Kickin the Can!

The good folks over at thisyounghouse seem to be enjoying the rewards of recycling and composting.  Check out their great DIY post on starting your own compost. (link).

We have been doing the compost thing since 9/6/08. (2 months) And we have been recycling ever since the WM made it easy to do so w/ curbside recycling.  But now that we compost we are even more aware now of what is going where.  Our kids tend to stop and think about where something goes before they just throw it in the trash.  Even at times correcting us when we forget.

And just like the folks over at ThisYoungHouse we too have also seen a significant decrease in the amount of "trash bags" that we are sending to the landfill.  Right now we are sending 1-2 bags a week for a family of 4.  It would be nice to have less and maybe save some "green" on paying WM.

What's in those 1-2 bags??

Plastic and other non-recyclables - food packaging

Styrofoam - the stuff that holds your chicken and meat.

Meat waste - mostly bones and some scraps -- a small bit...

Now how about those leaves that are falling...

Still making Dirt -- slowly!

Back in September we set up our Compost Bin that we got from The Richmond Clean City Commission. We actually picked up 2 - and will be using #2 in about another month when our first Compost gets full.  

So far so good.  I'm really impressed and somewhat amazed about about much waste we produce.  We are a family of 4 (soon 5).  And on average we produce about 3-4 bags of garbage a week.  and 2 recycle bins full every other week.  Since we started the compost bin - we have been averaging about 3 bags of garbage each week.    

No we are not putting that much trash in our compost - but I think we have been more aware of what goes in our trash.  Since, we are saving our food scraps (no meat or dairy) for the compost, I think we are catching more of what can be recycled.  Cool!!!