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how much trash does your family generate?

by T-Man
Published Jun 24, 2008
Views: 467

As I was taking out the trash before coming to work this morning, I got to thinking about this.  How much trash is normal for a family to generate in a week?  There are several houses in my neighborhood whose trash bins are always overflowing on trash day.  No, I don't inspect everyone's trash cans, but it's pretty hard to miss when the rolly-dumpster thing's lid is impossible to close and there is a mountain beside the thing as well. So here are my questions...

1.  About how many bags of trash does your family generate per person per week?

2.  Do you think your amount is about average?

3.  Do you take any steps to reduce the amount of trash you put in landfills?  If yes, what are they?

Filed under: Lifestyle




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We have (me my partner and our dog) about one full large kitchen bag of trash a week. We recycle everything we can; the rest we toss. We try to get things that are reusable; it just makes sense.

We have about 2 13 gallon bags of trash per week. I recycle everything I can. My mom has an outdoor wood stove that she burns anything burnable in. She has two trash cans to separate the trash and she recycles.

The county garbage routes have cans that hold 100 gallons, and most seem to be about full each week. That the cans are calculated to be that big and the truck comes once a week tells us something.

Cans used to be smaller. What does that tell us?

How much does the average family recycle?

Mine varies from week to week. Sometimes the 90 gallon bin is full and sometimes it is less than half full. I would love to see the packaging go back to the 50's era. Mostly, thinks were packaged in cardboard, and the packaging was far less in terms of amount.

i live by myself, and i generate about 1 bag of trash every other week. (although I empty it much more frequently.)

on the other hand, i recycle everything that can be. i take my recycling bin out to the street about every other week, and my garbage about once per month. (my recycling bin is slightly smaller than the normal garbage bin).

"how much trash does your family generate?"

let's see...two stepbrothers, their wives, and their kids...that's about it for my family.

;)

Oh yeh, that reminds me strolling...... No, I do not recycle. It all goes into the trash can.

recycling is a total joke...imho...look at the data on it...too costly

We generate 4 to 8 big yard sized bags of trash a week. I wish that we had the luxury of having the trash picked up. I have to haul mine off. So if I miss a week in hauling, Then I have a pickup load running over. I think that that is normal for a house of 5. (me & 4 kids) I do not buy or use paper plates or forks. I think that causes alot of un nessisary trash.

We use the plastic bags from the grocery store as garbage bags, and I guess for the two of us, we use maybe three? If the city-issued garbage container is, what, 96 gallons, we could go for over a month without needing it emptied. Like JABRN, we have more recycling than trash (HOT day = COLD beer)- cans, bottles, cereal boxes, etc. We use the plastic newspaper sleeves and empty bread wrappers to scoop the kitty litter box. Hmmm...I can't say that we really base our buying habits on how much or how little packaging things use. I DID have a moral dilemma about whether or not to wash and reuse the zip-lock bags - we use a lot since we have a freezer and buy most all food on sale. With the water crisis, I finally decided I was using more resources (hot water, detergent) to clean them than just buying more.

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