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Garbage pickup day is once a week around here, recycling pickup is every two weeks. A while back, they replaced my large garbage bin with a smaller one but the recycling bin was still its same large size. I took it as a move to encourage people to recycle more, but that's just my guess.
The thing is, I find I don't put out that much trash, mostly just kitty litter and the bag from the kitchen which fills very slowly. Mostly. If I miss putting out even my smaller bin, I can get by for a week, maybe even two. The recycling bin probably gets more, at least 3 empty cans of cat food, the can for sardines a day, but the only time it does fill up is either when I break down cardboard boxes.....or I have been shredding papers. It does, of course, get other things in it like empty juice and food cans, olive and capers jars, empty Feta and Bleu containers, wine bottles, cleaning bottles, but not so often on the condiments bottles. Salad dressings, jams, ketchup, mayonnaise and the like are not part of my cooking and I only have the last items around for camp outs and picnics.
Now part of it is, of course, that I am one person living in a family size house, and that difference can't be denied.
I have to wonder, though, is my way of living, the direction it is moving in, so different from the "average American"?
Maybe, such as my cooking supplies don't come with a whole lot of extra packaging. Beans, spaghetti, fish in plastic bags; powdered milk in boxes; beef bought as brisket. The kitchen trash is often paper towels, silvery bags for tea bags, crouton bags, avocado pits and husks, used baggies for food storage, maybe beef fat and the occasional coffee grounds. My microwave is used more for boiling water, preparing cooked brisket, and melting butter, sugars, and chocolate (for baking) than anything else. My coffee comes in cans and jars where the ground is used mostly by me at home (perked, no filters) and the instant is just for camp outs (filters might be used for ground coffee on camp outs) and guests. My sugars (brown-jarred, white-in a bin) are almost only used for baking; if I want to sweeten my coffee, I add instant cocoa. Cat kibble comes in bags to go into ant proof plastic bins and then the bags are used, they can't be recycled, for the kitchen trash bag.
If I make a stew (2-4 times a week), it is fed from a canned or frozen meat, spices from the pantry, veggies from the crisper, and jars of beans, rice, and other dry goods on the counter. If I make a pasta, the spaghetti/noodles come from a jar on the counter while the sauce is made with cheeses from the frig, the open white wine bottle, and fish either from a can or the freezer. The salad is made from things in the frig that are often wrapped in film plastic, cheese in recyclable bins, canned fish and tomatoes, croutons in bags. Pizza, I am returning to make that from scratch though I am trying my hand at Bisquick crusts. My sandwiches are done on tortillas with either sardines or peanut butter or brisket or avocado & sardines.
The kitchen may get messy but it doesn't produce that much trash to go out in the bin. Aside from 3 cats, it's the biggest garbage bin producer in my place. Is this the proper way to go?
She was discussing (in terms of "Green") how much less trash she appears to be producing.
Most trash folks generate at the household level is packaging.
Some products have LOTs of packaging. Some have little to none.
I think her observation is that the "more green" she becomes, the less and less packaging is used, so the trash level goes down. And even the packaging that still exists -- can mostly go to recycle.
My own experience and observations are about the same as what she is describing.
She was discussing (in terms of "Green") how much less trash she appears to be producing.
Most trash folks generate at the household level is packaging.
Some products have LOTs of packaging. Some have little to none.
I think her observation is that the "more green" she becomes, the less and less packaging is used, so the trash level goes down. And even the packaging that still exists -- can mostly go to recycle.
My own experience and observations are about the same as what she is describing.
Thank you!
In my case, I think becoming somewhat green has been driven more by economics. Decades ago, the Navy taught me how to be a financial counselor, part of being the dirty little jobs officer, and I learned that one made out much better with their allowances for food by cooking instead of buying the "TV dinners" type of stuff. That coupled with a romantic, as in literature, view of life has probably brought me to where I am now. I'm not quite sure where the harshness, such as going for perked coffee without filters, came from, though; I suppose it may have been my rebellion against the regimented, as in ROTC, military training that taught such things as military creases being privs, that one wanted to look sharp. Maybe, if so, it's probably a tough psychological evaluation, but green speaking.....................
............................I don't worry about wrinkles in my clothes, don't bother with fabric softeners, and wear mostly natural fabrics in my day to day clothing.
Getting back to trash, it seems a lot of people at work don't bother to recycle for I see many soda cans in the trash cans. My co worker, on a shift when the company snack bar is closed, brings in TV dinners for his middle of the shift meal. I bring in fruit or a salad in a baggie (made at home in a bowl, poured into a big plastic baggie) for mine. I suppose there is that question of what happens to the rind of the oranges or grapefruit (eat them like oranges) (when I live on the ranch, such things won't go into the trash (GF) or down the disposal (Oranges, lemons, etc) but into a compost). In the past, I would bring in canned spaghetti, eat it cold out of the can (more of my harsh self).....but I stopped that once I started reading what was in it. Of course, the spaghetti can went in the recycling bin.
