Garbage and Recycling

So, while I was writing on the weekends, Diego spent a lot of time with the kids outside. They have been swimming, weeding, eating homemade Popsicles, reading and going for long walks. Here, Diego is reading to the kids on our back deck. They are reading Where Does Garbage Go? An easy to understand book that describes what happens to garbage and how recycling can help reduce waste. My oldest couldn’t believe that we have landfills, “where we just store garbage under the ground!” She is totally right – it is absurd. The book also discusses how paper, aluminum, glass and plastic are recycled.

Out in the sticks where we live, we don’t even have city/county garbage pick up. A private, small company picks up our garbage. We are allowed a 25-gallon (I think, maybe it is 30) container. Ours is rarely full – usually about halfway. Mariposa County has a transfer station in the area that takes cardboard, glass, paper and plastic for recycling. Although, it doesn’t accept as much as my mom’s curbside recycling in San Jose, at least it is something. Every Monday, on our drive to the bookmobile, we drop off recycling at the transfer station. When we get to the Lake Don Pedro market and gas station, we recycle our beverage bottles (glass and plastic) for a few bucks at the new CRV recycling station there. Then, we hit the bookmobile, check out a few books, hear a story and bring home our books in our cloth bags.



I just heard about EnviroMom’s One Can a Month Challenge. The goal is to reduce your garbage to just one can per month. EnviroMom will be offering lots of tips on their blogs for reducing your garbage.

We already do a lot to reduce our waste and recycle everything we can. Recycling, using cloth diapers and pads, cloth grocery bags, using homemade cleaners and using cloth rags rather than paper towels to name a few. I even wash and re-use foil and Ziploc bags! Composting could be the answer to reducing our waste further. I need to look into worm composting more. I am worried that it may be too hot here (100 degrees during the summer) for the worms. I also worry about the heat and the smell of the compost. Oh, and the other thing – I don’t have the dough for a fancy compost bin. I’d love to hear some tips and suggestions to start composting.