So maybe I’m the crazy one. Maybe there is something wrong with me because I can’t fathom filling 3 garbage cans full of trash each week PLUS 2-3 bins of recyclables.
Monday is trash day in our neighborhood and on my daily walks with Lucy, I walk by a particular house in our neighborhood and there are always 3 trash cans parked outside on monday mornings.
I want to look inside the cans sooooo bad to see what they are throwing away. But I’d never do that because 1. I’m not a stalker 2. I’d probably get arrested 3. I believe in privacy.
But still. 3 cans of garbage?
Is it just me?
How many cans do you set out on the curb each week, if any?
~Mavis
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Randi says
Mavis-it is not just you! There is a house in my neighborhood that has as many cans each week. I have noted, however that there may be a bit of a hoarder tendency going on at the house. One warm day this summer they had the garage door open and you could not have fit a toothpick in there it was so crammed! They also reallly like holiday decorations i.e. 10 inflatable Santas in December.
We are the opposite, between composting, reusing, recycling and reducing (oh and gardening so we don’t purchase as much!)
MerryMouse says
We recycle everything around here and I set out one small can per MONTH! To me it is a challenge and I don’t do it to be smug. We compost food trimmings in the garden, plastic film and bags go back to the stores, paper and metal go out twice a month or so depending on my Amazon purchases (!) and glass jars go to the little old lady down the street for her flower stand! The big problem is when I get stuff packed in styrofoam. But, yeah! What is in those three cans? I’d peek if I lived there! Would make a great blog post on sustainable living!
Diana says
You can break the Styrofoam into little pieces and put them into the compost. It’s a great filler, is lightweight, doesn’t contribute any chemicals (that I know of) and breaks down slowly. I use it to put in the bottom of large flower pots and into my compost bins. It’s almost the same as using vermiculite.
Jocelyn says
…Or take your styrofoam to the nearest Whole Foods- they recycle it there. For free.
I haven’t seen data on styrofoam breaking down quickly, nor inertly. The only thing I would mix in at all with my dirt would be those wheat paste packing peanuts that dissolve in water.
Amanda says
Styrene leaches when it’s heated and it is a probable carcinogen. Clever use though. I just wish it were safe. :-/
Ramona says
When I get styrofoam packing I take it to a mailing place such as the small UPS mailing stores. The one in my town is always happy to get it since they package and mail stuff for people.
Anna says
I totally understand where you are coming from, but growing up in a family with 14 kids we always had 6 cans out each week. We didn’t have a good recycling program so there was only a little bit of that in the bin, so (gasp!)most of the technically recommended stuff went in the trash. This was in the 80’s and 90’s, the recycling program has vastly improved, and all the kids have moved out. I bet my parents put only one can out every other week, now!
Jeanie says
One can of trash and yard waste (no where to compost) and one can of recycling every other week for a family of 4. The trash is usually about half full but the recycling is sometimes over full.
Lea says
This is us too!
Family of four and about half a can of actual trash, one of yard waste, and one (overflowing) of recycling.
And actually, I was thinking something similar since I’ve repeatedly noticed our three closest neighbors, who all only have two adults in the house, with two overflowing trash cans each week and a half-empty recycle bin every other week or so. My guess is a lot of recycling goes in the trash…. Who knows? I haven’t looked for the same reason Mavis hasn’t.
🙂
Lea
Mary says
One garbage can a week, every other week we set out recycling and yard waste. So every other week it’s three cans for our family of six
Heather says
One can, twice a week. Sometimes it’s a little more, sometimes it’s a little less.
Karen says
With four cats, I throw out more used litter than trash each week. I put out one 13 gallon bag trash a week, the recycle bin is packed full every other week, and we compost in a pile in the back yard. Three cans is insane!
