My Recycle Blog

I’ve switched purposes for our tall kitchen trash can and recycle bin. We fill up the shorter recycle bin in days, while it takes weeks to fill the tall kitchen can. And by then, it smells pretty ripe. (I do keep garbage in a separate container by the sink and get rid of it every day or two. Still no garbage disposal! Also must start a compost.)

I won’t continue to keep the recycle bin as a trash can because it doesn’t have a lid. Next time I get to Wal-Mart, I will pick up one of those low stainless steel trash cans with the foot press to open it. That shouldn’t hold too much.

While looking over the selection, I see they range from $12 to $90 or more. Some are multiples to act as a recycle center. I had once considered that, but as I have learned, I don’t need to separate my recyclables in my area, and those bins are just too small for the amount of recyclables that my house spews.

The ones with infrared sensors to open automatically are ridiculous. To work, they need to be plugged in all the time, which is wasting energy. I think the foot pedal is sufficient to avoid getting hands dirty. I don’t need anything fancier than that.

As I write this, I hear my old trash man coming down my street and I snicker. I haven’t taken out trash in about six weeks. (I do actually have trash, but very little. Whenever I go for gas, I take along a small bag of non-recyclables and deposit in the handy trash bins next to the gas pumps. But, I own a Prius and I work from home, so that’s not very often.)

So, it seems I have successfully reduced my trash to a manageable volume — enough that I don’t need to pay a trash man to haul it away. But my recycling volume is enormous! Last week I completely filled my car with bags and boxes — both the cargo area and the back seat. And it got me thinking, while I’m doing good by not loading up a landfill, am I really doing good for the earth if I still have all this waste? Wouldn’t it be better to not need to recycle in the first place?

I’ve taken many measures in the past weeks to reduce even my recyclables. Here are some:

• I bought Tupperware plates to use in place of paper plates. A set of 4 is rather expensive, but they are dishwasher safe and microwavable — and Tupperware has a reputation for longevity. My own cabinets have 30-year old Tupperware products in them. That’s how long I’ve been married.
• I have been building my supply of white, durable and bleachable cloth napkins. Even when I wash all of them together, it’s still just a small load. I hang them outside to dry. (One of those household chores I actually enjoy. Some people like gardening; I like hanging out wash.)
• I also bought some other Tupperware products to help reduce packaging. For example, when I go to the grocery story, I take my own stackable containers along for lunchmeats and cheeses. That way I’m not dragging their packaging trash home with me. And of course, I have a growing stock of grocery totes so I don’t need their paper or plastic bags.
• I am trying to break my addiction to the local dairy’s iced tea and switching over to homemade. That cuts about 4 or 5 gallon jugs a week. I’m still experimenting with my recipe to get it exactly right. But I’m close and it does satisfy my craving.
• I refill water bottles with tap. I live in a place where my water bill is so high it makes almost daily news. One quarterly bill alone was $750. If I have to pay that much for tap water, I’m darn well going to drink it!
• Can’t do much about newspapers. I get my news online, but hubby won’t give up the paper. (There’s no computer in the bathroom.)
• Flavored water bottles, soda cans and beer bottles are the biggest culprits. Hubby drinks the Vitamin Water. We also stock up on canned sodas whenever they are on sale, so we drink a lot of them (diet only!). And someone usually brings the beer and a few staple items on the bar shelves. Friday nights usually generate a lot of recyclables. So do game nights (Phillies!) which are almost every evening. I learned by accident one night after having dental work, that warm decaf tea used as a chaser can help you avoid a hangover in the morning. That’s both cheap and easy on the trash. But there’s no way I’m going to convince my husband or my guests to drink hot tea along with me. Not sure what to do about the cans and bottles. But I’ll work on it.

I am hosting a Tupperware party in August. I’ll think of some more ideas before then.

JJ

At the place where I recycle, there are two giant bins: one for all paper and cardboard; and the other for plastics, metals and glass. On the latter bin, there are three very large-type, all-cap signs — one on each sliding bin door — that reads, “COMINGLED ONLY.”

Okay, it may be the editor in me (I can’t turn off the editing machine no matter how hard I try) but seriously… WTF?? “Comingled Only” makes absolutely no sense, and yet they practically scream it at me. Is it an industry term, like “sustainable” that can only mean something to industry insiders? Comingled is not in the dictionary. (I looked it up.)

