips to the grocery store.
At some point this year, we are plan to set up a composting system so that I’m not throwing uneaten veggies into the garbage. We are also planning on converting a flower garden into a vegetable garden, and the compost will provide an excellent fertilizer. I have absolutely no experience with these projects, so it will be quite a learning process.
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Here’s an anecdote for you. On one particular garbage day last winter, I woke at 6AM to get my daughter ready for kindergarten. When I heard the garbage trucks coming down the road, I realized we hadn’t taken the garbage OR recycling out to the curb. I threw on a pair of pants and sneakers and dashed out into the cold in a t-shirt. I came out of the garage with my recycling container in my hands as the truck was just passing the house. Somehow, they saw me coming and stopped. The guy got out, looked at my bin, and asked if I had any garbage instead. I plopped the bin down in the middle of the driveway, and ran around the side of the house to grab the garbage can. When I came back and handed him the can, I had this weird sort of excitement you get when you run into someone famous on the street. You’re not sure what to say, and you feel like if you say anything you’ll sound like an idiot. Maybe the guy sensed my earnestness because as he told me the recycling truck had already gone by, he suggested placing the bin on the other side of the street so the truck would see it on the way back. Grateful for the suggestion and the fact I wouldn’t have to wait another 2 weeks as my recyclables piled up, I stole across the street in my sneakers and ran back into the house. Sure enough, it all worked out. By the time my daughter was on the bus, I had my empty recycling bin back in the garage. That’s quite a bit more excitement than I am used to at that time in the morning.
Sustainably yours,
Todd