This, "what was in it", is one of the reasons why I go less and less for frozen pizza (I'll comment on delivery in a moment) and make mine more and more from scratch. Just how much of a frozen pizza contains stuff that I'd rather not put in my body? Buying just the crust, even if more expensive, was generally okay, but now that I've found that Bisquick can be used for crusts for those lazy nights, I've stopped buying the premade kind. Scratch a questionable recyclable plastic wrapper for a card board box which can be recycled. EDIT: Forgot about that "waxed paper" bag inside the box! Probably smaller in the trash bag than that 12 inch diameter crust wrapper, but still.......
A push to a less packaged life, but again not for green reasons but economical or health ones?
Delivery pizza has lots of disadvantages from eyes bigger than the tummy when ordering it to ordering it many nights a week because it was so easy. In the 80's, I made myself a promise that if I wanted pizza, I would make it from scratch with flour (didn't know about Bisquick back then) and that went on for about 15 years with a lot of pizzaless nights because I didn't want to spend so much time making it. Making it does have an advantage because as a labor of love, it slows one down when they want seconds....or thirds!
I decided my compulsiveness, about if I want it-make it, was silly in this century, though, and started ordering it again. Hence the green problem, this great big cardboard box with its various accessories which really isn't recyclable. It's not because it is often still with food (the cat food cans I wash out as noted in https://www.city-data.com/forum/cats/...e-kittens.html ). So what compels me now not to order delivery? Economics again for when I think about delivery (it usually runs about $30 a shot) or often, eating out, I think of all that food at home that I can make a meal out of, that food which is already bought and paid for. Further, just as it could be pizza, so it could be something Italian, and it so often turns out to be spaghetti from a jar on the counter, it's packaging already recycled.
I am not really sure right now if the baggies are recyclable or not. I do buy, use a lot of them. I could use reusable containers but there are at least two disadvantages to them. First of all, they are that efficient in space usage in the freezer when one is stuffing cut brisket in baggies in this or that small space. Secondly, salad in a baggie that is carried in a backpack when one is biking needs to be doubled bag against spillage and a container would need some sort of double sealing as well. Problems, problems....
But could this be part of the buying decision at the grocery store? "When you have used this up, where will the container go?". It's a novel idea but alas, as food is essential for survival, it's rather very far down the list for consideration...........though it's nice when it somehow works its way into the eventual outcome.
There was nothing bad in that, just a disconnect in the communication.
Quote:
In my case, I think becoming somewhat green has been driven more by economics. Decades ago, the Navy taught me how to be a financial counselor, part of being the dirty little jobs officer, and I learned that one made out much better with their allowances for food by cooking instead of buying the "TV dinners" type of stuff. That coupled with a romantic, as in literature, view of life has probably brought me to where I am now. I'm not quite sure where the harshness, such as going for perked coffee without filters, came from, though; I suppose it may have been my rebellion against the regimented, as in ROTC, military training that taught such things as military creases being privs, that one wanted to look sharp. Maybe, if so, it's probably a tough psychological evaluation, but green speaking.....................
Sure. Been there, done that. Was enlisted, released for ROTC, did Engineering, and spent three years as a Detachment XO. hahaha to you on the Financial Counselor (for ARMY troops? ) "additional duty."
Quote:
............................I don't worry about wrinkles in my clothes, don't bother with fabric softeners, and wear mostly natural fabrics in my day to day clothing.
sounds a bit hawt.
Quote:
Getting back to trash, it seems a lot of people at work don't bother to recycle for I see many soda cans in the trash cans. My co worker, on a shift when the company snack bar is closed, brings in TV dinners for his middle of the shift meal. I bring in fruit or a salad in a baggie (made at home in a bowl, poured into a big plastic baggie) for mine. I suppose there is that question of what happens to the rind of the oranges or grapefruit (eat them like oranges) (when I live on the ranch, such things won't go into the trash (GF) or down the disposal (Oranges, lemons, etc) but into a compost). In the past, I would bring in canned spaghetti, eat it cold out of the can (more of my harsh self).....but I stopped that once I started reading what was in it. Of course, the spaghetti can went in the recycling bin.
This, "what was in it", is one of the reasons why I go less and less for frozen pizza (I'll comment on delivery in a moment) and make mine more and more from scratch. Just how much of a frozen pizza contains stuff that I'd rather not put in my body? Buying just the crust, even if more expensive, was generally okay, but now that I've found that Bisquick can be used for crusts for those lazy nights, I've stopped buying the premade kind. Scratch a questionable recyclable plastic wrapper for a card board box which can be recycled. EDIT: Forgot about that "waxed paper" bag inside the box! Probably smaller in the trash bag than that 12 inch diameter crust wrapper, but still.......
A push to a less packaged life, but again not for green reasons but economical or health ones?
