'dumping" your garbage service?

[K-Kritter]

Little late to this thread but a wonderful idea! We live in the county but still have to pay for garbage pickup. After reading this I realized that even with two households, we rarely fill the trashcan up since I am making trips to the recycle center about once a week. I have add the book you mentioned to my wish list ( I have a HUGE reader!!) Would love to hear what you decide to do and how it all works out. At least you got me thinking!

 

[Life is Good!]

My kids are at the 'wow - cool - let's try it' stage..but i wonder how long that will last. LOL. We will have to get creative!

Not to worry, they'll go from the 'wow - cool' phase to the 'no big deal' phase to the 'Mom's a little wierd' phase to following your example wherever they go! Seriously....

My then very young sons scratched their heads at me when I first went 'suburban farmer' and made a whole lot of our own foodstuffs (eliminating the grocer altogether) and got our laying hens, meat birds, bees, garden, orchard and so much more....then when we went to meet our pig and 1/2 of our cow (still on the hoof), they got the concept better (We think we're on Wilbur the fourth and Henry the ninth, but we sort of lost track....). Now, their Boy Scout Troop won't stop making them grubmaster....as the food they bring is "so much tastier" than the other guys'! LOL.....And they're totally puffed-up proud about it too! Especially recalling the tales of the time we burned the maple syrup on the stove, or the time we 'Viking' raided the dead-out beehive for the honey stores, or the time the grape harvest was 6hrs long just to collect the grapes from the 100' of vines....! Which then leads to them saying, "here try some jelly we made last fall"....!

As for the trash question - I too would like to go totally without the trash service - we pay stickers for what we put out. We put out 2 bins of recycling a week for free (1 of paper, we both work from home; 1 of cans, plastic and glass) and 1 bin of 'trash' every 4-5wks. If it weren't for kitty litter, we'd have no trash at all! But I can't figure that one out with an indoor only cat.

I know there must be a solution for you to ditch the city service altogether. Do you know what company collects for your city and where they're located? Perhaps a call there would be a good start if you're in an urban area. If more rural, perhaps the county dump would be a better alternative for you. Good luck in your hunt!

 

[Life is Good!]

Forgot to add....

Do look into getting your own side of beef and/or pig. If you've got a separate freezer, our butcher packages the meat in flat plastic sheeting (recyclable) and covered with white paper (recyclable). Granted, it's a fairly large initial expenditure to purchase ALL that meat at once, but it averages out to a very reasonable amount.

Last year's cow was $2.79/lb - for everything - sirloin steaks, T-bone steaks, roasts, ground beef.....all of it! So once one gets used to the sticker shock (and budgets appropriately), it's a very great way to get really good meat reasonably priced.

I cannot recall what the pig was per pound....I want to say total cost was about $350 for our last pig....but don't hold me to that. All the pork chops you can imagine, four terrific hams, bacon galore.....yeah, that's worth it!

Our farmer friend is anti-biodic free, hormone free, but cannot guarantee their feed corn is gmo-free. But the animals are treated well, have great space to live in and overall are a healthy herd. My flock isn't gmo-free, so I don't see much difference between my meat birds and her herds.

Look into it to reduce the Styrofoam.

Or else see if your local preschool needs Styrofoam trays for craft/paint projects! That's how I got rid of most of mine when my kids were that phase of life.....

 

[starbuck123]

Thanks K-kritter and lifeisgood. I did my homework and it's allowed by our city to NOT have service, provided we dump our own (meaning you can't just store garbage in your house or garage!!)

So, I've cancelled our trash hauling. The last day is March 30, when they will take the last of what we have then cart off the cans!

It will mean a trip to the free recycling center about once a month. I've devised a set of 3 bins that will go in the garage and we will go back to separating things out. I've also repurposed a large container with a snap lid (used to be for laundry detergent) that will go near the sink for all composatables. I also plan to remove trash containers from the bathrooms which will require the kids to carry any items to put in the compost bin - things like cotton balls..though we are phasing those out and using soft flannel squares. That book I mentioned above lists all sorts of things that are compostable, things i didn't even realize could be!

We no longer use paper napkins, plates, paper towels. I have also started using cloth wipes in the bathroom to cut down on TP. I also use cloth pads and a keeper (PM me for more information on that if you are curious or have questions). It's been a bit of an adjustment for them but I've spent the last few years slowly phasing things out, as my SO is pretty resistant, especially with paper napkins..lol.

Anyway, it will be a new adventure and hopefully this thread has given others ideas, or at least gotten people to think not only about what they throw away but how to reduce the items that even come into your house in the first place.

 

[K-Kritter]

Don't think removing TP from the bathroom would fly with my DH ~ LOL!! I have finally just gotten him to toss his plastic into the recycle bin. I have to take babysteps with him. Getting my chicks in April and it will be a whole new experience for him and my kids!!

Congratulations on canceling your garbage service. When there's a will, there's a way.

 

[starbuck123]

Quote:
Originally Posted by K-Kritter

Don't think removing TP from the bathroom would fly with my DH ~ LOL!! I have finally just gotten him to toss his plastic into the recycle bin. I have to take babysteps with him. Getting my chicks in April and it will be a whole new experience for him and my kids!!


LOL - which I why I said I use them (not him). He varies between loving what I do/tolerating what I do/and thinking I'm an all-out hippie-prepper freak. It depends on the day.

. Haha. Baby steps indeed. I do that here as well..

 

[K-Kritter]

LOL - which I why I said I use them (not him). He varies between loving what I do/tolerating what I do/and thinking I'm an all-out hippie-prepper freak. It depends on the day.

. Haha. Baby steps indeed. I do that here as well..

OMG, you sound just like me!! I also Geocache, which he is finally getting around to. At first, when we went, he would just sit in the car playing Candy Crush while the kids and I look high and low for the find. Now, he still waits in the car but if we can't find it, he'll get out and try to help us look. Also, I am getting ready to do some edible landscaping and am going to do the deep mulch/lasagna method which requires laying down cardboard. I can only imagine what he's going to say when he says parts of the yard covered in cardboard ~LOL!!

 

[starbuck123]

I'm jealous - I broached the idea of turning our front yard into a garden..lol. But, we took out a large chunk of the back lawn to have garden there. He's actually excited to garden. yay!

 

[starbuck123]

I forgot to add that by canceling I'm going to save $300+ a year. Now that's priceless.