The Final Week
Submitted by Boudry Household on Wed, 10/26/2011 - 2:07pm
I've just submitted our final numbers for the challenge. Our garbage weight had gone down as expected. What I didn't expect was that our recycling weight went down slightly as well. The major change in our behavior was composting, so the change in recycling weight must be from newspapers that would have ended up in the recycling bin, but got shredded into the compost bin instead. Making the changes wasn't difficult and I plan to continue what we have started. Hopefully by this time next year, we will all remember to compost and I won't find banana peels in the garbage anymore!
Reduced waste over 50%!
Great job decreasing your trash over 50%- those food scraps are heavy and have lots of water. Regarding the recycling of newspapers vs. shredding them for your compost, we recommend recycling all your clean paper and cardboard because the fibers have further value and can be used to make new paper and cardboard. Compost your food contaminated paper like pizza boxes, paper towels, etc. If you need more carbon for your compost, now is a good time to collect leaves and store some in bags or in a wire bin for the winter and next spring. Keep up the great new habits you have formed- and congratulations! I hope to meet you at the event next Wednesday.
- Karen Fiedler, Waukesha County Recycling