Recycling

[Tawny_Temptress]

Do you recycle?

 

[CurlyKat]

In Germany, recycling is the law. You have to separate out plastics, metal cans, white glass, brown (or colored) glass, green glass, and paper and cardboard products from your normal refuse. The trash is only collected once every other week anyway, so you'd better recycle or you'll have way too much trash! It's convenient, though, since there are recycling drop-offs every few blocks or so.

 

[Noor]

Mandatory recycling here too. Also you must pay for garbage pick up in my city but not recycling.

We used to have to separate out everything but now its just two bins-paper/cardboard and metal/plastic/glasses. We can also put wearable condition clothes and linens out for recycling in properly marked plastic bags.

 

[VelvetDarkness]

Here, paper/cardboard, cans and plastics are collected from my front door. Glass recycling I have to do at the local supermarket and I will confess that I'm not so fantastic at that one as I have no car to transport things in. Unwanted useful items I'll give to charity shops or needy friends.

Recycling is mandatory here where separate collection facilities and bins are available. If I don't separate rubbish I run the risk of a fine but that doesn't extend to glass because the council don't collect it. Some streets in the UK, particularly Victorian terraces, are too narrow for waste vehicles or there's no space for multiple collection bins.

 

[JMohegan]

Yes, of course.

 

[Homburg]

Depends on the item. We don't have city trash collection in my neighbourhood (something I'm still grumpy about), and, even then, the city did not pick up recycling here. As I don't have city trash, I also don't have access to the city dump or recycling centers, so I actually cannot recycle that way.

So, we do what we can. Anything still actively usable (clothes, toys, etc) goes to charity, and we do what we can for the rest. It does bug me to not get more recycled, but, frankly, I don't have access to the facilities that will take these items.

 

[DiscusDave]

Myself and my family used to a lot more than we do now. Our recycling is picked up once every week on the same day our garbage does. But as of late our recycling bin has broken and won't hold as much as it used to. To buy a new one, since you can only recycle in sanctioned and specially made/marked "recycling bins," we'd have to pay about $150 dollars. Something that's really at the bottom of our list right now on things to buy. So with the decreased amount of things we physically can recycle, we are forced to either save things for the next week in hope we have room then or just toss it.

At school though, my fraternity recycles a lot. We get ours picked up once a week at our house also, and we make sure we separate out as much as possible.

 

[bigdaddymackman]

Where I live you only get a certain number of containers that you can use for garbage
Our city has a limit of 4 containers per garbage pick up.
Some cities have even less.
If you want to put out more garbage they charge you a fee per container.

Recycling pick up is free and done on the same day. Glass/metals/paper/cardboard and most household packaging can be put in the "Blue Bin"

Other cities have the ability to recycle food waste as well. They have a separate container that is used. The unit is picked up the same day as the other recycle/garbage bins but it's contents are sent to a compost site. The by-products of which are used around the city in their gardens. People that live in the city are also given the opportunity to take some home and use it in their own gardens.

 

[bholderman]

Being out of work, and suddenly discovering my unemployment has been temporarily suspended (I still dont know why), Ive had to step up my recycling. Although I recycled before, I have become a dumpster diver in the last few weeks. A week of diving will fill the gas tank.

Its disgusting and a level of recycling I always looked down on. But at the same time, Im walking a mile in someone else's shoes...

 

[ownedsubgal]

Depends on the item. We don't have city trash collection in my neighbourhood (something I'm still grumpy about), and, even then, the city did not pick up recycling here. As I don't have city trash, I also don't have access to the city dump or recycling centers, so I actually cannot recycle that way.

So, we do what we can. Anything still actively usable (clothes, toys, etc) goes to charity, and we do what we can for the rest. It does bug me to not get more recycled, but, frankly, I don't have access to the facilities that will take these items.

do you have access to a local (non-city) dump? i just remember when i used to live in a very rural part of VA, there were small dumps in every town, and one local landfill. there was no trash pick-up of course. you couldn't recycle at the landfill, but you could recycle at least limited items...paper, cardboard, plastics...at each of the local dumps by placing them in a separate bin at the site.