Delivery pizza has lots of disadvantages from eyes bigger than the tummy when ordering it to ordering it many nights a week because it was so easy. In the 80's, I made myself a promise that if I wanted pizza, I would make it from scratch with flour (didn't know about Bisquick back then) and that went on for about 15 years with a lot of pizzaless nights because I didn't want to spend so much time making it. Making it does have an advantage because as a labor of love, it slows one down when they want seconds....or thirds!
Sure. Undertook such a mission myself some years ago. Began a process of Pizza Study and Engineering. Once a week with the kids. Took about 100 tries to really "nail it." So that was two years (100 weeks) of trial and error (with a LOT of error), but the kids were VERY patient. And "Dad Pizza" is still a weekly premium request by them. Now they help, and it is a common request for parties that we cook en-masse pizza for everyone -- even at other folks' house and hosting.
But it is a full-on "from the lowest level process available, only." We are presently testing and reviewing various sauce combinations to practice Continuous Improvement. Now the kids have requested we try to grow our own wheat in a test garden, as well.
Quote:
I decided my compulsiveness, about if I want it-make it, was silly in this century, though, and started ordering it again. Hence the green problem, this great big cardboard box with its various accessories which really isn't recyclable. It's not because it is often still with food (the cat food cans I wash out as noted in https://www.city-data.com/forum/cats/...e-kittens.html ). So what compels me now not to order delivery? Economics again for when I think about delivery (it usually runs about $30 a shot) or often, eating out, I think of all that food at home that I can make a meal out of, that food which is already bought and paid for. Further, just as it could be pizza, so it could be something Italian, and it so often turns out to be spaghetti from a jar on the counter, it's packaging already recycled.
I am not really sure right now if the baggies are recyclable or not. I do buy, use a lot of them. I could use reusable containers but there are at least two disadvantages to them. First of all, they are that efficient in space usage in the freezer when one is stuffing cut brisket in baggies in this or that small space. Secondly, salad in a baggie that is carried in a backpack when one is biking needs to be doubled bag against spillage and a container would need some sort of double sealing as well. Problems, problems....
But could this be part of the buying decision at the grocery store? "When you have used this up, where will the container go?". It's a novel idea but alas, as food is essential for survival, it's rather very far down the list for consideration...........though it's nice when it somehow works its way into the eventual outcome.
There was nothing bad in that, just a disconnect in the communication.
It's the way I am.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Philip T
Sure. Been there, done that. Was enlisted, released for ROTC, did Engineering, and spent three years as a Detachment XO. hahaha to you on the Financial Counselor (for ARMY troops? ) "additional duty."
Navy. It was somewhat of a pain, of course, being the dirty little jobs officer (financial counselor, physical fitness coordinator, controlled medicinal board, testing officer, etc) but in the aftermath, I did learn very useful skills for life, such as the discussion now about cooking from raw goods.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Philip T
May I be presumptive?
You are either likely Engineering or OCD?
While I do have a degree from the engineering college of TAMU, that could be get difficult to say. I can get locked on certain paths that defy logic......when I look back at them. Such as early in the 90's when I was poor and brought into work reused olive jars filled with coffee to put in the work center refrig. We had the frig and a microwave in that work center but no coffee maker due to fire hazard concerns. Apparently at the time, ground coffee was much more cheaper than instant, at least in my mindset, so I was looking for ways to use that at work, from the olive jars to a camping plastic coffee drippers.
Eventually, I could afford a good thermos (maybe) or decided I could afford decent instant (perhaps) or something.
As I've stated, now my coffee making at home has done away with the counter top units (that tend to need replacement every so often without any way to recycle them) and a use of filters. At work, I am at a different work center with a kitchenette and a drip coffee maker, but that is something else.
That's an item of note. I think the last time I threw away a counter top appliance was at the apartment complex and it was either the drip coffee maker or the microwave. A great big bulky plastic or metal item into the dumpster. Now in the house, there may be three counter top units left. There is a juicer that I still use from time to time or did use when I was making tequila based drinks but as that I have shifted away from that kind of drinking, it has sat unused on the shelf. A food processor much like this: http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTEwMlgxNj...hUrHCr/$_1.JPG
that my Mother passed down to me but I never put into use and a cheap blender that has also long fallen out of use. I think the last thing I blended was frozen OJ in the last century but now, I just dump it in the pitcher, rinse out the "can" and metal top with 4 cans of water, and toss both into the recycling. Stir the pitcher with a wooden spoon. Both the blender and processor are, I assume, are packed so I think I still have them.
I suppose there might come a day when I need "every electric labor saving device you can think of", but not at the present......though living in the house has taught me the wisdom of having a microwave as a back up system for cooking. When I first got here, the gas stove wasn't connected so I had to figure out other ways of eating....and having sworn off microwaves a few months before, that method of thought was still active.....until that "light bulb" went back on.
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