GARBAGE RECYCLING IDEAS WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR RECYCLING
So many reasons people always fight over who’s supposed to take out the trash: it is a huge challenge. It always possesses a nuisance to the house and community No one really wants to take out the trash because it’s heavy and it ends up in landfills that release toxic substances, emit dirty odor, gases, and is often viewed as just plain ugly. There are so many ways to reuse and recycle to reduce our trash around us. One man’s trash doesn’t have to be another’s treasure. Your trash can be your own treasure.
The more stuff you save from going in the trash, the less trash you’ll have to take out. So how can you take your garbage from waste to wonder? Here are few ways you can reuse waste. From food to clothing - and everything in between - leading companies, artists, and chefs set examples, paving the way to a more sustainable world and you can get inspired to do the same.
PERMACULTURE
Within permaculture, one of the major goals is to find solutions in problems, to turn that which causes us, or the planet, hardships into something that provides benefits. Perhaps the major destructive force on the planet today is waste: Waste from factories and industry, waste from our enormous array of consumables and the simple everyday waste that the average modern home produces. We know our landfills are overflowing. We know our water systems are drying up.
We know lawns of grass consume ridiculous amounts of resources and occupy areas of potential productivity We know we use far too much plastic, paper and packaging, and it’s all got to go somewhere. But, is all this waste necessary? Of course it isn’t. Finding real uses and usefulness for our supposed waste is exactly how the world can become more sustainable. The idea is that everything that is produced in a system can serve its intended purpose and then be disposed of to serve another, rather than create a pollutant or problem. By developing cyclical systems, we make sustainable solutions for the planet and our existence on it.
KITCHEN AND HOME COMPOSTING
By now, most of us are well aware that we should be composting and that it is amongst the greenest of things we can do. But, it’s still not being done enough. To continually throw food and other organic items into the garbage rather than utilize them is borderline criminal, especially knowing the state of planet. In addition to food scraps, we can and should be composting all sorts of household waste, including cardboard, paper, cotton clothing, dust bunnies, napkins, newspapers, and more. This isn’t garbage! It’s composting material, perfect for making rich soil to grow more trees (for cardboard, paper, napkins and newspapers), cotton or hemp (for clothes), and healthy, organic food. Recognizing this “waste” as the valuable asset it is helps us create a healthy cycle for the planet, providing both our needs while ultimately, through compost and soil production, fulfilling the needs for the food, paper and clothing system to repeat itself. That’s sustainability.
MULCHING THE GARDEN
It’s all well and fine to create all that awesome compost at home, but if there is no use for it, what’s the point? That’s why we should be growing gardens, food producing as well as aesthetic, to utilize the compost we are making. It’s part of the cycle: The things we don’t eat can go back to the garden to feed it so that it can feed us again. Mulching is yet another ecologically responsible, logical and cyclical ways to build a garden. Use all that fallen leaves, grass clipping, weeds, branches, dead plants, and similar matter to mulch garden beds. The organic “waste” will break down to feed the soil, as well as protect it from drying out in the sun, safeguard microorganisms and soil life, and preserve and conserve water (watering is reduced by more than 50 percent when a garden is mulched). All of the garden/yard waste is not waste at all but actually another precious resource for building a healthy environment. It seems absurd that people send leaves and grass clippings to the landfill and buy bags of mulch for decorative gardens. Instead, there is a potentially sustainable cycle happening right outside the front doors.
GRAYWATER IRRIGATION.
With our lawns becoming gardens, full of beneficial trees and plants, their roots set in organic, homemade compost protected by mulch, we could be watering with secondhand pickings from the house. Graywater, stuff from the sinks and showers, can be filtered into the earth and used again by plants, instead of the status quo which mixes it with truly contaminated water making a much bigger mess.
COMPOSTING TOILETS
The bulk of the contaminants that go into our water sources could also be a great advantage rather than a planetary detriment. It makes a lot of people giggle, it makes others gag, but the truth of the matter is that human waste, put into the right system, can be used to feed the garden, namely the giant trees providing us with timber, oxygen, fruit, paper, cardboard and all those things we have taken to composting. Composting toilets are not disgusting, and they are absolutely no joke. As opposed to flush toilets, which consume much of our household water allotment, as well as render the water then too dangerous to use for anything without chemical cleaning, a composting toilet takes human waste and converts it into completely safe fertilizer.
Use insulation made from recycled paper, glass, and other recovered materials. Clean and properly store tools, toys and outdoor furniture to protect them from damage and keep them out of landfills. Turn off or unplug lights during the day. Doing so will save energy and help your lights last longer. Storms can cause power outages. Prevent waste by keeping rechargeable batteries for your flashlights. If you do use disposable batteries, reduce hazardous waste by buying ones with low mercury content.
