James:
I have some thoughts on the article regarding the disposal of trash. It was interesting and thought provoking, however I think in a situation where services were not going to come back you would find that that amount of rubbish you generate would be quite small.
You would not be bringing more “stuff” into the house as you would not be shopping and anything you did already have you would recycle as there would be no chance of getting those storage jars etc any longer. So all those tins, jars containers etc would eventually be used in one way or another.
If you haven’t already, you should already be moving away from a disposable life, for starters it is cheaper than continually buying disposable products. Paper plates are not a way of life here except for picnics so if you use paper plates on an every day basis I think a change is in order. Disposable nappies are expensive and cloth nappies are not much work at all (and healthier for your baby’s bottom), washable menstrual pads just as easy (and more comfortable in my opinion).
Kitchen scraps should always be given to the chooks or the garden, you would be cooking from scratch and there would be very little on-going trash from any packaging. Change now and purchase as little packaging as possible, if there is packaging try and recycle it, paper and cardboard in to the garden, glass jars for preserving and storage etc, if you do buy packaging make sure you can recycle it.
Repurpose items that are no longer used for the original purpose, learn to sew and fix or change the clothes you no longer want, reuse items for another reason, or just don’t buy too much in the first place, just the things you need.
Have two uses for items you bring into the house and think about it before you buy: what is the life span of this item, can it be used for more than one purpose and can it be recycled on the property? Don’t create rubbish to start with.
So basically, don’t buy disposable products, and make sure the packaging is recyclable, long term your rubbish would be minimal and mostly recyclable. In a TEOTWAWKI [1] situation there would be no more items randomly bought on impulse and anything you already had would be saved like our grandparents did.
Regards To You, – Kathryn in Australia