Saving *garbage*.

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I think my garbage has been reduced significantly in the past six weeks of y2k awareness. I had already started a compost pile which takes a lot of kitchen leftovers. In addition; we are now not discarding grocery bags, any sealable glass jars or bottles, large plastic pop bottles, Burnable and "tinder" materials such as newspapers and cardboard, along with other normally inconsequential items. We will stop collecting each of these as the quantities grow but for now we don't think we have enough of *anything* for a long haul.

This stuff is basically free so one doesn't normally think about it. However, in looking around every day, my thoughts go to alternatives and substitutes for various needs. This can be carried to extremes such as saving the stripped corncobs after removal from the squirrel feeder. As many of you may know, they make a rustic substitute for another important barter item. :-)

It would be worth listing any totally trivial, normally discardable "garbage" items which could be of great use in a survival setting.

-- Floyd Baker (fbaker@wzrd.com), November 22, 1998

Answers

In addition to compostables, and plastic shopping bags, paper ones too...any newsprint, all cardboard boxes...all glass and plastic bottles with resealable caps...

-- Donna Barthuley (moment@pacbell.net), November 22, 1998.

Wish I could start a good composte heap. No matter how much fencing I put around one those damn racoons always get in.

Rick

-- Rick Tansun (ricktansun@hotmail.com), November 22, 1998.


Meat scraps don't belong in the compost heap. They fetch visitors.

Cow or horse manure does belong in the compost heap. With it the pile will heat up to about 180 degrees F. This will render all vegetable scraps down to inedibility, and the pile will be finished in a month or so. (Kept moist, and turned periodically to provide oxygen.) Without manure, ambient bacteria and fungi will turn the pile into compost, but very slowly. Cows & horses have cellulose-digesting bacteria in their guts. Compost needs this.

Raccoons are smart. And edible. Remember that.

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), November 22, 1998.


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