Garbage Management Ideas

Our cruising style is to primarily anchor out, stopping by a marina occasionally as needed for re-provisioning, laundry, fuel, pump-out, etc. Depending on our schedule, or lack of it, we can sometimes accumulate enough garbage to have to figure out what to do with it until we can get rid of it on shore. When this subject has come up among other cruisers, it seems like there's always someplace to stash it - in the dinghy, in a designated cockpit locker, in the lazarette, double-bagged on deck, etc. - not a huge problem, but I'm curious about how you handle it. Any unique garbage management ideas?

Thanks,
dvd

I think part of the answer is to eliminate as much packaging before you take it on board or even repack food .I know this half's our garbage

We buy in bulk as much as possible and as was suggested already unpackage it and leave the packaging at the store garbage cans. As far as storing it onboard, we use the scented garbage bags which help to some extent. Where to store it would vary with the boats configuration. I would be careful about storing it where it would attract animals.

the answer to # 2 is good, in addition, I suggest you all the packets and jars and the like. if you can think of, they take up less space by putting nested, folding, compressing the flat, cut into pieces.


think of the plastic bottle. open the cap slightly, squeeze all the air out, the cap and the bottle takes up less space, or you cut through the bottle and putting them on top of what the savings volume.


if you have even the can you can fill it with other debris, before you put it in the bin.

I have made the decision to go with nothing but canned beer instead of bottled beer. I don't drink a lot, but those bottles can add up in a hurry. Cans can be crushed. One of my winter research projects is to find palatable canned beer.

dhays said:

I have made the decision to go with nothing but canned beer instead of bottled beer. I don't drink a lot, but those bottles can add up in a hurry. Cans can be crushed. One of my winter research projects is to find palatable canned beer.

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Kirin Ichiban

I'm a recycler. So I tend to sort stuff, flatten boxes, and nest similar stuff. Much of the food items either come in carboard boxes, cans, or plastic containers. I rinse off the cans and plastic containers, let them dry, and then nest them the next morning. Have medium size tote bins for the plastic, metal and glass. Flattening the carboard boxes allows me to wedge them between 2 bins under the sink. What's left is fairly small and fills a 5 gallon bucket (with trash bag liner) in about a week, so easy to empty at every marina stop. The totes are in the lazarette, and stuff is added to them only once per day.

Might sound like a lot of extra work, but it's pretty quick if you develop a routine. Part of the motivation to rinse the stuff off before storing it, is to keep flys and bugs from having a food source on the boat.

Ted

I favor mixed drinks while cruising and it reduces trash but does increase my ice consumption. We also try to minimize paper towel usage and hand wash dish rags and kitchen towels. We also rinse out cans pretty well and try to consolidate our potentially smelly trash into zip locks that I can't reuse. For example, frozen meat is packed in zip lock bags and I can't reuse those but I will rinse it out and set it to the side, inside of the trash can and then when I have foul trash like a can of drippings, it goes into the zip lock. Full trash bags go into the lazarette.

I have always wondered why it's perfectly legal to grind up a fish and throw it overboard as "chum" but if you cook the fish first, eat it and throw the leftovers and bones overboard, it's now "garbage" and illegal.

That said, it seems to work out that we are in a marina at least every second or third day so we just keep our trash and garbage in bags and deposit it at the marina. With just two adults and a puppy, we don't generate a lot of trash or garbage.

dhays said:

I have made the decision to go with nothing but canned beer instead of bottled beer. I don't drink a lot, but those bottles can add up in a hurry. Cans can be crushed. One of my winter research projects is to find palatable canned beer.

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Bottles can be broken and will take up less space. The trick of course is to find a safe way to do this.

One of my winter research projects is to find palatable canned beer.

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Give Freemont Brewing a try.

I favor mixed drinks while cruising and it reduces trash but does increase my ice consumption.

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I've upped my game and buy a better bottle of whiskey. Sip it straight.

