How do you recycle, compost, reuse, and reduce waste?

[Valley Oak]

Hello community. I have posted this thread here, in Wacco Talk, inspired by a message from Sammy Nasr. Sammy posted a note to the Community section of Wacco, regarding a public position available, working with him, on these same important themes affecting our community.

I'm not offering any positions but what I would like to see here are people's input on what they do at home and at work, etc, regarding recycling, composting, reusing, and waste reduction.

I will start with myself:
We have eliminated food and paper from the outgoing garbage that is generated in our household. Garbage is a resource that waste disposal companies throw away (unused) in the Petaluma landfill and charge you and me money for doing so. We still put glass, metal, scrap wood, and plastic in our big, blue recycling bin that the waste collection company gives people.

All of our food scraps go to our chickens and rabbits, which are omnivores and herbivores respectively (humans are omnivores. Dogs and cats are carnivores). That takes care of the food 'waste,' which comes back to us in eggs from our chickens and other forms. Therefore, the waste is a revenue; turning garbage into gold.

To eliminate all paper products from our outgoing garbage, we use a method called 'sheet mulching.' We take all of our paper bags from the supermarket and fill them day to day with all of the waste paper products that come our way. Then we staple the bags shut and put them outside, on top of the worst, weed infested parts of our property, creating a layer. Then we place cardboard (from the local supermarkets box recycling area) on top of the layer of the paper-filled bags. The last layer we apply is several inches of soil. Finally, we plant a new garden with tomatoes, potatoes, and other yummies.

This is literally taking 'waste' and flipping it over for a non-cash income that is yummier, healthier, and cheaper than what we pay for in food stores.

By the way, a recent study was conducted and it was found that well over 50% of all garbage from the average American household is composed precisely of food waste and paper products! Just think if everyone in the community became responsible for re-assimilating their own garbage, instead of having it go to the landfill.

Any thoughts?

Edward

[Esra]

Thanks for opening this thread.

I have a 5 year hobby of composting all my garden/tree/lawn clippings and kitchen scraps. The whole operation has grown almost out of control. I have seven piles in various stages of compost. I rotate them and put the finished product in one huge pile. I believe I have over three cu. yds. of rich, organic soil just waiting for my veggie beds and landscaping.

Since it's grown larger than I antisipated, I've started each new pile on one end of a piece of wire fencing (chicken wire) 6' wide and 15' long, laid out flat on the ground. When it's time to rotate the compost pile, I pull the loaded end of the wire fencing up and over the compost like a belt on a tractor or tank until the pile is rotated once. I can rotate the pile perhaps three times over a 4 week period and the compost pile migrates to the opposite end of the wire fencing. Then I rotate the pile in reverse order back to the start. I do this cycle 2-3 times and voala!, rich, healthy compost ready for a new generation of veggies.

If you drink only spring water from the bottle like me, I would suggest signing up for delivery service. It ends up being cheaper than buying single serving bottles or the 2.5gal jugs with the built in spout. Plus they recycle those 5 gal. bottles without melting them down and recasting the material into new bottles, which saves tons of energy.

I'm thinking about getting chickens to help with pest control in the garden. There is a growing movement of raising chickens in urban and suburban communities. People enjoy them as pets to love and the eggs. If the economy gets any worse, chicken are an excellent investment if you have a large property with lots of bugs.

Please support modifying zoning laws to allow suburban chicken raising in less dense areas where it could still be healthy to raise them.

[Valley Oak]

Fascinating you should mention the zoning of urban centers prohibiting chickens, which is the norm. My wife belongs to a local chicken club and that is one of the subjects that has been discussed in their email list.

Even more fascinating is that this exact same topic has also become an issue amongst honeybee enthusiasts. And they are also trying to accomplish the same goals--to modify urban zoning laws to allow people to keep bees. This issue with bees has a more urgent overtone to it because of Colony Collapse Disorder, which has wiped out over half of the wild honeybee hives in the last 15 years or so.

Thanks again!

Edward

Thanks for opening this thread.

I have a 5 year hobby of composting all my garden/tree/lawn clippings and kitchen scraps. The whole operation has grown almost out of control. I have seven piles in various stages of compost. I rotate them and put the finished product in one huge pile. I believe I have over three cu. yds. of rich, organic soil just waiting for my veggie beds and landscaping.

Since it's grown larger than I antisipated, I've started each new pile on one end of a piece of wire fencing (chicken wire) 6' wide and 15' long, laid out flat on the ground. When it's time to rotate the compost pile, I pull the loaded end of the wire fencing up and over the compost like a belt on a tractor or tank until the pile is rotated once. I can rotate the pile perhaps three times over a 4 week period and the compost pile migrates to the opposite end of the wire fencing. Then I rotate the pile in reverse order back to the start. I do this cycle 2-3 times and voala!, rich, healthy compost ready for a new generation of veggies.

If you drink only spring water from the bottle like me, I would suggest signing up for delivery service. It ends up being cheaper than buying single serving bottles or the 2.5gal jugs with the built in spout. Plus they recycle those 5 gal. bottles without melting them down and recasting the material into new bottles, which saves tons of energy.

I'm thinking about getting chickens to help with pest control in the garden. There is a growing movement of raising chickens in urban and suburban communities. People enjoy them as pets to love and the eggs. If the economy gets any worse, chicken are an excellent investment if you have a large property with lots of bugs.

Please support modifying zoning laws to allow suburban chicken raising in less dense areas where it could still be healthy to raise them.