Posted: 6/14/2011 5:43:32 AM EDT
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I'm curious what kind of plans people have for trash disposal during a medium to long term loss of services/SHTF. What do those of you who live in rural areas do with your trash? Burning it would seem like a negative attention getter during SHTF. Burning anything around here right now would take the neighborhood with it. Bury it? Any concerns about contaminating well water or other water sources at the BOL? Burying trash at my house would be nearly impossible. 2 inches of cheap topsoil over solid rock. Letting it build up would seem to be another disaster waiting to happen, with rats, bugs etc. Plus fire hazard. I've always lived in a suburban area, so I really don't know the answer. |
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Think back to history, how did people deal with trash 60 years ago. Bury what is compostable then garden. Burn what you can when you can if you can, dump the rest of the dangerous stinky stuff as far away from your location and water sources as possible. Reduce the creation of trash when possible.
Nothing to overthink here, no single right answer. |
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The volume of trash will diminish almost immediately. One of the reasons we have so much trash now is that we constantly replenish our supply of it from stores. When you aren't buying wrappers, cans, jugs, etc, you won't have them to throw away. Anything organic goes in the compost pile, and any containers get reused or saved for another need. I'd burn any plastic crap that wasn't useful.
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Quoted:
The volume of trash will diminish almost immediately. One of the reasons we have so much trash now is that we constantly replenish our supply of it from stores. When you aren't buying wrappers, cans, jugs, etc, you won't have them to throw away. Anything organic goes in the compost pile, and any containers get reused or saved for another need. I'd burn any plastic crap that wasn't useful. No doubt. My wife and I began recycling everything we can and composting 2 years ago. Our trash now for a family of 3 is about 1 kitchen bag per week. |
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Quoted: Quoted: The volume of trash will diminish almost immediately. One of the reasons we have so much trash now is that we constantly replenish our supply of it from stores. When you aren't buying wrappers, cans, jugs, etc, you won't have them to throw away. Anything organic goes in the compost pile, and any containers get reused or saved for another need. I'd burn any plastic crap that wasn't useful. No doubt. My wife and I began recycling everything we can and composting 2 years ago. Our trash now for a family of 3 is about 1 kitchen bag per week. One of the things I realized while reading "lights out" is that containers for the transportation of liquids will quickly become rare and valuable. I made a 4'x4' frame in the basement, and ran chicken wire around it. We store all bottles, jugs, and other useful containers in there. Mostly 1 gallon milk jugs. |
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Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: The volume of trash will diminish almost immediately. One of the reasons we have so much trash now is that we constantly replenish our supply of it from stores. When you aren't buying wrappers, cans, jugs, etc, you won't have them to throw away. Anything organic goes in the compost pile, and any containers get reused or saved for another need. I'd burn any plastic crap that wasn't useful. No doubt. My wife and I began recycling everything we can and composting 2 years ago. Our trash now for a family of 3 is about 1 kitchen bag per week. One of the things I realized while reading "lights out" is that containers for the transportation of liquids will quickly become rare and valuable. I made a 4'x4' frame in the basement, and ran chicken wire around it. We store all bottles, jugs, and other useful containers in there. Mostly 1 gallon milk jugs. In third world countries this is already the case. Everything is recycled. Afghans use vegetable oil and even motor oil jugs for absolutely everything. As far as trash mitigation, some of the military field sanitation manuals are good. They detail how far away from food preparation areas trash and waste areas should be, and outline how they should be set up. Things like burning trash or even burning human waste are essential to keeping disease down. |
| Out in the country we burn it or if it will not burn we would dump it in a pasture with other scrap metals and junk farm equipment(usually in a steep drop off or a washout...that way your stabilizing the bank)...then after its filled up you cover it with dirt...using a tractor or skid loader. |
| in Minneapolis, we have curbside recycling AND composting. We generate only about one kitchen sized trash bag of actual GARBAGE in 2 weeks and our son still wears diapers at night. You would be amazed at how little of your waste is actually garbage. As has been mentioned, if in an extended SHTF, you won't be going to the store to get items with excessive packaging anymore. Paper and cardboard are fuel. Plastic containers can be washed and re-used, most other things can be composted. |
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Quoted:
The volume of trash will diminish almost immediately. One of the reasons we have so much trash now is that we constantly replenish our supply of it from stores. When you aren't buying wrappers, cans, jugs, etc, you won't have them to throw away. Anything organic goes in the compost pile, and any containers get reused or saved for another need. I'd burn any plastic crap that wasn't useful. This is what I was thinking. If I couldn't run out and buy what I do now, I wouldn't have any trash to worry about. Compost, rinse, and re-use repeat. Target practice? 
