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Hi bitt, i’m jack, from england, our wheelie bins are collected weekly by the local council, we have four, Grey for domestic waste, Green, raw kitchen and garden waste, Brown, cans, glass and plastic, Red, cardboard and paper, each has its own collection vehicle. In winter i only use the Grey bin, when the grass gets going, just about now, the Green bin comes into use, actual its a scandalous waste of resources, but when the Liberals changed collection to fortnightly they got voted out. Like you, i compost, i dont use many plastic or glass bottles, nor do i buy newspapers or use much cardboard, i leave a light footprint. All this is paid for by our local property taxes, we call them Rates, i was wondering how other countrys handled their waste and paid for it.
BITT - I know what you mean. When I eat totally raw, I have almost no garbage except for the paper tags and twister that comes around a bundle of greens.
I have crap loads of garbage now, mainly because I eat TONS of watermelon. Ahh, sucks.
You can eat the rhind. :) Depending on the watermelon, that might be a little hard. But I have had some thinner rhinded ones and ate it.
There is a really good recycling program where I live. All paper, glass, plastic, tin goes in the blue box, all organics go into the green box and all yard waste goes into yard waste bags….all recycled. The only items that go into a garbage bag are cat litter and ‘ladies’ items. Everything else is recycled.
I am curious about starting a composter. I don’t have a fancy garden yet but I definitely have enough room for one. Because I own a house with a decent amount of property, live alone and work full time, I need to be cognizant of the amount of work I add to my summer routine. This year I am looking at my flower beds and starting a butterfly garden. I will probably have a few vegetables – tomatoes, spinach and herbs. We’ll see.
good luck with your garden karuna, its definitely enought room! we just started using a small black compost bin that was left here by the previous owners of our house. there is no lack on info on the web of how to properly fill it. after a month it’s working now….everytime i open up the bin to turn the contents it’s actually burning and smoking a bit. it’s supposed to take a minimum of 6 months to fully convert into compost so i’m thinking it will be nice and baked by the 2009 growing season. i have a small leftover plastic food container that i keep at my sink and stuff anything unused in there (my hubby’s coffee grinds, tea bags, crushed egg shells, onion peels, fruit peels, etc.) then we dump it in the compost bin every other day. it feels great knowing we can re-use our scraps! and we only have a 4’x 4’ garden plot, but it’s a good size to have tomatoes, kale, spinach, and carrots. i plant peas on the side of our house where i attached a trellis, and then herbs are in pots. as far as reducing waste one little thing we’ve been doing lately is washing plastic bags and re-using them. also taking the bag closures with me back to the store to re-use them. we like wine too but i hate tossing those bottles in the recycling bin because it reminds me that the mere purchase of things in containers creates demand…soooo i might actually experiment with making wine, should be a fun adventure!!
Here in Italy recycling is obligatory. One way to prevent waste is to make Pulp Crackers (http://www.goneraw.com/recipes/4126-Pulp-crackers). Another way is to take your own shopping bags from home (here you’re charged for shopping bags, so many locals bring their own).
If you live in NYC, you can take your composting trash to the Union Square Greenmarket. I just keep our organic waste in the freezer, and when the bag is full I bring it over there.