I'm not waste free yet either, but I track my waste by stockpiling it in the shed, until I make my annual trip to the transfer station with my
one sack of actual garbage, and various sorted recyclables. This gives me a year to find a use for things--corrugated cardboard for pathway
mulch; thin cardboard for cutting out templates, patterns, tag labels and tent
cards; office paper can be used to make handmade "art" papers, which I've sold; and
feed sacks (I still buy livestock feed) are a wonderful source of kraft paper, and also serve as bags to hold said recyclables.
Veggie waste is composted; meat bones get brothed, then burned, then (formerly) composted, until I read that
ash is problematic in the compost and/or in the garden; and I've been composting
humanure for a couple of years, now.
In the community, one lady I know recycles old jeans for various sewing projects; another takes old woollen garments to pull apart for felting projects, so that's where those items go, when even I admit that they're thrashed. There's a group in the next town that makes rag rugs. The parent advisory committee has a refundable bottle drop-off, and takes donated bottles to the bottle depot and collects the funds for optional extras for the schoolkids. The community garden accepts veggie scraps for its compost; the local café is happy to donate their kitchen trimmings. The local newsletter and noticeboards often have "free to a good home" notices for various things. There is almost an
underground economy in
pallets and clean planks. We have one lady who'll take and tan unwanted hides, and another who will maintain your
fruit trees for a share of the fruit, some of which she puts up for sale. And I will scrounge burn piles for building materials.
What goes in my garbage? Broken glass, uncoded plastics, plastic-lined paper bags and paint rags which are neither recyclable, compostable, or burnable; worn out Styrofoam egg crates that people include with the cardboard ones they give me; and unidentifiable objects.