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"One man's trash is another man's treasure" Take what you don't want/need to the flea market. Flea Markets have been around for thousands of years.................  In a real SHTF, community life is essential for long-term survival. Pooling of skills, resources, labor............. |
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Quoted: Burn barrelWhat do those of you who live in rural areas do with your trash? Burning it would seem like a negative attention getter during SHTF. Burning anything around here right now would take the neighborhood with it. 55 gallon barrel, old metal door screen on top. Light right after the sun goes down, can't see smoke, flames and embers wont get past the screen if the fire is not "London size". |
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Burn barrel
What do those of you who live in rural areas do with your trash? Burning it would seem like a negative attention getter during SHTF. Burning anything around here right now would take the neighborhood with it. 55 gallon barrel, old metal door screen on top. Light right after the sun goes down, can't see smoke, flames and embers wont get past the screen if the fire is not "London size". +1 |
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You can look at your current storage and see what some of your trash is going to be. If a lot of your stuff is in shrink wrap or other plastic then yeah you will have a lot of plastic. But plastic may or may not have some uses once bad times come along. I generally open up and use my stuff or repack into something more durable. I really like canning jars and the vacumn packer attachment for the canning jars. The jars don't let mice or bugs in and once empty they can be washed and used for other stuff. They are expensive so I use them along with mylar and other containters. I like plastic stuff like gun cases or something along those lines, I don't like thin or flimsy plastic much. Clothes and other fabrics will be recycled. Shoes and similar items will be repaired or used for around the house or something along those lines, no more tossing sneakers out because they get a bit worn or something. I like metal coffee cans more than plastic because the metal cans are something to use for other projects perhaps. I currently just store lead bullets in them but they have their uses. Plastic coffee cans make decent scoops for horse feed or something similar. Not as nice as a real scoop but the plastic coffee cans have a handle of some sort and have some uses. Metal cans from veggies or tuna or whatever can be used for candle making or candle lantern or some other stuff. I got the can opener that cuts the side but now and then I run into a can where I need the old style can opener to get it open. Using a side cutter you wind up with no sharp edges and the lid can be put back on the can to protect whatever is inside. You won't be getting junk mail or news papers or other stuff all the time like you do right now, so no problem there. You won't be running to the grocery for gallons of milk in plastic jugs or apple juice in plastic jugs or any of the other stuff from the groceries so there will be a whole lot less trash from that as well. Overall I live in the country. I recycle some stuff, I save some stuff even if I don't have much use for it now, I have a local dump I haul my trash off too every 2 or 3 weeks, and I have a burn barrel as well. Right now the burn barrel is mostly for small branches from the trees but any paper or cardboard usually goes in the barrel as well. If I had a wood stove hooked up I would probably save all the paper and small sticks for burning when it gets cold. |
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Veggie waste gets composted. Protein waste gets fed to the dog (for the most part). Wood gets used to build or burn for heat. Clothing gets re-used or made into something else. Plastic is a problem, but not that much of one. Most of it can be reused a goodly number of times before it has to go away, and then it can be rendered down pretty far. Some of it even makes decent fire starter if you've got a really good flue. Metal waste doesn't exist. My son chides me constantly that I don't throw anything away. Then I show him the shed with the joist and rafter ties made from #10 cans  and he shuts up for awhile. Also, cut and flattened into sheets, the cans store much, much easier. The one thing that does get burned is the human waste that we can't compost. I know some folks use it for fertilizer (Germany literally smelled like shit when I was there  ), but I just can't bring myself to trust it in the garden. Where I am now, it promises to be a huge problem. Once I get some land, the problem goes away in the form of a septic tank and leach field. Not afraid to feed it to shade trees and non-edible plants.When I lived in the country, I burned much of my non useful trash, but I will clarify and say that I wasn't worried about anybody knowing about it. Fires (particularly out here on the prairie) can be seen a good long way off, even at night. And if there's any moon at all, you can see the smoke, even at night. And the smell carries like you wouldn't believe. And at night, when things cool down and the air clears, it carries even farther. Around here, it isn't hard to tell if somebody's burning something from miles off, and even, for the most part, what they're burning (stove/fireplace, leaves, trash, barbeque, house fire) by smell alone. And we're not even much past the outskirts of town. Lye or quicklime might be a (somewhat dangerous) solution to making the waste products less hazardous. Which one is it again that they use in large animal disposal???? |
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Quoted:
The volume of trash will diminish almost immediately. One of the reasons we have so much trash now is that we constantly replenish our supply of it from stores. When you aren't buying wrappers, cans, jugs, etc, you won't have them to throw away. Anything organic goes in the compost pile, and any containers get reused or saved for another need. I'd burn any plastic crap that wasn't useful. Best answer. |