Disposing of household garbage during frugal times. [View all]

[Kaleva]

Another thing to consider, if in case an emergency arises, is what one is going to do with household garbage as regular garbage pickup services may be interrupted for a period of time.

It may be a good idea to know how much garbage one normally has and guesstimate how much garbage you may produce during an emergency with the understanding you may not be out shopping much during such times. Make changes now to reduce that amount in case one has to hold garbage on site for days or weeks.

I have curbside garbage pickup every two weeks and normally I set out one garbage can containing a couple of 13 gallon garbage bags so my wife and I don't have much trash to begin with. We compost cardboard, newsprint, vegetable and fruit waste year-round. I had a burn barrel in the backyard up until a few years ago and I could set up another one as I have an unused metal garbage can which could be used for such. Rinsed out metal containers could be flattened out with a sledgehammer to reduce the space they take up.