Trashy Diva! {Hot Belly Mama}

I mentioned in my first post on here that my husband and I are trying to reduce waste in our home. We intentionally set it up with our waste company so that we only get garbage service once a month with only one can. Last Sunday, we tried this exercise for the first time as it was our night to set out the trash for the Monday morning pickup.

First, let me explain our set-up. I actually have about five garbage cans set up by our garage. Four of them are for recycling (cans, glass, plastic and plastic milk jugs) and one is for garbage. Because I've been pretty diligent about recycling - it's usually those cans that fill up quicker. Every 2 or 3 months, we make a day trip to the transfer center and drop off the recyclables for free. It's actually a fun family event for my husband and I because we get a very big feeling of "yes, we care for the earth, we are green." You might be wondering why we don't recycle paper. I do have a special pile for recycling catalogs and magazines, but for the most part I have been adding the paper to the compost pile. I usually spend one morning a week shredding all the paper (by hand into strips) and then dumping it into the compost. With newspaper, I set it aside to be used with our wood stove.

I've also reduced our consumption of paper by only buying the newspaper once or twice a week (just so I can get coupons and ads). I went online and used the opt-out forms to reduce the amount of junk mail we get. It can take a few weeks for companies to register that you are no longer in the system - but it is well worth it! I carry far less items into our home now than I did before. I also have all of my billing statements sent to an email address that I set up solely for that purpose. This includes my cell phone bill and bank statement, both of which have always been a mile long. I also pay all my bills online through my bank for free and have been doing this successfully for over a year. The last time I bought a stamp was in February.

So how did we do on our first month? Luckily, it was a beautiful and warm day so it was kind of fun for my husband and I. We had been working outside most of the day when I remembered, "honey! It's garbage night!" We both went over the garbage can and looked inside. It was only half full. I said, "wait, let's find more stuff to throw away!" So I went inside the house to empty out any other garbage cans that had stuff in them. My husband looked around outside. We barely added much more to it. So my husband decided to scoop a bunch of ash (full of nails) that was in the driveway from one of our burnpiles into an empty chicken feed bag and that brought the can up to full status. After that, we threw the garbage can in the back of the truck and I drove it up the end of the driveway where all the other garbage cans were waiting. My husband tossed it into it's rightful place by the others and we were done! *Bows humbly*

Honestly, I didn't think we would do that well! Anybody else trying to reduce waste? I would love to hear about it.

Here's a few tidbits from an Idaho Recycling Company:
~ The average American is responsible for throwing away almost 5 pounds of garbage a day.
~ It takes 17 average-sized trees to make one ton of paper.
~ Americans use 2 ½ million plastic bottles every hour.
~ Over half of our trash can be composted.