When it comes to the environment, you don't have to do everything perfect.
You just have to do something conscientiously.
In my yard I have a series of holes that were dug with the heavy equipment used to lay the foundation of my house. I had these holes dug so I could plant trees, but now one of the holes is used as my compost. And every spring I plant a tree in that hole and start over in a new one.
I had tried composting before now, but I had never stuck to it because composting actually takes work. To do it right and have it break down in a timely manner you need to use these grub like worms, add nutrients, turn it, and water it. I stopped, because I would always end up with a pile of something worse than crap that I didn't want to go near. Now all I have to do is water it from a distance with the same hose I water the other trees because I bury it at least once a year.
After I built my house, composting became a necessity (and this may seem contradictory) because I installed a trash compactor. Compactors are great. I take a cube of trash less than the size of an average full bag of trash out of my 1800 square foot, three person residency on an average of every four weeks. I don't know how this compares to a national average but I have to believe it's a lot less because it is a whole helluva lot less than what I was sending to the dump before.
As you might imagine, having trash in your house for four weeks (even when it is contained in a compactor) offers its own unique challenges in terms of bugs, smells and soggy messes. This is where the half-ass compost pile and a strong understanding of the difference between trash and garbage comes in handy.
Garbage is basically kitchen waste. It's the unused leftovers, the food that has gone bad in the fridge, the corn husks, and the carrot tops and centers from the lettuce heads of the salads you make. It's all the waste from the kitchen minus the cardboard and plastic wrappers. Those wrappers are trash which is mostly recyclable. (Recycling materials alone can keep your trash output way down, but if you didn't know that then congratulations on making it this far in an article that you were probably forced to read)
Since I don't have as an effective composting pile as some other people, I still have to minimize what I send to the compost. My first option on this front of the garbage battle is my dogs. I give them what ever leftovers they will eat. Some say don't do this, but these are country dogs that are only one step above coyotes and I know my leftovers are not any worse than some of the rancid organisms I see them chewing on.
The next place I get rid of compost is the garbage disposal. This is probably the most common place to get rid of garbage so you probably know what you're doing but remember this: turn on the cold water full blast before you turn on the disposer and let it come up to full speed before you put anything into it and if you go slow enough you can chop up damn near anything (garbage wise).
Before I dispose of myself from this wasting away of thought on trash and garbage removal, I would like for you to think about two other things regarding waste removal.
Consider what you put your trash and garbage in to. Most people wrap this all up in the one material we've been told time and time again not to throw away. Plastic. I mean think about it. Most people actually pay money for plastic bags to put trash in to. Those bags, that we pay for, perform no other purpose than to be thrown away. Not only is it like throwing money right into the trash, it's throwing a nonrenewable natural resource right in to the dump where it won't break down any time this side of the apocalypse. Some simple ways to avoid wrapping your trash in plastic is to reuse paper grocery bags, cat litter bags, and dog and cat food bags.
Reuse everything to the max. Just because you can't use you're old stuff any more, doesn't mean somebody else can't. I'm not saying send a bag of trash to the Good Will once a week. But consider how some things, that might be useless to you, might come in handy to some one else. Let the folks at the Good Will make the decision if it's trash or not. They have a dumpster.
And consider using some things until your domain destroys them. If you have a couch that you think is so nasty you can't bring yourself to donate it to the Good Will because you believe it poses a legitimate health threat then think about moving it outside for your dogs or less desirable acquaintances to rest on. Then if somebody gives you crap about looking trashy, encourage them to throw the couch on to the bonfire. You've prevented it from going to the dump. And, besides, if you've never been to a party with a couch on fire then you've never lived.
These thoughts on the management of our renewable and nonrenewable resources might not be perfect but if your conscientious then I know you can come up with your own imperfect or perhaps even perfect solutions to these problems within our own life.