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I was wondering about C-Ders' thoughts on waste-free living. Do you consider it important to minimize your household waste? What steps have you taken to do so?
My first step was to tackle kitchen waste. I feel very fortunate that I live not far from two groceries that have extensive bulk offerings, which has made a tremendous difference in the amount of garbage we haul to the curb, especially when we take our own bags/containers. At first, I got some strange looks, but more recently, I've received lots of positive comments from both other customers and employees. And many people have stopped me to ask questions about how it works when they see my cloth produce bags and reusable containers.
At this point, our family usually discards the contents of one lightly loaded 40-gallon trash container per month, but we're constantly working on ways to reduce our garbage stream even further. What about you?
Last edited by randomparent; 03-06-2013 at 06:03 PM..
If you can find a source to recycle paper/plastic/glass/metal and compost your food scraps there shouldn't be much to throw out. I recycle my paper in one location, take plastics/glass/cardboard to another, compost, there's also a scrap metal place I take big pieces of metal and motors, etc. I reuse egg cartons, tin cans, glass bottles and some of the cardboard. Lately I'm trying to consume as little as I can, so that I don't even have to recycle by making things myself. Its amazing how much we buy that can be made for cheaper/better ourselves. Convenience seems to mess with quality. Also trying to avoid big chain food stores where every tiny thing has its own package. And of course use the cloth bags.....
I get really upset that some people still don't recycle. The way I look at it, once you buy something....it's YOURS. That means you own it, including the packaging. To throw packaging or anything else in the garbage is saying, 'I don't have to take any responsibility for my stuff....let someone/thing else deal with it'. How messed up is it that we throw millions of pounds of garbage onto the earth and think nothing of it???!! To have the mindset that its really that easy to make something disappear forever. When in reality its not disappearing, its still there, sitting on the ground. Ugh.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
34,759 posts, read 58,161,153 times
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Our family is down to (1) 40 gal can / month ($2.50 to dispose of).
Since we are in PNW we recycle very intensely for last 30 yrs.
Bring our own bags to store, and seldom buy anything new.
of course I drive a 1976 VW Rabbit that runs on free waste veggie oil. (that car cost me $35). I buy MATCHING tires at junkyard for $5. (good use without making trash).
I think it depens on where you live, what methods are avilable to you. I have friends in Anchorage that told me there is no home recycling available at all. We do the same as others, but focus mostly on reduce. That is the key. One other small thing we do is buy our milk from a dairy that reuses the containers. Worn out tennis shoes can be returned to Nike.
I'm trying to reduce my consumption of plastic.
I stumbled upon this great blog, My Plastic Free Life, that has been really helpful.
I was semi-conscious of my plastic consumption-packaging for certain goods, the plastic envelopes my online orders come in, etc. but I'm trying to buy my foods in bulk in reusable cloth bags. Ex: Instead of buying beans in a plastic bag, I'll go to the local co-op and fill up my reusable bag with beans from the bulk aisle.
I rely a lot on frozen vegetables so it will be more challenging to buy my vegetables more frequently.
I live by myself and generally I can make a trash bag in my kitchen last for about 3 weeks and even then, most of the time it's filled with packaging waste-from my online orders, chip bags, etc.
Once I get the money to buy a great blender, I'm going to try my hand at making my own almond milk. Almond milk [at least where I live] comes in a carton-not a plastic bottle, and I've read that recycling these materials is challenging and even when we do recycle it, it may not get reused.
I'm still amazed at the people who buy bottled water-considering how easily available (and affordable) a lot of reusable bottles are. If you live in area with good quality tap water, I see no need to buy bottled water.
Our family is down to (1) 40 gal can / month ($2.50 to dispose of).
Since we are in PNW we recycle very intensely for last 30 yrs.
Bring our own bags to store, and seldom buy anything new.
of course I drive a 1976 VW Rabbit that runs on free waste veggie oil. (that car cost me $35). I buy MATCHING tires at junkyard for $5. (good use without making trash).
50 MPG since 1976, no Dinosaurs or OPEC required
StealthRabbit, do you have any good links (or a thread on here) for anyone interested in getting an old Rabbit and converting it to run on WVO? I look on Craigslist every once in a while for old Rabbits and people want a lot of money for what is essentially a 25+ year old truck.
Location: (Orginally From Ann Arbor, MI) Now reside in Evans, Georgia
560 posts, read 1,144,223 times
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we recycle, upcycle, compost , have a rainbarrel system, and a tankless water system, Greywater System we use to water the garden , we grow our veggies and fruit at about 80% now days. working on greenhouses and aqua ponics some day.
Waste free living? What a joke? Think of all the heat or AC that is being wasted if you live in a house. You're heating and cooling rooms that you are not in. If you want true waste free living, you'll have to live without heat or AC.
No I don't bother with waste free living. Someone reminded me of something the other day. Remember when all your groceries were packed in paper bags, and the environmentalists attacked this practice because we were cutting down too many trees. So the plastic bags were the solution, far less waste and we "saved" the forests. Now we're supposed to get rid of plastic bags? If you live in many rural isolated areas of the USA, recycling doesn't do much good. It has to be shipped so far to be recycled, its just not economical.
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