Putting the Trash in Its Place

I had a revelation about switching the way the trash is arranged in our house.

Even though I've been composting for quite a while in a laid back way, we only had a small container for compost in the kitchen, which we used primarily for food scraps and bread heels (silly of me, but I don't like to eat the heals on my regular whole wheat bread, although I love them on baguettes).

I realized that a whole lot of what we throw in our trash is actually compostable (paper towels, tissues and other nonrecyclable paper being key examples), but because the compost receptacle is small, infrequently emptied and therefore stinky (if that's not TMI!), there's a big disincentive to using it.

I should also say that we've found a way to recycle a lot of our plastic, so that's no longer going into the trash. The city of St. Paul picks up our bottles, like most places, but the city of Minneapolis is running a pilot program to collect all other labeled plastics as long as they're clean. My office (which is in Minneapolis) is collecting plastic for all of us who work there, and once in a while hauling it (actually, I'm hauling it) up to the place where it's being collected for the city at Eastside Food Co-op.

The one catch on the plastic recycling is that it has to be clean and separated by number... I now know more about plastic types then I ever thought I would. The Pioneer Press ran a really helpful article on this awhile back -- it has a complete list of the numbers and what fits into each category, even if it isn't labeled. (For instance, did you know that straws are always #5 and cereal box liners are #2? Cool!) Now if I could just figure out if CD-Rs are recyclable.

Anyway, after eliminating most of the plastic, and with an existing compost pile, I had one of those "Wow, I could have had a V8!" moments... and realized I should change the spot where we currently have the trash into the compost receptacle and make a smaller, out-of-the-way trash receptacle. That way, we'll all think twice before we actually throw something away permanently, and almost all of it will be nonrecyclable plastic. The compost will be the receptacle that gets filled fastest, and get emptied fastest, so it won't start to stink.

And then we can get a smaller trash can (or maybe switch to every other week pickup), pay less for our trash service, and (of course) put less into the landfills.

Maybe this is why our local recycling company is called Eureka!