Joetta says
My family has been guilty of that, but I am now reformed! When we lived in Colorado, recycling was not a ‘thing’ that most people bothered with. And we did fill 2-3 large trash cans per week. But then we moved to Seattle, and when I found out how tiny our one trash can was, I about had a panic attack. But the nice lady told me not to worry, that I’d be surprised how much trash is actually recyclable. And then I forked up the $10/month to have another bucket for compostables, and – shockingly – we don’t even completely fill the one tiny can each week!
Butterflyweed says
For a small family like yours Mavis, 3 cans would be crazy but maybe they have triplets, or run a day care or some other type of business that generates more trash than the average family. We have weekly pickup-one can trash and every other week recycling- for our household. We also take a giant truckload to the dump once a month for our business.
TrayceeBee says
Wow! That is a TON of crap being thrown out every week! My family of four fluctuates between 2 to 3 kitchen sized (13 gallon) bags per week that fit into ONE larger garbage can. Our recycle bin goes out every other week and that is usually over stuffed though.
Lori says
We fill 2 garbage cans and 2 recycle each week. I have 8 boys…They are usually filled to the rim each week. I run a produce co-op so I receive a ton of boxes from that. But we try to recycle everything we can!
Kat says
That’s crazy. I started sharing the property I’m on with someone that lives in an RV. We figured we would share the trash. I thought, “How much can one person throw out?” I was barely using half of the smallest can each week. Well now it’s barely enough and the recycling is also full. It isn’t just about how much you toss in the trash vs. how much you recycle. It’s also about how much you bring home with you. This person does plastic dinnerware and eating utensils, bottled water, has probably never eaten a vegetable that didn’t come out of a can, etc. I have been cutting back for so long I had forgotten how wasteful a society we can be.
Erin says
Wow, seems a little much. We are a family of 5 with 4 pets. We cloth diaper and recycle the big stuff. But we also do a lot of costco shopping and house, car, lawn care for our home. So we have a lot of packaging 🙁 Anyway, we fill 1 can each of recycling a year (plastic is twice a year) and about 1 can a month of garbage. I don’t compost (yet). So the number will go down as soon as I do. I am considering garbage service since taking the garbage into the transfer station takes a few hours every once in a while on a precious weekend day.
Laurie says
There are 3 adults in our house. Our brown can (trash) goes out weekly and is usually 1/4-1/3 full. The green can usually goes out every other week even though there is weekly pickup. It is usually 1/2-3/4 full (we have a gardener and no place to compost). Hubs usually puts the recycling can out every other week. If it is birthday or holiday time when we have more cardboard boxes, he might put it out more often. I’ve been very conscious about not wasting, reusing and recycling. There is so much unnecessary waste in this country. I tried to talk my daughter into cloth diapering but it was a no go (she felt it was too tough with working). I jumped on my son for him letting his 4 yo daughter put a 49 cent stamp on an envelope she hand carried over to me. I pulled it off and will use it. His response was, gee, it is only 49c ents. Resources and money are finite. Grrrrrr.
cindy says
Three cans does seem excessive. We don’t regularly fill one, but our recycle bin is always full.
Julie says
We have one can picked up weekly and it’s about 2/3 full. We still have one kid at home but it wasn’t much different when the others were still there. Never had more than one garbage can. Up here on Whidbey Island, we don’t have recycling pickup, so we have to go to a county recycling drop off. Which is a bit of a pain but the good thing is its free.
Tammy says
We pay per tip, and we set out our bin every 3 weeks. It’s a pretty small bin too, compared to those in your picture. We have recycling and that goes out about once a month. We’re a small family (2 adults, one child) but we try to not have a lot of trash.
