How A Trash Compactor Works
Ever wondered if there was a way to reduce the amount of full garbage bags you throw out? Reducing the number of garbage bags would not only help by using less plastic but would also mean fewer trips to the garbage can or dumpster. Trash compactors are great for these reasons and more. Read on to learn more about what trash compactors can do for you!
The Purpose of Trash Compactors
A really simple way to reduce your footprint in landfills is to reduce the amount of trash you throw away. This, in turn, means purchasing fewer items that will eventually end up in the trash. But, there are some items that you just can’t see yourself without, and unless you make everything yourself you will likely never be able to escape throwing at least some trash away. Trash compactors can help by reducing the impact of the trash that you do end up throwing away.
How Do Trash Compactors Work?
Trash compactors, also known as garbage compactors, are essentially garbage cans, but with one difference: a hydraulic press found within. This press compacts the trash placed inside of the compactor, reducing the amount of empty space. The compacted trash can be easily bagged like normal, but this time with much more trash inside of it.
Have you ever had to take out the trash just because the bag is full of lightweight material that takes up way too much space (wrapping paper for example)? Trash compactors can help press these materials down so that you completely fill the bag. Being able to press additional items into each trash bag has the added bonus of not having to walk out to throw your trash into the outside garbage can or dumpster!
What About Commercial Trash Compactors?
Commercial trash compactors work very similar to household compactors. A hydraulic pump attached to a ram compacts trash. This is done on a much larger scale with commercial compactors and they can hold many times more trash than a household compactor. The same rules apply for what you can and can’t put into a commercial garbage compactor (more on the below).
The main difference with commercial compactors is the way they are emptied. Rather than dumping the compacted trash into a garbage bag and throwing it away, the entire container of the commercial compactor is hauled off to the landfill to be dumped and returned.
What Can You Put in a Trash Compactor?
Trash compactors are pretty good with compacting nearly anything you throw in them. This is great, but you’ll want to stay away from certain items when considering what to compact.
You really can throw just about any household trash item into the compactor and it will be okay (don’t forget to recycle before you throw anything away!). However, there are some things you should avoid throwing into the compactor, including:
- Aerosol cans containing hazardous or explosive chemicals - these can be pressurized and explode when compacted. Whip cream, shaving cream, and the like are okay to throw in the compactor.
- Food waste such as raw meat - these can cause odors to spread and will make your compactor hard to clean.
- Explosive materials - shotgun shells and fireworks don’t mix well with being compacted. Leave them out!
- Containers for insecticides or other toxic materials - compacting these could release hazardous chemicals.
Basically, if it’s a hazardous product or would cause tough cleanup or odors, leave it out of the compactor!
How Strong is a Household Trash Compactor?
Depending on the model of compactor you get, you could have a compression force of about 2,000 pounds. That isn’t super helpful with knowing what each compactor is capable of. When searching for the right compactor, you’ll want to take note of their compression ratio. For example, a 4 to 1 compression ratio means that a pile of trash can be compacted down to ¼ the size compared to just throwing trash in a regular garbage can. That means you can hold about 4 times more trash in a single bag. Talk about fewer trips to the dumpster!
Trash compactors are great ways to reduce the amount of volume your trash takes up at landfills. By compacting the trash together it takes up less space, meaning less footprint as well as fewer trips to the dumpster. If you are looking to reduce the number of trips you have to take to the dumpster, consider a trash compactor!
How Glass is Recycled
Glass is a very common material used in everyday groceries such as soda bottles, wine, and even pickles. Because of that, it’s likely that you need to dispose of glass fairly frequently. Well, don’t throw it away! Glass can be recycled, reused, or even repurposed into fun crafts. Read on to learn what to do with your glass when you’re done with it.
How Glass Is Recycled
When you’ve finished your soda, wine, or other glass bottle, you’ll likely want to throw it away. But glass can be recycled, so make sure you toss it in the recycling bin instead! You’ll want to check with your local recycling centers about what glass they accept, as some won’t accept items such as glass plates, mirrors, or ceramics.
In order to get the recycling process started, simply clean out your jar or bottle and toss it into the proper recycling bin. From there it will be:
- Taken to a treatment plant for sorting (glass gets sorted by color).
- Washed to remove any impurities.
- Crushed, melted, and molded back into jars, bottles, or other products. Sometimes the glass is repurposed for decorative use instead.
- Sent back to the companies that use glass to store their products.
The great thing about glass is that it doesn’t degrade in the recycling process, so it can be recycled over and over without any issues!
It’s also important to note that some recyclers require you to sort glass by color prior to them picking it up. This will prevent them from having to separate the glass later. Double-check with your local recycler to see if you need to separate your glass by color prior to pickup.
Can You Recycle Broken Glass?
Sometimes accidents happen and your glass containers end up breaking. If that’s the case, you should gather the broken glass into a bag and set it aside so that the recycling handlers can see it’s broken. This method is both safer for you and them.
Broken glass itself can be recycled, but it likely won’t be recycled into what it was. In other words, a broken glass bottle won’t be recycled back into a fresh glass bottle. More likely than not it will be crushed further and added as an additive in fiberglass or even tile. So while you can recycle broken glass, it’s best to keep it in good shape so that it can be recycled back into a jar or bottle.
Recycling Non-Container Glass
While most of the time you’ll need to recycle glass jars and other containers, sometimes you’ll need to replace a window in your house or want to get a new mirror and throw out an old one. It’s glass, so it can be put in the same recycling bin, right? Well, not always.
