Taking out the Trash
I can’t believe I’m actually going to publish this little story about our household waste. Anyway, all in the name of sharing for sustainability, I’ve decided to show you my “rubbish” and tell you a bit about it. No kak.
It’s one of those simple little things about living in urban Malmö that makes me happy. I don’t mind taking out the trash, I love it. Every time. Because it’s easy to organize (as always, could be better), convenient and it’s “taken care of”. It takes little effort from our side (as always, we could be better). Once we starting getting our waste organized and we could account for what we discard, we definitely got a lot better at streamlining (as always, could be better).
So, here goes:
This is what 2.5 weeks of living, working playing results to in our home. That’s the trash. Squeezed into the bit of space under our kitchen skin. We recycle glass, metal, paper, plastics and organic waste.
We eat mostly vegetarian and so I was delighted when the apartment recycling units started to accommodate organic waste too.
In Malmö an average 30 000 ton food waste is used to create bio-gas. Energy, which is even used to fuel the city buses!
Right outside my front door (2 steps), there’s this shute. The waste that cannot be recycled is popped down here. On a good week, we’re at about 2 liters.
Down in the basement, through a passage, there’s the Bin. It opens with the beep of an access card and the spluttering automatic switch-on of the lights. The place where the building’s tenants recycle (mostly packaging).
Always interesting stuff in the Bin. Today it’s someone’s discarded sheet music.
Deposit of the season: the caps of tea-light candles, which warm Swedish homes during the dark winters:
One week + 2 vegetarians = average 3liters waste per week. We use a bag made of corn (BioBag). It was a bit of a hunt to find, but got them at the local handy store. Costs 1sek /about R1 per unit – stores charge more for their grocery bags.
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