The following is a guest post from Glenn Fay. Glenn blogs about sustainability and renewable energy and sells alternative energy products. Please visit his blog at OakleighVermont.com/blog He would love to hear your comments and have you participate on his site!
Good News! I just saved a bunch of money on my... TRASH! How much you ask? We are saving $25.00 a month, that is $300 greenbacks a year by simply changing the way we dispose of our household waste.
We live in a village with curbside pickup that was costing us $33.00 a month to make our trash and recycling disappear. The trash hauler provided a big covered 50 gallon container on wheels. We faithfully separated our recycling in a recycling bin. They faithfully sent us a bill, including a fuel surcharge. It occurred to us that we might be able to trim our expenses by driving to our town drop off center, since recycling was free.
Recently we bought a compost bin from our regional landfill for $25 and began composting our kitchen waste again. We found that our drop off center charges $3.25 for a 30 gallon trash bag. Between composting kitchen waste and recycling at least half of the rest of the waste, we found that we only generate 1 trash bag of rubbish every two weeks from our family of four. Our monthly total now is $6.50, with a savings, of over $25 a month... I am telling all my friends!
14 Responses
1
Naturally Frugal
March 25th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
That's exactly what my Dad has been doing for 15 years! It saves a pretty good chunk of money, he only pays for 1 can 4 times a month (at $4/can that's only $12) and the recycling is free. Plus, the drop off site is 10 minutes away from our house.
2
GregR
March 25th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
Wow who knew that recycling saves money
All kidding aside, people focus too much on the effort and not enough on the opportunity that recycling offers.
3
Chrystal K.
March 25th, 2009 at 6:09 pm
I've been recycling bottles for a while now. Keep up your recycling!
4
Fashion Shop
March 26th, 2009 at 1:58 am
You all have to pay for disposing trash?I didn't know about it.Guess it's because my country is too small that trash are collected for free.
5
jamith
March 26th, 2009 at 2:07 am
I was not aware of this recycling process thanks for the wonderful tip.
6
Marlborogirl
March 26th, 2009 at 5:53 am
That is something to think about,
Thank you for the recycling process tips
7
Manhattan
March 26th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
It's amazing what can be saved when you stop to think about it. Will you be setting you your own local street recycling trips so as to save on the fuel? It would make no sense for all the street to take their own recycling
8
slavezero
March 29th, 2009 at 10:40 pm
that's what we call "there's money on trash". we also do that here in our place. we exchange old bottles, newspapers, plastics for some money and also kitchen waste.
9
Andei3 | Recycling
March 31st, 2009 at 2:47 am
Recycling really helps people save. Examples are PET bottles and plastic shopping bags which you can reuse for storing small household items.
10
commercial insurance
April 7th, 2009 at 5:03 am
Although I think we are responsible for our own waste and getting rid of it responsibly, I think any incentives that help encourage people to recycle is a good idea. We don't get the earth from our ancestors, we inherit it from our grand children.
11
Christopher
April 21st, 2009 at 6:02 am
Iron and scrap collectors are paying more I've noticed, doesn't make sense due to the current financial situation but maybe its just my area? You could make a lot of cash from all the scrap!
12
Jacob
April 27th, 2009 at 5:15 am
The scrap business has always been big, and is probably one of the industries least effected by the financial crisis.
13
Perfect Shave Dispatch
June 30th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
I agree with Jacob. Scrap business is easy to set up and almost comes with no capital. On another note, if people would just care enough to recycle whatever they can from their daily rubbish, we could have a healthier planet. Savings, yes, is a big plus too.
14
Real Estate Utah
July 23rd, 2009 at 3:09 pm
Thank you for sharing. I think tough economic times have helped us in many ways. It has made us more smarter, we've learned how to save and spend on only necessary things and you're now cutting down your expenses which is also good for our environment. When we had cash in hand, we never gave a thought much about saving but now we're not only saving but also helping our planet.