Managing My Waste
- A composting toilet. Human compost can only be used on non-food crops, to fertilize flowers and trees. Each state has its own regulations about its use, so I'll need to keep on top of that.
- Kitchen compost is high in nitrogen which encourages leaf growth. I'll use some of my compost for my micro-garden, and donate the rest. I'll need high phosphorus fertilizers like bat guano to encourage blooming and fruiting.
- I'll use as many parts of my vegetables as possible-- simmer the stalks for broth, and puree them into soups and sauces, so I'm not wasting food.
- States also regulate the use of grey water--water used to bathe, wash dishes and do laundry, all with biodegradable soaps. But I can can easily collect my shower water by keeping a bucket in the stall, and water my plants with it.
- A lot of my current recycling is paper that arrives by mail, which will be much less frequent when I'm traveling. Assuming we can keep access to the internet open and available to all, that will be my main means of communication.
- There's also a lot of packaging from food, nutritional supplement bottles, and other merchandise, because I do a lot of my shopping online. When I'm traveling, it'll be a lot harder to order items for delivery. I'll need to plan ahead more, stock up on supplements I currently order from online stores, and buy the biggest containers I can. But I need to balance reducing packaging waste with my very limited storage space. I'll also do more cooking from scratch when I'm physically able. This year I canned a bunch of squash soup and it was really fun. Canning jars can be reused forever. I just need new lids each time--a lot less metal than a whole can. And the lids can be used for other kinds of storage--just not for new canning. Keeping preserved food in stock will help me avoid having to recycle cans.
- I love re-purposing clothing--turning one thing into another. I'll do some of that, and when clothing is really demolished, see what can be done, by me or someone else, with the scraps.
- The actual landfill trash I create includes used printer cartridges, plastic packaging,and depending on the composting options, meat scraps. I am definitely a carnivore. I get sick on a vegetarian diet. When I eat a chicken, I do boil the bones and cartilage down for stock, and eat the marrow and fat, but there's still skin and gristle to dispose of. Neighborhood dogs?