one of the first things i tried to figure out when we moved into this house was which day garbage collection was. when i asked around, i learned that we had to "order collection service," which means that we couldn't just put the garbage bags out for collection the night before the trucks came. nobody would pick it up unless we had a contract with a private hauler.

so i did some internet searches for "_______ county waste management" and found the phone number for the coordinator of waste management. she gave me three phone numbers of private garbage haulers to call and "shop around" before i made my decision. i decided to go with "waste management" (a unique name!) since they were offering the lowest prices.

i learned that a residential home can choose to throw out one, two, three, ten, or an unlimited amount of 30-lb bags per week. i chose the 2-bag-a-week package at $15.95 a month. i was glad to hear they also offered curbside recycling for no additional cost (however, this company doesn't provide recyling bins. i had to get in touch with my township to get the recyling bin). if, by chance, we found one week that we had more than 2 bags of garbage, we'd have to call ahead to let them know how many extra bags we had for them to pick up, and we would be charged $2 per bag.

this is a far cry from the "put any and everything on the curb on a weekly basis and don't worry about cost since we're already paying for it in our taxes" city collection we were used to!

at first i was really annoyed. because it forced me to be conscious about what i was throwing out. the city's collection policy allowed me to be really lazy. i am the first to admit that i threw away a lot that could have been recycled simply because our curbside didn't recycle certain items. i always recycled milk jugs and bottles, but everything else, including paper, went right into the trash.

i'm not annoyed anymore. we have a great new system in place, and i feel as though we're not contributing to the growing landfills. we are recycling everything that can be recycled either curbside or hauling it with us when we visit "the big city of pittsburgh" to construction junction. we will burn the majority of the garbage that can be safely burned in a burn barrel. we've started a composting system and will set up our brand-new earth machine composter this week. and we throw the rest out.

our first week, we hauled several garbage bags to my parents house to be picked up. we had a lot of garbage from the move, and it was ripening quickly.

tonight, we put out two 30-lb bags for pickup tomorrow, but most of it was from bathroom demolition (wallpaper, smalll drywall pieces, leftover materials used for installation, etc). the remainder was basically diapers and food that can't be composted. i'm looking forward to changing our contract to 1-bag-a-week once the system is really underway!

once the garbage collection was figured out, my only job was to figure out where the township building was so i could pick up the recyling bin. our neighbors had no idea what i was talking about because they obviously don't recycle. i made some more phone calls and finally figured out that our township building was only 2 miles from the house. so i drove out and picked up my bin. the township secretary asked me if i just wanted one bin and i asked, "can i get more than one?" her answer: "i don't recycle, so i don't know what the rules are." i've already admitted that i'm not the best recycler, but i've never really "met" anyone who didn't recycle - even milk jugs and glass bottles! i asked for two bins. hopefully our hauler will take the contents of both bins on recycling week.

and hopefully soon, recycling pick-up will be weekly as more people decide more of their garbage can be recycled and composted. (hint, hint).