I remember when I got my first pair of canvas shopping bags. I took them home and declared "We will never need plastic bags again!" This was met with "Ok! So what are we going to use for the rubbish bin?" I confess at the time I didn't know and we continued to work our way through the mountain of plastic bags breeding underneath our sink. Here's what I wish past me knew...
1. Separate your rubbish: One bin is not going to cut it! You'll need at least three containers to manage your rubbish without plastics. One for recyclables, one for non recyclables and one for food scraps. If you break it down further - you'll need more bins.
2. The bins don't need to be bins. Most bins are designed to hold plastic bags and manage all rubbish types so they're designed making compromises. If you're not using plastics and separating your rubbish you can find any box or container that fits your space and function best (I used cardboard boxes until our most recent move). If you handle your rubbish well, the only container that needs a lid is your food scraps container.
3. Composting is not as scary as it sounds. I think it gets over complicated a lot. It's what's supposed to happen so give your scraps some dirt and get out of the way. Try it until it works for you.
4. Learn your recyclables from your non recyclables. It's amazing what can be recycled from your kitchen and bathroom. Your recyclable bin should always have more in it than your non recyclable bin.
5. Be selective about what you buy. If you shop to avoid plastics in products and packaging your non recyclable bin will be the least used bin in the house. Plus you'll have so many glass containers and jars that you'll never need to buy storage containers again!
6. Rinse your rubbish. Yogurt containers and milk cartons especially! You will regret it if you don't. There should be no food in your recyclable and non recyclable containers and all the rubbish should be clean and dry.
7. Buy meat cuts that don't have bones. Meat is hard to handle so save yourself the hassle and buy meat cuts without bones.
8. Keep your food scraps container clean. Keep it close by so you can use it, empty it and clean it regularly.
9. Start a garden. I know it's a tricky one, but if you possibly can, grow some of your own food. Even if it's tiny food in a tiny pot. It means buying less and you'll always have a use for your food scraps.
10. Your rubbish can be cleaner and more manageable without plastic bags. I know! You'll never have to clean a dirty, stinky rubbish bin again. Who knew!?!
(image source: Sarah Starkey)
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I just put my last plastic bag in my bin! My problem is that we have to take our trash and recycling to two large shared areas for our building and the building next door. They are just concrete boxes with a metal gate on the front of it---no bins or anything. I don't think the woman who sorts the trash would appreciate us dumping our bins on the ground. Any ideas?
Hmmm...I'm a little confused by this article. Won't you need a plastic bag for the trash to dispose of it anyway? Nice tips tho...I've implemented a lot of them over the years and now my trash bin is basically is pet waste and random bits of packaging, so I can attest that they work. Composting is especially helpful if you do a lot of cooking and generate a lot of scraps.
One other tip that makes a dent in my rubbish is to save materials for other people. My wine and liquor bottles go to a glass artist friend, broken dishes to a mosaic artist friend, bottle caps to another, plastic bags to 2 friends for their projects and dog clean up. Some of these things are recyclable but reusing and upcycling are better for the environment. I used to send boxes and styro peanuts to work with my husband as his office was happy to use them rather than buy for what little they needed...typing this out has me wondering if the glass artist might want my stash. :)
Chicken bones can be placed in a freezer bucket and placed out with the trash at the last minute to avoid a mess. Give the beef bones you use to make stock to your neighbor's dog. He'll love you forever!
What about cat litter?
I've been thinking about this issue lately, but haven't made the shift to get rid of the trash bags. I do think I could put the non-recyclable trash right into the trash bin and just commit to rinsing it out more frequently.
I'm going to have to disagree with you about buying cuts of meat without the bone though... lots of flavor comes from those bones!
Also, please don't give the beef bones you use to make stock to your neighbor's dog. Cooked bones can splinter. Dogs should really only be given uncooked bones.
Most public trash collectors won't accept garbage that isn't bagged one way or another. There used to be paper bin-liners available in some old-school hardware stores, but they're getting harder to find. Anyone know of an alternative to plastic bin liners?
@Fillie: depending on what kind of litter you use, you may be able to compost or flush it. Ours is made from corn (I've seen ones made from wheat as well) and I'm planning on burying lots of it in the backyard this summer to help with our garden.
Meat bones - if I buy the meat on the bones I cut the bones out before we cook it and give them to the dogs. Agree with greenish Dogs shouldn't eat cooked bones, they can splinter and cause expensive internal damage.
@fillie Wood and paper based cat litters can be used to mulch garden beds.
We have been using 'biodegradable' bags to line the bin.I am inspired to add some more bins to my under sink area!
@SarahHeartBurn - lie the bin with newspaper. Its what the old folks did before plastic bags.
Nice post - hopefully we can focus on saving forests by reducing paper waste as well.
You're going to be paying for extra packaging if you buy your meat broken down for you.
Bones are perfectly biodegradable, they just require a little bit more effort to compost. If you can find a commercial composting facility to send your waste to, or even just know somebody with a much larger compost system, send your bones their way.
I'm going to do as much of this as I can. The only real issue I have is that I live in a condo and so don't have access to a garden. However, my building has beautiful vegetation. Perhaps I can secretly throw my dirt around the base of a couple deserving trees.
@SlightlyIrritating&Inconvenient I've done a lot of research on what to do with my cat's feces and it's NOT safe to flush cat excrement. They have some kind of worm that once it gets in the waterways cannot be filtered by most municipalities. For that same reason I don't think it's safe to compost it either unless you are using it around trees or other nonfood vegetation.
Yeah, I'm a bit thrown by the bones thing. You'll likely need more packaging per 'bit' of meat, and the butcher then needs to dispose of the bones. Some of it will be made into fertilizer and food... And some will just be tossed.
You can, however, make stock, THEN compost the bones... They'll already be weakened and easier to break down. And you'll have tasty tasty stock.
I LOVE the stock idea! I've only ever tried chicken stock and composting the carcass was a disaster, but i'm inspired :)
@TKPKgirl I've heard the same thing, which is why I'm still putting my cat litter in plastic bags and just throwing them out. That seems horribly wasteful though.
Isn´t washing yoghurt containers & co wasteful ? I mean, washing them together in a factory is way more energy & water efficient than washing each one individually.
I just want to know where to buy those types of bins in the picture!
Buy meat without bones? No way! The bones impart flavor and texture, and are so useful for stock.
Moreover, I'm all for reducing waste, but buying boneless meat is just lying to yourself about your role in the waste stream. If eating meat makes you feel guilty because there are environmental costs to eating meat, cut down on your meat consumption or stop all together--don't pretend you're virtuous for leaving your bones for the butcher to dispose of.
just wanted to chime in with the 'do NOT compost cat litter' crowd! there are some very good reasons not to do that. seriously.
Stopping using plastic trash bags was pretty easy. Most of my waste is recyclable, the food waste goes to compost so the remaining garbage wasn't messy or stinky anymore so why waste money on bags I'm just going to throw away. I used biodegradable bags for a while but after running out and not being able to get to the store I realized I could do just fine without them. Every little bit helps :-)