apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Recycling everything I can and composting has cut my garbage down significantly, but I'm definitely still producing landfill-bound trash. I'm trying to reduce my use of plastic, but it's not easy. Everything seems to come wrapped in the stuff! Best of luck to Amy and Adam! I hope to learn some tips from them.

I always think about doing something like this but when I start to think about things like, yes, getting my period, I freak out a bit.

I would love to compost but I live in an apartment with a landlord who would go crazy on me if she ever saw a compost heap or even a worm bin in my apartment. I'm pretty sure she would consider them a "pet" and it's very clear on my lease that I cannot have any living non-human animal in my home. So I just use scraps to make stock before they go in the trash :-(

I'm big on recycling, not getting bags of any kind at the store (even the produce bags), and freecycling or buying nothing to begin with. But it's really tough. Good luck to Amy and Adam!

I recognize that it's probably easier for me because I do have a yard, so composting practically everything is easy.

I stopped buying most food items in non-recyclable containers a long time ago. For example, I have a yogurt maker that uses glass jars, so no more #5s that just go into the trash, YOPLAIT. Our pickup does not take glass, but I just save it all until we go visit my mom in our old town, where they do. (And then it doesn't look too good, because it's mostly wine and liquor bottles. So they must think my Mom's a big lush!) All yard waste, paper (even the TP tubes), aluminum and tin goes into the bin.

After all of that, our family of four has less than one full 13-gal trash bag go out every other week. My biggest shame is that I use sandwich bags for my son's lunches every day. And I do use a few paper towels every now and then for cleaning the bathroom and after making bacon. My kids think I'm a recycling freak, but they fall in line, so that's ok with me!

I keep food scraps in the freezer and periodically give it to friends who have a yard and compost. Some community gardens take scraps too. The composting has dramatically reduced what's left for the garbage, since a lot of other stuff is recycled. I've noticed most stuff in the garbage is plastic wrapping/packaging or other types of packaging that can't go in the recycling. It's interesting to see what's left and try to cut down further on that stuff.

Whoops, there's some paper towels in there too.