Okay, let’s dissect this one. First, it’s on the bin where another sign says, Glass, Metals, Plastics. And I assumed “Metals” means both magnetic and aluminum metals. And “Glass, Metals, Plastics” on a sign suggests (in my mind) that I can mingle glass, metals and plastics when I put them in the bin. This actually turned out to be good for me because, if you recall, my first week of recycling, I was separating everything unnecessarily. Now I just put glass, all metals and plastics in one plastic trash bag, close it up and toss it in the bin at the end of the week. (Sometimes I have two bags. Today I had three because last week I was in Florida visiting my sister while my husband was home making more trash.)

The point is, I know the sign “Glass, Metals, Plastics” means it’s okay to mingle them. So what does “Comingled Only” mean? I know that “Co” means put something together. And “Mingle” means put something together. But, “Only” means don’t put something together. Ultimately, we have a redundancy immediately followed by an oxymoron.

WTF??

To drill to the core message, I assume the oxymoron cancels out the redundancy and that leaves “Mingle”, which is what the other sign told me in the first place. They really don’t need to be screaming the other message three times. It confuses the hell out of professional editors like me. (Of course, I’m probably the only person who was confused by this.)

I’ve got the kitchen trash down to a manageable science (garbage disposal notwithstanding). But I’m starting to come across other trash I didn’t think much about until it crept up on me.

Garden weeds: It’s summer here in the Northeast. And as I fight to de-weed my vegetable garden, I have to stop myself from routinely dropping them in a trash barrel. What can I do with them? I can’t burn in my neighborhood. And I don’t want them sitting around to replant themselves. Maybe it’s time for me to begin a compost. (Can you put weeds in a compost? I heard vegetation only, and that’s certainly vegetation.)

Used cat litter: I have a cat. And my cat is not toilet trained. (Don’t laugh. My previous cat was! He stood at the back door and scratched just like a dog.) But this is an indoor cat who makes his littler box dirty. I have heard that you can keep critters like rabbits and groundhogs out of you garden by sprinkling the edges with used kitty litter. But I imagine you don’t need to do that every week. And… well… yuck! (Besides, what would I do after growing season ends?)

Feminine napkins: Okay, I’m going to get a little TMI on you here, but if you’re a woman, then it’s relevant. Used pads make trash. Tampons can be flushed. Problem solved. Switch to tampons! And on days where I have to wear back-up protection, well… I’ll just have to make frequent trips to the local gas station.  (Just kidding.) I don’t mind laundering cloth napkins, scrub rags — even hankies. But I’m not going there! For the first time in my life, I’m looking forward to menopause.

Disposable razors: These are made up of both plastic and metal. So I imagine they can go in the Plastic/Metal/Glass bin. But how will they separate that at the plant? My son (a welder) had worked on a recycle center’s sorting machine recently. He said first there’s a sucking section that sucks out all the lightweight aluminum. Then a stronger sucker that sucks out the plastics. Then there’s a very strong magnet that pulls all the magnetized metals out. After that, all that’s left is glass. If something is made up partly of plastic and partly of metal, what does the machine do with it? Maybe it’s time to consider non-disposable razors. Do they make them for women?

These are my biggest dilemmas at present. But they aren’t huge ones. Just stuff to think about.

Because recycling has reduced my trash to about a half can a week, it sits in my kitchen longer than it used to. And it’s about 70% garbage! My kitchen has developed an odor that gets worse when you walk past the trash can.

I have tried containing the odors in sealed bags. Over the past two weeks, I’ve started keeping a garbage bag (i.e., bread bag) in the corner of my sink just the way my mother used to when I was a girl. But then, we had a garbage collector (separate from the trash collector). Remember that smelly old truck that came by early on Saturday mornings —followed closely by a swarm of flies? I’m glad we don’t have that any more, but now my garbage has become my biggest problem.

I want a garbage disposal. Badly! My husband, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to want one bad enough to make the effort. So I see I will have to take matters into my own hands. (Sound familiar girls?)

Home Depot has a great website where they show you what it takes to install a garbage disposal. Seems simple enough, and not very expensive. Much cheaper than the thousand dollars and more simple than having to pull the dishwasher out, remove cabinetry and drywall, and install electrical outlets as my husband explained. But then, I suspect he just wants to make it sound more difficult than it really is so I either stop nagging, or treat him like a god if and when he gets to it.

Nope. As far as I can tell from the Home Depot site, the equipment would run about $200 (maybe a bit more if I get the top-of-the-line disposal). And it seems as simple as a bit of under-the-sink plumbing. But the website also mentions that the disposal needs a source for power and, if you don’t already have one, you’ll need to install that. It’s not otherwise part of the instructions. So maybe hubby has a point.

