I know I post a lot about baked treats and we do eat desserts. But we also eat lots of fresh produce.
This is what we bought Saturday and it should last us about a week and half or so, some maybe longer.
3 kinds of onions, 2 kinds of lettuce, 2 kinds of mushrooms, 2 kinds of squash, 3 kinds of tomatoes, 3 kinds of berries, red grapes, 4 kinds of peppers, celery, peaches, plums, bananas, 2 cantaloupe, radishes, okra, broccoli, carrots
and a watermelon
Most all of it got washed and air dried, then packed in Tupperware Fridgesmart or zipper bags and put in the fridge until we need it.
I kept all the produce trimmings in a bowl that will go in the composter- not all of this is from Saturday's shopping, the bowl was already half full. I keep saran wrap on top to keep away fruit flies, icky little things!
One more new step to deal with the shopping trash. I collected all the paper, plastic and foam and put it in our brand new city-issued recycle bin! See that pile on the top left? that is one of the grape bags full of all the other produce bags just from today! that amount really surprised me.
This is what we bought Saturday and it should last us about a week and half or so, some maybe longer.
We have the big one that gets picked up and dumped by the automatic truck for a few years and just last week, the yellow lid one was delivered for recyclables.
Both are the large size but I am going to see how it goes, I know we can trade the 2 large ones and get 2 small ones that I think will be more than sufficient. The small ones have a smaller monthly bill than the large ones too.
Does your trash service do recycles? This is new here and I am wondering how it is going to go......
How nice that you have a recycle can. That is my dream. For the time being we take off our recyclables once a week. Our kitchen scraps either go to the chickens or in the compost pile. I find that we generally only have to move our trash can to the curb once a month now. Unfortunately we are not able to reduce our trash bill. It feels good to know we have less trash going into the landfill though.
ReplyDeleteone trash can a month is impressive! some weeks ours is only half full and some weeks, like when we have company, I have to hold-over a bag or 2 for the next weeks pickup.
Deleteour trash man picks up recycles, too...but in smaller tubs.
ReplyDeleteWe eat a lot of fruit and veggies, too! Kind of offsets the desserts. ha.
I hope so!
DeleteI would love to have our city provide curbside recycling! We are able to take glass and some plastic to recycling dumpster that isn't far. Papers goo to Megan's school where they earn money from recycling them. I just started composting this year. It is great to see many things stay out of the dump.
ReplyDeleteyou are doing good even without curb pickup. We cannot put glass in the bin, something about it being a sorting issue.
DeleteHi Rhonda, that may change in time, at least we can place glass bottles, but not drinking glasses. I am not sure if it is a 'national law', but it is a law in CA. to recycle. At one time things like: paper tubes(toilet/towels), pizza boxes, and such could not go in. Now, there is very little that can not go into the recycle bin. There are now special drop off sites for tennis shoes and clothes....those still can not be recycled...who knows why.
DeleteIf your interested, here is a link to our former city's list of what can be recycled. I can't find anything for Redlands.
http://www.yucaipa.org/cityPrograms/PDF_Files/recycle_english.pdf
blessings, jill
There's nothing better than fresh produce...
ReplyDeleteOur little town has had roadside recycling for many years now. My husband and I are so into recycling that we can't even fit everything in the huge bin (like yours) every week! We've even been known to ask neighbors if we can put our overflow into their bins. We hardly have any trash.
that is great Melanie.
DeleteWe are not getting rid of the trash for the landfill can. The recycling will reduce it but all those disposable diapers from my grands, they gotta go somewhere! And I am really when the sanitation truck hauls them off :)
We are going to our 2 big cans switched out for the medium size. I've looked at the small size ones when I was out doing errands yesterday and I am just afraid they would be too small.
Wow, I am surprised your city is just now recycling, seriously wow. Sorry if that sounds snotty, but I am surprised. I recommend dropping the large 'trash' can, and keeping the large recycling can. You will be amazed at how often you dump in the recycling can. Although our trash can was at times only half full (small size), we still put it out every week. The recycling can, due to its large size could go out 2-3 times a month.
