Making less waste is all in good taste.

Finally, I get around to creating a post that has more directly to do with "greening" than anything else I've brought up thus far!

This is a biggie and I tend to be long-winded, in which case, I may break this up into parts.

In my life, I choose and try to create less waste in several ways:

1) By recycling as much as possible: newspapers, mail & magazines, office paper, paperboard, aluminum, plastic 1&2 (only types the County currently accepts), glass, cardboard

2) By composting: kitchen scraps such as all fruit & veggie peels, coffee

grounds (which we produce on a daily basis); yard waste such as grass clippings, leaves, spent flowers cut from our plants; sometimes laundry lint

3) By reusing whatever I can: including plastic containers , ziploc bags (I wash them & reuse them, unless they hold raw meat), plastic grocery store baggies, other misc. items

4) By limiting my consumption: limited use of paper towels (although these are biodegradable, which is good), buying necessity items in bulk, which sometimes will reduce overall packaging

These are some of the major and minor acts I try to engage in on a daily basis. In my household, we have a medium-sized trash can in our kitchen that really serves as our main trash container. The kitchen is centrally lo

cated within our house and most of our waste is produced in the kitchen, so our 13 gallon Simple Human step waste receptacle does the job. Our "recycling center" is also located in our kitchen (for the same reasons) but needs some work to make it more aesthetically pleasing. The "recycling center" is currently made up of 2 paper grocery bags relegated to the corner of the kitchen, one containing paper and the other containing glass, aluminum and plastic (allowed to be mixed by the County). Creating a bar area with a cool, wine-storage piece and some presentable recycling bins tucked underneath are the eventual plans for this nondescript corner of the

room.

We have had our 13-gallon trash can for 5 years now and have found that it works very well for our lifestyle. We choose it not only for its smaller size but also because it fit in a spot in the kitchen of a previous house, which was one-third the size of our current kitchen.

I'm pretty proud of the fact that we (2 adults and 1 dog) produce, on average, 1 to 1.5 bags of 13 gallon trash per week. We often find ourselves only having to take out the trash (when full) once a week. Sometimes this is more frequent (usually if I have done alot of cooking or if we have been entertaining in our home), but usually never more than two 13 gallon bags are produced.