Recycling Household Waste: Do you or Don't you?

We recycle everthing possible - in the recycle bin.
One thing I liked when I moved here was how clean the roadsides were and the pride taken to keep it looking that way.

We recycle paper, cardboard, all metal (even foil), and plastics #1 and #2.

What's everything possible? You put it all in one bin? I'm looking for details!

So cjhsa, is that all in one bin? Foil? Cleaned and rolled into a ball? (They don't accept that here.)

Sounds like the lunatics on the west coast recycle what the garbage guys will pick up. Anybody else?

Oy. My life. I spend as much time managing trash as I do on A2K. Luckily, we have one bin for recycling. All goes in mixed together. Paper, all kinds except metallic, cardboard, glass and all kinds of recyclable plastic and styrofoam, cans and alum. foil goes in there. I rinse too, to keep the flies and racoons away.

Then we have a green waste bin for garden cuttings, grass, leaves branches, etc. This goes to the city or county for mulch. I try to put as much of that in my compost bin as I can.

Compost bin all the food and garden waste that qualifies.

Garbage disposal. Any thing left that can go in there, goes in.

Everything else goes in a reg. trash can. (hardly any food stuff left for the flies and racoons) This barely gets filled.

So at the end of the week, I have filled a huge recycling bin about 4ft high by about 3 ft square to the top with some left over, about 3 or 4 trash cans of green and I'm lucky if I half fill a regular trash can for what's left over.

Family of four in So Cal.

I don't know. ARE we wasting our time?

everthing goes in 1 bin for the recycler that comes on another day than regular trash day.

Paper
Plastic
cardboard
tin cans
bottles

I let Mrs husker take care of what recycles and what does not. Most Thursday am the bin is over flowing. Cuts down on the regular trash.

I'd say 90% of our trash goes to recycling.

I recycle #1 and #2 plastic, newspaper, cardboard, glass, ceramics, wood, metals, batteries, household chemicals/paints, tires, brown goods, magazines/catlogs and white paper. (a lot of food scraps go into the compost pile too.)

My town doesn't have garbage collection so I have to take it to a transfer station myself. They just have rows of dumpsters for each category and you just sort of move along from one to the next throwing things in.

They also have a "swap shop" area where if you can drop of something serviceable and if someone else wants it they can take it - clothes, shoes, skis, ice skates, books, propane tanks, etc..

MA has state laws that require recycling. The last town I was in they'd inspect your garbage before they'd take it. If they found glass, plastics, etc.. in your trash they'd refuse to pick it up.

Another Left Coaster!!!

Fealola -- styrofoam? I'm impressed! Ours is a picky collection service. Things must be separated "just so" and they don't accept plastics, styrofoam, foil, or any glass except bottles.

I pay $8 a month for a garden waste bin that is picked up every other week. The recycling pickup is free.

Do you know how your recycling is separated?

I wonder if we're wasting our time sometimes. There are a lot of landfills though. I just think it takes a lot of time....

fealoloa... thanks for mentioning compost. Not a great alternative for renters and the like, but a must for gardeners.

Yeah, we recycle. Our town went to a Pay-As-You-Throw policy recently. On top of the 60$/year dump fee, they charge 1$ per trash bag. Good incentive to recycle!

We have a pretty comprehensive recycling program here. Everything goes in one bag; metal, glass, plastic, paper and cardboard. I compost all my wet stuff and throw out (actual garbage) one little bag every ten days - in the winter. Generally one small bag of garbage and 2 or 3 bags of recycled stuff per pick up.

On that note we recycle what we can and also cancelled our trash service and go to the dump every 4 to 6 weeks, I have 8 garbage cans and load them in the trailer. On Sunday is cost $16.75 and the prior visit was on about Mid December, the regular monthly trash costs $36 per month for 1 can and $42.00 for 2 cans (per week)

Fishin' -- That's a very impressive list. I've never heard of recycling ceramics. What are brown goods? By wood, do you mean treated wood? Batteries... those are all household batteries or just car batteries?

Tires & paints, etc. are considered hazardous waste here and there are seasonal pickups.

I am amused and alarmed by the idea of garbage inspectors... geez!

I have a hard time seeing how the bins of all mixed up recycling can be efficiently separated. Frankly, it makes me wonder if they don't just toss it somewhere.

We have one bin in which we put any recyclable plastic, all cans and bottles. We bag newspaper, including the envolop cellophane and shiny color adverts. We recycle cardboard. We recycled styrofoam too until about 1.5 years ago.

The mixed bins either go to a facility with people who seperate by hand or one where they incerate enmass and blow the debrit. The different bits go different distances depending on their composition.

Actually, the recyclers and scrap yards have made a fortune off of you doing all the separation for them. Trust me on this. I know one, he became an almost billionaire.

Me too. I remember reading about a scandal somewhere where they just took it all to the dump.

You're kidding right?