What Would People Find In My Garbage Can?

With all the talk about the environment and going Green lately, I'd thought I'd post the dirty truth about myself. Heh.

First of all, I do recycle.

• All aluminum cans, and plastic bottles go to the recycling center.
  
• Soda pop tabs are saved for the daycare lady who turns them in to Ronald McDonald House.
  
• Plastic bags go to Wal-Mart for recycling. And we bought those reusable cloth ones, to limit the need for plastic bags.
  
• All paper and cardboard boxes are burned, even junk mail (and there's a lot of that!). The recycling center only accepts newspaper, which I don't even get except on the rare occasion we need one for yard sales, but they burn nicely as well.
  
• All food scraps, and with picky eaters there are A LOT, are usually given to the dogs if they are meat or bread or vegetables. Unfortunately I do not have a compost pile yet for egg shells, banana peels, and apple cores. That is on my to do list.

• Used vegetable oil is a great weedkiller in the driveway, except stray dogs love to eat anything coated in it, and they will dig up the gravel to chew on the very soil, so be careful if you dump it out.

• Motor oil gets taken to proper facilities to be disposed of.

• We collect the metal into a bin in the garage to sell for scrap. Everything from the broken swing awning frame to busted bolts or other parts. Takes quite a bit to be heavy enough to sell. Anyone got an old washer to unload? a transmission? engine? :P

• Old clothes in good condition, toys not played with anymore, books that weren't that good, decorations we're sick of, and other stuff goes into a yard sale pile. Then if no one buys it, it gets taken to Goodwill, no bringing it back into the house!

So what gets thrown away?

• Packaging that is foil lined or covered in food, like gravy or meat blood;
  
• Plastic packaging that food came in that the recycling center won't take;
• Styrofoam cups from fast food places; (ugh, I know, that's terrible)
  
• Diapers and diaper wipes;
  
• Used dryer sheets;
• Plastic drinking straws;
• Pens that "died";
  
• Broken toys, etc., and items no longer needed that can't be sold in our own yard sale.
• Those food scraps the dogs won't eat, but should go into a compost pile that I don't have yet. (I know, still working on it!)
• Used Q-tips, cuz, ew. And other used first aid items like band-aids, because kids will be kids.
• I just learned that Batteries Plus, Staples, and Radio Shack will recycle NiCad batteries, and that's some of what we use. NiMH are less toxic, so I guess they aren't collecting those and I have no choice but to throw them away.

Hey, it's better than most people! In two weeks, being that we forgot to put out the garbage cans, oops, we have amassed about 6 bags of trash. So 3 bags a week for a family of four. If we get the fourth one potty trained, think of the savings!

What is in your trash?




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