Recycling

[supersurgilator]

I was just wondering what your guys opinions were about recycling and whether or not you feel it is important. I realize that many of you are older and didn't have to do such things when you were younger. And seriously are we any worse of today because of it?

 

[qsd-dan]

I recycle everything possible. Recently, our city issued a rather large bin for recycling just about any material. That includes cardboard, any plastics with a 1-7 HDPE rating, any type of metal, ect. It has cut the regular trash accumulation down by 75+ percent. Having 3 cans (regular trash, yard waste, and recycling) takes up a bit of side yard space, but it's worth having more than enough avenues to dispose just about anything with lots of "can" space left over.

 

[brisnat81]

We've got two 250L bins, 1 for Rubbish which is emptied weekly and a Recycling that is emptied fortnightly.

Recycling bin takes Glass bottles and jars, Plastics with a HDPE lable, Cardboard and paper.

We now half fill the Rubbish bin each week and the Recycling bin is full by about day 9 of 14.

To Answer the question "Are we any worse off for not recycling?" Growing up we burnt everything in the incinerator, then Rubbish collection arrived and it was a godsend. The city I live in is running out of Landfill space. Most of the large old tips are now Dropoff centre's and the remaining tips are almost full. Our councils plan is to eventually be recycling everything removing the need for Landfill. I dont see an issue with that, there is only so much land that can be used for landfill.

Interestingly, the old tips that are dotted around the city usually now under parklands are being used to collect Methane from the decomposing waste underground.

 

[rp2813]

I might be considered OCD when it comes to recycling. I even remove the paper labels from cans before tossing both into the bin inside the house. Our recycling cart is always full. The garbage cart is often only half full. My partner still throws cans and other recyclables into the garbage but I've stopped the practice of digging them out. I'm not THAT OCD!

 

[xraytech]

We do not recycle here.
If it is burnable we will burn it on Sunday, the rest goes to the garbage on Sunday night.

We do however save aluminum cans to be turned in at the scrap yard for cash

 

[panthera]

Wastefulness is a relatively

new phenomena, found primarily in the United States.
The rest of the advanced world has always placed enormously more emphasis on recycling than the consumer driven culture of post-WWII America.

America is returning to the more traditional American concept of thrift over wastefulness. It's ironic that the conservatives/nationalists and christianists are the strongest opponents of recycling, anyone with even basic knowledge of economics knows that raw material reuse is almost always economically advantageous.

To answer the question, when I was young, the Öko-facists here in Germany made life very difficult for anybody who didn't subscribe to their concept of precision recycling. There were five containers for glass, and three for metals here in Munich, never mind the rest. I resented the "re-training" mentality enormously and used to throw the blue bottles into the clear containers on purpose, just to protest. One blue would "ruin" 10,000 clear and the early sorting systems couldn't "see" it as blue
Today, the matter is resolved with containers for all plastics, all colors of glass, all metals, all cellulose, all compost and "Restmüll" being the standard.
Some American cities are experimenting with just one home container for all recyclables and this is definitely the best way to go.

 

[rapidry1000]

In San Francisco almost 70 percent of the trash is recycled or composted. The City recently passed a law mandating composting all food waste along with the garden clippings. My trash now mostly consist of items for recycling or composting and maybe at most two supermarket bags of garbage. Two issues have arisen in such a compact city-where to store the three bins(black for garbage, blue for recycling, and green for food and garden material) after pickup and getting renters to compost their food scraps. The local scavenger company boast that certain Napa Valley wines are the product of San Francisco composting efforts.

 

[tolivac]

Recycling can be a good thing if it is put in proper perspective-lets not make it complicated.I take my trash to a transfer station-its cheaper for me-curbside pickup is expensive my way-taxes don't pay for it-you pay it yourself-and rent the trash bin.There is no recycle bin.When you take the trash to the transfer station-just put the items into the marfked dumpsters-trash goes into the NEW BAKER compactor-the old Marathon one has been replaced.Will have to see the Baker one work.Some things about the scrap collected-there is ALWAYS markets for the metal scrap-Aluminum,copper,steel-but not always for paper and plastic-if the market value for the paper,plastic scrap is low----it can end up at the landfill.Its like things brought to Salvation Army and others go to a new home-the things could get thrown out by them.Look at the dumpsters and compactors behind some thrift and SA stores!

 

[rp2813]

All of our recycling goes into a single cart, and we can pile more out that won't fit in the cart. Yard clippings go in a green cart or can be piled in the street. There is no mandatory composting yet.

When I was growing up, everybody had an incinerator of some kind. People would burn leaves in the gutter. Those were smokey times.

It was recently reported that although we are supposed to recycle polystyrene, it doesn't get recycled; it goes to land fill anyway. I'm wondering if I'd get in trouble for putting polystyrene straight into the garbage cart for efficiency's sake.

 

[mattl]

I'd recycle if it was easy, but here it's not -- so I don't. All the trash goes into the trash bin regardless, and a lot of it's easily recyclable, glass, metal and plastic - but there are no local drop offs and our curbside service is free and does not support recycling.

 

[dj-gabriele]

I'm bipolar when it comes at recycling. LOL
At my parents we have 4 labeled (family name I mean) trash cans, one for not recyclable/burnable/organic rubbish, one for glass and metal, one for paper and one for plastic.
Rubbish gets collected every other day, even on holidays, if they're in the week, the others get collected once a week when "normal" rubbish isn't collected, first paper, then plastic and finally on saturday glass and metal.
If you don't recycle (or do it wrong) first you get a notice and, at the third time of wrongdoing you get a fine of up to 500 € (740USD/450GBP).

