Garbage Audit

Time to get down and dirty!  I have gone through the garbage bin to find out the type of stuff we throw away.  Although i'm generally pretty careful about what goes in the bin I find myself a little upset that some things that can either be recycled or composted are still finding their way into our bin.  Also, I was confused and felt a little hopeless about some items as I didn't know what to do with them.  I really, really, really didn't want to throw some things away but there wasn't any other option.  I felt torn and ultimately depressed at the hopelessness of garbage and "stuff"!  Every time I go shopping all I can think about is the stuff I will have to throw in the bin - I think I'm a little obsessive!

Lets take a look shall we?  What's in my bin

• Plastic - the number 1 item comes in many forms

• plastic bags from large purchases like a new computer and food packaging
• foam meat trays
• random hard bits of plastic from a furniture purchase
• the plastic bits that hold tags onto clothing
• bin and bread ties
• take away containers
• Random food and letter packaging which is a combination of plastic, paper and foil
• Smelly fish left overs in foil and plastic
• Chicken bones and wooden skewers
• A coffee cup
• An old pare of shoes
• An old rag
• Paper
• A television cable
• Dental Floss

I think the thing that most concerned me was the amount of organic stuff in the bin that could obviously be composted.  Unfortunately my partner objects to putting bones in the compost (as a lot of people do) but I argue that it is a covered black bin and therefore pests like dogs and cats and rats cannot get into it.  However he isn't happy because bones last a long time...  Yes this is true but imagine what they will find in 1000 years time when our house is an archaeological dig!

...."Hmmm interesting - it looks like this primitive family ate un-genetically modified chicken!"

So I gathered up all the paper, chicken bones and wooden skewers and snuck them into the compost bin when my partner wasn't looking!

I couldn't bring myself to throwing away my old shoes so I donated them to St Vinny's (not sure what they will do with them - throw them in the bin perhaps?)

I threw as much as I could in the recycling - the coffee cup (and berated my partner making sure he puts it in the recycling in future) and the small bits of plastic that I thought could be recycled such as the clothes tag plastic, the take away containers and I thought the random hard bits of plastic might be able to go in there too (any type of plastic that is bendy can go into our recycling. This is something that I learned while doing the sustainable homes program through my council).

Also a note on plastic bag recycling - you can recycle your plastic bags (and plastic wrap) at coles or woolworths in their plastic bag recycling bins.  I want to do more research on this.  Unfortunately I think they bundle all the plastic up, send it to China to be refined to make more plastic.  This means that it is recycled, however it has to journey over the sea in a shipping container that could fall off a boat and end up with all the other plastic in the ocean.

I'm afraid I threw the fish stuff in the bin - I just couldn't bring myself to opening the plastic bag, removing the organic bits, washing the foil and disposing it in the recycling bin.  I will try to do better next time.

The television cable I took out and put with my pile of electronic waste (E-Waste).

But I was at a total loss what to do with the dental floss, the old rag and the random food and letter packaging that was a mixture of plastic, paper and foil.  I was in a spin - what the hell do I do about dental floss?  I had to throw it in the bin.  Now I am torn every time I go to floss my teeth.  The dentist thinks I need 12 fillings because I don't floss my teeth.  Can someone please tell me is there any compostable dental floss out there?

I have resolved to buy things that aren't packaged in un-recyclable packaging.  Its funny how attached you get to different types of food.  For instance, I could just feed my son porridge from whole rolled oats, but he loves this baby food which is basically the same thing ground up with flakes of dried banana in it.  The problem is that it comes in a plastic composite packaging that just can't be recycled.  It's a difficult choice but it must be done.  If only I could find a whole foods shop in my area I would be right - but the only ones I know of are in Smith street in town: Friends of the Earth and the Wholefoods shop across the road.  Tips anyone?

So where to from here.  

1. Firstly I can try to control what goes into our bin a little better stopping organics from ending up in the bin - still not sure what to do with the bones. I will have to think about that one and do some research.  
2. Everything that can be recycled should be recycled.  And lastly limit the amount of composite and plastic packaging that I buy in my local shop.  It means that I need to find a way to buy things at a whole foods store.  More research required.  
3. This will also limit the amount of plastic bags used in shopping.  No matter how many green bags I take with me there always seems to be a plastic bag creeping in when I buy beans or something similar.  And of course grow my own food which limits the amount of packaging.  I've just planted the carrots today so I'm back on track and getting my winter crop together.

Dirt girl - getting down and dirty!