They’re strong, waterproof, and come in various sizes. But what if for some reason composting were not an answer and we really did need to use some kind of liner? Here is a comparison of various options, starting with the least environmentally-friendly:Ĭonventional plastic trash bags. So, as I’ve said, the main reason we don’t need to use plastic trash bags is because there is nothing wet or icky in our trash. However, using compostable dog waste bags is not recommended if the waste is simply going to the landfill. One possibility would be to pick up poop using compostable dog waste bags and dispose of it in a dog waste composter. If we had dogs, we’d have to find another alternative. Our cats, however, have tested negative for toxoplasma gondii, and since they are indoor only cats, there is no chance they will pick it up. You might hear warnings about flushing cat waste because of a parasite many cats carry that is hazardous to marine animals.
We don’t need to use plastic bags for our cats’ waste either because we use SwheatScoop, which is biodegradable, flushable litter. Nevertheless, our small trash can fills up very, very slowly. We don’t compost our lint because some of our laundry contains synthetic fibers. The rest of our trash consists of dryer lint (of which there is very little because we hang most of our laundry to dry), floor sweepings, dental floss, Michael’s few unrecyclable plastic wrappers (he brings most of them to work to contribute to the Terracycle Wrapper Brigade), and bits of unrecognizable stuff here and there. Check out these posts for a deeper understanding of the recycling process. I wrote extensively about recycling back in 2007 after researching the materials that could go into Oakland’s recycling system, and made visits to our local Davis Street Recycling Center and California Waste Solutions. In fact, you should never put plastic bags into your recycle bin because they can jam up the sorting machines. Our recycling container, of course, is not lined with plastic. We rarely eat canned foods because of the BPA lining inside metal cans. As it turns out, the major portion of our recycling is newspaper. My plastic, as you know, ends up in my plastic collection for display on this blog.
Michael recycles any plastic containers he ends up with. We recycle clean paper, glass jars, metal cans. Recycling paper, glass, & metalĬomposting takes care of the wet stuff. A quick search shows programs in New York City, Massachusetts, Thurston County WA, and many others. Other cities may offer subsidized compost bins too. Here in Oakland, the city offers residents discounted composters and worm bins. Back in 2007, I explained why we chose our composting method. Tumblers, traditional bins, worm bins, bokashi are all methods of converting bio waste into soil. There are plenty of other options for home composting besides the one we chose. We chose a tumbler because we didn’t have the yard space for a traditional composter, and a tumbler could be set up right on our back deck. In fact, for several years, Michael and I used our own Compost Tumbler to make beautiful compost for our front yard.
So what about those of us without city-wide composting? In fact, according to a new San Francisco recycling law, putting food waste in a compost bin is not an option it’s mandatory. With very little effort, those of us in San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, and other areas with city-wide composting can simply empty our food scraps (including animal products) and food-soiled paper directly into our green bins, from which it will be picked up by the same company that hauls our garbage and processed at a commercial compost facility. Here in the SF Bay Area, many of us have several options for composting. Originally, we didn’t bother with any liner at all, but eventually I found the aluminum bucket too hard to clean without it. We used to line it with BioBags (more info on those below), but these days we opt for sheets of old newspaper that can be composted along with the food scraps. We collect all of our food scraps in a metal bucket that we keep near the sink. Composting Wet GarbageĬomposting takes care of anything wet and icky. The longer answer is that since we make almost zero trash, and the trash we do make is dry, we don’t have any need for bags to collect it. Here’s my short answer: We don’t line our trash can with any plastic bags at all. And the second most common question is what to line our waste cans with if plastic grocery bags are banned. One of the most common questions I get about plastic-free living is what I do for garbage bags. It’s a new week, and I’m ready to talk trash.
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