When I called the city to set up our utilities, I selected the smallest available garbage bin (and the largest organic-waste bin). The woman at the city seemed to think that we would be soon asking for a bigger garbage bin.
We have a 20 gallon garbage bin. Garbage is collected every other week. This means our cap on waste is 5 gallons / person / week.
Bin day is Friday. I love watching the truck pull up to the house, extend the claw-hug to the bin, lift it, and empty the contents. I loved it as a kid too.
Moving is a high-waste activity, and our bin is filling up. Will utili-lady be right? Will we want a bigger bin? I guess: not.
I intend to monitor how much garbage (i.e., municipal solid waste, MSW, that what goes to landfills) we produce on a regular basis. Can we produce less than 20 gallons a month? Less than 20 pounds? — I'll have to weigh myself with the garbage to know. I looked up how much MSW the average American produces. The measurements I found are of weight, against which bin volume does not provide a meaningful comparison.
Here they pick up garbage every week and recycling every other week. It is kind of crazy because we always fill our recycling and never fill our trash can.
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