Reducing waste in the house

As the second bag of trash, for the day, needs to go out, I am sitting here contemplating our need to cut down our trash out put. We made a semi-attempt to recycle until the fruit flies infested so bad they about carried away the bins with their tiny annoying wings. But I think it may be time to revisit this issue. With our four boys, the man of the house, myself, and my two year old nephew I watch daily, our trash seems to have a mind and body of its own in our kitchen.

Since having kids our kitchen trash can has never been and will never be the small can hidden underneath the sink that is out of sight and out of mind. If we could I would roll the big ol' green can at the curb into the kitchen and use it. We really make that much trash a day. In the attempt to eat fresh I find myself saying I'm going to compost our produce scraps but they always seem to find a way into the ever growing monster of a garbage can everyday along any and everything that gets broken, spilled, dropped, wiped off, and my nephews stinky disposable diapers. I am to a point now that something has to change. My plan for tomorrow is to re-purpose one of the empty Rubbermaid tubs in my basement into a compost bin for our spring garden. I figure if I start now in mid-September, I should have a good stock pile of black gold for the ground by April when early crops can go in.

The plan:

1 empty rubbermaid container from our basement with matching lid
1 electric drill
lots of paper, cardboard, banana peels, egg shells, and leaves from the yard.

I am going to drill holes around the bottom side walls of the bin and start layering my "brown" and "green" materials. Hopefully this will reduce our trash input. Sending these things to the landfill to decompose doesn't bother me as much as them being trapped inside a plastic garbage bag that takes 20 years or whatever to disintegrate.


Next steps:

1 game plan for an enclosed three part outdoor recycling bin

Our small farm town doesn't offer curbside recycling like the big towns and cities do but we do have a community recycling drop off dumpster by city hall. It has to have the capability to be transported to another location. I'm thinking a 2x4 frame with wheels and some kind of containers (maybe rubbermaids) with lids.
Suggestions always welcome!