Trash Talk
Decatur Metro | February 18, 2009 | 12:29 pm
Thought of this question while I was putting out my trash this week:
How many adults/kids live in your house and how many Pay-As-You Throw garbage bags do you put out on average each week?
Just curious how my trash output compares to my neighbors.
My answer is 2 adults/1 dog, one yellow bag.
Feel free to elaborate. I have a feeling there will be quite a few pre-kid/post-kid laments.
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we have 2 adults, 1 child, and 2 old dogs- 3-4 small bags a week
2 adults, 2 dogs, 1 yellow bag a week and an occasional green one for overflow, but only every 4 or 5 weeks.
2 adults 1 kid here….
We personally use a huge loophole in the “pay as you throw” social garbage engineering thing….
We use regular kitchen trash bags, pack ’em up, then throw ’em in a trash can outside that is lined with one of the big blue trash bags. It’s usually one blue bag a week, sometimes one every two weeks.
I do this to protest the huge inconvenience this program presents to the poorest among us.
Fight the power.
oh…..and one cat.
I’ve wondered this too! We have 2 adults, two kids – one still in diapers. I really strive for one yellow bag/week and mostly make it.
You know….now that I think of it….it’s more like one blue bag every two weeks.
Fight the power.
Two adults — one green bag a week (usually not completely full). How many people compost? I don’t, but I want to try it; I’m afraid of vermin digging it up though.
Hey, Bag. If all your trash is going in a blue, Decatur bag, what’s the loophole part? Aren’t you still payin’ as ya throw?
Yeah…but I think that technically it would be three yellow bags….right?
I save money in the end.
We compost….you don’t have to worry about vermin.
And you get excellent soil for potting
I need to start composting too.
A quick check of the Oakhurst Community Garden calendar shows that there’s a compost class this coming Saturday…
Compost with the Compost King
Are you throwing away your fresh kitchen scraps, not knowing that you could use them to improve the soil in your garden? Jim Spotts, the Composting King, will delight you with the facts of composting in your own yard. Set-up, materials to include, turning, and harvesting will all be discussed. Everyone will have an opportunity to work with the Garden’s own compost pile.
Saturday, February 21, 10 a.m.-noon
$20 Garden members, $25 non-members
Two adults, one dog = one green bag a week.
Loophole: Yes, it’s an inconvenience…for everyone. It’s supposed to be. The point is to encourage people who aren’t used to recycling regularly to see the advantages of taking advantage of that service and reduce their contribution to the waste stream. I am the editor of a national magazine that covers solid waste and recycling, and I can tell you that few programs are as effective as Pay-As-You-Throw for quickly increasing diversion rates. If that means I have to go to the local Kroger or Ace to get my bags and pay a few cents more than I might at WalMart for Glad Bags, so be it.
Moreover, the number of municipalities offering single-stream recycling (allowing you to commingle recyclables because they are sorted at a materials recovery facility) are small. We are fortunate to have such a service in Decatur (not to mention the green waste collection). Navigating PAYT is a small price to pay.
2 adults 1 toddler 1 dog 1 cat. One [STUFFED] blue bag every 2 weeks.
Thanks for the heads-up about the composting class, DM!
But how many bins of recyclables do you put out?? We’re 2 adults, two kids,
one dog and 2 fish…We usually have 1 or 2 yellow bags, but we also usually have 2 bins full of recyclables.
2 adults, 2 cats, 1 green.
2 adults, 1 teenager, a big dog, and a cat. one big blue bag usually every week, but on occasion we do it every other week. 2-3 recycling containers though. those have saved a ton of trash. plus, our disposal eats a ton of goodies each day.
2 adults, 1 dog, 1 cat = 1 yellow bag OR 2 green bags per week. Recently switched to the smaller bags to make living with the trash more pleasant during the week.
Usually one tub of recycling per week.
We compost a little, but mostly in the summer when we eat more fresh produce.
Two adults, two kids, one cat and one home office = one blue bag and two full recycle bins a week. We compost a lot, including cardboard egg cartons. I thought we were doing great, but I’m put to shame by Bag loophole. Need to work on it.
Two adults, one kid, two cats. We use one blue bag every two or three weeks. Most of our garbage is either food packaging or cat poop.
