How have you reduced your garbage/landfill footprint?

[gtaus]

I made a garbage run today. I had four 13 gallon bags of garbage to bring to our landfill. It occurred to me that it has been about 2 months since I last made a garbage run. That amounts to one kitchen sized bag of garbage for every 2 weeks for Dear Wife and myself. I think that is pretty good.

A lot of our reduction in waste garbage is due to how much stuff I convert for use with the chickens. Almost all our kitchen scraps and leftovers to go the chickens. Anything that is not good for them to eat gets tossed in a pallet compost bin. That reduces most of our "wet" garbage and knocks down any smell in the bags from rotting organics. Nobody wants smelly garbage around.

Almost all our paper, light cardboard, and box cardboard is shredded at home and I have been using those paper shreds in my coop this winter. That has been working out great. Paper is really bulky, and shredding it up for the chickens really knocks down the amount of recycle bin material that we have to haul to the recycle bins.

We still have bags full of other stuff that get sent to the recycle bins. Just about anything glass, metal, tin, plastic or paper can be thrown in our "local" recycle pickup bin 5 miles down the road. That really helps to knock down the amount of "garbage" left over for the landfill.

I try to live by the motto, "Reduce, reuse, repurpose, recycle" in that order. Over the years, we have gotten much better at reducing our landfill footprint. Just wondering how others are doing in this area, if you have ways of reusing some common household items for use with your chickens, or if you have other ways of reducing your landfill footprint that might work for others.

 

[Chookchicken]

We use reusable shopping bags and vegetable bags. Scraps either go to the chickens, worms, or compost. We then use the chicken poo, worm wee, and compost to turn into fertilisers for our garden to grow more food. Then the cycle starts again. We are not where near 100% waste free, but compared to where we were 5 years ago it’s a lot better.

 

[gtaus]

We use reusable shopping bags and vegetable bags.

What's a vegetable bag?

We are not where near 100% waste free, but compared to where we were 5 years ago it’s a lot better.

Yea, I don't think it would be possible for us to get down to 100% waste free, but like you, we have made lots of progress. I suspect many people on this forum are much better in waste reduction than the general (non-chicken owning) population. Chickens are just great animals for reducing and recycling some of our waste products, and turning lots of that stuff into valuable compost for our gardens.

 

[Chookchicken]

What's a vegetable bag?

Some people call them produce bags, others call them vegetable bags. I couldn’t remember of the top of my head since I normally call them “the mesh bags”

You use them to put fruit and veggies in when your shopping rather then the plastic bags.

 

[Callender Girl]

Enjoyed learning about what you're doing. If everyone would do just a little more, it would make a big difference. None of us is going to save the world all on our own.

 

[Silexian]

Like most others that have replied. All of our kitchen scraps and garden leftovers. Either get fed to livestock or goes directly to compost. All of our paper and cardboard that we do not reuse or repurpose. Also gets composted. All of our compost and manure is used in our gardens, beds, orchard and fields. We store most of the food that we grow ourselves, in reusable containers. We also use reusable shopping bags.

 

[gtaus]

Some people call them produce bags, others call them vegetable bags. I couldn’t remember of the top of my head since I normally call them “the mesh bags”

We still get our bags for free at the grocery store, so there is no incentive to bring your own bags. I am guessing that the mesh bags are better for your fruits and vegetables?

BTW, we do recycle our plastic grocery bags. If we get paper bags (not too many these days), I will shred them up for use as coop litter.

 

[gtaus]

Enjoyed learning about what you're doing. If everyone would do just a little more, it would make a big difference. None of us is going to save the world all on our own.

Well said.

 

[gtaus]

We store most of the food that we grow ourselves, in reusable containers. We also use reusable shopping bags.

That's just great. We eat most of the food I grow as I pick it, so not too much to store. Dear Wife will freeze bags of beans for eating in the winter. We used to can goods, years ago, but health issues came into play and those canning days are behind us now. What food I grow that we do store, I usually put in Dollar Tree bins. I save glass containers for "refrigerator canning" spicy hot beans. Those were really good last fall.

You don't see anybody using reusable shopping bags around here. No incentive. Bags are still free at the stores. I think if they started charging for bags, then that behavior would quickly change and people would start using reusable bags. Or, if they gave you some kind of discount for bringing your own bag that might help. In the summertime, we do use reusable insulated bags for our frozen goods.

 

[gtaus]

Like most others that have replied. All of our kitchen scraps and garden leftovers. Either get fed to livestock or goes directly to compost. All of our paper and cardboard that we do not reuse or repurpose. Also gets composted. All of our compost and manure is used in our gardens, beds, orchard and fields.

I think lots of people here on BYC forums are just better at thinking about reusing material on the "homestead" - whatever that is for them. If they have chickens, lots of people figure out how much good stuff we throw out that could be used by the chickens as feed or to make compost. I know my level of repurposing material for the chickens, like kitchen scraps and shredding paper, has reduced our landfill footprint a lot. Better for the environment and better for us.

Not previously mentioned, all my yard debris gets raked up, mowed up, or chipped up for use in the coop or the chicken run. I don't think I have had a single leaf leave my property since I got composting chickens to break down those leaves into black gold.

All our fallen branches get chipped up for the coop or run. No more runs to the landfill with that stuff. For larger tree trunk rounds, they are used in new hügelkultur raised beds to grow people food. Gave some rounds to my neighbor who has a wood stove in his house.