Here in Bologna I almost don't recycle, only put away glass and metal in a bag outside and empty it in the bin past the square, I'm sorry but everything else goes in the dump. This because I learned that the rubbish of our city isn't "properly" re-cycled but just burned for a cogeneration plant in Ferrara (a town nearby), so there's no point in differentiation it.

Anyway, other than this, I'm a big pro for recycling ad it should be compulsive everywhere and the fines for the wrongdoers should be even higher.

 

[alr2903]

I am willing to pay extra, one truck let them separate it, save the emissions of the recycling truck. I think it's a money racket. If they really wanted to DO something, bring back deposit bottles that can be returned. Now theres a place for corporate America to help out. I take all our credit card bills and "courtesy checks" from credit card company's to my brothers in the country and burn them, fire cures identity theft. alr2903

 

[ronhic]

To say we're big on recycling here is an understatement.

Here is a blurb from the ACT government website and a link to our progress towards 'No waste by 2010'

'The ACT was the first government in the world to set a goal of achieving NO WASTE going to landfill. Launched in 1996, the Waste Management Strategy for Canberra has been developed to set the vision and future directions for waste management in the Australian Capital Territory'

http://www.tams.act.gov.au/live/Recycling_and_Waste/The_No_Waste_Strategy/statistics

 

[jamiel]

We've got about the best solution I can conceive of here in Southeast Oakland County...they recycle everything in a single bin once a week. After observing how they do it, I put the paper items into a bag, then everything else loose into the bin. 35 gallon or less waste cans or bags (we have under a full can every week, but put it out for the routine). They suck up leaves from the gutter from October-December (just rake them), otherwise pick up paper bagged yard waste year-round. Appliances etc are picked up once a month, no appointment needed. About 5 miles from here is a transfer station which recycles everything else (haz mats, fluorescent lights, books, clothing, etc)

 

[jons1077]

Portland, OR

I'm originally from Texas where recycling is virtually non-existant. Recycling was encouraged in Virginia but living in a very small condo made that virtually impossible. Portland, OR however seems to be really big on this.

We have 4 different cans. Yellow (glass), blue (paper/plastic/cans), green (lawn debris), and a trash can. With the two of us and three pets, we go through our fair share of trash however the majority of it is recycled now. That blue can is always the first to fill up and goes out every week. The trash I usually through out food and pet waste. That's about it and only about 1 bag a week loosely full.

I do a lot of cooking and I have no problem rinsing out cans and plastics before recycling them. The key was having those seperate cans and of course requiring us to do it. Everyone here HAS to do this but it's well worth it.

Jon

 

[rollermatic]

if it burns

i burn it in the wood burning stove that i heat with.

if it's food it goes on a compost pile or down the in sink erator or in the wood stove.

if it's metal i take it to a recycling place up the street.

that doesn't leave much for me to worry about, just some plastic odds and ends that i throw in a bag and take to work and deposit in our dumpster.

i'm all for recycling, but more in a do it yourself way with the compost pile and the wood stove. the less i get involved with other institutions the better! i got rid of rumpke years ago!

 

[revvinkevin]

I'm in the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area and here each city seems to have there own recycling program. In my city we have two carts/bins, one for trash and yard waste, the other for all recyclables (paper, glass, plastic, metal, etc). Some other cities have 3 or 4 different bins for separating yard waste, paper, plastic, metals, etc. But this is ONLY for the single family home or 2 - 4 plex. Most all apartment and condo buildings (those that have large dumpster bins) do not have a recycling option.

I change my own oil in my cars and I do not put the used oil or oil filters in the trash. I will not throw used small batteries (C-D-AA etc), or broken or unwanted electronics in the trash. I share a small office at work with 4 others and I am the only one with a paper recycling bin at my desk. Fortunately "most" of the 4 others who share this office will put their paper waste in my bin.

For the last 15 or maybe 20 years I've made a conscience effort to do my part and recycle. I am not a hard core environmentalist, but I do try to do my part to protect the one and only planet we live on.

When I visited Munich, Germany a few years ago I stayed with friends in their homes. I was surprised to learn that sorting and recycling is MANDATORY and if you do not, you will be fined.

Europe (or the rest of the world, for that matter) has been miles ahead of the US for a long time, in terms of recycling programs and I can only hope that one day, we (in the US) are WILLING and able to do the same. The problem is getting people to CARE enough about it to actually do it.

(just my 2 cents worth)

Kevin

 

[rp2813]

We've had a city-sponsored recycling system for nearly 30 years. Up until maybe 10 years ago, we had to separate out our recyclables into three stacking milk crate type bins, but now it all goes into the same cart. We can also request plastic jugs for recycling used crankcase oil.

I'm kind of amazed at how many people are advising they have no recycling system of any kind where they live.

 

[westie2]

We have had the recycle for the past 15 years here. City furnishes the bins for us to use everything goes in bin to be recycled. We have trash pickup twice a week and recycle once a week. Since the city started this our trash collection has not gone up like other cities in the area. Also in the early spring and late fall we have a week of city picking up anything from used matteress's to what ever including old tires without rims.