Tell me about your recycling system - Page 2

[eco_mama]

For us glass, plastics, cans all go together and paper is seperated. We use a bin from our waste mgt. company.

[Golden]

We have Waste Management pickup. Every two weeks is paper and alternating weeks is co-mingles (nearly all plastics, glass and metal).
I keep two paper bags in one cabinet. One for paper and one for everything else. As they fill, I bring them to the laundry room in the basement (wish I had a garage or a mudroom!!!). The paper stays in the bags and the co-mingles get dumped into a tall laundry basket (a little bigger than a tall kitchen trash can). On Friday, I drag out whatever week it is.

If we didn't pay for trash pick up, I would have to bring it to the dump and sort all the dang co-mingles into glass, metal and plastics AND sort all the paper into paper, cardboard and corrugated cardboard. We recycle A LOT and this is such a time consuming thing. I would consider dropping the pickup service if we had a large space in my kitchen to accumulate/sort and an even larger space to store it all sorted til it was time to put out. Ah, a girl can dream.

Those bags look neat! I wonder if my trash people would give them back though.

[sunanthem]

We have no recycling or trash pick up. We pay for trash pick up. We take our recyclables to the recycling center. I have been just collecting everything in one or two bags and boxes in the garage, but have really been wanting to set up 4 or 5 bins out there, with labels. I've just been wondering what I could use for the boxes.. I really dont want to use those big plastic totes, but that's what comes to mind. I will have to look at that link again, those baggies were pretty!
I take it into town when I feel like it and am going that way. It all goes to one place and we have to sort it out there. The kids love helping sort and deliver the recyclables.
I've been wanting to start a compost bin for forever, maybe this spring!

[Doodlebugsmom]

I live in a rural area, and we don't have curbside recycling pick-up. Even if we did, I don't think they'd take all the things our recycling center takes. Our system is several bins in the garage. We don't bother to separate because they always end up all mingled anyway. We go to the recycling center every few weeks with all our bins overflowing. It's pretty funny, really. We recycle all glass, most plastic, office-type paper, newspaper/magazines, tin and aluminum and all cardboard (including food packaging like cereal boxes, etc.). I hate to think of how much trash we'd have if we didn't recycle!

[BeckC]

Originally Posted by UUMom

We have curbside pick-up now, but we used to have to take everything to the recycle place ourselves and sort there. Also easy.

Us too.

Our curbside pickup is one bin only so whatever doesn't fit in that bin gets brought to the recycling center.

[Danielle283]

No pick up here, so we take it all to the recycling center on base. We have 2 big plastic bins in a corner of our kitchen and throw the stuff in there. We try to keep stuff together in the bins as much as possible, and have to seperate it all when we get there.

[Katheda]

8

[HelloKitty]

Originally Posted by gool0005

We have that too through this program:
http://www.recyclebank.com/
It started about a month or so ago and We've earned nearly $30 in coupon/credits for things we have no intention of buying

That's awesome!

You could donate the coupons to families that might need them Maybe bring them to a family pantry or something?

[Pariah]

We live in an apartment complex, so there is no recycling pick up and just dumpsters for us to toss our trash into. We have two bins (that we rescued while dumpster diving) that we sort our stuff to recycle, then we take it to the recycling center when they get full. That's it! And the recycling center is close by...there are two, actually.

[TinyBabyBean]

We have three garbage cans on our front porch. They are metal and look like kitchen trash cans. We used to sort it up as we went along keeping things seperate. but, we find that paper gets filled up so quickly that we just add it to the other cans and it ends up all mixed. We sort it the day of into some reusable bags and go drop it off.

I used to be so obsessed about having a system to keep it organized. Now, I am simply thankful that I CAN recycle so many things and that my husband and children are so helpful and cooperative with it. I don't mind that my system is not perfect, but maybe someday it will be. You don't need a system in my opinion. Just grab a bag and start today!

[BurtsGirl]

We now have pickup at the house so everything goes into the bin they provided. It's but much more convient

But before that we had three large bins in the garage and stacked one on top of the other. The top was for plastic, glass, etc and the lower two were for paper and cardboard. We would put them in the car and take them to a drop off location to recycle.

[moondiapers]

Originally Posted by aaronsmom

Do you seperate everything or do you just throw it all in a bin that your waste management company provides for you?
If recycling isn't provided by your waste management company do you take everything to each seperate recycling area yourself?

It all goes into a huge been that waste management picks up. The only thing that goes into my regular trash is sposies (daycare kids) and the outer plastic wrapping from stuff....oh, and since we're selling our house we don't have a composte pile right now so anything that can't go down the garbage disposal goes in the trash too.

[mommymc]

recycling

We take our recyclables to center about 10 min. from our home. We separate the glass from the plastic and paper. Unfortunately though they only accept a limited number of plastics. My friend just started cutting up the plastic from large yogurt containers to use as markers for her seedlings, which I think is such a great idea. We generally create more recyclable "waste" than actual trash.

[barose]

Recycling is provided by our waste management since the early (?) to mid 90s. I'm surprised to learn that it isn’t available everywhere.

We have to separate the trash from recyclables in our district but we dont have to separate paper from plastic and glass though.

[Love_My_Babies]

This is a great discussion. We supposedly have a recycling program in our very small town. We are to separate glass, plastic and metals into bags and leave them on the curb next to our garbage cans on pick-up day. It never fails that when I watch the garbage truck come through, they pick-up everything including our recycling. At first, I assumed they sorted it in the plant. Then, last spring and summer on our daily early morning walks, I noticed the actual recycling truck would make a special appearance in town and pick-up at a few locations and then leave town immediately. I looked into it recently, and they in fact do not sort at the dump/recycling center. However, since they have a contract with our village and no complaints have been made, the village is making no attempt to change their contract (i.e. it would cost them too much). So, for earth day, we are putting together our own recycling program to pick-up ours and our neighbor's recycling every other week and take it to an actual recycling center. Then, when the garbage contract is up next year, you can bet you will see me at the village board meeting!