Grocery Bagging

Our city gave us 3 trash cans - black for regular trash, blue for plastic, paper, glass and cans, and green for garden waste such as grass, leaves, branches etc. They're all picked up on the same day (thank goodness).

We use regular trash bags for kitchen rubbish. In a warm climate like
ours there is just no other way to dispose of garbage differently.

I use plastic shopping bags for regular trash. I get these when we buy clothes, shoes etc. not groceries. When I forget to bring my own bag to the supermarket, I get (buy!) a paper shopping bag. I use that for cat litter.

We have a blue trash can for paper, a brown one for organic waste (from kitchen and garden), big yellow plastic bags for plastic and cans, a grey trash can for 'regular' waste and glass has to be taken to recycling containers that are distributed about town.

The grey and the brown trash cans are being picked up on the same day - every two weeks. The blue trash can and the yellow plastic bags are being picked up once a month - on different days. Trash is a science in Germany!

Good point about the plastic bags we get for non-grocery shopping, urs. That could work, maybe.

We have a really nice recycling program here too, so that certainly cuts down on the trash. Just one big bin for any kind of recycling -- I kind of prefer that actually (we had the separate-bin thing in L.A.). That's once a week. Then they pick up yard waste separately, once a week in season (they just did the first one of the year, yay!), same day as recycling. Then garbage on another day.

I read somewhere recently about composting as a city project -- instead of starting your own compost pile, just set out compostables which will be picked up by the city (same idea as recycling) and I think made into compost that can be used by anyone, but maybe just used by the city. We're pretty green around here, I was thinking of suggesting it. (I've never done well with compost piles in my own yard/ garden, though I've tried it a couple of times.)

as you can see from CJ and urs' posts, Toronto's actually behind the times on this sort of thing. We're just getting to the 3 garbage can approach here - and no liners are allowed inside them (though we are still cheating occasionally).

I actually thought we were much further behind than this thread would suggest. The garbage p.r. folks would have us thinking we need to rushrushrush to catch up with other cities/countries. There have been lengthy threads over at CooksTalk about the various permutations there are to reusable shopping bags - a science and art form all on its own.

LA went to the big recycling bin just about the time I moved, which was in late '98. Everything then gets dumped on conveyor belts and people sort from there. (If they're still doing it that way..) Can't remember what happened with compostables, as I didn't personally experience that new phase, just remember that the new recycling bins were huge and bright blue.

In the town where Ms. Quinn lives they do this for businesses (mostly resturants I suppose...) but not for households. They do collect yard waste from households and add that to the mix though. Plus, if you are a resident you can pick up up to 1 truckload (pickup truck type!) per day for free. Nice for people who have gardens and such. They have HUGE mounds of the stuff. They could easily sell it to non-residents and businesses (landscapers would love it) and recoup some costs there too.

My town has a composting area but for some stupid reason they charge you if you want to dump yard waste, etc.. in there. But we have a lot of wooded areas so most people just dump yard waste in the woods. (no bags!) I use most of my yard waste for mulch and compost my household stuff. I need to get a larger composting setup though. If I thought my neighbors would participate I'd get one large enough to handle 6 or 8 homes and and do a community thing.

The inside cover of this week's Newsweek doubles as an prepaid envelope. You fold it up, stick in some old plastic Target bags and they will send you a coupon for a free tote.

That's cool! (Newsweek.)

Wish you lived in my neighborhood, fishin', the 6-8 homes thing sounds great.

I think I'll bring up the idea of some sort of composting pick-up with local political types, see what they think. We have a fair amount of restaurants, if it's easiest to start there.