Here's my county's list for recycling material:
Recycling Directory
Piffka wrote:Fishin' -- I would love it if we had a "brown goods" recycling. We can't get rid of that stuff unless we pay by the pound at the dump. I laughed to think of you digging through the hazardous wastes for good cleaning products though. The reuse/recycle/reduce mantra sounds like it is alive & well and living in Massachusetts.
I don't know that I'd say it's "alive & well" but it's here. As you can see from the others from MA it's different in every town. Some towns (like mine) really push the limits. Others don't seem to care and there is a lot if variance in between. My guess is that it';s all more or less related to how much landfill space each has access to and what it costs to ship out the trash if you don't have a landfill (mine town doesn't have one.).
It all seems to be based more on economics than just recycling for the benfit of recycling itself.
ah..and here we go with the Massachusetts not enforced really town.
We dont pay for curbside pick up yet, and its unlimited.
We can also put brown goods at the curb at any time.
We have to do leaves/yard waste in brown open bags at only specific times in the fall.
We do have household/hazardous waste days..where you can go down and drop those items off a couple times a year.
They arent the garbage nazi's though really, kinda need some work really but, as long as I dont have to pay or go drive it somewhere or wonder what Im going to do with for the moment..Im good.
I recycle my newspapers. My town actually ran out of bins for a while so, the one here at the apartment that was never put up to the curb I think is now a permanent part of the side yard fence. I didnt have a bin for so long, fishin was kind enough to use his ways over in his area and get a recycled one for me to use here. They accept it, so that works.
It is really expensive for us with regard to the city budget concerns so, I see the future coming here sometime but, if its not enforced or regulated now, how can they do that without causing absolute mayhem. Its a large city...it could be messy.
helpful recycling hint --
can lids and bottle caps never seem to find their way into the recycling truck... one way to keep them off the sidewalk is this: instead of tossing them into the bin loose, collect them in an old coffee can. when the can's full, dump them into a quart size ziploc bag. no fuss, no muss...
Quotation from the German embassy
Quote:Recycling
The German household garbage recycling system is most impressive. A sure-fire way to annoy your new neighbors is to blatantly disregard the recycling rules. Recycling policies and regulations vary slightly from town to town. Brochures are available from your local authority explaining the recycling rules in your town. In general, you can go by the following:
Most plastic wrappings and containers have a "Grüne Punkt" - kind of like a little green Ying and Yang. These items belong in the yellow trash can ("Gelbe Tonne").
Paper and cardboard go in the blue trash can (Blaue Tonne or "Papiermüll") or in special paper recycling containers in your neighbourhood.
Glass goes in a specially marked glass trash cans or in special glass recycling containers in your neighborhood (only during working hours, please!). Sometimes bottles are also separated by color, e.g. green bottles = "Grünglas" and white bottles ="Weissglas"
Old clothes and shoes are picked up at your curb by various charity organizations on a regular basis (they will announce a few days before). Alternatively, there are containers for old clothes and shoes set up by commercial companies around the city.
Compostable kitchen waste goes in the green Bio-container (Biotonne).
Garden cuttings go in the Bio-container or into a special compost container (Kompost-Container) to be found somewhere in your area.
Old batteries are collected in special boxes in many stores. All stores selling batteries must acccept used batteries!
Broken televisions, old refrigerators, old furniture, ironing boards, etc. are picked up in some cities 3-4 times during the year at heavy trash pickup "Sperrmüll" day. Alternatively, cities set up special recycling grounds where citizens can deliver things they need to get rid of ("Recyclinghof"). Fees will be charged for some items. Locations can be found out from your local authorities or the white pages. Sometimes you can also arrange with the city to pick up heavy things like televisions and refrigerators at a certain date.
There is even a special Christmas tree pickup day "Abholung der Weihnachtsbäume". Dates will be announced in the newspapers, usually early or mid-January.
If you have anything left, put it in the dark grey trash can for unrecycable trash "Restmüll" (no hot ashes, please!).
Alles klar? Now, where do you put a used tea bag?
SOURCE
We get a "Abfallkalender" ('garbage calendar') every year, where we find the different date/days for each collection. My town's is
here as pdf-file.
Additionally, we have authorized dumping grounds, compost grounds, potential recyclable grounds, special collections for technical stuff, poissons, fridges, horticultural waste ....
piffka wrote : "cjhsa -- I'm glad to hear that some people have figured out how to make money recycling. I know a guy who (says he) makes a really good living recycling car parts. He buys them all over the west coast and sells to shops that will rebuild them. I also know someone whose husband seems to be doing quite well as a plastics recycling broker, but I have no idea how his business works." there is a fairly substantial commercial operation in southern ontario involved in the recycling of cars (recently featured on CBC-TV newsprogram). cars are dismantled and the various parts are stored in a huge warehouse and cataloged(computerized, naturally) for resale. the "remains" - and there don't seem to be many - are fed through a shredder and sorted by origin : steel, aluminum, rubber etc. and also sold. seems like a very profitable business. hbg
Our town was finally supplied with Bins three years ago.
They accept newspapers, plastic, aluminum, cardboard (not with gloss), glass. They drive up in their little sorting vehicle contraption, and do the sorting. (I watched.) I have to rinse carefully, because we are in serious raccoon, deer, otter, neighbor's loose dogs at night country.
I am pleased to see all the bins out by the road weekly. There's a lot of recycling going on here. We had to request a second bin, as we are big plastic, paper consumers. (Coke, Canada Dry, Gatorade, ... We are big drinkers. :wink: )
