Re: Trash Generation/Dumpsters | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: Lynn Nadeau (welcomeolympus.net) | |
Date: Sun, 1 Sep 2002 15:49:06 -0600 (MDT) |
I'd assume the lack of dumpsters in many cohousings may be, not because nobody is generating trash, but because like us they are on a city pickup plan for individual homes. At RoseWind, most households compost; many use worm bins. We all use the curbside program to recycle cardboard, paper, glass (no green glass), cans, and limited plastics, as well as yard waste, which the city combines with treated sewage stuff and sells back as compost. As single-family homes, we have to pay for city curbside trash and recycling pickup whether we use it or not. The minimum option is what most of us use, and that's a standard (30 gal) trash can every other week. I don't know how to translate that to cubic yards. Our households average about two people. At my house, three adults manage with those two cans a month. If I mentally transpose my recycling and composting into similar-size cans, I'd come up with less than two full cans per month, I think. Maybe one. So I'd say if you are generating twice as much recycling/compost as trash, that's better than me. (This doesn't count yard waste - weeds, branch clippings, etc - which would in fact bring it up to equal or more on the non-trash side.) A critical look at what's in my waste baskets at the moment includes = milk cartons and aseptic packaging (soy/rice milk) which aren't recyclable here = paper, plastic and foil that's soiled with food = plastic lids and packaging - very limited plastics recycling here, too (just pop and milk jug type, no opaque or straight sided, even 1 or 2) = fabric, cellophane, kitty litter clumps = chicken and fish bones and scraps, which I don't put in my worm bin At our common house, where we eat 2-3 times a week, we use a worm bin, recycling, and one can a week of trash pickup. Seems we sometimes don't need it every week, and it's not full. I commend your group on setting goals and actively working to reduce waste! Lynn Nadeau, RoseWind Cohousing Port Townsend Washington (Victorian seaport, music, art, nature) http://www.rosewind.org http://www.ptguide.com _______________________________________________ Cohousing-L mailing list Cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org Unsubscribe and other info: http://www.communityforum.net/mailman/listinfo/cohousing-l
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