How much waste do you have?

[janelane]

The usual load of things you throw away. Like, how many bags per number of people in the household over a period of time. I'm just trying to compare and see how we stand.

We are two adults here, four cats (we chuck a lot of litter and poo, but I still haven't found a way around that) and we usually have one regular kitchen size bag a week. I'm working on bringing that down, what we usually do end up throwing away is unrecyclable plastic packaging.

I've been trying to make conscientious choices. We've stopped ordering in, stopped picking up fast food, stopped eating out. I stopped buying individual yogurt cups and just buy a big container of vanilla yogurt and mix in my own cut up fruit (healthier, less waste, tastier, and less expensive.)

My mother, the embodiment of wastefulness and environmental apathy manages to produce almost a bag a day just between herself and my adult brother. She recycles nothing, and pretty much eats nothing but packaged foods and it just drives me nuts.

So how am I doing? Is one bag a week and trying for less pretty good?

[mom2matty]

We throw a lot out and I am on a mission to reduce our waste........family of 4 plus 1 big dog.

Atleast 4 bags of regular trash
1 bag dog poop
1 bag recycle
1 bag green waste

[YankeeMom]

We fill our 32 gallon tote. It usually equates to:

2 - 13 gallon trash bags
3-4 grocery bags used for the cat litter, bathroom & office trash cans.

We are 6 people, 3 dogs, and 3 cats.

We also recycle all cardboard, paper, cans, plastic, and glass. I recycle all that is recyclable because recycle pick up is unlimited. Trash pick up is limited to what fits in our 32 gallon tote.

[Neeley]

4 people, 2 dogs, 2 cats 1 rabbit:

4-6 13 gallon trash bags
1-3 large recycle bags(#1 & #2 plastics, white paper, newspaper, cardboard, aluminum cans- but not aluminum foil, steel cans)

Trash pick up is $12/month - unlimited amount and recycling is a free service.

[Bethany]

We have a trash compacter and our family of four produces one bag of trash per week. We could do better if I were better about composting and recycling more. We do recycle a ton, but sometimes I get lazy and just throw stuff away. I am always working on that!!!

[Marie78]

There are two adults and two cats in our home. We recycle: paper, plastic, cans, glass, etc... I throw out one grocery size bag of garbage every other day or every day depending on how smelly the garbage is. On average we throw out around 4-5 grocery garbage bags a week. I only use the small plastic grocery bags we get at the store for all our garbage.

[fizzie]

I think you are doing great! We throw out one kitchen sized bag per week (two adults, one baby, one dog, one cat). The contents are kitty litter, diapers (only use disposables at night), and food packaging. We also throw away bags of dog poop everyday. If we pick up or order in, we usually generate almost a second bag. What a waste! Still our 12 gallon curbside can is rarely full. Other stuff gets composted and recycled.

[Ceashels]

Here, 2 adults, 3 cats and 3 dogs produce 1 1/2 kitchen bags of trash, one bag of bottles and cans for recycling and what I consider to be a rather large box of paper for recycling. Our recycling gets picked up ever 2 weeks and I composte most everything I can.

[flowergirl]

I know I have said this before on here but I live very close to a landfill so when I think about throwing things away I think do I want this in my back yard??? lol We have done a good job with reducing the waste we throw away.We recycle everything we can and are making better choices before we buy check to see if they are recyclable and by larger containers etc. Most weeks its one kitchen size bag and kitty litter . I even got my daughter and most of my family to recycle. My daughter called yesterday that she had bought a yogurt and it was a #5 which is not recycled in our area. I loved it !!!! I may not be able to change the world but helping to change my families habits is a good start. I don't peach(much) just educate and live by example. We compost and I am trying to reduce this amount even further.

[BeachBaby]

7 people in the house and we go through about 1 13 gallon bag (regular kitchen garbage can) a week of trash - 2 boxes of recycables (paper/cardboard, and cans/plastics) are curbside pickup

[Sonnenwende]

About 2 kitchen sized bags a week. Most of that is unrecyclable (here) plastic and diapers. Pretty much all else goes in the recycle bin.

[forHISglory]

2 adults and 1 dog here most of the time.

We have one small trash can that we put out once a week. It is usually about half full. This would be about 3-5 Walmart bags of stuff, mostly cans. In the winter, we burn paper trash in our wood stove. We have very little kitchen waste, and veggie scraps go out to the woods as compost.

[vigilant20]

It's just me and I throw out a grocery bag each week, whether it's full or not.

[FrugalWitch]

The smart-aleck in me just cannot resist. The amount of waste I have depends on the amount of roughage I've eaten.

[StaceyS]

It's just me and I throw out a grocery bag each week, whether it's full or not.

Me, too. I recycle as much as I can.