Turn Trash Into Cash

Whatever you are paying your trash hauler now, it is probably too much. Unlike food, which is sold by weight, trash is sold by volume. It also has a negative price, which means you pay someone else to take it. The bigger the pile, the more you pay. So the answer is simple – reduce your trash volume.

In my experience, it is very common for a typical household to generate about 40 gallons of trash per person per week. That means one 40-gallon trashcan per person, every trash pickup day. Since trash haulers charge by the number and size of containers, you pay to dump based on volume. The good news: there are several easy ways to cut this volume in half.

Methods for reducing volume fall into two categories: diversion and compaction. Diversion has an immediate impact. If you don’t need to throw it away, then it doesn’t take up space in your trashcan. Compaction just means getting rid of empty space – flatten or collapse everything you throw out.

There are many options for diversion.

One organization that helps with re-use is FreeCycle.org. This non-profit facilitates online groups to offer unwanted items to the community. Participants give away stuff they no longer want and can find other things they do want, all for free.

In larger cities, recycling is easy, and may even be required by law. Aluminum, steel and glass are most commonly recycled. In my town, Fort Collins, CO, a local bottling plant takes recycled glass. The county collects aluminum, steel, plastic, office paper, newspaper, corrugated cardboard and paperboard.

Our compost heap gets all the vegetable scraps from our kitchen. We keep a small compost bucket under the sink and empty it onto the heap daily. During the winter, the heap is frozen and inactive, but when spring arrives, the pile starts to heat up and break down the scraps. At that time, I turn the pile often and we have rich, black compost for the garden in a few weeks.

If you can recycle and compost as much as we do, you will easily cut your trash volume in half or more. Over the years, as we get better at this, our volume has dwindled to one-sixth what it once was.

The cost savings are substantial. Instead of $20 to $30 per month for a big roll-around trashcan, we pay only a few dollars a month to have one 40-gallon can collected. We actually buy tags and attach one tag to the trashcan when we need to have it hauled off. Typically, we set out a full can every two or three weeks.