OK...I wish I could say it was my incredible shrinking bottom (though my recent take-up of Pilates seems to be helping - don't you just love an exercise you can do lying down?)...But alas, it is my weekly garbage that is shedding the pounds faster than a post-baby celebrity body. I estimate that we have more than halved our garbage in the last few months...this is a pretty big accomplishment given that Australia is one of the largest rubbish producers per capita and that you could usually find me on the street at 10 pm on garbage night in my slippers trying to find a neighbor's bin with some extra room as our bin was overflowing. Here are my Garbage Diet Secrets to a Thin Bin...
1. Compost...If you want a thin bin you need to compost...60% (at least) of what we throw out is organic matter...we bought the Aerobin (as I like to call it the Prada of Compost Bins)...Love it...While it is big, if you have room for it you will not regret it...And if that was not good enough, my Council has just introduced Kitchen to Compost (can you believe how exciting)! So meat, fish, bones all get chucked in my green bin so basically, we have no food waste...(See my post on Celebrities Who Compost for more details about composting).
2. Pre-cycle. We all know Reduce, Reuse, Recycle (they are in that order for a reason...reduce being the best option)...well, pre-cycle is kind of a reduce...Basically now when I am in the grocery store I check labels for preservatives, food colours, organic ingredients and now how much packaging there is...my objective is to bring home as little packaging as possible...I'll give you an example...how much do you love the corn that is already peeled, comes in a little Styrofoam tray with plastic wrap around it? So easy. Total bummer though because versus the loose corn in the husk it is an environmental disaster...oh well, we are back to husking corn which is actually kind of fun.
3. Re-cycle. Having visited my local recycling centre (a council-organised field trip to celebrate recycle week), we have become a bit fanatical in our house and we all have a peer every now and again to see if something has gone astray in the bin that could be recycled. We tear the top of pizza boxes (the bottom bit with food on it cannot be recycled), put aluminium foil in a tin can (by itself it is too light to be picked up), have a container for corks (the Girl Scouts collect them to recycle), bring our printer cartridges to a Planet Ark recycling center and are saving our used batteries for our neighborhood hazardous waste pick-up. Plus, we have an elaborate Arts and Crafts Center with glass jars (were beautifully decorated and made into treasure containers for my youngest's birthday party favours), boxes and assorted cards and wrap. We can create a vast array of beautiful objects at a moment's notice...to think we used to throw it all out...
Would love to hear other ideas for Thin Bins! xxx