As for the style of disposal, Home Depot sells many different sizes and flavors (horsepower). It suggests households with only two people in it can have a 1/5 horsepower disposal, while large families should maybe go with 1 horsepower. My husband also lilsted off all the things you can’t put into a garbage disposal: potato peels, celery, banana and other stringy peels, egg shells, etc. But, researching the varieties at Home Depot, I see the InSinkErator Evolution Essential™ model ($199) can handle such tougher jobs. And it’s supposedly not very loud either. I’d rather get a disposal that’s stronger than my two-person household needs if it can dispose of more of my garbage than other models. My goal is to eliminate trash completely. Not just narrow it down a bit.

I do NOT intend to try this myself. I don’t even know how to check the oil in my car. But, I just made a deal with my son. His wife also wants a garbage disposal. So I agreed to buy the equipment for his, if he will install mine! Yay!

More on this later when it happens.

My first recycle day has come. It gives a whole new meaning to “taking out the trash”. I still had to go around the house to gather all the bins, bag them up and line the bins with new bags. But, instead of going as far as the curb, it meant loading up the car and driving about a mile away. (And today, it rained! Hard.)

But, I am determined. So I just had to buck up and do it.

I actually missed a week since I last wrote. I had an unexpected weekend visitor and my Saturday morning plans went out the window. So today’s trash was actually two weeks worth of recyclables. But it turned out to be an excellent test; I CAN go two weeks if necessary. But my bins were beginning to overflow, so I wouldn’t go longer than that. Thank goodness the weather has been cool so the bins did not smell. I do rinse most items, but there are some soda cans and juice bottles that I doubt were rinsed.

I had separated all recyclables into bags. I gathered all plastic bottles and jugs into one tall kitchen trash bag (also recyclable). I stuffed plastic wrap, frozen veggie bags, newspaper bags and grocery bags into another grocery bag. I dumped aluminum cans, aluminum foil and cat food cans into a separate bag. I didn’t have that many other metals — canned vegetables, jar lids, small fruit juice cans from the barroom — that’s about it. And I bagged up all glassware together. I didn’t see any mention of colors of glass that would make a difference, so green, brown, clear or whatever all went into the same bag.

I collected newspapers in a large cardboard box, so I just took the whole box since it is recyclable. And I had collected cereal boxes and other food mix boxes into another cardboard box.

Everything just barely fit into the back of my Prius. It’s a hatchback, but not an especially large one. Still it fit, so that also passed the two-week test.

I drove to the recycle center — about a mile away from my home. They open at 6:00 a.m. year-round; I got there at 9:00 a.m. No one was there — quite possibly because of the rain. It’s a public drop-off so I didn’t expect to see attendants, but I thought I might run into other recyclers. There were none.

At this particular recycle center, there are only two dumpsters: one labeled “Paper Only” and the other “Glass, Metal, Plastic.” I wasn’t sure if “Metal” included aluminum, or if “Paper Only” included cardboard, so I peeked in the dumpsters before putting anything in them. The bin marked “Paper Only” had more cardboard in it than paper, so I dumped both my paper box and my cardboard box into it. That included paper, thin cardboard and corrugated cardboard all in the same bin. And I tossed all my other recyclables, including the questionable aluminum, into the other dumpster.

The reason I worry if this was okay is because I’ve been to another recycle center on the other side of the city (about a half hour drive for me) and that one has a separate dumpster for everything — paper vs cardboard vs. corrugated cardboard, and aluminum vs metal, vs glass, vs different levels of plastics. You really have to sort it all. (Way too much work in my opinion. I wanted this to be easy.) I think I rather like my own neighborhood’s place. I actually did more sorting at home than I needed to.

Now I know I can collect glass, all metals and all plastics in the same bins. And collecting paper in a cardboard box turned out to be a good idea.

The entire morning’s event took about a half hour. That included collecting the bins, loading up the car and making the run. Not bad at all.

TGIF. Or, rather… TGITD. “Thank God it’s Trash Day.”

It’s time to analyze my work. I went around the house to find all the places where we throw trash away. (Wow, I never paid attention to how many there were.)

I have three bathrooms. And what a bad job I have done there. My small bathroom cans are full of recyclables — toothpaste boxes, new razor packaging, empty toilet paper rolls, an empty shampoo bottle, an empty disinfectant wipes canister, etc. (Eww, what’s that? Okay some stuff should be there.)

