The Keep America Beautiful non-profit says one of the seven primary sources for litter is from household trash handling and collection.

When I walk through our neighborhood on trash collection day, I can believe this. After the garbage truck has made its rounds, there is often trash on the ground around the garbage bins.

So, it seems that we don’t always dispose of our trash properly. A few tips may be helpful!

Waste Management offers these trash disposal tips:
• Bag all your trash to help reduce odor and the spread of bacteria;
• Clean your trash bin to help with odor and insects; and
• Make sure the lid on your trash bin is closed as displayed in this Waste Management picture.

The City of Phoenix provides these tips:
• To help with insects and odors, bag and tie all your garbage;
• Clean the inside of your garbage container to help control odors; and
• Ensure your garbage container lid is on to keep rain and insects out and to prevent blowing garbage.

Hmm. Do you see a theme?

While it may seem silly to state it again, I am going to say it again anyhow. Put all your trash in a bag and tie the bag shut. Also, make sure there are no holes in your garbage bags. While some of these pieces of garbage laying by the bin on trash pick-up day may have slipped out of a bag; it is unlikely that all of them did.

Bag it up and tie it shut.

If you really want to go all in for the environment, you can use this multi-bin approach as suggested by ehow.com. This approach has you use three bins for (1) trash; (2) recycling; and (3) compost. Some of these are topics for another day.