Glass that is used for items other than containers are often treated with chemicals, changing the melting point of the glass. This makes it difficult to recycle while combined with the glass bottles and jars. For this reason, you should still recycle any non-container glass, but keep it in a separate pile to ensure it doesn’t get mixed in with the containers.
Reusing Glass Bottles
In some cases, it may be a better idea to reuse your glass containers rather than putting them in the recycling bin. Glass bottles and jars are great for reuse, and can be reused as many times as you’d like! Old soda bottles can be washed and repurposed as water bottles, and pickle jars and similar containers can be used for food storage. Glass containers are easily washed and can even be put in the dishwasher for easy cleaning. And the best part is since you would already have purchased the product that is contained within these glass containers, it’s like receiving drinking glasses and storage containers for free!
There are a couple of things to watch out for when reusing glass containers though. First, glass breaks easily. You’ll want to take extra care to make sure you don’t drop and break your drinking bottles or food storage containers! Second, glass is typically heavier than other reusable containers such as stainless steel. This makes it less desirable for carrying around, especially when mixed with the fragility of glass. If you are bringing along a container of water while being active, it’s probably best to use a more durable container.
Fun Crafts With Glass
If you’ve got enough drinking glasses or food storage containers but want some other ideas for repurposing glass, look to crafts. You can turn an old wine bottle or pickle jar into decorative pieces with a little effort and extra material. Here are some fun craft ideas that involve glass (source):
Mason Jar Soap Dispenser
You can create a tasteful soap dispenser using an old mason jar and the pump from an old soap dispenser. All you need to do is drill a hole in the lid of the mason jar large enough for the pump to fit in, glue the pump to the lid, and fill with soap!
Glass Bottle Garden Edging
This one is super simple: gather together all of your glass bottles and push them into the ground neck first to surround the perimeter of your garden. You can get super creative with the pattern by using different sizes and colors of bottles.
You can also paint labels on single bottles and place them in your garden to mark the different species of plants you have!
Craft Storage
Turn your craft containers into crafts themselves using old glass. Mason jars can be used to hold colored pencils, markers, paper clips, yarn, and more. You can also paint labels on them for a fun way to stay organized. You can also use this idea for creating a glass spice container collection, keeping small tools and nails/screws handy in the garage, and more.
Conclusion
Glass material, when kept intact, can be recycled an almost unlimited amount of times. Even when it breaks, it can still be crushed and turned into useful material. And it can also be reused or even repurposed as fun crafts. Glass is an amazing material. Just remember to keep it out of landfills and toss it in the recycling bin when you’re done using it!
Just How Much Food Waste is There?
Food gets wasted every day in one way or another. Maybe there’s just too much on a plate for one to finish, so it gets thrown in the trash. Or leftovers that have gone uneaten rot and need to be disposed of. Whatever the cause, food waste is a serious problem affecting our planet. Read on to learn some eye-opening facts and statistics about food waste in America.
Garbage Pollution
It’s no secret that millions of tons of trash end up in landfills every year. And unfortunately, some of that trash ends up in our waterways as well as the ocean. But even the trash in the landfills causes pollution of the air. How big of an issue is this pollution from garbage? Read on to learn more!
What can I recycle?
What can I recycle?
Recycling greatly reduces our impact on the environment by allowing us to keep waste out of landfills. But sometimes it’s tough to know what you can and can’t recycle. Read on to learn what you can recycle with our quick recycling guide.
Why You Should Recycle Your Computer
With technology advancing at such a rapid pace, computers nowadays only last for a few years before they’re deemed obsolete. As new programs, apps, or games require higher specs to run, your old hardware will slowly start to be pushed out. When that happens, you’ll likely be looking to throw away your old computer and replace it with a new one. But don’t just throw it away! Computer recycling is a super helpful program that not only helps the environment but helps those in need to have the computers they need to access the internet. Read on to learn more about computer recycling!
What is Compost?
Every year landfills continue to grow in size. While mostly filled with trash, there is quite a large amount of recyclable items and food waste that takes up additional space. One way we can reduce the impact of these landfills is to recycle, but we can also take part in composting. Keep reading to learn what composting is and how we can use it to positively impact our environment!
What is Compost?
Compost is a nutrient-rich soil conditioner. It is created through the process of composting, which takes various organic material and decomposes them into compost. This soil conditioner is used to:
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Improve soil structure
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Enable soil to better retain water, nutrients, and air
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Helps maintain a neutral pH
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Protects plants from various diseases
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Protects against drought
Compost can help improve any type of soil! And since 28 percent of all our waste is yard debris and food waste, we can heavily decrease the amount of waste being brought to our landfills. This reduces the amount of methane released by our waste, protecting the environment.Read more
How to Dispose of Asbestos Safely
Asbestos can seem like a scary topic, especially if you live in an older home and are planning some renovations. But it doesn’t have to be scary if you know how to dispose of asbestos. With the right contractor, asbestos removal can seem like a breeze, and you can even dispose of asbestos yourself in some cases!
Why is it Important to Recycle?
Since the 1980s, recycling has been on the forefront of environmentalists to try and reduce the amount of solid waste we as humans produce. By taking waste material and turning it into new, usable objects we are helping to cut down on that solid waste.
But, why is recycling important in the first place? What does the issue of solid waste have to do with us and our planet? Read on to learn what makes recycling so important.
How to get the smell out of a garbage can
How to get the smell out of a garbage can
Your garbage can over time develop odors that aren’t so pleasant to have in your home. Even if you frequently change out your trash bag, bits of food and other trash get left behind, making your trash can stink. Every once in a while it’s a good idea to give your trash can a good deep clean to get rid of any odors. Read on to learn how to get smell out of your garbage can.