In my office, my waste can is overflowing, but it’s all paper that I can dump in my recycle box. And I knew that as I continued to put paper in it all week.   (I admit it. I’m a tree killer. As an editor, I need to read the printed page. It really does helps to catch mistakes. I don’t know if I’ll ever resolve that one, but at least I can recycle pages that I don’t have to file. I can also pull out the sheets that are blank or nearly blank for my grandchildren to color on when they visit.)   My shredder is also full, but that, too, can be recycled. (I shred the parts of junk mail that contain offers of credit, and those stupid blank checks that credit card companies keep sending. I get so much junk mail and so many blank checks; I do wish they’d stop sending them. I don’t even read junk mail; it goes right into the shredder!)

My husband’s office contains our only printer, so he has a lot of paper in his trash can too — mostly blank and crinkled paper-jam pages. (I work from home, so he gets the printer in HIS office?? How did we work that one out?)

Hubby has a bar room where we watch the Phillies kick @$$ every night and entertain on Friday’s. Hubby also reads the paper down there. He has a very large trash barrel in the room, but I’ve been paying attention. I placed one of the recycle bins and a “paper” box over in the laundry room. The newspapers go right into the paper box. We drink a lot of canned and bottled drinks; I drink diet gingerale and Tropicana Light Lemonade, and he drinks Pepsi and some kinid of flavored water. Then there’s beer and empty liquor bottles from Friday nights. We often order out on Fridays and use paper plates, which can go in the paper box. I’ve been setting all the bottles and cans aside for rinsing to go right into the recycle bin in the laundry room. (Everything gets rinsed before it goes in the can. I HATE anything that has more legs than my cat and have no wish to attract them.)

I’m reminded of my laundry room (nearly forgot that one.) I pull out the empty laundry soap bottles and all that’s left are dryer lint and fabric softener sheets. I don’t think either of those are recyclable. (Note to self: Start using liquid fabric softener and find out if dryer lint is biodegradable.)

Oh yes, I also have a cat. And a litter box. Cat litter is not recyclable, but my Mom said if you spread used cat litter around your garden, it’ll keep out the rabbits and other critters. That’s fine in the summer (and I’m sure it’s not a thing you do every week) but I live in the Northeast. What about the rest of the year?

Now the kitchen. Here, I think, is where I had the greatest success. After five days, my kitchen can is only half full. This is huge in that I would have taken the trash out at least twice before recycling. What DID make it to the can? Well, a lot of nasty stuff and garbage. I don’t have a garbage disposal, and have been after Hubby to install one. But then I hear about all the garbage you CAN’T put into a garbage disposal and it seems disappointing. No banana peels? No orange peels? No onion peels? No egg shells? The peels make up most of my garbage! (Well… up until I clean out my fridge from old leftovers. That’s when I really feel the pain of having no garbage disposal.)

My recycle bins are encouragingly full and ready to go tomorrow morning. (I’ve chosen Saturday to be my “recycle run” day. The nearby landfill has public recycle drop-off bins and they open the gates at 6 a.m., so I can go as early as I want.)

I still question some of the items in my recycle bins. I made sure nothing plastic entered the can — not even plastic wrap whether from packaging or my own roll. But are they really recyclable? Tomorrow, I’ll pay attention to what other people bring to the recycle center and report back if I’m doing anything wrong.

Yesterday, I went to an Amish Princess House party. (Yeah, who knew? They LOVE the stuff!) Anyway, I thought it would be a good opportunity to observe how they manage without regular trash pickup on the farm.

I observed that they simply don’t need it.

The Amish bring very little into the house in the first place. (Sometimes I wonder where all my trash comes from. I swear I didn’t bring two barrels of groceries into the house since last week.) You won’t find rooms full of electronic gadgetry that all came in oversized boxes with five pounds of plastic packaging and peanuts. Nor do they need to constantly replenish the batteries in toys (although, yes, they do use batteries for such things as flashlights).

Amish “groceries” are usually homemade. Go to their basements or store rooms and they’ve got shelves and shelves of anything that will fit into a jar — jams, jellies, vegetables, and fruits — and other homemade goods like noodles, beef jerky, cheese, soaps, brooms, clothes, quilts — you name it. What they don’t make, grow or milk, they get from the farmer up the road. And they wash out and reuse all containers.

The party was at a pavilion by the pond. As the kids went for a swim behind us, the women shucked peas while watching the demonstrator. (Amish women NEVER sit idle.) I pitched in with the pea shucking.

