IS IT JUST ME (TRASH)?!

[BK_Adores_Chase]

We live in an apartment and I have a family of four.  It seems like every single day I am making a trip to the dumpster to throw out a bag of trash.  How is it possible for us to have so much freakin trash?  Am I the only one or is it normal to accumulate that much trash in one day?  I have those 13 gallon bags, so not HUGE bags of trash, but still --- it seems like much!

[gaylasue]

We use the big bags.  We are on a bag limit with our garbage company.

[tjshorty]

My family accumulates a bunch of trash also.  I thought that would change after the grandbabies got out of diapers, but not a big change in the amount of trash in a days time.

[texaswhiterose]

You are not alone. My family of 5 accumulates an enormous amount of trash. We go through at least one bag a day. I attribute a lot of it to the packaging products come in. Packaging is usually twice the size needed for the product it houses. It is just an unnecessary waste.

[debrabassler]

yes, trash is an everyday thing for me.i do a lot of cleaning and going through stuff.don't like a smelly house or trash can.
i have a 13 gal. i don't use the big bags.

[jorhea]

I use an 8 gallon bag in the kitchen because I don't like smelly kitchen garbage so I take it out every day. But, our garbage company also limits us on the number of bags we can set out per week so I put the 8 gallon bags into a 50 gallon bag. (That was at the garbage companies suggestion.) That also helps eliminate animals getting into it. We have alot of wildlife here-deer, raccoons, bear, squirels, rabbits, ground hogs, moles, etc. (we live in the country on 33 acres of wooded land)

[Peds]

Its me and my girlfriend in one apartment, we use grocery bags as our trash containers and we usually go through 1 of those every week haha. I'm not sure what you do that produces so much waste but we do eat out once, sometimes twice a day and just make snack foods at our place when we're hungry. So very little packaging there she does go through a lot of tissues though, I think it might just be because its spring but she blows her nose a lot 

[candyterrius]

It’s normal. Maybe it’s all in your mind. What do you toss out most? Food?  Do you do any recycling at all or you just toss them into the garbage? Disposable daipers of course will take up a lot of space, and it’s not just one or two changes a day for a newborn baby and toddler.

[BK_Adores_Chase]

I recycle the usual - cans and I probably take a grocery bag full of grocery bags with me to recycle on my weekly grocery shopping trip.  I recycle light bulbs and that's it.

[Oryon20]

Our household consists of two people.  The actual trash which can't be recycled or composted isn't very much.  We fill a 13 gallon tall kitchen bag up about once every 11-14 days, and a small bathroom bag once every two weeks.

[ayerla41]

I make sure to buy stuff in containers I can recycle - also reusing things like packing materials helps reduce trash. Pay attention to all things you can recycle or reuse - maybe switch to real napkins instead of paper ones.

[bschumacher]

I used to have lots of trash until I started cooking my food from scratch. That reduced the garbage by 1/3. Also, if you have babies, you might consider a diaper service instead of Pampers; it might even wind up costing less in the long run & baby doesn't get those icky chemicals.

[daveandruth]

items get smaller makes trash faster

[kapeh12]

Our city has mandatory recycling, and they accept a lot of stuff, so my recycling fills up way faster than my trash.  Things we can recycle are: cans, plastics (most of them except those used for dairy foods), glass, cardboard (not just shipping, but things like cereal boxes, pasta boxes, cream cheese boxes, egg cartons, toilet paper and paper towel rolls), newspapers, old phone books, and this year they just included mail (lots of junk mail - they said just toss it in, no need to separate out plastic window envelopes anymore).

If you think about all that stuff - I bet a lot of the trash are the boxes and junk mail - those can fill a regular trash bin quite quickly.

See if your area allows recycling of these items - if so, that may help reduce some of the trash.   

[syncflame]

i live in a two man barracks and we take out the trash everyday maybe because we get  surprise room inspections. so everything has to be clean