Establishing our own communities gives us the opportunity to completely restrict any undesirable substances, such as Styrofoam.  It also gives us the opportunity to acquire goods produced within the community that will not have plastic for packaging. We can also use the community co-op to collectively purchase in bulk, again avoiding plastic and similar waste, and getting much better prices.

Waste management includes the handling of human waste, animal waste, other biodegradable substances, recyclable items, and non-recyclable items. All these waste products must be considered in relationship to the land and to the economical use of water and other valuable resources.

Human waste is best handled by the use of self-composting toilets and recycling of gray water. Self-composting toilets require little or no water. A properly installed toilet does not smell, the volume of waste is reduced to around 20% (called humus) by aerobic bacteria. Depending upon the type of unit, the waste is either manually removed once a year in self-contained units, or simply replenishes the soil several feet under the ground where contamination is not a problem.

Grey water can be treated and used for irrigation or other purposes. We do not need septic tanks or municipal processing of human waste, both of which require tremendous amounts of water. Please see the page on Water for more information especially regarding codes for water supply and treatment.

Animal waste can be handled by using separate areas for the animals, keeping barns and stalls clean, and cleaning up whenever animals are in community residential areas. Horse manure catchers are now common in cities that have horse-drawn carriages. Animal waste is a valuable commodity and will be put to good use for compost, fuel, and other uses. 

Other biodegradable waste such as garden and food scraps are very important and should be utilized by each individual family as compost.

Recyclable items should be brought to one of several recycling locations, primarily at the community co-op store. These stations will be designated areas with bins for keeping the various items separate such as metal, paper, and plastic. The community co-op store will attempt to find sources outside the community willing to pay for such recyclables in bulk quantity, and will be responsible for transporting them to recycling centers in nearby cities.

Non-recyclable items should be minimized as much as possible. The recycling stations and community coop store will also have bins for these.

There is considerable information from many sources on waste and recycling. Each community should implement everything at the family/home level which makes the community-level management very easy.

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