How to Save on Garbage Service

Rate increases last month forced my garbage bill up by $8/month after taxes and fees. I really don't appreciate having my set monthly expenses go up, so I decided to lessen the impact. I had been noticing that my garbage can was rarely more than 2/3 full each week. Since I had the largest can size (90 gal.), I downgraded it to the 60 gallon can and decided to do a little better job with composting and recycling, saving $5/month plus tax. No, I didn't come all the way up to that $8/month figure, but it was close. If we find we can go down to the 45 gallon can after we get the hang of this, that would be awesome. If you can't imagine reducing your garbage can size, compare your household size to mine. We have two adults and seven children, ranging from 3-15 years old. If nine of us can go down to a 60 gallon can, certainly a more typically-sized family should be able to do this.

Regular glass, plastic and paper/cardboard recycling has been going pretty well in our household the past year, but I found another way to recycle this month. Mackenthun's and many other grocery stores in the Twin Cities metro area recycle plastic bags & food packaging for free. I found a website that gives details about which plastic items can be recycled just by dropping them off at the store. It also has locations of some of the stores here in MN that take the recycling. Just go to http://www.itsinthebagmn.org for more information. Yesterday, after about three weeks of saving up store bags, cereal bags, zipper bags (with the zippers removed) and wrap from things like bulk toilet paper and water bottles, we had a large garbage bag full and took it to the recycling station while running errands. It was pretty painless.

We have been composting kitchen scraps for a few years, but it has primarily been during the non-winter months. This year, we are composting year-around. Fortunately, I have children I can send out to the compost bin with food scraps so I don't have to tromp through the snow. Composting food scraps, rather than throwing them away, saves space in the garbage can and keeps the garbage can from stinking so much. I have a Tupperware container with a lid that we use, which keeps the smell of our potato peels, apple cores, banana peels and other compost-friendly items from leaking out. Many counties sell compost bins to their residents for a very reasonable rate. Carver County charges $35 for theirs. You can find their address and hours of operation here: http://www.co.carver.mn.us/departments/LWS/env-svc/envirocenter.asp

That last link also has a list of all of the other items Carver County takes, many of which are free, such as fluorescent bulbs, batteries and household hazardous waste. They take paper products that you could recycle in your bin if only they weren't tainted by food, such as the cardboard round inside a frozen pizza box, or a cardboard pizza delivery box, napkins, paper towels, paper plates and even those waxy dairy boxes that you can't recycle. And here's the clincher: they will also take ALL food scraps - even meat and bones. I haven't gotten motivated enough to take that stuff all the way to Chaska yet. Maybe if they were open in the evenings I would, because I go out there regularly for play practices with my kids. At the moment, it is not worth the gas to do it. I wonder how much more room in our garbage can could be saved if we did? Maybe I'll have to experiment and see.

Let me know if you have found any ways to reduce your garbage. I'd be grateful for any tips!

***UPDATE***
Carver County expanded its recycling service to include more items this year. We can now recycle all plastics #1-7. This has already proven to overfill my two huge recycling bins if I don't do a good job of squishing everything down. I haven't noticed my garbage can getting any less full, but I have been doing a lot of de-junking with my spring cleaning so far, so I doubt I would see much of a change yet. Maybe in a few months?