Do You Recycle?

[ACooper]

Yes, it seems my city picks up dang near everything... including yard waste for community composting.

Same here, and I love it!

We have two 13 gallon trash cans in the kitchen. I marked one with the recycle symbol on top, and all recycle items go in there together (our town picks them up every two weeks in one bin they provided) except aluminum cans. Our boys save those for the extra money since we have paying a recycle center a few blocks from here

Like others have said, I can't imagine tossing recyclable goods in with regular trash, and reallly, it bugs me when I see the neighbors do it! LOL, it's such a small thing you can do to help out in the big picture.

I feel the same about reusable bags. We reused our grocery bags before it was "cool" I'd buy the heavy plastic ones for 10 cents each (years ago!) or the canvas book bags and use them over and over. I LOVED it when the cloth type started showing up everywhere!

There are so many teeny tiny things each of us could do EVERY DAY to help......insignificant things in our daily lives that add up to a big difference IMO. I don't consider myself a "hippy" (as my son lovingly teases me about, LOL) or anything like that, but come on.......somethings are not only good for the planet, they are GREAT for your pocket

 

[crazedACD]

Not really. I wouldn't mind, really, but we don't have recycling. We don't even have a dump you can go to and bring large items. Trash isn't done by the town, it's done by private companies, and as far as I know ours doesn't do recycling.

We do have the 5c back on soda cans and bottles. We go through a lot of cans, but, even after rinsing them out we kept getting ants so we really don't anymore.

 

[BostonBanker]

We have 2 65 gallon containers- one for trash, and one for recycling. We don't have to sort the recycling which is really nice.

Same here, and it really is nice. We recycle a lot more now that we have a big rolling can for it. It used to be a pain with those little blue boxes that would overflow, tip and spill as soon as it got windy.

I admit, I'm not a recycling nazi. There are a few things that just go in the trash - I'm not cleaning out enough of the peanut butter jar to get it clean enough for the trash. And I do often clean my car when I'm pumping gas, so any recyclables that are in the car at that point just go in the trash can at the pump.

Our recycling is definitely bigger than our trash at home.

 

[ruffiangirl]

We have three recycle bins from the city, so we use them, I keep my bottles myself for the money lol. They just don't take any glass and we have to sort it ourselves.

But now they are complaining because of where we are leaving them during the week, because they are in front of people houses, not on the street, just in front.

 

[OutlineACDs]

I used to. I moved to a part of town without city trash pickup. It sucks. We pay a private trash service and they don't do recycling.

We do save a good amount of our plastic bottles or reusable containers and I reuse them however I can.

 

[Snark]

We're rural, so a private company provides trash pickup, with no recycling.

We do recycle as much as we can, though, and take it to the next town ourselves every couple of weeks. We do plan a shopping trip, or visiting the folks, or some other activity such as scootering at a nearby park, so we're not just burning gas to go to the recycling center and home again.

 

[Greenmagick]

We have pick up here but back in the day when we didn't we just sorted it all and brought it to a recycling center. I can't imagine not recycling.

Our food scraps all go to compost or animals as well.

 

[GipsyQueen]

Same here, and I love it!

We have two 13 gallon trash cans in the kitchen. I marked one with the recycle symbol on top, and all recycle items go in there together (our town picks them up every two weeks in one bin they provided) except aluminum cans. Our boys save those for the extra money since we have paying a recycle center a few blocks from here

Like others have said, I can't imagine tossing recyclable goods in with regular trash, and reallly, it bugs me when I see the neighbors do it! LOL, it's such a small thing you can do to help out in the big picture.

I feel the same about reusable bags. We reused our grocery bags before it was "cool" I'd buy the heavy plastic ones for 10 cents each (years ago!) or the canvas book bags and use them over and over. I LOVED it when the cloth type started showing up everywhere!