Brooke says
We haven’t had paid garbage/recycling service for years. We recycle, compost, and repurpose as much as possible. The little garbage we do have, hubby takes to the dumpster where he works (a local pizza place). He also talked the owner into getting a great recycling program set up for the restaurant. And he brings home scrap veggies for our hens. They love the lettuce ends, tomato pieces, green pepper cores, etc. He brings home a small tub or two for them daily
CK says
We have seven people (teenagers +) living in our house. In addition, we have frequent guests, as well as visits from additional kids and five grandchildren every week. We recycle as much as we can, but we still have two trash cans and a recycle can every week. Maybe those people have a large family? Maybe they are the house all the kids want to hang out in? And they feed the neighborhood kids? Why not become their friends, apparently there is a lot going on at their house!
Rebecca says
I have a family of four as well as four cats. We have weekly trash pick up and our 96 gallon trash container is usually less than half full. We recycle everything we can and our 96 gallon recycling container gets picked up every other week and is usually overflowing. Two trash bins are excessive in my opinion, but then again you never know what the makeup of the house is and at least there is some recycling going on.
Amanda says
First time commenting, but I had to! I feel the same way. I have a toddler and baby in diapers (mostly cloth, but some disposable) and bagged dog poop and maybe fill a 1/3 of a garbage can per week if we’re not doing a house reno or something. Some neighbors (we live in a neighborhood of mostly retirees….) fill 2 giant cans every week plus recycling! I can’t even imagine whats in there! Boggles my mind every week.
Tisha says
I’d say there is not enough information to determine whether or not it is excessive. If they have a home based business, there may be a reason for the excess trash. How many people are generating the trash and what are their ages? Our family of 6 seems to have more trash when school is in session. We do recycle what we can and most weeks do not fill the can but once in a while it happens. I suspect that there are people in other parts of the world that would still look at what I consider a modest amount of trash generated by our family and still shake their heads at what they would perceive as extravagance.
Precious says
I agree with you Tisha. Without all the information, I would not be judging that neighbor .
Daniel says
A larger portion of what we get rid of is recyclables or green waste. Our garbage can is never full on garbage pickup day…..
Brianna says
Is the house a rental? We use to rent a house and trash service was included in our rent. The landlord would bring over at least 2 other large trash bins the night before trash day and put them at the curb. Our one house, with just my hubby and I had 3+ bins every week at the curb. The landlord had a few other rentals and I assume only paid for one trash service by taking it upon himself to bring the bins over and return them every week.
It is possible they generate trash elsewhere with a landscaping business or rental property and don’t want to pay for additional trash service.
Angela D. says
I agree with Tisha: not enough information. My mom has the same two recycling bins. One is for paper and the other for mixed items. She lives alone, so you can imagine she doesn’t have many items to put in those very large bins. It’s the only size provided for the truck that picks them up. Most weeks my mom’s bins are practically empty, but you’d have to lift the lid and look inside to know. However, she has a close friend that has no garbage service and my mom allows her friend to bring garbage and recycling over for disposal.
I had an idea about the garbage cans: when I’m home alone and know that I will have to be the one lifting the cans into the trailer or back of the truck, I pack them very lightweight. When my husband and teenage son are in charge, we are instructed to pack the garbage cans as tightly as possible with the lids barely able to stay on…they don’t care about the weight, they just want to handle fewer cans.
Mavis, you gotta peek inside to know! (Then let us in on what you find out!)
Stephanie says
I don’t know enough about them to say, but I guess it seems kind of un-neighborly to be worrying about their trash enough to post about it. We’ve all got our eccentricities. I think the world would be a more pleasant place if we gave everyone the benefit of the doubt.
Lisa Millar says
But the amount of waste people generate is an interesting topic – its certainly generated a lot of talk here!
And Mavis didn’t give us the house number, so not too un-neighbourly.
Its just an interesting question and people have come up with all kinds of ideas why someone may fill more than ‘normal’ amounts of rubbish bins.
Getting people to actively think about reducing waste would absolutely make the world a better place!
Cheri says
I agree with Lisa. This is definitely a worthwhile topic and not at all un-neighborly unless she makes it so with them.
shari harniss says
I agree with Stephanie. What business is it of yours? Are they endangering you/their kids/animals? Didn’t think so.
