"Away"

While there is no "away", we do have to deal with our waste somehow.  It's a fact of life.

Garbage comes once a month, on the first Friday.  The small green can (located in the back yard behind the van) needs to be out at the appointed place (near the elementary school bus stop/street sign) by 7:00AM Friday morning.  The night before is acceptable.  The day or two before is an optimal time to take out any full garbage bags from the house in preparation.

On the note of garbage bags, we prefer not to purchase them, but a more efficient system which presents is to facilitate garbage bag procurement through hoarding grocery bags when we find them.  Ironically, we still try concertedly not to be given them.  Ideally, we all shop into a backpack or reusable cloth bags, and some stores do not even use plastic shopping bags.  However, in general, bags are difficult to avoid.  A watchful eye that knows what to see, and an opportunistic heart, goes a long way toward sourcing this useful item.   

Recycling comes every other week, and is alternated with yard debris.  Someone who plugs in on an intermediate level will have some awareness of this schedule and contribute the facilitation of our collective waste stream.

One way to facilitate this is to choose wisely what you purchase.  Minimal packaging, less offensive packaging.  Plastic is no longer recycled in our area.  Styrofoam should be illegal.  If people didn't buy it, to state the obvious, it wouldn't exist.

The large blue can is recycling.  The large grey can is yard debris.  Someone who is plugs in at an intermediate level will potentially help monitor this.

After cans have been emptied, they need transported back to their home bases.  Everyone should focus a small piece of their brain power toward this. 

 Outside the back door is a "marshaling" area.  This is where we stage recycling to be taken to the "Away" Place; Glenwood Transfer Station.  It's a big, exciting day when we go there, once a year or so.  Between trips, we accumulate all sorts of hi-gradable items.  It's worth an eye-opening trip to go there, they have a 50-gallon drum for metal bits (so we have a 5-gallon bucket to save ours in, from twist ties to jar lids) - everything that is metal, but small enough it falls through the recycling grid.  This is a physical thing; the squares are ...well, big enough for a small metal lid to fall through, but small enough to contain ...say...  an aluminum pie tin.