Whatever you do please don't adopt the practice of breaking bottles to sink them. I've talked to a few who think that's OK. I't not, the glass won't break down.

dhays said:

I have made the decision to go with nothing but canned beer instead of bottled beer. I don't drink a lot, but those bottles can add up in a hurry. Cans can be crushed. One of my winter research projects is to find palatable canned beer.

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Yeah, crushable canned beer and sodas, a few crushable plastic bottles for some cheap liquors in the bar (usually gin, vodka, tequila, in our case). Partly also because when we had big dogs aboard, I worried about potential effects of accidentally-broken glass, too.

We keep a small synthetic cutting board in the cockpit, mostly used as a stomp pad for crushing.

No plastic water bottles on board. Instead, we filter water as it comes on board, and the re-filter actual drinking water into a filter pitcher kept in the fridge. (Brita, etc.; ours happens to be Pur, selected by size and shape for its fridge location.

Portage_Bay said:

Sip it straight.

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Yep. Any more than one ingredient, it becomes too much work. Ice would be an ingredient, too...

Although I do allow a dispensation on that one for martinis: fill glass with ice, fill glass with gin (or vodka), sip.



-Chris

Our Bayliner came from the factory with a trash smasher.

Works great, and reduces the trash volume several bags to one.

O C Diver said:

I'm a recycler. So I tend to sort stuff, flatten boxes, and nest similar stuff. Much of the food items either come in carboard boxes, cans, or plastic containers. I rinse off the cans and plastic containers, let them dry, and then nest them the next morning. Have medium size tote bins for the plastic, metal and glass. Flattening the carboard boxes allows me to wedge them between 2 bins under the sink. What's left is fairly small and fills a 5 gallon bucket (with trash bag liner) in about a week, so easy to empty at every marina stop. The totes are in the lazarette, and stuff is added to them only once per day.

Might sound like a lot of extra work, but it's pretty quick if you develop a routine. Part of the motivation to rinse the stuff off before storing it, is to keep flys and bugs from having a food source on the boat.

Ted

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delivered as we have done in Finland the whole society about 30-40 years. jättet there is recycled and the recycled use of all the house types of more than 90%. 99.8% glass, plastic 92%, aluminum 94% and the world will be saved, or not

Portage_Bay said:

Give Freemont Brewing a try.

I've upped my game and buy a better bottle of whiskey. Sip it straight.

Whatever you do please don't adopt the practice of breaking bottles to sink them. I've talked to a few who think that's OK. I't not, the glass won't break down.

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I will look for the Fremont. I should be able to find it.

When I was a kid our family cruised for a couple weeks (on our San Juan 24) with another couple in their Erickson 27. The guy in the 27 would always toss his beer bottle over side the side and then shoot at it with a pump pellet gun until he broke it.

There certainly was the attitude that stuff that sunk, like metal and glass, wasn't going to be a problem 200+ feet down.

WesK said:

I have always wondered why it's perfectly legal to grind up a fish and throw it overboard as "chum" but if you cook the fish first, eat it and throw the leftovers and bones overboard, it's now "garbage" and illegal.

That said, it seems to work out that we are in a marina at least every second or third day so we just keep our trash and garbage in bags and deposit it at the marina. With just two adults and a puppy, we don't generate a lot of trash or garbage.

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caricature from this starts to look when cut down waste, fertilizers and the like filth into the sea. Here baltic sea blue-green algal blooms for a few weeks and, at worst, it looks like this. thaks Russian people, their industry and other **** like. rivers flows along the Baltic Sea. Something improvements have been made, but clearance will last a really long time


Although we have the sea here, the water does not change and we do not have the tide. waste in the ocean it causes eutrophication, therefore, forbidden to you, maybe

Dave if you need a research assistant for your canned beer project I will take one for the team and make myself available.

Portage_Bay said:

Whatever you do please don't adopt the practice of breaking bottles to sink them. I've talked to a few who think that's OK. I't not, the glass won't break down.

