Talking Trash

Twice a week blue Republic Services trucks sweep through my neighborhood to collect garbage.  Even though I live within the city limits of Houston, my homeowners association decided years ago to contract this service through a private company.  The thinking was that the city's curbside containers were large and unsightly, so our trash has to be bagged.  There are a lot of problems with this arrangement, not the least of which is the fact that my neighbors and I miss out on curbside recycling.

A typical bag of trash we generate in one week

I have issues with this "wasteful" practice, but rather than dwell on those complaints, I want instead to focus on what I do to compensate.  Because everyone's trash bags are in plain sight, I can easily tell how much waste my neighbors generate.  Most households put out one or two bags twice a week.  In contrast, my wife Susan and I put out, at most, one bag per week.  So what do we throw away?  I  recently emptied the contents onto a blue tarp, and the photo below tells the story.

A peek inside the bag

Most of our trash consists of plastic that cannot be recycled—unlabeled bags and packages and the occasional polystyrene foam or other item that our local recycling center does not accept.  We also throw away cotton swabs and balls, and on the rare occasion that we eat meat, we toss out the scraps.  In the photo above there is a small packet of fish skin.  What you will rarely see are napkins or facial tissues.  Some time ago we stopped using both, opting for cloth napkins and handkerchiefs instead, and the few paper towels we use find their way to the compost heap (more about that later).  If you look closely, you will also see a blue bag of cat waste.  The litter we use is made from bio-degradable wheat, and we scoop to minimize how much goes into the landfill. 

A month's worth of plastic, waiting to be recycled

The key to limiting our garbage is separating items for recycling.  We sort plastic, metal, glass, paper, and cardboard into bins that are stored in our garage, and once a month we take those items to a recycling center a few miles from our house.

A month's worth of recycling

On the second Saturday of every month, a company is on-site to collect e-cycling materials: electrical wire, batteries, printers, and other electronics.  We also used to collect old motor oil and take it to an area service station, but because we now have a manually-operated reel mower, there is no oil to dispose of.

The recycling center at Ellington Field

We find ways to repurpose some objects that might normally be recycled.  A few years ago, for instance, we took empty wine bottles and created borders for two vegetable garden beds in our backyard.

Wine bottle edging—that's Swiss chard
growing in the background.

Another way we minimize our waste is through composting.  Fruit and vegetable peels and cores, teabags, coffee grounds, and table scraps—all get tossed into a compost bucket that sits on the kitchen counter, and every few days I pour the contents in one of our three compost bins.

A bucketful of vegetable scraps and egg shells

Composting takes the notion of recycling to whole new level.  All of that discarded plant material (along with egg shells, paper towels, and our neighbors' bags of raked leaves) finds its way back into the life cycle in the form of nutrient-rich organic soil or "black gold."

One of three compost bins, brimming
with nutrient-rich organic matter

"Home-cooked" compost enriches our vegetable garden much more effectively than anything we can buy—and it doesn't cost a dime.  Our heirloom tomatoes especially appreciate this extra boost of nutrients.

Cone flowers and homegrown
heirloom tomatoes

I am not naive enough to think that the little bit of recycling Susan and I do will save the planet, but I am well past the point of thinking in those terms.  All I can do is maintain my own tiny part of the universe and encourage others to do the same.