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How many bags of garbage a week?

7K views 48 replies 43 participants last post by  McD 
#1 ·
Just curious, how many bags of garbage (what size) do you put out a week?

DH and I are wondering if we're abnormal or typical. We're an empty nest couple and we put out one Superstore grocery bag of garbage a week. I thought it was more than that, but DH claims not. As he takes out the garbage, I go by what he has to say.
 
#27 ·
Just my hubby & I w/2 dogs & 1 cat.
We have a 32 gallon can for regular garbage this is ususally half full unless we enntertained/purged/cleaned the frig.
Our recycling container is 96 gal & picked up bi-weekly and is usually overflowing. I can put plastics up to 6, newspapers, mail, cardboard, all color glass, most food containers.
I save the plastic bags from bread & grocery stores(I hate forgetting my bag) for our dog walks and recycle the rest.

I don't have room to compost but I bring it to a facility that does. In compostable bags.
 
#28 ·
I am SO proud! We don't have curbside recycling and I have been trying to get my across the street neighbor to take all of his cardboard to ANY of the schools around our house. They all have paper recycling bins. He works for a beer distributor and is always putting together displays at his house and putting TONS of cardboard to the curb. Also a lot of beer cartons, but we won't discuss why he has SO many of those.

Yesterday he told me he has started taking all the cardboard to one of the school recycling bins - WOO HOO! We are talking about a lot of cardboard.
 
#30 ·
Usually 2 large bags of recycling, biweekly.
Paper and Al +3 cans to school. I even collect the newspaper from work to recycle at school.
Garbage is one 36 gal can each week for 4 people. I don't compost, but put alot in the garbage diposal. Or is that not PC now to use?
 
#32 ·
I don't compost, but put alot in the garbage diposal. Or is that not PC now to use?
I think the biggest thing about the g/d is the amount of water waste and energy waste it takes to use it. I don't think anyone is giong to come after you with a pitchfork if you use it though lol.
 
#31 ·
My hubby and I are hardcore enviromentalists so we put out....maybe a 13 gallon bag a week for a family of 3. Our trash gets picked up 2 a week and recycling once...I wish it were the other way around. We have our bin for metal, glass, etc and then our huge brown bags from home depot for ALL the paper waste to be recycled and then I compost the vegitation. We have a 13 gal. bag in the kitchen and then a 13 gal. bag in the bathroom upstairs which doesn't get changed much now that my daughter is potty trained. Next child is getting cloth diapers for sure.
 
#34 ·
1 tall kitchen bag a week, plus a couple grocery bags of cat litter/dog poop. We compost and recycle so we don't have much that goes to trash. I'm working on getting that lower.
 
#36 ·
One 15 gallon bag weekly plus 2-3 bags of small wastebasket stuff. We try to recycle as much as we can - through normal recycling and craft projects for my preschoolers.
 
#37 ·
It's just myself and DH and we have 1-15 gal. bag per month.
We have a recycle station about 1/2 mile away. We take paper, cans, bottles, plastic, etc. there. I shred junk mail for weed reduction in the garden.
I compost, feed peeling to the chickens.
6 times per year our township provides a dumpster for the community and alot goes there.
 
#38 ·
we are around 2-3 kitchen bags a week, with 2 adults a 5 yr ld and one in diapers. i am talking to hubs about maybe composting which will rock cause our diapers (not the poopy ones) are compostable.

our recycle bin is ridiculous cause i bring home DS's school's cans and bottles. we have so much recycling i think we need to scale back our consumerism LOL
 
#39 ·
Peanut...

one Tall kitchen bag a week is a lot for us (my mother, son and I), but we recycle 2-4 recycle bins every 2 weeks...makes a difference. Take care and God bless.

Rhonda
 
#40 ·
We do around 4 a week maybe 6.Depends. We can't have a compose pile here in the area. So all food waste needs to go into the trash.Plus we are charged $25.00 a months even if we dont put garbage out or recycle. Which we do.
 
#41 ·
We usually only have one tall kitchen bag, sometimes 2. Only 2 adults here and any food that we don't use up before it spoils is fed to our landlords 3 dogs. Most of what we throw away is cans, plastic food wrappers, styro from meats. No cardboard, aluminum, glass, or plastic jugs/bottles. I recycle those right across the road at the Fire Station.

Cat
 
#43 ·
just dh & i & 2 cats....

we fill a grocery bag in the kitchen about every 2-3 weeks....
(this includes any trash from bathroom too)....

i have a 'homemade' kitty pail (think diaper pail) for the scoopable cat litter as i clean out the boxes each day and it goes into the 'pail' and then when it is full it is taken to the garage and goes into a big garbage bag...

we recycle everything we get our hands on no matter how small or insignificant.....

do not compost (yet) and i really should coz 90% of what is in that grocery bag could be composted..... put anything i can down the garbage disp and since i do the dishes by hand now if i have anything to crush i use the leftover dishwater in the pan to run the disposal....(the rest goes in the back of the toilet tank)....

i make alot of meals from scratch and we eat a ton of veggies so other than those darn foam trays that i can't figure out what to do with we have very little packaging....

we take our trash and recycling to the 'center' about 2 miles down the road and pay $1 a bag for trash....we have a full trash bag about every 2-3 months (and a good majority is cat poo)....still trying to find an alternative on that one too...would love to be able to compost it.....

anything big/bulky or over-sized for a trash bag is put out in our back garage out of the way and when i do a rental clean-out (that requires a trip to the dump we throw those items in since we are charged by the weight of the truck and its cheaper that way...) we rarely have many of our own items...things that broke, etc....

i think we are doing quite well but i still see room for improvement on my part and i am working towards that goal...however slowly it may seem....
 
#45 ·
With 4 adults in the house, we have 1 trash bag every 2 weeks. Here, recycling and organic waste gets picked up weekly. Garbage is biweekly and the limit is 2 garbage bags. If you have more than the limit, you have to buy tags from the city. It's a great program to cut down on garbage.
 
#46 ·
I've never counted, but previously our 96 gallon trash can was full at pick up every week and we made no real effort to recycle as the guidelines for pickup were ridiculously strict.


However, the city has provided us with 96 gallon recycle bins with few limitations and now, my big ole bin is only 1/4 of the way full and my recycle bin is almost completely full. That's a great feeling.
 
#47 ·
I don't even think our city provides residents with a recycle bin option! We don't have one, and I never see one out beside other people's trash cans, either. I'm not sure how I'd go about getting one if they do have them, so do you have any suggestions for who I'd look up in the phone book to call and ask?
 
#48 ·
MyMelody: the recycle bin option might be a privately run one. Ours is. We have a Blue Bin program. Other communities expect you to take your own recyclables into a recycling center. Maybe phone Public Works at the city and ask if they have a recycling program. And if not, can they tell you who in town does.

Hope that helps.
 
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