Solving Odor Problems

Are you like me? Are you as concerned about the environmental impact of the hundreds of thousands of ultra strong garbage bags being added to our land fill garbage dumps every day as I am? Do you wonder how many years will it take these bags to decompose and release the nutrients harbored in the garbage back into the environment?

The answers to these questions are:

1. I hope so
2. Land fills are filling up with encapsulated garbage very quickly and not releasing the trapped neutralists back into our environment.
3. Deterioration super strength plastic garbage bags takes way too long measured in years

There are several strategics that will substantially reduce the number of plastic garbage bags entering our land fills every day.

1. Use your garbage disposal for all your organic garbage.
2. Use paper grocery bags as garbage bags instead of plastic bags.
3. Use the largest plastic garbage bag you can to reduce the number of plastic bags you use.
4. Buy and use products that create a minimal amount of garbage/trash.
5. Recycle all reusable/recyclable trash.

If you don’t have a garbage disposal or you have a septic system that will not accept garbage you are left with only 4 alternatives. And bagging table scraps and cooking waste is just about the only alternative most of us have. Bagging can quickly become a very smelly alternative so the obvious solution to the odor problem is to simply take the garbage out and start a fresh odor free garbage bag. If you are using the increasingly hard to find paper grocery bags that decompose quickly both in the land fills and in your garbage cans the environmental impact is reduced substantially. But they are a poor substitute for plastic for controlling wet garbage.

No doubt you have seen the garbage bag TV commercials for Glad^® OdorShield^® garbage bags and the Hefty^® Odor Block^® garbage bags. I must admit the commercials are quite compelling until you actually see the item at the store and learn that the Glad^® bags have 3 scents to choose from.  The Hefty^® bags say that they are unscented. If you are a scented candle kind of  person, using a scented garbage bag is probably an acceptable alternative to using a product that actually removes the offensive odors from the garbage bag and prevents the odors from contaminating the air in your kitchen or pantry or where ever you choose to hide you kitchen garbage container.

The alternative is quite simple and inexpensive. OdorXit Magic’s secret formula of water based essential oils is a deodorant that is sprayed into an empty garbage bag or container with the included mist sprayer. It continues to absorb garbage odors produced by the contents of your garbage bag for days. Yes, only 1 or 2 pumps of the mist sprayer will protect your kitchen from garbage odor for at least a week or more and when you finally do take out the full garbage bag, your garbage can will benefit from the lack of offensive odor and the environment will benefit by you using fewer plastic garbage bags.

OdorXit Magic  absorbs the odors produced by the items in your recycle bin too. Just a couple of pumps on the inside of the bag of box and the odor is gone.

Where can you find this magical product? On the OdorXit Web site of course, but you can also find it is selected hardware stores in southwestern Ohio and a growing number of Big Bob carpet stores in Ohio. Visit our Retail Store Locator for our growing list of retail outlets.

What do you do when you have a really big or bad mold problem. We are not talking about a musty smell in the closet or a little musty smell in the basement. I am addressing mold this can be easily seen growing on walls, ceilings, furniture, etc.

When there is lots of visible mold growing on drywall, it is very common for the mold to be growing all the way though the drywall. There is nothing the can be done to kill the mold that has progressed to this point mostly because the drywall has already wet with water to some extent. Even as little as 2 or 3 inches of water at the bottom of the drywall can quickly result into 4 or 5 feet of mold growing in the drywall.

Even removing the moldy drywall needs to be handled with considerable care. The care is to protect the workers and the rest of the facility so that it is not contaminated with the mold being removed. Just disposing of the infected drywall can be a challenge. Many garbage dumps will not accept moldy drywall unless in is double bagged with 6 mil plastic bags.

Workers should be using tyvek suites and full face respirators while they are removing and bagging the drywall. A worker who either refuses to ware the proper garb because it is too hot of just doesn’t want to ware them needs to be removed from the project. Their choice or not, there are lawyers out there that will sue you on behalf of the refuseniks and win big settlements. After all, the worker is permanently infected with mold that can severely impair their health for the rest of their life.

That being said, living in a mold infected house or apartment or even working in a mold infected work place can and will effect you for the rest of your life generally in a very negative way. Even spending as little a 30 minutes in a heavily mold infected area can make you sick as it does in my case. Sick is defined as having a high fever for 2 to 4 hours.

Light infestations is a completely different problem and I have discussed it in detail elsewhere.