Comments (0)

By warmstoneheart, February 8, 2010 3:18 pm

Last year, I decided to reduce the amount of household trash that we put out for curbside collection each week. To my surprise, I discovered that I was able to reduce the amount of garbage I contributed to our landfill from one can per week to one can per month, following simple, easy steps.  These great results led me to redefine my relationship with trash and to a strong desire to educate my fellow community members about reducing, reusing and recycling.

At first I learned that the trash, garbage, litter, junk, and stuff I normally would throw out, could be repurposed, reused or come in handy in interesting ways.   My interest increased as I discovered that each step I took to reduce and conserve improved my relationship with the environment, decreased my energy consumption, and contributed to my pocketbook savings.  

Placing our trash in landfill is not inexpensive.  In Mount Shasta, we pay $50 per ton, not including transportation costs to dispose of our trash. This adds up to approximately $175,000 each year for landfill use alone.  In this difficult economy, it’s a good idea to take a look at some ways to cut these costs. Curious, I discovered that most of the stuff we toss into our trash cans has a better use than to decompose in the landfill. 

Landfill is a contributor of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). The more trash we can divert from landfill, the lower our carbon dioxide (CO2) output, the more we reduce our carbon footprint, and the more we lower our contribution to air and water pollution.  Thus, we can significantly decrease our negative environmental impact by identifying better ways of disposing of our waste.

“Wet” trash such as food scraps and yard trimmings are the heaviest, thus the most costly to take to the landfill. Yet they are the easiest to divert from the trash can because I could dispose of them locally and benefit directly as they decomposed in my own compost pile, nourishing the earth. Grass clippings, left to decompose on the lawn resulted in a natural fertilizer, reduced the need for chemical fertilizers and increased the amount of space in our trash can. Just one cubic yard of compost (a 3 X 3 X 3 foot pile) is enough to accelerate the decomposition of our food scraps because this volume causes the pile to heat up.  Once broken down, the result is a mulch, rich in nutrients to add life to our vegetable garden, plants, or trees. For residences or businesses that dump food waste into the trash can or down the disposal, a compost pile could reduce the burden on the landfill and wastewater stream.

When we eliminated the heavy “wet” items from our trash can, we reduced the costly weight of our trash by half, if not two-thirds.  The remaining trash that normally went into our garbage can was recyclable paper, metal, glass, and plastic.

Recycled materials offer tremendous economic value and environmental benefits.  When we recycle, we conserve natural resources. The greatest environmental benefitis in the reduction of natural resource damage and pollution that arise from extracting virgin raw materials and manufacturing new products.  Many of the costs associated with these impacts, as well as the impacts of consumption, and disposal are not included in the prices paid when products are bought and sold.

Our local recycling center, The Siskiyou Opportunity Center, offers a convenient, well-designed recycling program.  Just commingle your plastics #1 & 2, your glass, corrugated cardboard, aluminum and metal cans in your blue bag, and put the blue bag out with your regular trash pick up, at the beginning of each month.  Make sure that your recycling materials are clean and dry.

Reducing your weekly waste amount is easy, and it feels good knowing that you are taking better care of the environment.