Re: Trash Generation/Dumpsters
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

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