The ladies really do love Princess House. As the demonstrator (who was also an Amish woman) held up each item, she let the ladies who already owned it tell about how they use it. They talked about the practicality of the item, not the beauty of it. For example, one woman marveled about the Princess Heritage Juicer, which she uses for milk, which she gets from the farmer next door, and which, she explains, keeps much better in glass than in plastic. The rectangular shape of the container allows her to line them up in her cooler for a better fit than the round jars and jugs that the milk comes in. Those, she can return to the dairy farmer. There’s no trash involved.

All food (clearly homemade) was brought to the party in Tupperware. We had sandwiches (three kinds, pre-made), devilled eggs, macaroni salad, pasta salad (my own contribution), baked corn, vanilla pudding, assorted cakes, shoe-fly pie, strawberry pie, lemon squares — even the pretzels were in Tupperware. Oooh…I just remembered, someone (probably English) brought a bag of chips! (Gasp!) We never opened it.

We did use paper plates, cups and plastic spoons and forks. And I did wonder what they would do with the trash. After the party, we “English” went into the house to keep the grandparents (Mommie and Doddy) company while the rest of the ladies went to the yard to cut grass, weed the garden and finish some other chores for the elderly couple who can no longer do it for themselves. While sitting in the expansive kitchen — the windows wide open to let in a delicious breeze — I smelled smoke. At first I thought something was on fire until Mommie explained that one of the ladies was burning trash. (Aha!)

Okay, they don’t allow trash burning in my neighborhood, but that explains a lot. Still, I think the paper plates, cups and plastic forks would have been recyclable. On the other hand, I’m going to a Tupperware party tonight and I’m already eyeballing the plastic plates and tumblers for summer parties. If it’s dishwasher safe, that’s good enough for me! Now if only someone can teach me to make my own soap.

I’ve been recycling for a little more than 24 hours. I find myself scrutinizing EVERY single piece of trash before I throw it away. It’s a little bit exciting when I can put the item in one of the bins instead of the trash can. When I’m not sure, I put it in the bin anyway. I assume at some point, someone at the recycle center will yell at me for stuff that’s not supposed to be recycled — and that will be a learning experience for me.

Things I’m not sure about:
• Styrofoam package trays for meats
• Plastic frozen veggie bags
• Plastic sandwich bags and freezer bags
• Must I remove the plastic windows from junk mail envelopes?
• Must I remove labels from cans and bottles?

And that raises a whole new issue: Packaging! But I’ll save that topic for another day.

So far so good, but I suspect this is going to grow old real fast.

I am a recycler.

For reasons that have less to do with saving the earth and more to do with cutting my trash bill (although saving the earth is a pretty good side effect), I’ve decided to finally jump on board and start recycling. My neighborhood does not offer a public recycle program so I have to figure it out for myself.

I love a good challenge, so my goal is to throw away as little as possible — even to the point of completely eliminating trash if I can go that far.  And since I’m a freelance writer, well… it seems only fitting that I record my efforts.  Feel free to try it with me, share your ideas, or call me a sucker if you’ve already been down this road.  J

Day 1

First, I looked through the phone book to find the nearest recycle center. Turns out, there’s one only about a mile away. (Lucky me! I was worried I’d have to drive far away from home to find one each week. I’ve no intention of letting trash build up in my garage for weeks in order to make a monthly trip to a far-away place.)  I stopped by to check the place out, see what recyclables they accept, and to find out their hours and drop-off points, etc. They showed me the giant bins and what materials go in which ones.  I can recycle paper, cardboard, aluminum cans, glass, other metals and plastics.

Next, I went to Wal-Mart and bought four plastic bins. These are going in my kitchen behind a counter; I don’t want them to be too big, but also not so small that they fill up too fast. The ones I chose are 27 quart tubs with lids. Since I work from home and I buy a LOT of printer paper, I often have empty cardboard boxes to use for paper and cardboard. So I think four bins will do for the rest of my recyclables.

Then, I informed my husband that HE WILL help me by NOT throwing stuff away automatically. He grunted, which I chose to accept as an acknowledgment that he will comply. (My kids are all grown and moved out so he’s the only one I need to worry about.)

I started digging through the present trash to see what I could pull out and transfer to the new recycle bins. In about a half hour, I completely filled the cardboard box with cardboard, and one of the bins with plastic Gatorade bottles, a milk jug, an iced tea jug and some other assorted plastics. I also had a few aluminum cans. No glass or other metals. Maybe I’ll have to rethink bin sizes based on material type. But I’ll wait until I get through a week or two first before I make any changes.

Woo hoo! I’m a recycler!

JJ

P.S. Must get hubby to install a garbage disposal!!