Unless you are a sanitation engineer or there is a garbage strike in the area in which you reside, the topic of garbage rarely comes up. After all, how many of you would entertain discussing today’s trash while you are eating dinner? The fact is, very few even think about garbage let alone how big of a bite that garbage takes out of our wallets annually.
Have you ever sat down and figured out what garbage actually costs you? I am positive that their will be at least one or two of you who are presently sitting at your computer, scratching your head while asking yourself; ‘what on earth is that woman talking about?’ Well, let me explain.
Whether you discuss buying garbage bags at your local supermarket, purchasing bags and/or tags from your local government, taking your trash to a transfer station, paying a garbage tax or user fee; you are discussing paying for your garbage, in one form or another. To be honest, I never gave it a second thought, until a couple of years ago, when I had to start purchasing bags from our local government and drive those nags to the local transfer station. I was spending in access of $400.00 annually on garbage, literally! In comparison with other necessary debts, the amount may be minimal, until of course, you start thinking about what you could be doing with that $400.00!
That is exactly what I did, I thought about my garbage and the amount of money it was costing me to get rid of it! Once I realized how much I was spending a year, I became determined to do something about it! Despite the fact that I have to drive the trash to a local transfer station, and the cost of driving has taken a drastic increase, I still have managed to save 40% on my bill! [that is more than $200.00 a year!]
Garbage!
That says it all, doesn’t it? Garbage! The stuff we would most like to get rid of but these days many of us have to pay to get rid of it, so let’s examine a few tips & tricks that can help us save time, money and aggravation [while getting rid of the accumulation!]
Most of you do not look at your garbage as if it costs you anything, and for some, there may be no direct out of pocket expense. However, that system does not apply to all. For those of us who must pay and/or take our own garbage to a transfer station, we know the hassle and cost. While most of you would rather not think about it, I am going to tell you how my family now saves 40% off garbage fees compared to two years ago!
I live in an area where we must 1) pay for garbage bags to place our garbage in & 2) take our garbage to a transfer station. The expenses incurred of course are bag costs and traveling expenses [although I live 6 miles from the transfer station, the price of gas makes me want to journey there as infrequently as possible].
How is it that I manage?
Since I live in Western New York, I have the luxury of cold weather which means no stench from garbage accumulation, no flied, no maggots; just hungry critters like stray cats and raccoons. Of course, I do have to take the trash to the transfer station in my own vehicle, and that must be taken into consideration.
First and foremost, I recycle. We do not have to pay anything to recycle. We can recycle magazines and newspapers as long as they are neatly stacked in a brown paper bag. Easy to accomplish, once a week I request a paper bag from the local supermarket when I do my shopping [no added cost there]. We are also allowed to recycle aluminum, glass and specific plastic items as long as they have been cleaned. [Time consuming, but after a while, you can get all of your family members trained to rinse out containers as soon as they empty them.
Let’s examine this further, in my household we have four adults, two children [on a part time basis] a cat [actually two a stray adopted us] fish, and a bunny rabbit. This equals quite a quantity of recyclables. In order to deal with the bulk, I now have everyone not only rinsing, but opening both ends of aluminum cans [when possible] and stomping the cans into a nice flat piece of metal, we do the same with plastic. Pop [or soda in all portions of the country except Western New York] cans and bottles must all be returned for deposit. We simply purchase twelve packs of cans, returning the cans to the carton they were purchased in, the bottles we place in plastic shopping bags. Once we have collected a minimum of $2.50 worth of returnable cans and bottles, we take them along on our weekly shopping trip. We can generally fit two weeks worth of recyclable items in a 30 gallon garbage bag. We can dump the recyclable items from the garbage bags and reuse them, until of course they wear out.
Because we must return pop [soda] cans and bottle, because we squash every recyclable possible, we have cut down our recyclable level to one garbage can filled every two weeks. Placing the magazines and newspapers separately has also cut down our garbage content.
