How much trash do you generate?

**lullaby80** · 06-13-2007, 06:46 AM

Looking at the curbside on trash pickup day I see huge differences in household trash size. Some people have three bags (trash gets picked twice a week) while some only have a small bag. We (family of three) tend to generate two bags per week and one very full container of recycables. I've been really trying to decrease this but could use some more ideas.

Hows your trash situation?

**JustJoy** · 06-13-2007, 07:24 AM

I'm not sure exactly how many bags we generate per week, but for just two people...it's way too much.

**Siebrie** · 06-13-2007, 07:41 AM

When I was living alone, cooking from scratch, eating healthily/organically, recycling religiously I had only [B]one[B] twenty litre garbage bag per month. Now that my boyfriend is living with me, he does the grocery shopping and cooking, and my attention to recycling is slightly diverted, we have 1 bag per week. Time to pay more attention!

**YankeeMom** · 06-13-2007, 07:53 AM

We are a family of six (two adults & four kids) as well as 3 dogs & 3 cats. We have a 32 gallon tote that we fill once per week. That equates to about two to three 13 gallon kitchen garbage bags.

I'm a 'garbage' watcher too. I don't notice it as much in the neighborhood we are now, but when we lived in military housing (where trash pickup is free and people rarely recycle because it's not required) I was always astounded at the amounts of trash people created. Most of it convenience foods like frozen or takeout pizza boxes, cases of soda boxes. There was one family (you can't help but notice when you have to walk by it on the way to the bus stop every Monday) that had no less than 2-3 of those Pepsi Cubes out on the curb every week along with 5-6 take out pizza boxes per week. And that's in addition to their regular trash in garbage bags that you can't see....

**miss_thrifty** · 06-13-2007, 08:12 AM

we recycle all our plastics, milk cartons, egg cartons, and mostly all paper because of the recycling plant. So its great now.
every other tuesday the garbage picks up either compost bin, or the waste bin. So id say 1 full cart of waste every other week or less and 1 full cart of compost . The compost one they turn into good soil to resell for the Island. The recycles get picked up every month, i usually have 4 -5 bags .

**nuisance26** · 06-13-2007, 08:16 AM

~We fill one trash can per week. The recyclables and paper bin go out once a month. Cooking from scratch instead of cans and boxes is a big help along with cloth diapers during the day and a compost pile out back. Food scraps really add up.~

**baxjul** · 06-13-2007, 09:07 AM

We have 1 sometimes 2 bags, picked up twice a week.

**FrugalMomof3** · 06-13-2007, 09:12 AM

Well we have a pretty big garbage bin and usually that is filled ut trash is picked up once per week and that's for 4 people right now + dog stuff

Sometimes though we dont even fill the bin up.

**Mom23boys** · 06-13-2007, 09:43 AM

We are a family of 4 with 2 dogs and 1 cat and we fill up one 32 gallon totes too. Our trash is picked up once a week.

**Jaded** · 06-13-2007, 09:46 AM

Waaaay too much! I need to get back into recycling. When I first moved here, I recycled about 60% of what I used, but I don't anymore. Just got out of it, life pressures and stuff, and never got back in.

I think it got frustrating when I was living with my ex and he would never take the stuff to the recycling bin (too freakin' lazy), and I just gave up after trying to pull stuff out of the garbage too many times.

**monkeywrangler71** · 06-13-2007, 09:53 AM

We have a family of five, two in diapers. I've been pretty good about cloth diapering in the days, but they still use disposables at night, when we go out, and if I'm swamped. We currently generate about one bag a week.

We aren't allowed to use giant bags or trash cans, so those are regular 67L bags (about 18 US gallons?) Our residual waste is picked up every 2 weeks, we're allowed 4 bags. Our recyclables and compost are picked up weekly, no limit, we generally have 2-3 boxes of recycling plus about half the compost bin full.

**kittykatstrong** · 06-13-2007, 11:11 AM

we have more trash then I would like. The garbage can is filled about everyother week. We do recycle milk jugs and glass bottles.

Katy

**mom2three** · 06-13-2007, 11:16 AM

We do about 1-2 bags per week. We cloth diaper, compost, and recycle. We are on special diets and could cut down to less than 1 bag/week if our city recycled tetrapaks (our rice, almond, and potato milk), and curbside composted.

**mom2three** · 06-13-2007, 11:17 AM

I should say that is every 6 business days.

**Marie78** · 06-13-2007, 12:30 PM

We are a family of 2 and 2 cats. We recycle all our plastic, cans, paper, and cardboard. I usually can't stand the smell in our kitchen garbage after a few days. We toss ~2 kitchen garbage bags (not always quite full) in the trash each week. I make sure it's only things we can't recycle though.