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Today was garbage day (once a week pickup) so on my way to work I dropped a small bag of kitchen garbage in the robo can and wheeled it to the curb- The total amount in the can barely covered the bottom of the can- not even 1/4 full.
It's just my husband and myself so that is pretty common for us. When we had 4 kids in the house it honestly wasn't that much more.
Driving thru the development I noticed it was more common than not for the lids on the cans to be propped open with so much garbage the lid didn't close properly- some households even had 2 robocans at the curb. I'm thinking to myself what the heck can they be filling those cans with?
recycle is a completely different day and different can so it's not that- we rarely go out to eat and cook most meals at home so I'm wondering- how do families generate so darn much garbage?
I am single, and don't use garbage pickup, it's way too expensive.
I have chickens and a compost pile for organic garbage. I can either make use of newspaper and regular cardboard or burn it, and make use of the ashes.
Clothing gets recycled, as does glass, cans, and most plastic containers.
What's left is glossy paper and packaging and the associated unrecyclable plastic.
I generate about a can per month, and I drop it off myself.
I'm gonna guess 5 gallons per week. We also have a wheely robo can that's 20 gal. It's rarely more than 1/4 full. Maybe a couple times a year we'll fill it full.
Like the OP we have a good recycle program. Our recycle and green waste cans are picked up separately from the regular garbage. We do compost and lasagna garden so that takes care of most of the cardboard and some green waste. Big yard cleanups though generate more than the compost bin can handle.
We have a 95 gallon garbage can for the city that is picked up once a week. Its usually about 1/3 of the way full with garbage and 1/3 of the way full with recyclables. Our city's recycling only comes every other week (again a 95 gallon can). Recycling can is always overflowing by the end of the first week so we end up throwing away recyclables (and burning cardboard once the pile on our porch gets too big).
when i started keeping the roadsides clean in a 4 mile square near my home i filled mine up every week and sometimes my neighbors as well a one or two at the church nearby ... but it has slacked off a lot since i have finally made the whole lap ..
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Usually our actual garbage container is about half full, the recycling bin completely full, and the food scrap/yard waste bin is either full or empty depending on what I do in the yard that week. The food scraps only amount to maybe a gallon a week, because most goes into the garbage disposal rather than stink up the house and bin.
The 96-gallon can is for recycles. We generate only 1-2 bags of actual garbage per week, with four adults here. Between an outstanding recycle program (it's also free, we just have to take it to the collection point and that's easy) and the compost pile, we just don't generate much garbage.
Today is trash day, We put out two whatever the normal big garbage cans are and one rolling tub thing that is bigger. Each of the two did have one or two fullish bags on top of it. We put out two other full sized cans with outside stuff in it. Things that broke over the winter, some of our old chicken stuff that was broken, a heated cat bed thingy (also broken). We also put out the ridiculous reycling bin they give us that holds about 1/100th of the recycling.
What is all this trash and recyling?
Probably 90 - 100 water bottles from bottled water. Cardboard boxes and packing materials from amazon purchases. Wrappers and containers from food. Some old clothing we found left out int he yard that was all moldy and ick. A bunch of little wires (thousands) the electric company left in our yard when a tree fell on their power line. Lots of other bottles, shampoo, charcoal starter, chain saw bar oil, adkins shakes bottles, tiny 5 hour energy bottles, chewed up dog toys, a delivery pizza box or two, some McDonald's wrappers and bag, some old garbage can lids from garbage cans we no longer have, poopy newspapers form the bird cages, grocery bags with dog poo in them, a broken hair dryer. Plastic tub that held bird pellets. Plastic tub that held dog treats, broken cat food dish. two pairs of shoes worn beyond repair. A tub that holds those tide pocket thingies. the box a portable heater came in, food scraps the dogs/birds or wild animals couldn't wouldn't or shouldn't eat, several pairs of socks that got holes in them, some other things.
That is pretty typical.
When all the kids were home (we now have 2 living home with 2 more how come on various weekends and one in a distant land.) We sometimes would have eight or ten garbage cans full and at Christmas it was just basically a mountain (we had the entire family 21 people over for Christmas - lots of packaging food packages, etc).
I am not sure why we generate so much trash recycling. We could recycle most of it, but the bin they give us is ridiculous. Not even a bushel. We just stack bags of recycling around the bin and hope they get the message. Sometimes they do, sometimes the trash truck takes them.
We have a lot of pets, so that may be one reason we have so much trash and recycling. Mostly it is containers, bleach, chlorine, cleaners, shampoos, deodorant cans, milk cartons, egg cartons, plastic tubs that lettuce and other produce comes in. When lots of the kids are home, we end up with lots of pizza boxes. Sometimes three different groups of kids/friends will order pizza on the same day and the next day, a different two groups.
They do not want anything with food on it in recycling, so pizza boxes and their friends tend to fill the trash. Also chemical bottles (motor oil, chain saw oil, coolant, paint thinner, etc) they do not want them in recycling either. Sometimes we just put them in and they take them, maybe they throw them out later.
Coldjensens, that really bites that your recycling program is so weak!
Probably 90% of what you mentioned would be recyclable here in one way or another. Some would be composted/lasagna gardened. We actually save $$ on our trash service bill by agressively recycling. The normal service covers a 32 gal trash, a 64 recycle and a 64 green waste/food soiled paper can. We can upsize the recycle and green waste cans at no charge. This allowed us to downsize the trash to 20 gal which saves $14/month and we upsized the recycle and green cans to 96 gal.
There's a polystyrene ban here so thankfully no styrofoam leftover containers for us. That used to take up trash space. We've found a local place where we can recycle styro peanuts when we get them and a place that takes larger pieces that sometimes comes around furniture. Thankfully, most shipped items are packed in more recycle-friendly materials now.
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