Me thinks a LOT of people have too much room in their brains to be concerned about things as ‘too much garbage’. Our tanking economy? Our obvious decline in morals? Our concern for babies?
Those are just some of the things to be concerned about!
Lisa Millar says
Ouch –
I thought it was a great topic.
As a nation, Americans generate more waste than any other nation in the world – and as the worlds population and waste increases it certainly is something to be concerned about!
But there is totally room in my brain to think about minimising waste as well as a whole heap of other issues all at the same time!
And who knows? With lots of people concerning themselves with a myriad of issues, maybe we can improve this planet!
Lisa Millar says
This is one area which I feel really pleased with.
Since we moved to Tasmania (4 years ago now!!!) our rubbish situation changed dramatically.
In the city we were putting out one full bin a week and one recycling each fortnight (2 weeks)
Out here we don’t have a garbage collection, so its up to us to take it into the local tip.
Food scraps we either compost or feed to the chickens.
What recyclables we are not reusing can be dropped off at the tip anytime for free.
We have a 44 gallon drum down the back to burn off burnable material
We have two large bins to put plastics or other items that don’t fall into the above categories. And because we feed ourselves and don’t shop a lot for packaged items we only have to make a trip to the tip once every 3 or 4 months!!
The amount of packaging we are practically forced into buying these days has a lot to answer for. I am glad we have cut down so much.
Every little bit helps.
Jen Y says
We put out about one bag every 3 months. Even if we didn’t recycle, I don’t think we’d fill one trash can in a week. Of course, there are just two of us now plus three dogs.
We have to carry all of our recyclables & garbage off ourselves too, not garbage pick up at our country house.
Kari says
Seems like a lot, however a few could be yard waste. When we lived in NW Washington, our town would pick up yard waste for composting. We could include all food scraps (meat and bones included,) napkins, paper plates, pizza boxes, egg cartons, etc. Between that and recycling, it took a month to fill our garbage. Now that we live in southern Idaho, we are composting at our home, but a few less items go into it. We tend to fill our recycle every two weeks, and about every three weeks on our trash. Let’s hope your neighbors have a whole bunch of kitchen scraps and yard waste!!!
Coyote says
One garbage can that varies between full and half full, one overflowing recycling box, and an occasional pile of cardboard boxes. Two people, recovering hoarders, many carloads to the Goodwill.
Jan says
Just wanted to acknowledge the great news on your recovery. Not an easy thing to do so you should be very proud of yourself!
Nicky Roo says
In Wales now the rubbish (one small bin) is only collected once every two weeks. Recycling is every week. My girls were born 15 months apart and back when they were both in nappies we could have easily filled tree bins just with old nappies…
McKenzie G. says
We do about a dumpster a week for a family of seven. No yard waste bins. We only recycle pop cans and send paper over to relatives to burn in their wood stove. Sometimes we even have a dumpster and then some in a week.
Practical Parsimony says
At one time, I only put the trash on the street once a month in cool months. In warmer months, because of the smell, I put the trash can on the street each week. There was no recycling at that time. This past week, I put out one can. Some weeks, I put out three. Now, because of health and mobility problems, I use paper plates and plastic cups.
There is no option to cut out the city services because there is one charge that covers– the leaf truck that sweeps the streets and sucks up leaves; the limb truck picks up trimmings from trees and bushes; The recycling truck sorts and picks up recycling; there is another I cannot remember. so, even if a person never puts out a trash can, there is a charge for all services.
My chickens get all food trash. They eat bones after 14 hours in the crockpot. They get all fruit/vegetable trimmings and meat scraps. Besides, there is no city compost bin. Before I had chickens, I composted all but the meat scraps.
