Comments on: What’s in your garbage?

By: rhetor1999

rhetor1999 — Sun, 17 May 2009 16:01:35 +0000

A couple ideas on the prescription bottles:

1.My vet takes back prescription bottles and re-uses them. We’ve started saving all our RX bottles for her. We had a chronically ill dog and we saved a lot of bottles for her. (We also give her the leftover dog medication.)

2.Our human pharmacy will also re-use bottles. They fill both animal and human RXs and are happy to re-fill the bottles. (Obviously the same script has to go into the same bottle.) I have a daily rx and my pharmacy is happy (if a little puzzled) to re-use the bottle.

Just one way to reduce those pesky bottles.

By: SueEllen

SueEllen — Tue, 12 May 2009 17:21:07 +0000

I would like to participate. I am not quite to your level yet but I have made a huge improvement. Last year I did do something similar where I took pictures of my trash daily and then put the total amount on the ground next to the poly-cart I used to fill each week. Instead of a poly-cart full to the top with trash I had a weeks worth of trash stuffed in a bag that sheets came in. It was so small next to the big cart.
We cancelled our trash service and now go to the dump every 9-12 months as well as saving recycling and taking it to a city when we visit about once a month. I will start tomorrow.

By: Debbie

Debbie — Fri, 08 May 2009 13:49:06 +0000

Umm, about composting dog feces… Please make sure that your 4-leggers stay on heart worm preventitive with intestinal parasite control included, and that your 4-leggers have routine intestinal parasite exams so that you’re composting parasite free feces. Zoonotic diseases are not something you want to contract your self. Hookworms bore through the bottom of your feet and can cause blindness. If you need any clarification, please contact your Vet. Just makes you wonder about dairy fields and what/how goes to he dump, let alone what other people don’t pick up in their yard.

By: meredith

meredith — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 10:39:50 +0000

Great post- I am always looking at the trash! Yesterday my husband said you need a pig. Pigs will eat just about anything that does not have meat in it. We raised them years ago and it might be time again.
I am always amazed that no matter how far we have come the food industry finds new and creative ways to add more and more packing to what we buy.
Recently we are no langer able to recycle glass -of all things- it is just going in the land fill here- that should be a no brainer- but they say no money in it.
I have just finished turning two years of kitchen waste and “cow” dirt into raised beds.
Now, if we could compost those little stickers off the viggies!

By: Cheap Like Me

Cheap Like Me — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 15:03:17 +0000

@jmisgro – I know, it can be tough! In my city we can only recycle plastics that are in the shape of a bottle. I collect the other items in bags in my laundry room and then take them once or twice a year to a special recycling facility 30 miles away, where they collect various plastics, styrofoam, sneakers, bicycle tires and all sorts of other items. Depending where you are located, maybe you can find such a facility? But you’re right, it’s best to avoid buying them at all when you can.

By: jmisgro

jmisgro — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 14:38:19 +0000

You are lucky that you can recycle so many different plastics where you live. We can only recycle ones and twos here. I try not buy the other kinds but I pick up a few at the grocery store.

By: Cheap Like Me

Cheap Like Me — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 18:17:43 +0000

@Erin – I have indeed looked into dog poo compost or worm composting. I’m leery because it’s a lot of yuck for not being able to use it (or at least have it work) for half the year due to freezing temperatures. Still thinking on that one.

By: Erin

Erin — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 17:42:23 +0000

Oh – I forgot to mention, my friend just created a composter just for dog, um, poo. If you have the space, you might look into it.

By: Erin

Erin — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 17:41:18 +0000

After attending a “plastics round up” last May, I became very aware of all the plastics that were coming in to our household. I now know that all of the plastic that you threw away (which is very like the plastic in our home), I can take to a recycling facility. We still have food scraps (the non-compostable ones), wierd complex things (metal plus plastic!) and sadly, disposable diapers* (alhtough we are close to being done with those at least during the day).

My understanding, and forgive me if I am mucking up plastic recyclers everywhere, is that plastic film is plastic film. So if you have plastic bag recycling in your area, you can also put in clean film (like your cereal bag).

We did move to a smaller garbage can recently and we are doing ok. The key for us is to recycle, recycle, recycle. Some times that means collecting and bringing ourselves to a center (something I know you also do). Keep up the good work!

* As a die hard greenie, it is hard for me to admit this but there are/were extenuating circumstances. Really. (These factors include twins, 3 kids in diapers for a while, and the inability to find diapers that were absorbent enough for growing boys). Enough said.

By: CT

CT — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 14:23:22 +0000

Composting has made the biggest difference for us, as it obviously has for you. It was amazing to see how much less we threw out (and depressing to realize how much organic waste is going into landfills). The rest is small potatoes compared to that, but the newest innovation is trying to reuse packaging so that we don’t have to use ziploc bags (which we always wash out, but this way we save water) — the empty bag of gummy bears becomes the lunch snack bag, for example. So we’re not actually reducing what goes into the garbage, but we’re being more mindful of how we use things.

For me, the big challenge is kitty litter. I use Feline Pine, which I absolutely love because it’s totally biodegradable, but with three cats we generate too much to compost (waste removed, obviously, and the cats are parasite free), “use as mulch,” or any of the other suggestions I’ve seen. I’ve been hoarding it and sneaking it into yard waste bags on occasion, but we don’t put out that many yard waste bags! I’m going to have to bite the bullet and start putting it in the trash, but I hate to do it.