Two adults and one child (still in diapers) – Before we moved abroad in the fall, we were averaging one yellow bag and one green bag per week. Pre-baby, we were closer to a green bag per week.
I thought Decatur’s program was the most interesting I had encountered until I moved to Belgium in the fall. Here, they have a PAYT system also, with three different colors of bags. However, the bags aren’t different sizes, but you have to put different items in each bag:
White: Food trash
Yellow: Paper
Blue: Plastics and aluminum
You have to carry glass to specific bins that they have located throughout each neighborhood (and we have a lot of glass as I attempt to sample all the Belgian beers!).
They do pick up trash twice a week, but one night is for all types of bags and one night is for white bags only.
Fortunately for us, we live in a city where they aren’t very particular about what is in each bag, but we’ve heard that if you live in the suburbs they will either not pickup your trash if you put something in the wrong bag or they will assess fines in excess of 100 Euros each time!
Makes me long for the ease of Decatur’s PAYT system!
Winnona Mom….don’t worry….i have a genetic benefit that allows me to crush garbage:
6’3″ 225 lbs. size 13 boot.
2 adults, 3 dogs, 1 toddler/ I yellow bag per week and 5 brim-full recycling bins
Thanks for all the replies thus far! Keep ’em coming! I’m seeing that we should really be striving for one green bag a week.
Also, I’d just like to point out that one of the great unexpected resources of this site are readers that no longer live in Decatur, but still like to check in to keep in touch. The perspective of ckwill and others elsewhere is always enlightening and most welcome!
2 adults, 2 teenagers, 2 dogs: 1 yellow bag and 2-1/2 recycling containers a week.
2 adults, 2 kids, 1 dog = 1.5 yellow bags/week (1 week = 1 bag, next week = 2 bags) and 2 recycle bins/week. I’m trying hard to get it down to 1 yellow bag per week.
ckwill: Ugh…That sounds like a pain. Although it might make you feel better to know that in some parts of New York, residents who do not recycle properly are punished by being made to use clear garbage bags, which are then inspected. If recyclables are again found in those bags, they receive a stiff fine.
Loophole: 6’5″, 270, size 15. 😉
2 adults, 2 dogs (they do the composting) = usually 1 < full blue bag + 2 recycling bins.
2 adults, 3 kids (1 still in diapers)…we strive for 1.5 yellow bags/week (much like winnona family) plus 3 overflowing recycle bins.
Two adults, two school aged boys. Generally we do one yellow bag one week, two the next, one the following week, and so on. So, 1.5 yellow bags per week.
We compost all our kitchen scraps, including coffee grounds and filters, and some paper towels and napkins, and all yard trimmings. We also set out three bins of recyclables a week.
When we lived in Decatur, we used 1 mostly full green (small) bag a week. We recycled A LOT and tried not to purchase products with a lot of packaging. Oh yeah, 2 adults, 2 dogs & 1 cat. Pay as you throw actually saved us money.
Yep, us displaced Decaturites can’t break the habit!
We don’t have PAYT, but I have twice a week pickup, between those days is the recycling pickup (same system as Decatur), and free pickup of lawn waste/limbs/brush etc. once weekly. I believe I pay about $10 a month for all this, but can’t swear to that yet….dang this memory!
We composted when in Decatur and were about one blue bag a week and full recycle bins (beer, mostly!) for two adults and one cat that sure used a lot of Feline Pine.
Is it OK to put paper products in the recycling? ie….Letters? It seems like such a “trash” thing. Is there a site which outlines the recycling policy?
Big Loophole,
You crack me up! Because it’s a “huge inconvenience”, it seems you are not only going out of your way to avoid the “inconvenience” (thus making it more of an inconvenience), all the while spending more on the trash. Hilarious.
1 yellow bag is .70. One blue bag is 1.45. So you are paying $1.45, plus the cost of the additional bags, double bagging your trash, and throwing it away. Because the blue bag is 33 gal, and the yellow bag is 15 gal., you are most likely putting two yellow bags worth of trash into the regular bags before putting them in the blue bag. You are paying more and doing extra work. Awesome!
Your way: $1.45 + cost of extra bags + extra effort of double bagging.
Decatur PAYT way: $1.40 (no additional costs or steps in process).