Alys Ley says
Here in our part of London we have three colour-coded bins for our weekly Friday collection. A small black one for non-recyclables, a large, blue-lidded one for recyclables and a green-lidded one for compostables (which are used by the council once they’re composted down for the various parks and green spaces) . We all put them all out each week, because they start to smell in hot weather even if they’re not full to the brim, but unless you look inside you won’t know that. In an area with wither no gardens or very tiny gardens there’s no way that most of my neighbours could have (or indeed use) their own compost heaps, so it’s good to know that the organic waste is being used by the council.
Maxine says
My property taxes pay for trash service but I’m 25 miles outside of town so nobody picks it up – I have to take care of it myself. So I have 3 – 55 gallon drums (plastic with lids) in the backyard for aluminum. Cans get crushed and tossed into the drums and then hauled to the recycle center to sell twice a year. Yes, it takes a bit of time but aluminum is selling for 55 cents a pound here and 3 barrels full generally earn me about $45.00 per trip for my effort. Not too shabby IMO. I have smaller barrels that I collect plastic and glass in. We’ve lived here for almost 3 years now and I’ve taken the plastic to the recycle center once and the glass twice. We make an effort not to generate anything we can’t reuse/recycle/repurpose. As for regular household waste, we generate a kitchen trash can full about every 7 days. Food scraps go to the chickens or compost so there just isn’t much left.
Sandra says
Maybe an incontinent adult (or two) lives there. Depends, bed pads, wound dressings and other waste like that take up a lot of space in a trash can and really can’t or shouldn’t be composted.
Julia says
I would have thought that was excessive until I had a baby. We used cloth diapers part time but would still generate an extra bag of garbage every week or every other week due to the baby. Maybe they have a large household.
Peggy says
I try not to bring the cans up, but just the garbage bag (s) up to the curb, which is usually one, sometimes two. It drives me crazy to see how much stuff people throw out each week, we have the same neighbor that has piles of stuff each week, it’s so wasteful. And some of the stuff they throw away could easily be donated to a thrift store or church, that’s a widespread problem I see unfortunately. Some people will put stuff they think people might want out a day or two ahead of time, or they will place it away from the rest of their garbage, but others just throw everything in one pile! I think it’s disgraceful to throw away what can be donated or to buy such mindless junk that it ends up in the trash. Gets my goat! Sorry to ramble, but I visited a landfill when we did a bathroom remodel years ago…garbage doesn’t ever just disappear….everyone should visit a landfill.
Beks says
We have a lot less trash since our city changed to a company that also does recycling, so we do separate everything now, but since we moved, and don’t really have a compost bin yet (coming Spring 2016!), it has gone up a bit. We’re planning to get backyard chickens next year, so that’s also going to take our produce waste down quiet a bit. I’m so excited!
AshleyAshley says
There’s a family in my neighborhood that has 5 kids, they eat all organic, but dont recycle…………yep.
Chris says
We only put out a bag a week and that’s only because it starts to stink. We’ve got a 1 year old and despite that fact that we cloth diaper her most of the time, we end up with disposables in the trash. We’re actually talking about not putting the bin at the curb this winter until it’s all the way full so the truck doesn’t have to jam on the brakes at our house then accelerate like mad to go 40 feet to the next house.
Monkeysmum says
wow – thats alot of rubbish. Where I live in the UK, you are only allowed to put out one rubbish bin every other week and one recycling bin every other week. If you put out more, you can get fined……
We have limited space for land fill sites, so there is a big push to try and reduce the amount of rubbish that we produce and increase our recycling. I have 3 children, so particularly around birthdays and Christmas, it can be a real challenge !
Katie says
We have a great recycling program in my community, they’ll take about anything and you don’t have to sort. Therefore, we have at least one can of recyclables each week (sometimes two), but our “regular” garbage bin usually only has one 13 gallon bag. We’re a family of four. I wish there were an option to go to twice a month pick-up, because really, that would work for most of our community, and I’d like to see the benefits of less garbage trucks on the road, less expense, etc.