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Indeed, I met a sailor one day who was very proud to explain me how he did managed trashes by only using glass bottle that he was throwing overboard when in deep water
He was very surprised when I told him that this is not because it won't been seen anymore that it won't exist anymore...

CPseudonym said:

Dave if you need a research assistant for your canned beer project I will take one for the team and make myself available.

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Thanks, what a great offer!

Does anybody knows this composter?

naturemill.com

I heard good thing about it and I wonder to try it or not. At least it allows reducing organic waste and does not have any odor or whatever. Of course it will work depending on how many people are onboard but for what I saw, for 2 it is enough to compost remainings if you are not prone to food waste.

We tried using a Soda Stream, to replace canned sodas. We like it, we carry a spare co2 canister and several of their flavors. When away from marinas, we have burned burnables, on occasion. Burn at low tide on some rocky island, all gone when tide comes in.

dhays said:

I have made the decision to go with nothing but canned beer instead of bottled beer. I don't drink a lot, but those bottles can add up in a hurry. Cans can be crushed. One of my winter research projects is to find palatable canned beer.

Click to expand...

I hate the taste that cans impart on beer!!!
I have a buddy that doesn't believe that anyone can taste the difference and continues to give me "taste tests". I pass 100% every time. Somehow it is as apparent as the difference in milk and orange juice to me!
I do like Guinness in a can but not much else...

I don't drink enough to worry about holding the trash for a few days or so...We simply store trash in a locker until we can dispose of it properly.
Bruce

Lou_tribal said:

Indeed, I met a sailor one day who was very proud to explain me how he did managed trashes by only using glass bottle that he was throwing overboard when in deep water
He was very surprised when I told him that this is not because it won't been seen anymore that it won't exist anymore...

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I have known people to throw beer cans or bottles overboard just so they won't be seen if LEOs stop them.

Standard kitchen trash compactor one of the first things we specified on our build. After 50+ years of coastal cruising we knew the need. The unit does not take much room but does need a AC burst of power. I don't have the bear can problem at 78 my tummy is flat and my blood alcohol level will never be elevated. We do have cans and I flatten them and keep in a separate bag for recycle.

dhays said:

I have made the decision to go with nothing but canned beer instead of bottled beer. I don't drink a lot, but those bottles can add up in a hurry. Cans can be crushed. One of my winter research projects is to find palatable canned beer.

Click to expand...

Anything from Caldera Brewing, especially Ashland Amber. I'll be in your neighborhood end of the month for Boat Show. Glad to bring a sample... or six.

Trash compactor is such a great space saver. Once you use one you'll wonder why you waited so long. Living on land I always just thought no big deal, why do I care how many bags of garbage. However, even there i wised up as in many areas one is limited to what will fit in their garbage can. 65 Gallon can won't close completely and you get ticketed where we are. Then on top of that just carrying to the street. However, I really fell in love with them on the boat.

I applaud OC Diver's recycling, but how many marina's then have you run across set up for recycling? And why is it in most cities, including FLL, that there are two weekly pickups for garbage and only one for recycling?

WesK said:

I have known people to throw beer cans or bottles overboard just so they won't be seen if LEOs stop them.

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I am sure LEO would appreciate to be offered a beer

BandB said:

And why is it in most cities, including FLL, that there are two weekly pickups for garbage and only one for recycling?

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Indian River County (Vero Beach area) went to one day a week garbage pickup and recycling pickup. The garbage and recycling bins were provided free and they are huge. It sucks if the county has decreed your garbage pickup day to be Friday or Monday.

For zero waste beer option, get a growler(s) and refill when you stop at marinas. This is a substantial upgrade from glass bottles with screw tops. Got it at REI and it also comes in 128oz size with a tap option. Keeps the beer fresh and cold between marinas.

AlaskaProf said:

Anything from Caldera Brewing, especially Ashland Amber. I'll be in your neighborhood end of the month for Boat Show. Glad to bring a sample... or six.

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Anyone consider a TF meet-up at the Seattle Boat Show? My wife and I have talked about going but haven't decided yet. I need to slow down the rate of spending on my boat.