Please don’t tell me that it’s cheaper because you put 3 or 4 regular bags in the blue bag. If that is the case, you are either not filling them up or they are not 15 gal. Just because the number of bags may be more, the blue bag’s capacity does not change.
Go on and fight that power. Show ’em who’s boss!
Loophole, the recycling info is on the City website. Basically, you can put in nearly anything except Styrofoam, including plastic garbage bags. I do have a shredder for anyhing in the mail with an identity to it.
2 adults, one 18 year old = 1 yellow bag per week
MC: Not defending Loophole or anything, but he said he uses several smaller REGULAR kitchen trash bags, not CoD yellow trash bags. But appreciate the enthusiasm. 😉
Oh, and although it is technically okay to put paper in the bin, please make sure that paper does not get wet, because then it will simply be thrown away, not recycled. Also, wet paper in with other recyclables can contaminate them and lead them to be thrown away as well.
For this reason, I usually keep my paper separate and when I fill up some bags, take it to the recycling center at YDFM. And yes, shredding sensitive material is a good idea.
Oh my goodness. We are obviously gluttons. 2 adults (who usually eat most meals out), 1 dog = 1 blue bag a week. Sometimes we add a yellow bag, and occasionally a SECOND blue bag. Huh. I figured, wrongly, we were typical. We’ll have to figure out how we are managing to make so much garbage!
DD, try compressing the stuff in the bag a bit instead of just dropping it in. It’s amazing how much one of those bags will hold and they’re pretty strong.
Two adults, two kids, 1 dog, 3 cats and a home based business. We usuallly do 1 to 2 blue bags a week. But we have a rolling recycling trash can that we fill up.
2 adults and 2 kids under 3. Typically one big blue and one yellow every week.
2 adults, 2 children between 5 & 10, 1 yellow bag a week. It’s amazing how much trash is cut down with recycling.
Just me: one of the small green bags every couple of weeks, crammed full. I try to recycle everything. Publix takes styrofoam.
Two adults, a cat, two offices in the house, and cook at home a good deal.
We fill about one green bag a month and four blue bags a year.
We produce about three-quarters of one green recycling bin a week.
All the compost goes into a yard bin for later garden use.
And, we compost all our leaves, mulch-style, in our unused side yard.
I began a longer note for this thread, but it quickly spiraled into a long “how-to” primer.
I’ll happily offer tips for how to reduce and reuse if folks are interested.
2 adults, 4 kids, 1 dog, and only 1 yellow bag per week. Even when our youngest was in diapers, we still did 1 yellow bag per week. We are Trash Masters! We have 2 overflowing recycle bins every week. We keep our styrofoam (even from meat packaging–washed of course) in the attic to wait for the Decatur Recycling Day twice a year. Only if we’re doing spring cleaning (or at Christmas) do we use the blue bags.
We recycle every freaking thing we possibly can. And we use our garbage disposal for all food waste.
Wow you all are really efficient with the trash bags. Just me and my dogs account for 2-3 blue trash bags a week. We got fed up with the expensive Decatur bags that always break, so we buy the blue ones online where they are much cheaper and better quality to boot. With the drought apparently over soon, we’ll probably get back to conserving our trash by burning it in the back yard again, which totally eliminates the need for plastic bags.
dedogur,
You’re probably spending too much on your blue bags. You could get these and I bet you could up your weekly amount to 4-5 bags and have no impact on cost.
http://www.budgetpackaging.com/plbablre.html
I could be wrong, but since the new waste contract took hold, styrofoam can be put out in the bins. No need to save it for Publix or electronics recycling day.
Styrofoam is about the only thing you can’t put in the bins.
Styrofoam is accepted so long as it has a recycling logo on it.
Does anyone really know how thorough the recycling companies are when they process the recycling?
What I am trying to say is….i mix so many different types of glass, paper, cardboard, magazines, junk mail in the recycling bins that I have no idea how anyone could sift through all of our stuff.
Yes, it bothers me that we are allowed to throw everything in together. We use the same company at Agnes Scott, and for one thing, our recycling bins now look like trash cans because everything is thrown together, so we get more trash in them now! We’ve had to go to great lengths to educate the campus in what is trash and what’s recycling. When the bins were sorted by type, I think recycling was easier because it didn’t require thinking.
I am constantly assured that the recycling company is great and wonderful and recycles everything. But I’m not convinced this is a good process.