How much trash do you generate?

[Exterous]

We generally put out a 1/3 filled garbage can and 1/3 filled recycling can. Trash day is Monday and many of our neighbors already have their overflowing trash cans out

 

[lxskllr]

Most of mine is cat litter, and since the girl has renal failure, she pees up a storm. That being said, I throw out two grocery bags/week+recycle. Organics get composted on site. If not for the cats, I'd have a grocery bag every three weeks to a month. Mostly plastic wrap from various things.

 

[paperfist]

I put out about 40 gallons of recyclables a week and a 1/4 of that amount as trash. Thanks amazon

 

[IronWing]

Enough to fill the sea with tears.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Maybe 1 garbage bag per two weeks. I tend to generate more recyclables than garbage.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I tend to generate more recyclables than garbage.

Yeah, me too. Most of my "garbage" is food trash, if anything. Which needs to go out, weekly, or it smells, regardless of how much or how little I have.

I do put out quite a bit of recyclables, maybe every two weeks, mostly thanks to Newegg, and secondarily, Microwave / prepared foods.

I've recently switched to using powdered drink mixes, and re-using my plastic tea bottles, so there's going to be far, far less plastic bottles going out to recycle in the future. (The best way to win, is not to play.) (Meaning, the best way to "recycle" plastic bottles, is to not buy / use them in the first place.)

 

[vi edit]

Family of four. Usually one "normal size" kitchen garbage bag a week and then our recycling curbside bin is usually full.

 

[rh71]

Family of 4 and we do about 1 full can at each pickup which is twice a week (Mon/Thurs pickup). Recycling we fill it once every 2 weeks.

 

[scannall]

If I'm not buying stuff on Amazon? Very little. All of our cooking is from scratch. Between dogs and the compost pile leftovers never end up in the can. But Amazon... Ordered some brake light bulbs for my car for example. The box they came in was roughly 2 gallons capacity....

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Too Damn much. Packaging has more to do with transport and warehousing than anything else. Blister packs need to diaf.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I always said there should be a system of reusable packaging. Kinda like in the old days with the milk bottles. But it should be for all products. There should be a bunch of different style containers/packaging and everything should come in that. Essentially, tupperware I guess. There would then be central locations where you drop it off, and they clean it and it gets shipped back to the respectful companies and they clean it again and reuse it. For food stuff there could be some form of safety seal to make sure it was not tampered with I guess. That would be the only part that's not reusable.

The biggest thing would be the get used to that idea as some products would be different in how they are used. Like no more individually wrapped products etc. They could also come up with an organic style wrapper for the things that absolutely need to be in some kind of wrapper.

Carbon taxes and all the BS governments try to pass as being good for the planet are just that, BS. They don't do anything to actually reduce the pollution, the just take more money out of people's pockets.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I always said there should be a system of reusable packaging. Kinda like in the old days with the milk bottles. But it should be for all products. There should be a bunch of different style containers/packaging and everything should come in that. Essentially, tupperware I guess. There would then be central locations where you drop it off, and they clean it and it gets shipped back to the respectful companies and they clean it again and reuse it. For food stuff there could be some form of safety seal to make sure it was not tampered with I guess. That would be the only part that's not reusable.

The biggest thing would be the get used to that idea as some products would be different in how they are used. Like no more individually wrapped products etc. They could also come up with an organic style wrapper for the things that absolutely need to be in some kind of wrapper.

Carbon taxes and all the BS governments try to pass as being good for the planet are just that, BS. They don't do anything to actually reduce the pollution, the just take more money out of people's pockets.

Subtle, but ... post of the year thus far?

 

[ch33zw1z]

About a bag per week. Compostable foods and household items go in the compost bin, recycling is a doozy...and about 3 containers every other week.

 

[Carson Dyle]

Wow. Your trash day is Monday? Mine is Friday. How weird is that?

 

[Red Squirrel]

It's garbage day!

 

[sdifox]

Wow. Your trash day is Monday? Mine is Friday. How weird is that?

Not sure if serious.

 

[Perknose]

It does add up over time:

 

[BarkingGhostar]

We generally put out a 1/3 filled garbage can and 1/3 filled recycling can. Trash day is Monday and many of our neighbors already have their overflowing trash cans out

First, I was stunned by how fewer bags of garbage in the regular trash can took pace after getting into recycling. The wife and I, who eat out a lot, have a single bag on most weeks and occasionally come up with a second bag in the trash can. The recycling bin, however, is usually more filled than not on a regular basis.

Second, my neighbor across the street is a typical four-person home with a couple of toddlers. Their trash can is always full and they got a bigger recycling bin (small trash can, and that is usually full as well. I am shocked by how much trash there is in such a small family, but I guess if we cooked instead of ate out and had a couple of rugrsts then our waste would jump up, too.

 

[herm0016]

kids create an enormous amount of wast for some reason. we have a mid size trash can and a large recycling can. recycling is full on a biweekly basis and trash is full every week. these cans do service the batchler in the other side of our duplex as well. so I guess its for 5 people total.

 

[IronWing]

kids create an enormous amount of wast for some reason. we have a mid size trash can and a large recycling can. recycling is full on a biweekly basis and trash is full every week. these cans do service the batchler in the other side of our duplex as well. so I guess its for 5 people total.

You have to cut them up before placing them in the can.

 

[fleshconsumed]

Two person household right now. We compost organic waste. Meat based garbage that would smell in the garbage can goes into a temporary garbage bag in the freezer. I cut and fold amazon boxes so they would take as little space in the recycling as possible. With this system we typically put 35 gallon cart of garbage every 4 weeks and 65 gallon cart of recycling every 4-5 weeks. We could probably go less often with the garbage, but we have cats so we have to take it out every 4 weeks to avoid going over the weight limit (cat litter is heavy).

 

[clamum]

I think I use about a normal kitchen garbage bag (13 gallons I think?) every two weeks to fourteen days. One person.

I also have a key (aka cat) and use plastic shopping bags from Meijer/Walmart when cleaning his litter box every other day. I'll also use these plastic bags to put in any leftover food scraps, rather than throwing them in the regular kitchen garbage and having it stink (learned this from my mom haha).

 

[mikeymikec]

My wife, our cat and I fill half of this every fortnight:

I'm pretty sure the bin size is right. The width measurement obviously shouldn't have an extra zero though.

A couple that lives nearby puts out one bin liner every two weeks which is fairly impressive IMO. I'd ask how they manage it, but the guy is a typical born-again Christian who will bore anyone at great length if given the slightest encouragement.

Otherwise we try to get as much stuff recycled as possible (cartons, plastics, glass, metal, cardboard and paper).

 

[Mayne]

does my forum posts count?

 

[lxskllr]

A like for using the word fortnight. You guys use that often over there?