Putting My Trash Out There

Not only do we have a water bill for the first time ever in my life at the new place, we have to pay for trash pick up as well.  My thrifty solution: Don't do it!  Between composting and the free curbside recycling, we really shouldn't have too much trash.  Even though to pay by the bag is only $1.75 and I don't anticipate having more than a bag or two a month, I'd rather not pay it if I don't have to. 

The trash center in the kitchen, near the back door.  All trash is sorted here.

That's right: a family of 5 or 6 (depending on if my oldest son is here or at his dad's) produces less than a bag or two a month!  Even at our old place, where recycling wasn't available and I had to limit my composting due to concerns of being "discovered", I only had one trash can at the curb most weeks.  Here, I don't even have a regular covered trash can in the kitchen, where most refuse happens.  Instead, I have three small trash containers: one for recyclables, one for compost (so we don't have to run outside for every little thing), and one for actual trash.  There are many things that could either go in the recycling or composting bins, but, given the choice, and the mass quantity of compost I'm going to want for next year's garden, I'm opting for composting whenever possible.  Right now, the trash has been filling pretty quickly, but it is mostly packing tape, so I don't think that is indicative of too much.  The compost can fills up the quickest though. 

What goes in what, you might ask?  The short answer is that anything that once came from a living thing, other than meat (don't want to attract critters!), can be composted; a lot of plastic, metal, and glass can be recycled; and anything else is trash....which isn't much else!

Composting
veggie and fruit scraps
small quantities of dairy (including moldy cheese, melted ice cream, and more)
paper towel & paper napkins
paper plates
cardboard/boxboard, including toilet paper rolls, cereal boxes, and pizza boxes
pizza crusts, stales cereal, stale bread, etc
q-tips with paper sticks
used facial tissues (I actually prefer to flush these when I go potty though)
hair from hairbrushes
nail clippings
urine (okay, we haven't done this yet, but I'm thinking about leaving a bucket upstairs for the kids)
dryer lint
cotton clothing in beyond useable condition
pencil shavings
junk mail (minute plastic windows)
sticky notes
receipts
newspapers
latex balloons

Recycling (note: more can be recycled at certain places, but this is what we can recycle here)
glass (all colors)
tin/steel cans
household scrap metal
aluminum (cleaned of food)
plastic: #1, #2, #4, #5, #6, #7
bulky rigid plastic (look for HDPE symbol)
cartons, including milk cartons, juice cartons, juice boxes, etc

Trash
pretty much anything not listed above