21.11 Trash when there is no pickup

In your home or apartment, with heat above 95 °F (35 °C), trash with food scraps smells within a day, fills with flies, and attracts cockroaches, rats, and opossums. The key is to separate what rots from what does not.

1. Separate into three: (1) food scraps and dirty packaging, (2) dry and clean (cardboard, rinsed cans, plastic), (3) human and pet waste, always kept apart.
2. Reduce what rots: open cans you can finish in one meal, serve just enough, and do not prepare extra (chapter 22).
3. Drain and rinse: pour liquids into the toilet (if the sewer works) and rinse cans with gray water. Crush cans and boxes to save space.
4. Double-bag and tie wet trash, with the air pushed out. Close it every day.
5. Take it out of your home or apartment to a lidded bin in the yard, in the shade. Never leave loose bags on the ground: animals tear them open.
6. Do not pile it by the exit door or block hallways or stairs in the complex: they are escape routes in a fire.
7. Do not burn trash. In an apartment complex it is dangerous, and the city and county may ban burning.
8. Wait for instructions from your city's solid waste services (311 in many cities) on when and where to take it; the complex's dumpsters may overflow.