After Irene – reduce, reuse and recycle

Since we’ve been home, I have reduced, reused and recycled. But not enough. Especially since we’ll have to haul trash ourselves since our bridge is closed to cars and garbage trucks.

While I am hopeful the bridge will reopen to cars someday, when it does, it may not allow heavy vehicles like garbage trucks to cross. Yesterday, I stopped a UPS driver and asked him how much his truck weighed.  He had no idea.  If we can’t get UPS deliveries and can’t shop online, I may have to move. 

But back to our trash. I reduce – we buy no processed foods, which means way less packaging and we eat healthy foods. I reus e and recycle – old sheets become rugs, dog hair is spun into yarn and duct tape becomes all sorts of wonderful gifts for Tim.  I sort and haul our recycleables to the “transfer station”.  

However, for one reason or another, we never composted. It was literally a dirty word for a while because we spent one summer and a month last year at a lighthouse with indoor composting toilets, which we ultimately stopped using because we couldn’t find the happy balance.

We gingerly composted in Australia with some success but were reluctant to start at home. It’s too cold, we don’t have a garden, we’ll attract deer, rats or even worse, bears. But these times call for desperate measures.