 

[ownedsubgal]

oh and yeah we recycle here, and luckily we live in an area where it's very convenient to recycle anything imaginable...not just trash, but electronics like old cell phones, CPUs and monitors, etc. our city recently opened a single stream recycling facility, so there is no longer an excuse for the lazy bones who don't want to be bothered separating plastics from glass from papers, etc. now you can throw it all together, place it in your lil bin and put your bin on the curb every thursday. the Maryland Recycling Act was also passed recently and it mandates that every county has to reduce its waste by at least 15-20% through recycling.

 

[graceanne]

Oregon is a very environmentalist state - recycling is easy and FREE. I have to pay for garbage, but not for recycling. Plus they don't make us over sort. We have to sort metal from paper and glass from plastic, but that's it.

 

[Keroin]

Naturally, I recycle but we have a weird deal on this island.

There is a free, weekly recycling pick up, however we have zero recycling facilities, (something I have been pressing for with my eco buddies). The stuff is taken to the landfill, sorted, crushed, and put aside in piles so that one day, when we have recycling facilities, it can all be recycled. Better than nothing I guess.

However, it costs a minimum of $20 to take anything to the landfill. Result? Locals, (many very poor), just burn all of their non-recyclables in open pits. The ground is very porous and sandy here so during a good rainstorm all the crud washes right into the lagoon. Excellent.

I recycle. I store my garbage for my monthly dump run. All biodegradable matter is composted, fish scraps go in the water where my little friends make short work of them.

Tourists and their eight million water bottles drive me nuts. Just buy one and refill it, there is safe drinking water here! Ugh.

 

[Netzach]

Sure, it's fairly easy. You do have to bundle your cardboard etc. but it's not that big a deal.

 

[Qpet05]

yes we recycle.. or maybe i should say i recycle.. hubby and kids "forget" and i get the stuff out of the trash bin IF it's not "food covered".. at least i dont have to separate anything.. it's all put in the same bin and they do the sorting at the center... i DO have to rinse out any metal cans or things that had "food stuff" in them. hubby doesn't like me "washing the trash" oh well..

 

[00Syd]

I recycle at home. It's easy to here, in NYC. In Boston my room mate recycles cans but nothing else and I'm not sure why. I asked her about it once and she said that she couldn't or something. I'm going to have to ask again. I'd feel bad not recycling everything that I can.

 

[Tawny_Temptress]

My complex doesnt have recycling bin like my last ones. I still recycle, I just bought bigger containers to store them in, so I have to make less trips to the center.

Qpet05, I "wash my trash" too.

 

[Tawny_Temptress]

Being out of work, and suddenly discovering my unemployment has been temporarily suspended (I still dont know why), Ive had to step up my recycling. Although I recycled before, I have become a dumpster diver in the last few weeks. A week of diving will fill the gas tank.

Its disgusting and a level of recycling I always looked down on. But at the same time, Im walking a mile in someone else's shoes...

Good luck to you!

 

[Homburg]

do you have access to a local (non-city) dump? i just remember when i used to live in a very rural part of VA, there were small dumps in every town, and one local landfill. there was no trash pick-up of course. you couldn't recycle at the landfill, but you could recycle at least limited items...paper, cardboard, plastics...at each of the local dumps by placing them in a separate bin at the site.

Nope. The closest non city dump is about 30 miles or so away. I'd waste more in gas and dump pollutants into the atmosphere if I drove it there. The service that picks up our trash does its' own sorting and recycling thing though. I just wish we got city trash. The local city refuse handling system is amazing. They are doing truly laudable work, and have gotten some national acclaim for it.

 

[unregistered]

 

[Anordinaryjoe]

I recycle. The cynical side of me wonder, however, whether the stuff I send to recycling is actually recycled.

 

[intothewoods]

I recycle. The cynical side of me wonder, however, whether the stuff I send to recycling is actually recycled.

Yeah, I read an article once about how backed up recycling plants/facilities are. Sucks.

I still recycle.

 

[CutieMouse]

Half size trash can - which is never more than half full... the house fluctuates between 5 - 10 occupants depending on how many kids are at home at any given time; full size recycling bin - which fills up so quickly we're considering ordering a second one.

 

[ThorkelGriersen]

YEP!!!

I have to drive to the Center, but no big problem. They have seperate areas for everything from AAAs to TVs to bottles, etc