Cardboard can also be recycled providing that it is flattened down. Of course, we have a tendency to keep cardboard boxes in shape rather than recycle them, we do have one day a month where we are allowed to take trash [excluding garbage] at no extra cost. Placing the trash in plastic shopping bags and boxes has cut the cost associated with store bought garbage bags.
We also have a burning law in our town. We are allowed to burn any paper products [no diapers or garbage although plenty try]. We keep three separate 13 gallon bins in our kitchen, one for garbage, one for recyclables and one for paper products which can be burned. We burn anywhere from three to five times per week; again, this has cut down on the cost of garbage bags and trash lying around the house.
Now comes the garbage. In the winter, we can get away with taking the garbage once every two weeks. This is now how long it takes to fill a 30 gallon garbage bag. Most of what we consider garbage could however, wait until big trash day, but no one likes the excess laying around. Since we have to take the garbage to the transfer station in our own vehicles, we also do not want it filled with flies, maggots, or other creepy crawly things. We also do not want to have leaky garbage or smelly garbage [could you imagine driving a vehicle after hauling something like that?]
The trick is, to drain all liquid from the garbage before placing it into a plastic shopping bag. We then double wrap the shopping bag into another shopping bag before placing it into the trash. Kitty litter is cleaned daily. We add a combination of regular and scoopable litter to keep the litter fresh. During the winter months we make trips every fourteen days, which saves us the cost of gas and the wear and tear on the vehicles. Our weather being strange [I suppose this is the nicest way to describe it] has us presently in an up and down temperature mode. Rather than dealing with what may be, we now increase our trips to once every ten days. When the weather warms further we will be increasing the trips to once a week.
The fact is, when the pay bags were first introduced to this area we took garbage once a week, every week. We purchased three of the largest bags at $1.50 per bag every week, plus we used store bought garbage bags as well. Two years ago, I invested $10.00 in a 55 gallon drum which we use to burn. We recycle everything possible and we are now purchasing one 75 cent bag per week. We have cut our bag expense from $18.00 per month to $3.00 per month. We only take weekly trips to the transfer station during warm weather. Although the gas prices continue to increase, we work everything into combined trips. {i.e. take garbage, drop stuff at my daughters, return pop [soda] cans and bottle and shop all at the same time.]
It is amazing how one can learn to save when necessary. Two years ago we were paying $234 a year for bags to take away our own garbage. Today, we are paying $39.00 a year for the bags. Two years ago, we were also buying one box of store garbage bags as well, at an average cost of $2.50 a month every month for a total of $30.00 per year, we now purchase a large box of garbage bags at a cost of $4.50 once a year. Two years ago [this is my best guesstamate] I traveled round trip 624 miles [to dispose of garbage] at a cost of 30 cents per mile or $187.20. Today we average 444 miles at a rate of 50 cents per mile for a total of $222.00.
Despite the increased cost of gas, insurance, maintenance, etc we are still saving money over what we spent on garbage two years ago! Two years ago my family paid an average of $451.20 to dispose of our garbage. Today we spend an average of $265.50. That is an approximate 40% savings.
On top of that, we do some other things as well. Cleaning out closets, we make our old clothes continue to work for us. We remove buttons and zippers. We cut the clothing into easy to use sizes and make cleaning rags out of them. If they are not stained, torn, etc; we donate them to clothing pantry or the local Salvation Army store. Toys that these children have grown weary of, we have neighbors with many children and few assets who always welcome the gifts, we also donate some or in some cases allow the grandchildren to hold a yard sale and make money from their items. Books, we have begun a book local exchange; adults must leave a book to take a book, children are allowed to take whatever books they wish.
Remember, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, before throwing your items away, take a good look at it; could what you hold in your hand be of service to someone who may not otherwise be able to afford the item?
In this day and age, while the government strives to cut programs to the poor and needy, it is up to each and every one of us [even though many of us can be considered needy] to take care of one another.