Landfills filling more slowly

News flash: less trash is going to landfills.

Thrift-driven Americans are fixing up, making do and reusing so much to cope with the recession that the drop in throwaways means less fill for landfills.

This is good, right? Not if you run a landfill.

To deal with the drop-off in dropoffs, landfills are laying off workers, reducing hours of operation and hiking disposal fees, with the increases passed along to cities, businesses and consumers.

Well, I think here on this blog, we'll just celebrate the slower filling of the landfills, as people reduce, reuse, and recycle. Hopefully, this is a cultural change that will hang on long after the recession is just a memory.

Recycling -- Part 3, Household Waste Reduction

If you compost, you can cut your household waste by 30%. If you also recycle, you can cut it by 50% or more. In Idaho Falls, there are city recycling bins throughout the city.

The (City Sanitation) department also maintains recycle bins around the City for the deposit of sorted newspaper, plastic food and drink containers marked with number 1 thru 7, aluminum cans and tin cans.

A map is here (PDF).

In Idaho Falls, Green Guys Curbside Recycling will, for a small fee, pick up your household's and business's recyclables. They take everything the city will, plus glass (for an extra fee), junk mail, magazines, corrugated cardboard, and phone books.

Fermenting Compost -- Part 2, Household Waste Reduction

If traditional composting doesn't work for you, try fermenting it, also known as Bokashi composting, instead. From the article:

“Bokashi” is a Japanese term meaning “fermented organic matter”. In Bokashi composting, an “EM Inoculant” is sprinkled over food waste in an airtight container. EM Inoculant is an inert carrier, such as rice hulls, wheat bran or saw dust, infused with effective micro-organisms or EM. . The EM are natural lactic acid bacteria, yeast, and phototrophic bacteria that act as a microbe community within the kitchen scraps, fermenting and accelerating breakdown of the organic matter. Once the fermentation is complete, the compost can be buried or placed in a modified compost pile to complete its decomposition. The end product is rich, dark compost, ready for the garden.

The article goes on to give instructions for homemade containers and inoculants. Fancy and expensive ones are also available.

Start Composting -- Part 1, Household Waste Reduction

A good way to reduce your household waste is to start composting. You can stop throwing away all your yard waste (except for plastic, large pieces of wood, any weeds that have gone to seed, and some noxious weeds) and kitchen scraps (teabags, coffee grounds, crushed eggshells, vegetable and fruit leftovers).

For the simplest method, all you need is some space and a pitchfork. Pile up the waste, in layers 6 inches deep or less, and turn once a week. A separate pile for new waste works well. Or you can:

• Layer the waste in a trash can with drainage holes at the bottom. Turn the can over and over once a week;
• Build a bin;
• Get ambitious and build a 3-bin compost frame. Bin #1 is for new waste, bin #2 is for composting waste, bin #3 is for finished compost;
• Buy a bin or tumbler. There are lots on the market, especially from mail-order and Internet sources.