Ashley C. says
My family and I are “trashy” I guess you’d say. We have three in diapers right now (one is in pullups but still, it’s trash) and no i’m not changing to cloth. So that alone makes up for two bags a week. We are also a family of seven and even though we have a burn pit and burn everything we can (cardboard and milk jugs mainly and no we don’t have a recycling option unless we drive a hour to Austin each week) it still accounts to about 4-5 bags of trash a week. I think that’s a lot personally but we don’t shop that much, I compost and we feed leftovers to the dogs and chickens so other than cloth diapering (once again NOT happening) I don’t know how else to cut down.
Cheri says
I got a lot of inspiration from Zero Waste Home, by Bea Johnson. She has ideas that would never have occurred to me. And I had several babies in diapers/pull-ups, too, and used a combo of cloth and disposables. Cloth really isn’t that bad, once you get the hang of it. Not fun at any time, of course, though.
Erin says
Ooo, me too! I totally changed how we lived after reading through her blog. However, I just can’t bring myself to asking the deli guy to put my meat in a glass jar!
Patty P says
We usually have about a bag (on the smaller side) every other week. I did have one of those huge bins when we first moved in here, and felt bad that I was paying a huge price tag for not throwing much out. So now we take it to our town dump for a per bag fee. I do mega recycling….6 bins (we are allowed 4, but I always put out extra and they always take it) every two weeks…I take back plastic bags and any other “wrapping” plastic to the grocery store bag recycle (I try not to get bags, but sometimes I forget to take my reusables with me). Recently I have been using my cardboard in my garden as a weed barrier…it’s been working great! We compost our food scraps. My husband also works with metal a lot, so we save all of our scrap metal and take that back every once in a while for scrap … which is awesome because you get paid for recycling!
Jennifer P says
We are a family of four. We have a small 35 gallon garbage can, and a very large recycle can (95 gallons). They get emptied every other week and both are usually full. We also have a 95 gallon yard waste can which compost friendly things can go into. We are very careful to recycle and compost everything that we can to make it work.
Sharon says
It’s just myself and 2 dogs, with guests sometimes. I have less than one 13 gallon trash bag per week. I recycle all plastics, glass and aluminum even though the pickup does no include recycle pick up.
Cass says
I agree with others that the household in question might have a lot of family members or it might be a group home for people with disabilities. But that is a lot of trash….I hope they pay by the can and it isn’t just a flat rate in their taxes for trash pick up. That wouldn’t be fair.
It cost me $32 a month for one large bin pick up weekly. And you had to bag everything because they hadn’t invented the tip up truck yet. I hated paying it, since I didn’t have that much trash. Since I moved my household trash is much less and we take it to a transfer station run by the town we live in for $2 a bag. (they take recycling free) Now we pay about $15 a month (less in summer, more in winter and I can’t figure out why. LOL)
Erin says
Instead of wondering what is in the neighbor’s trash, maybe we could ask Mavis to do a post on how to reduce trash? Our trash went way down when we started using reusable grocery bags, buying from the bulk bins instead of boxed stuff, recycling paper, plastic, and glass, switched from paper napkins to cloth, composted everything we could, and switched from plastic gallon milk jugs to glass jugs we return to the store for a refund. We now have one large can we maybe half fill once a week and an overflowing recycling can every two weeks.
Cheri says
She posted one time about Bea Johnson, the “guru” of zero-waste living. It has been a huge inspiration to me, that book. I highly recommend it.
Erin says
Hah! I just responded to you above about her. I LOVE her way of life, though she does go a bit farther than I would!
Amanda says
We just moved and our garbage bin has been stuffed twice a week for 2 weeks. I cringe. Typically our bin is only 3/4 full once per week.
3 cans is way excessive. What are they doing in there? lol
OneFamily says
We have one trash bin per week, 1 recycle bin every other week and 2 yard waste bins every other week. I’d say the yard waste is the ones we fill the most, but we have a big yard 🙂