There are so many teeny tiny things each of us could do EVERY DAY to help......insignificant things in our daily lives that add up to a big difference IMO. I don't consider myself a "hippy" (as my son lovingly teases me about, LOL) or anything like that, but come on.......somethings are not only good for the planet, they are GREAT for your pocket

In Germany they basically force you to use your own bags. Plastic or Paper bags cost 0.10€ each and it's just not worth it. So we just have all these canvas bags or baskets that we bring and put our stuff in. It's much less of a hassel anyways because the others tend to break. -.-

 

[LindaJD]

We basically have to recycle. My town only gives you one barrel for your trash each week and with 6 people that fills up fast. They let you fill up as many containers as you want with recycle stuff though. I am amazed though at how much stuff they don't recycle. The guys that pick up our recycle stuff just throw anything that can't be recycled out of your recycle barrels on your lawn. They won't take pizza boxes, styrofoam or plastic bags. We had a plastic solar cover we had to throw away and we cut it up into the right size strips and they just tossed it all over our lawn. I called the place and they said they won't take solar covers. I had to throw a few strips in my trash each week. Took about 20 weeks to get rid of it all.

 

[ACooper]

they don't take pizza boxes linda? I would assume we are talking card board containers?

They throw rejected items all over your lawn? Oh that company needs a reminder of who pays their wages.....and the towns folk should remind!

 

[RedHotDobe]

We're provided with a trash bin and a recycling bin. If you use the bins they provide, you don't pay for service. The trash bin is easily half the size of the recycling, so while they aren't forcing you to recycle, everything is not going to fit into the trash bin. We've recycled for as long as I can remember, so it's not that big of a deal. In Montgomery County there's a bag tax. So you either bring your own bag or pay for each one you use.

 

[Snark]

The guys that pick up our recycle stuff just throw anything that can't be recycled out of your recycle barrels on your lawn. They won't take pizza boxes, styrofoam or plastic bags.

Well, very few places take styrofoam and plastic bags can usually be recycled at the grocery store or Walmart, but, throwing the stuff on your lawn??? :yikes:

I'd be taking photos (or a video if you can catch them in the act) and sending them to the local news stations, and probably the cops - isn't littering illegal?

 

[LindaJD]

they don't take pizza boxes linda? I would assume we are talking card board containers?

They throw rejected items all over your lawn? Oh that company needs a reminder of who pays their wages.....and the towns folk should remind!

Nope, no pizza boxes are allowed, No containers that are from take out either. I know people have called and complained to the company and the town and have gotten no where. I used to just burn the pizza boxes in my fireplace but now we have gas logs in there. So now we cut them up small and put them in the trash. Makes me hate to order pizza now which can be a good thing.

I hate that we are so limited on trash space, used to be able to throw just about anything out. Now if we buy a new lamp, the old one takes up so much space in our trash, so we end up having to dismantle it as much as we can. We can call for a bulk pick up but can only throw away 3 things at a time, so buying say like new patio furniture, it takes 3 weeks to get rid of the old stuff. They closed our town dump years ago and I am glad they did, just remembering the stuff that used to get tossed in there in the 60's and 70's makes me cringe, so glad I don't live close by to that site.
I don't mind recycling, just wish our recyclers weren't so picky. I do recycle what I can.

 

[Greenmagick]

Pizza boxes used to be no here to because of the grease, cheese, etc. They take them now though

 

[sparks19]

We recycle bottles and cans. Most everything else goes to the trash. Our area has clean burning incinerators where they burn trash for energy

 

[ruffiangirl]

In Germany they basically force you to use your own bags. Plastic or Paper bags cost 0.10€ each and it's just not worth it. So we just have all these canvas bags or baskets that we bring and put our stuff in. It's much less of a hassel anyways because the others tend to break. -.-

My city doesn't basically force you to, they totally force you too. They banned plastic 'single use' bags, it's a bs law to make us look better on the world stage because od obamas whole dirt oil bs campaign. But now we see these stupid bags that are worth something like 100 regular bags in the ditches by the dozens because really the buck he cost is not a whole lot to people up here. The guests at the hotel leave them all.the.time we started giving them to the food bank...now the food bank has literally thousands of these stupid bags! More then the could ever use in a year, but the oh companies also donate cases of them a few times a year, lol. I end u using way more plastic because I have to buy garbage bags, bags for the cat litter, poop bags hints I rarely bought before.