compact trash

COMPACT TRASH
Thank you, loyal minion, for today's idea. I was really at a loss for one. I mean, what can you say about the tens of millions of unemployed Chinese, other than it's another sign that the collapse is global? Another Japanese firm lays off fifteen thousand, same answer. Macy's lays off seven thousand isn't exactly news. Who needs to buy the same garment Wal-Mart sells at five times the price? So while I was enjoying the spastic twitches of the global trading corpse that still thinks its alive ( like a headless chicken running around ), it wasn't really Bison article worthy. So just in time today's idea came in an e-mail. Also, before we start, here is a little clue for the trolls with Google Earth. The post office assigns mailing addresses as they are solicited, out in my neck of the scrub. The street address is shared by any number of people not living next to each other. I'm several miles away from the cluster box where I get my mail. Or am I in Africa, as some seem to think? Also, I like the hole in the earth comment. Now that's humor.
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Remember the "new" Twilight Zone episode where the two guys go into their fallout shelter? In the end one goes stir crazy and flees, only to be shot by the other since he doesn't want fallout brought back in. What got my attention was that the shelter was almost full of garbage bags. Food and supplies were planned for, but the waste problem was not. Now, let's think about our own garbage, even without a shelter. When is trash pick up going to fail? In winter, when the snow gets too heavy and everyone is stuck. Or when the electricity is out and fuel can't be pumped. You aren't living in the country, so you can't just burn it ( and even after a collapse burning might invite unwanted attention ). And you'll quickly run out of garbage can space after the first week. Let's say you can't put it in the garage, as the dog is in there at night and will chew on it. Or, you don't want to invite rodents to do the same. You can't dig a hole in the ground because its frozen. You can't leave it in the house if you have heat because of the smell.
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The only thing left to do is to compact it. And don't give me the "I'll whip out my handy dandy credit card charging a mere 30% and buy another trash can". One, this is how to do things cheaply. And two, you forgot to do that and are snowed in now. I have two trash cans, side by side. Both are small enough I use the plastic shopping bags for can liners. One I line, the other I don't. The lined can gets the wet trash. Food cans, cat turds, meat wrappers. The unlined one gets anything dry like chip bags or cellophane wrap. At the end of the week I empty that into a 13 gallon trash bag, along with the sealed up shopping bags of nasty stuff. One tall kitchen trash bag holds it all ( the dry stuff keeps getting smashed down all week ). Now, what if I couldn't get into town with my trash? I don't own any metal trash cans since I don't have trash pick up. But you can do the same thing I do. Store your trash bags in your vehicle. I don't drive to work, so it is no big deal for me. You will, so you either store it in the spare vehicle or put it in your trunk. I don't put it in my pick up bed because the neighborhood dogs are big enough to jump up into it ( my tail gate is a two by six wood board ). Since I only generate the one bag it is easy enough just putting it on the floor boards.
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But back to compacting. Before you take out your BOB and auto tool box from the trunk for trash, compact it so it takes up only a quarter of the room. Have two trash cans, one wet and one dry. Get yourself some cheap packing tape. After a few days, take the dry and stuff it in a sack or wrap some newspaper around it and wrap the tape tightly around it to shrink its size. Then store that one anywhere, since it has no food on it ( dump crumbs into the wet can, rinse out liquids, etc ). Collapse all boxes flat ( such as cereal boxes ) and tear them up as you discard them. With metal cans, either smash them flat if you can figure out how to keep the food from splattering, or stuff them full with other trash, such as vegetable waste. Take milk cartons and flatten them in the sink after they empty. Take anything with good plastic and clean and reuse so it doesn't go into the trash. Almost nothing should stay its original size. Then, into the trunk it goes.
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Another unenviable task, playing with your trash. Enjoy.
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