This article, while certainly being presented to be read by the world at large, is especially dedicated to those wonderful, selfless, underappreciated members of the family (or roommates,) who day-in, day-out perform that thankless and unglamorous task of gathering up the household castoffs (AKA garbage and recyclables,) and schlep all of it from the kitchen out to their respective containers on the side of/at the back of the house. Yes, YOU, and you know who you are…winter, spring, summer and fall, wind and rain, sleet and snow–you are the one who is saddled with the responsibility of taking out the trash. First, thank you for your tireless efforts, your rare (if ever heard) complaints and your willingness to serve the other members of your household in such an important way.
While the dedication and hard work you apply to trash schlepping seem to often go unnoticed and unappreciated, the truth is that if you were to ever go on strike, they would then finally get an idea of just how much of a much-needed service you silently perform, day after day. This information that follows is for you, to hopefully reduce the frequency with which you must schelp, and in turn, provide you with a little more “me” time.
True Fact: After Things Become Trash, They Expand
Do you ever question how the volume of trash you take out of the house seems to be far greater than the volume of everything you bring into the house? It’s like it swells in some way too outlandish proportions–and even on days when you can’t really think of that many things which you might have tossed into the recycling bin or the trash can–you can be sure that there will be enough trash to warrant your much-needed services.
This anomaly has plagued trash schleppers for a long time, and especially since the dawn of individual packaging and disposable “stuff” of every imaginable kind. There has been no one to ever crack the code nor even make any discernable headway toward preventing this questionable expansion from occurring. And so, it would appear that we must simply accept that trash grows, and in our acknowledgment of this mystery, we must press on to find other forms of sanely coping.
Score a Big One for the Trash Haulers of the Home
Seeing as to how there is no way to understand nor prevent household trash from multiplying, there is still hope. This hope for our trash and for our future as trash haulers lies in the brilliant invention and now prevalent availability of a little device known as a trash compactor. A trash compactor allows for much more household garbage to accumulate while actually taking up less room, at the same time. You might say that what a trash compactor does is to quickly and effectively remove all the air that exists within the trash can so that what results is actual trash, and nothing else.
Just think in terms of how ultra-lightweight those huge trash bags you’ve been hauling outside usually are. What you are mostly hauling is AIR. So, if you remove all that unnecessary air from the bag, what you end up with is pure trash. This not only means far fewer trips out to the outside trash cans, but you are also going to be discarding a significantly lower volume of air, which is something we never want to be short on.
Trash Compactors 101
Basically, a trash compactor is a device that literally smashes up all your discards into considerably smaller packages for disposal. And not only is this a great move toward going green and saving your energy too, but compacted trash is a much better way to fill up our landfills, as what you are adding to the landfill contents is compacted and will not pose the potential problem of future shifting that is inherent in conventionally disposed of trash.
A trash compactor is typically built into the cabinetry that occupies the bottom half of your kitchen, and there are pull out forms, which are the most popular, although not the only types available. So, let’s say you have some trash to throw away. All you do is get to your trash compactor, and, instead of placing that trash in a conventional trash can, you place it into the compactor. The trash compactor then crushes everything you have placed into it with a metal ram that produces much smaller and manageable pieces.
The pieces are disposed of in a trash compactor bag. Trash compactors are really very simple in their design, only consisting of a few parts: there’s the metal ram for crushing the trash, the actual bin where you place the trash and the switch you use to turn it on and off.
Operating Details
To operate a trash compactor, all you do is open the door and load up the bin. And you can crush plastic bottles with a trash compactor. You just need to place these into the bin at the bottom (or first, before adding more trash) and make sure to lay them on their side. Generally, the larger pieces of trash should be added to the center area of the bin. Trash compactors come with a smart sensor that will actually alert you if you have somehow loaded your trash in the wrong way. Keep adding trash items until it is full, and then all you do is close the door and hit the “on” switch.
Proper Loading for Smooth Operation
Trash compactors are one of the best innovations when it comes to recycling. There are even owners of trash compactors who have gone on to separate their recyclables in order to sell them. By using a compactor, these materials take up significantly less room, so it’s far easier to accumulate a volume at home that would justify making a trip to sell them to a buyer. Whether you sell them or not, you will generally find that the whole process of recycling is much improved by trash compactors. Among the “sellable” items are aluminum cans, plastics, and cardboard products. When you don’t intend to sell them, you can crush them all together.
Warnings and Considerations
It is not recommended to ever put the glass into a trash compactor. This also applies to other things like chemicals, cans with contents under pressure, and if you aren’t careful about removing food waste from what you are compacting, you will more than likely be dealing with unwanted odors. Fill the bin up to the point where it is 50% full. Trash compactors are simple but can be dangerous. Disallow children from access to them by using the locking key that is provided. Keep the key in a safe place, always. Follow the manufacturer’s recommendations regarding safe operation.
