I have a 240 litre bin for general rubbish (emptied weekly) and a 240 litre bin for recycling (emptied fortnightly).
Usually I put one kitchen bin bag out per week, and the recycling bin is about three-quarters full when emptied.
So our weekly household waste comes to about:
- 30 litres of general waste
- 90 litres of recycling (paper, cardboard, bottles, cartons, cans)
The latter has probably dropped a fair bit since the No Junk Mail sticker went up. I do subscribe to the newspaper, but much of that goes into the recycling at work. I’ve considered a compost bin, though the size of my garden doesn’t really warrant it. I can still do more to reduce my consumption though.
7 replies on “A load of rubbish”
Believe it or not, just last month the City council here has introduced two seperate bins, using a very similar system to yourselves, by the sounds of it.
We don’t produce too much rubbish in our household, but it’s a good habit to get into the recycling thing. Yes, it’s cutting things down by half, easily.
A whole city the size of Melbourne doing it… the mind boggles! That’s awesome!
Cyalayta
Mal :)
That’s pretty good Daniel! For a family of 4, we put out one trash bin per week. Also, we have the recycling program bi-weekly which means 3 bins which are usually full (they’re like rectangular toy box size) One for paper, one for glass/metal, third for plastics.
We do the compost bit which means I keep a bucket with a lid on it in the kitchen. All the veggie bits that can go in do. Floor sweepings, hair, tissues, etc. all goes in there, if I think of it. We’ve got a black composter at the end of the garden where I throw that into. But…. at this time of the year with 3 ft. of snow rather hard to get it there LOL! So, am storing the compost in a blue bag, in the frozen garage. In the spring when it thaws I’ll throw it on the pile and then recycle the bag.
I try and compost as much of the garden waste as I can, as well. To keep the odour and flies down, I top the bin with a good layer of garden soil. Helps start the breakdown of that stuff into good, new soil :)
Daniel
I agree with Toria, you’re doing pretty good. Our compost bin manages to keep all the rats of Bayside adequately fed, so that’s another reason NOT to have one.
Rog.
We have the same bins as you and the recycling is usually filled about day 10 of the 14 day cycle. I then take the paper and plastics into work and recycle them there although we do get lazy and put some in the normal bin….I think they should empty those every week alone with the ‘normal’ rubbish. I think it would encourage more people to fill it.
We do all the same things as you, except we have a 120lt bin and that’s generally got three supermarket bags in it.
You should ring the council and ask about the 120lt bins. They’re cheaper and smaller, much better.
A family of four, one 120L bin that goes out fortnightly. Never full. The matching 240L recycling bin oscillates between half and completely full. And that’s including the Lego shop.
And another thing! We’ve had a compost bin for about two years. It’s gotten pretty close to full, but never seems to make it there. We don’t put any starchy food (potatoes, bread, rice) in there, so there’s only insects interested in it. We keep chucking in all sorts of garden refuse including dead pot plants – soil and all – and the damn thing doesn’t fill up.
I think there might be a tunnel under it, and the pixies come and empty it out periodically…