trash talk compactor useful?

[BeNimble]

I was thinking about trash and where it goes. The videos I watch say people often don't think about where the trash goes and when you watch videos there often doesn't seem a place to put it.

It made me wonder about using a trash compactor.

We had one in my old house and removed it when we remodeled as it doesn't seem to really help when you have a huge bin outside.
But when you can't just "take out the trash" it might help to reduce the volume.

Now this goes against my simple is better approach, because the compactor will fail, but if it does you are not any worse off than not having it seems to me.

Not as common, but sometimes they show up for free.

[banman]

Really depends on how you'll be living --

I've always considered the device a waste of engineering time, space, and resources inside the modern home but the skoolie environment is a bit different and the question of trash storage until disposal is a relevant one.

Boondocking for weeks in bear country means securing your trash carefully.

RV parks means there's a paid for dumpster nearby at all times.

It boggles my mind how much trash the neighbors put out every week!

I compost our vegetable scraps but this amounts to only a gallon a week unless we're husking corn and eating watermelon -- seems like those two items generate a gallon/wk on their own!

cardboard and empty cans/plastic bottles gets recycled -- varies by beer intake, aluminum cans are crushable...
Boondockers should probably avoid glass bottles...

Actual trash amounts to only about 4 gals by vol for me, the missus, and the dog, while the neighbors have 2 or 3 30gal bags out!!!

BUT proper recycling requires rinsing which requires water -- a precious commodity while boondocking unless you have a natural water source nearby. Perhaps a grey water system could be used for rinsing recyclables...?

If I were boondocking a lot I'd treat my food carrying like I do while backpacking -- strip off the needless packaging and throw away the waste before heading out on the trip so I don't have to deal with it on the trip.

[BeNimble]

I think I will buy a trash compactor tomorrow. I don't have trash pickup at my shop, I have to haul it to the landfill if I want to dispose of it. So trash compactor might help, but why I'm thinking about one again for the tiny house I'm thinking it will result in less water usage, as some videos i've seen say they use a lot of water for washing dishes. We actually use paper plates at home most of the time. They don't need cleaning, we just put them in the trash. As paper they decompose rather quickly. I make scrambled eggs in the microwave on paper plates. Nothing to cleanup.

[ennonne]

Grew up with a trash compactor. It smashed EVERYTHING. Was fun to put stuff in it and flatten it. Really cut down on the trash volume.

Tried one recently to crush stuff for recycling. I could step on cans and bottles and crush them better.

So, research what you buy. Make sure it's up the task.

[BeNimble]

So I picked up the Jenn-Air compactor, it was $20, owner was updating his kitchen, and got a new one. Wife wanted to have one, their contractor wanted them to eliminate it..
It is really heavy, more than I expected. It must have a pretty big motor in it.
I will mess with it over the next few days and see how it work or if I can lighten it up, because as-is, i'm guessing 100-150lbs, two of us needed to lift it!
So maybe it CAN crush cans pretty well? and btw, lol on playing crusher with one.

[Native]

My experience is that:
1) They tend to fill up slower than other bins, so they stink more.
2) The real TOUGH bags that are needed as getting harder to find.
3) If the crushing feature fails, they are still useful as a handy place to store the trash.


Due to #1 and #2 above we now use ours as #3 and take it out once a week.

[JackE]

Wow! I had no idea they cost so much. At $1,000+, I think my boot will continue to work just fine!

[BeNimble]

The trash can is closed inside the box, but I can believe it when it opens up to put more in, particularly as we had a garbage disposal in the house, and the rv will get it all in the trash.

This is the spec on the $20 unit I got, 5.5 amps, so not crazy at 660 watts.