How to Manage Household Trash

I was accustomed to having a rubbish chute in my flat, and when I moved out of my parent’s home and into my new flat, I had to get used to having a centralised chute outside my home. Initially, I struggled with managing my home’s trash and recycling materials. However, with time and more experience, my family and I got more efficient with settling the weekly garbage.

Does your Rubbish Bin Size suit your household?

When I moved in, I did not ask myself this question; I just assumed that a normal-sized bin for recycling and another for waste would be sufficient for the entire home. These filled up within a day. If I did not constantly change the plastic bags, trash would overflow onto the floor.

Keep track each day of the week of how much garbage your family produces. From there, you can gauge how big a Rubbish Bin is required. I prefer to have one centralised area to place the rubbish bin and recycling bin so all members of my family or even guests would know where to throw away their trash.

To resolve my household trash management issue, I purchased a 50L Pedal Waste Bin; we make Sundays our trash day when we empty and clean it.  I bought the EKO DELLA EK9366 – 50L Pedal Waste Bin with Soft Closing from Shopee and am impressed by its design, quality and function.

It is not your typical rectangular-shaped trashcan, made with a single piece of metal; the seamless design looks stylish with its curved edges and high-quality stainless steel exterior without sharp edges. The glossy finish of the bin is also fingerprint resistant, saving you the trouble of constantly cleaning off marks on the shiny surface.

The intelligent design of the inner bin, where there is a catch for you to stuff your trash bag in, preventing it from slipping down when the trash is thrown in, is a handy feature.

There is also a latch to keep the cover open while you change the trash bag or when you are decluttering your home and do not want to step on the pedal to keep the bin open constantly.

The soft closing of the lid is also a treat, no loud slamming of the cover, just a gentle, silent shut close. The bin also keeps nasty smells within the bin.

A small pedal bin was what I placed at home for recycling. It was filled quickly, as milk cartons, juice cartons and other cardboard packaging waste can take up space quickly. 

To replace it, I purchased an HÅLLBAR Ikea Bin, retailing at $7.90. It was the perfect recycling bin for my home. Large enough to store all the cartons yet discreet sufficient without being an eyesore.

 One problem I encountered was that my family would place their recycled goods on the lid, which would stack. I resolved it by removing the cover and putting it aside, only placing it back on when guests were at my place.

Degradable Plastic from BioGreen Sizes S to XL

We use size L for the EKO DELLA EK9366 – 50L Pedal Waste Bin. I like these bags because they are strong enough to hold the garbage and are biodegradable. These bags are designed to be heat resistant and have a star-sealed based design to prevent leaks.

In a landfill, the bags will biodegrade after 12 months, for traditional plastic garbage bags take about 100 years to degrade. Biogreen uses recycled and biodegradable materials such as coconut and corn instead of trees and lesser plastic.

In Singapore, trash is sent to waste to energy plants, Incineration reduces the volume of solid waste by about 90%, and energy is recovered to generate electricity. The ash residues from the incineration process are sent with non-incinerable litter and barged to Semakau Landfill for disposal.

I am not sure where the trashbags from my home would end up, but it would ease my mind knowing that they will degrade in 12 months compared to 100 years.

How to encourage recycling at home –

I used sticker labels to indicate which bins were for trash and recycling so my family knew where to drop off those items.  I printed a copy of the recyclable list from the NEA website and posted it on our command centre, our bomb shelter door.  I would wash the bottles and cartons they leave before bringing the recycled stuff to the recycling chute.

I also place a small bin by the door for batteries and small e-waste items. The key is to place containers in an area that is easily accessible and convenient to drive a person to do their recycling, and in time, inculcating a good habit

How do you manage your household trash? Share with me in the comments below; there is always room for improvement for a greener earth.