I just got done dragging the trash barrel to the curb for the evening (one small bag for the week, including litter!) and as I walked to the curb, I pondered once again the amazing array of ways that Colin and I dispose of our disposables.
1. Plain old trash - Much like the cousins you love to impersonate and really wish wouldn’t come to Xmas dinner, this is the genuine article. It’s polystyrene meat beds and plastic packaging and odd-shaped yogurt containers, broken light bulbs (gulp!), #7 plastics, and all other sorts of BAD stuff (mostly man-made) that just can’t be reused, recycled, handed-down– re-anythinged. We’ve reduced, thus far!
2. Recycling - This went out to the curb tonight too! It has its own blue box–well part of it is in a blue box, the glass and aluminum that can’t be redeemed (see number 3) and the plastic that isn’t hopeless (see number 1). BUT as an added bonus, the Mixed-ish paper went out too! (see number 3a).
3a. Mixedish paper - there is no doubt that every town and every recycling policy has its own personality– just like you and me! The Mixed-ish paper that goes to the curb in Stratford is white office paper, and envelopes, magazines and newspapers– that sort of thing. BUT it HAS to be in a paper grocery bag, AND it can’t contain any cardboard or paperboard (see 3b + c). I call it Paper Lite.
3b. Cardboard - If you put cardboard out (even just plain old corrugated) at the curb, guess what?? The TRASH guys pick it up and throw it away… so we found out the worst way with all our moving boxes. NO… in Stratford, cardboard must be DRIVEN ($4.25 a gallon and counting!) to the Transfer Center, where it can be recycled.
3C. Paperboard - See 3b, even though Mixed paper and PAPERBOARD are the SAME THING!
4. Redemption! - That’s the bag on the backporch where we toss the cans and bottles that can be returned for a nickel. Yes, this state is so old and backwards that they still have the 5 cent deposit/refund setup on items that everyone else in the world is just recycling to better save a step!
5a. Food Scraps - Yeah the raccoons don’t bother our trash can. That’s cuz they are feasting off the compost heap in our back 40.
5b. Useable Yard Waste - We’ve got metric tonnes of it, thanks to our maples trees… what we don’t burn we just pile up in heaps in the back 40 and wait for nature to take its course.
5c. Weedy Yard Waste - Yeah, there’s a separate pile for this, so we don’t use it for compost. Because that’s what number 5 is all about: COMPOST it, instead of shoving it in bags that you pay for, just so you can fill them with compostable material that you have to drag to the curb on the third Tuesday after the fourth full moon beyond the equinox.
6. WOOD! Unlike any of the other materials, this is the big stuff that falls from those maples and collects and doesn’t go away. Not unless you burn it. So Colin built a firepit where he could cook a pig if need be, to take care of this problem.
7. Poo + Pee- Yeah, we do those too. Normal toilets, flush away!
8a. Freecycle - Give it away to the neighbors.
8b. Thrift Store - Give it away to strangers.
8c. Paperback Swap - Give books away and get new-ish ones back.
What else? I guess that’s it– an easy and fun look at what goes out of our place– so much that it makes me tired thinking of it!
Like many people, I try to be all artsy-fartsy, especially when it comes to home decorating. But I don’t have the gene.
While ogling an ad for a Sony Vaio this A.M., Colin remarked “We aren’t getting a Sony, though.” No we aren’t I said. We’d already decided. On the anticipated future death of his desktop, we will eventually convert fully to Apple.
At the 
