Garbage

I know, garbage is a strange thing to write about. I have been struggling lately. Life has been really busy, and much of what is going on - Chloe dying, non-stop sunny 30+ weather - no one wants to hear about!

As I put the garbage out this morning, however, I was amazed at how little we have - and pleased. We are producing very little non-divertable waste. Yay!

Whitehorse has an effective, if detailed system. I love it. Our garbage gets picked up bi-weekly and our compost gets picked up on alternate weeks. Our compost includes all food scraps, napkins, kleenex, dog hair, etc., etc. which is pretty impressive.

We don't have curbside recycling, it just isn't viable in the territory. Instead, we have Raven Recycling (which is not far from the brewer, so Mike likes to go). Raven takes EVERYTHING. Well, at least seemingly. There are bins for paper, mixed paper, box board, corrugated cardboard, clear jars, juice jugs, cans, plastic bags, plastics, etc. etc. It is a nightmare in terms of time to sort everything, but it helps them out, and we all want them to survive!

Raven is a non-profit who takes all the valuables in hopes to pay for the stuff that really isn't worth recycling financially, but is a good thing to do. They operate the program to refund pop cans, water bottles, beer/wine/liquor bottles and all the others things we pay a recycling fee to buy. As I mentioned, they do try to fund their own operation, so they also take metals, etc.

The ONLY challenge to this plan is that while you can drop stuff off 24 hours a day, there is only someone to give you your refund for bottles during working hours. This is also the only time that the free store operates - a place where people can just drop off stuff for anyone interested. Anyone who know Mike can understand my conundrum here - and will not be surprised to know we now own an old-school push lawnmower and two rather 'spectacular' belt buckles...