Community Chat

[PamelaSue72]

We recycle everything we possibly can and have been doing so for years. We do not have curbside pick-up, so we take our things to our municipal recycling center. 

My in-laws have single-stream recycling; that's when everything goes into one container. Single-stream takes a lot of things that normal recycling does not, things like the "other" plastics, from 3 to 7, for example. They also take the large scoopable cat litter containers. Yogurt containers. They take non-aerosol cans. And they take our Keurig coffee cups; I have to take the k-cups apart, which I do every night....the coffee goes into our compost pile and the rest of the cleaned cup goes into single-stream. (Single-stream is fairly new, so not all areas have it, but it's a real help to us.)

With our six cats, we go through 28 cans of cat food every week (4 cans every day of the year); that's a lot of cans and we would never think of throwing them away. We recycle shredded office paper, newspaper and magazines, bi-metal cans as well as aluminum, plastics, cardboards and fiber boards. plastic bags and paper bags, everything we can possibly recycle. 

We don't often have a full load of dishes, so I add the emptied cat food cans and other cans and containers that we empty out to the load. 

We also compost whatever we can. Three compost piles, each at its own level of getting ready to spread on the garden. During the summer, I keep a large plastic container in the fridge for everything, but meat and dairy products. Every Saturday morning, that container is emptied in the appropriate compost pile. 

We do what we can. I just wish somebody would come with a good way to use the used cat litter!

[KentuckyWoman]

We recycle everything we possibly can.  Our sanitation department provides a recycle bin on wheels and they pick up every week at the curb.  Our church has a program to collect printer cartridges, dead batteries, unusable extension cords, etc.  I also take those pesky plastic shopping bags and drop them off at our local Walmart for recycling.  Every little bit helps!

[faeriemoon]

I can't understand how anyone can not recycle, or have no interest in recycling.

[Sunshine Kate]

We have curbside recycling and I recycle everything I can.  I don't recycle food cans.  We are supposed to wash them clean before putting in the bin.  I can't see wasting water to clean the cans.  

If they aren't cleaned, then rodents will get in.  So, cans are they only thing I won't recycle. 

[momtochloe]

My 90+ year old mother was a fanatic about recycling.  It would drive us nuts on the holidays when people would pile in and throughout the day start shoving their beer bottles into the garbage can (which I would have to pick out).  These were all young people and they would watch me do it every holiday so I would imagine recycling wasn't a high priority in their households . . .

[GCR18]

Yep, I recycle.  We have curb side pickup every other week.  The town gave us a large garbage can for recycling.  We can put paper/cardboard/cans/glass in it.  We pay for garbage/recycling through our taxes.  

[Blahblahvampemer]

It depends.  Mayo and other foods require too much water to recycle, and anything with food in it goes to the landfill.  

I don't recycle glass as it contaminates the paper, and then it all goes to the landfill.

I'm recycling less plastic as it's not environmentally friendly to do so when gas prices are down.

Everyone should do research as to what can actually be recycled in their area before wasting sorting and transportation time/costs when it really has to go to the dump.

[Blahblahvampemer]

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@faeriemoon wrote:

I can't understand how anyone can not recycle, or have no interest in recycling.

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Look up the Washington Post's article on recycling.  Many items have to get sorted out for transport to the landfill, and I certainly won't use water to recycle certain things.  

Just because you put it in a can or bin doesn't mean it can actually be used.  A lot also depends on your area.  

[GingerPeach]

Yes.

We have curbside recycling.

The only thing is that I have a bunch of styrofoam-like blocks that were used as packing with some furniture I ordered and I am researching where I can take it, or who can pick it up, so it won't just be put into a dump.

My local garbage/recycling company doesn't have any special provisions for it, and just says to put it into the garbage.

That is not something I'm willing to do.

[Noel7]

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@blahblahvampemerblah wrote:

It depends.  Mayo and other foods require too much water to recycle, and anything with food in it goes to the landfill.  

I don't recycle glass as it contaminates the paper, and then it all goes to the landfill.

I'm recycling less plastic as it's not environmentally friendly to do so when gas prices are down.

Everyone should do research as to what can actually be recycled in their area before wasting sorting and transportation time/costs when it really has to go to the dump.

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Sounds like a lot of excuses to do nothing.

You could become active for what surely could be a better response from your apparently lackadaisical community.

 You might want to start with banning plastic bags, @Blahblahvampemer, which are ruining our oceans.