ReplyDeleteDoes your city pick up the greens?? Or do you compost all of your greens?
I remember when recycling first started here in the 90's. They gave everyone, one can each for glass, paper, and plastic. All with no lids. More like small plastic totes of today. Before the bigger sizes my mom would joke about what 'trashy' people we were, and went back to using the trash cans only;-) All so no one would see the amount of trash. No amount of telling her it was all good due to recycling would change her mind. To this day she jokes about the larger cans coming out due to her stubbornness about recycling. LOL
Something interesting I found out when we moved and cancelled trash service in Yucaipa. I will assume all trash companies do this. I asked if we should clean out the cans as we had not done that for several weeks, and was told they will pick them up, clean them, repaint, and reuse. Now that is recycling!!!
blessings, jill
Jill, my town has the recycling sites where you can drop off your stuff for years. And remember, I live in Oklahoma. Progressive, we are not. And Oklahoma is a big open state, there is lots of room here and landowners who are happy to have landfills.
DeleteThose no lid totes would never work here with our Oklahoma wind.
My husband does not work in waste management but it is a part of his employer. He said our city also uses a steam cleaner just for trashcans. Good thing as our trash can is so big, I don't think a normal person could clean it.
I think it is really interesting how recycling works in other places. I just hope the stuff really does get recycled and not just sent to a landfill by the company being paid to handle the recycling. I am cynical about it as I think recycling is a great idea but I don't think that stuff always gets really recycled.
and for the green stuff, we have our own backyard composter
Deletehttp://ifyoudostuff.blogspot.com/2012/04/quick-post-before-church.html
We live in the county so we take our own trash and recycling to the dump. They don't recycle Styrofoam so some of those things go in the trash.:( Thankfully, Aldi has switched some of their produce trays to plastic now which can be recycled. We make a trip to the dump every 2 weeks or so; hoping to reduce it to once a month before long! I compost produce scraps.
ReplyDeleteWhen we were in the city, we had a trash can and yard cart both similar to your trash cans. The yard cart(for yard waste such as grass, clippings, small branches,etc.) was optional and we had to pay extra for it, then could take it with us as we moved but as far as I know the trash can wasn't optional. We paid the same amount per month whether we needed weekly pickup or not. They also had recycling bins (plastic boxes)which didn't cost extra but was included in the trash, I guess.
our city charges 3 different prices per month for our weekly trash pickup. I think the small cans are about $14, medium are $16 and the large are $18.
DeleteEVERYBODY gets charged $1.57 a month for this new recycle program whether they request a can or not. So, we might as well recycle, right?
Unfortunately we do not have pick-up for our recyclables. Our little village has a recycling trailer where we deliver our sorted plastics (only certain numbers are accepted), cardboard, and newspapers. That's it. They take no glass, no styrofoam. Our current favorite fresh fruit is dark sweet cherries. I pitted a half-pound of them tonight since Silas will just grab them off the counter and pop them in his mouth, then I have to follow him around and get the pit so he doesn't choke. Anyway, for fresh stuff, I have some washable netted bags, so less plastic comes in the house. I don't always remember them, but other customers are always asking me about them.
ReplyDeleteour town has had those trailers for years and I expect they will keep them, not sure though.
DeleteThis grandma has been enforcing a strict eat at the table rule :)
I can just imagine you chasing after SiMan, looking for those pitts.
Our little town does recycle plus we recycle our own aluminum cans and plastic. We normally make about $25. I wish I knew more about what to recycle to save money. I try and compost as much as possible.
ReplyDeletein our state, there is not refund-charge for plastic bottles and jugs like I think your state has. We can sell aluminum cans but we use very few of them.
DeleteHope you learn how to make some money off you trash, that sounds funny, doesn't it?
Here in Edmond, we have had curbside recycling since we've lived here (15 years) but about a month ago, we also got the large dumpster style recycling bin. I'm loving it! It gets picked up every 2 weeks but I find I recycle more. We can now put cardboard and a few other new items in it that we didn't used to be able to and I'm loving that!
ReplyDelete