I know Bill and Barbara have one, but I was wondering if anyone else does. I found one REAL cheap on craigslist and am going to pick it up tomorrow.

I wanted to know just some basics on their operation. How do they work, do you compact the stuff right into the bag? What kind of stuff can be smashed? How much does it crush the stuff (how much does it reduce the size of trash)?

TIA!!!

 

have one and LOVE it - picked mine up from CL for 20 bucks and it was almost new

in my town they charge by the bag so for me it was a no-brainer. i can get two compacted bags in one home depot contactor bag and it's about 80+ lbs

don't buy special compactor bags just double up on the plastic kitchen bags and i would say mine reduces the trash by at least half if not 3/4. and it will crush 99% of your household trash ie cans, bottles, just about everything

a little tip - wait till it's 3/4 before you compact or you're just wasting electricty

 

Sweet! That was just the type of answer I needed! Thanks

 

avoid liquids and really sloppy stuff.
buy good bags. they will hold together. the cheap bargains are no bargain as they will tear when full.

as steve said. two really full compactor bags into one of the big contractor bags at the transfer station. sometimes i have a hard time lifting them.

 

Don't you guys have to recycle? They don't even take our trash if they find plastic, metal or glass in the trash. Freaken trash nazis around here.

 

for $96 a quarter.....I have 90 gallons of whatever/wk........still I recycle.

 

that's 400 a year for trash removal

our town does not have removal so my choices are

1) transfer station $50.00 a year and 2.00 a bag. when i live by myself i toss one home depot bag a month away (two compacted bags). so that's 75.00 a year

2) hire an outside company at 42 a month to pick up two barrels a week = 502 a year

and george we can recycle - i tend to toss the plastic detergent jugs, the cardboard and newspaper in separate bins at the transfer station and there's no cost for that except for the annual sticker

 

Wow, that's expensive.

I have the two options like Steve, but there are no $50/year fees. And, they allow you to count a 30 gallon trash can as a "bag" so you can cram a ton of stuff into one barrel and save money. This is where the compactor will shine!!!

We recycle all of our plastic/glass and I burn our cardboard in the back yard since I am too lazy to take it to the dump to recycle it there.

 

our transfer station got smart and created graduated pricing based on the size of the bag.

and we recycle plastics cans cardboard and newspapers.

material that has been in contact with food and is, well, yucky; goes into the compactor.

 

I like the compactor idea, but I don't think it'd work too well in my situation. My town doesn't offer any trash removal or recycling at all. The only thing I recycle is bottle/cans since I just take them to the supermarket and put them in the machine, recycling anything else would cost me ~$35 a month or so. I can pay a fee and the town will take hazardous materials like computer monitors and batteries, but that's about it. As far as trash collection, I'm left to pick from 3 or so private companies like BFI or Waste Management. No matter which one you pick, it comes to a little over $100 every 3 months. Since as a single guy, I only really produce a plastic shopping bag a week in trash, I just stuff it in the trash at either the gas station when I fill up or the trash at the McDonald's down the street. I have thought about the compactors... but this would make a big lump of trash that's a little harder to deal with than my current looser packed bag or trash a week or so. I think actually opening up the top of the trash baskets at either McDonald's or the gas station to dump a compacted bag would be a lot more suspect than just stuffing a relatively loosely packed bag in casually like I just cleaned a few things out of my car.