Community Chat

[ALRATIBA]

I live in a high-rise .... building staff takes care of it.  I just bring it down to the recycling area.

Last year the complex started a "compostng effort."  Organic / food / etc. are collected daily and sent somewhere to be composted ... and then returned to use on the park / gardens.

[millieshops]

We still have weekly pickup  - paid for in our property tax.  I'm  tryng my best to recycle as directed.

Whether or not what I clean, sort, and set out really gets recycled is beyond my control, but I fear a huge amount of it does not.  We get notices from property management at least once a month it seems reminding us what can be recycled and how.  We are provided with 2 open bins, so it's easy to see what others are doing and I can't remember any week when I haven't seen bins containing "forbidden fruit."  I never know whether everything gets sorted later or a whole truckload is just sent to the landfill.

On a related issue -  now that massive numbers of shops around here are closed, I feel as if the number of delivery trucks I see every day has gone up from maybe 3 (mail, UPS, and one other) to at least 10 -  some companies show up several times each day .

Overall, I fear for our fragile environment.

[Anonymous032819]

Weekly pick up for garbage and recyclables.

One can for regular trash, a separate can for the recyclables, and on that can half is for containers, the other half for paper products.

Oh, and the containers have to be clean and dry.

[Deree]

My condo halted recycling as they did that floor to floor. Everything goes down the garbage chute for now except we are individually responsible for flattening cardboard and bringing it down to the basement. There aren't enough staff and the ones who come to work are doing more important disinfection throughout the buildings.  

[gidgetgh]

We have private company trash pickup but don't use them for recycling. 

For years, we have taken our recycling to a recycling center in the next town over. They are closed right now. Seems like they have been closed forever. 

The private companies in our area have suspended recycling pickup for now.  

We held on to our recycling for quite awhile. Then, and I felt guilty for doing it, I threw the newspapers and plastic in the trash. Our neighbor has gone to the dump twice and I sent our broken down cardboard with her, as well as our shredder paper and aluminum cans. 

I hated doing it as we are diligent recyclers, but we can't hold on to all this for possibly months. 

[I am still oxox]

Pick up like normal every Monday, street cleaning and alternative side of the street parking has been cancelled the last two months

[Drythe]

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@noodleann wrote:

Where I live, we're mandated to recycle cardboard, aluminum, bimetal, glass, newspapers, and maybe more. The recycling centers, now closed, also accept fiberboard, magazines, office paper, and  #1 and #2 plastic. Since the closure of the recycling center, we are permitted to trash our recyclables.

I hate doing that but it's piling up, especially the corrugated cardboard. Of all the recyclables that would biodegrade, I think that cardboard might be the best candidate, making it a better choice for tossing than the aluminum or glass or plastic. Anyone know if that's true?

I will add that we have county recycling but private trash pickup, so I pay for everything I have hauled away (by volume, not weight). I'll also add that there's no certainty the recycling will ever reopen because the economics of it may not make sense when the moment arrives, so I know I might be simply deferring trashing it all by holding on to it. The private trash hauler offered single stream as an extra convenience but has suspended it because of the center closures.

Any of you grappling with this problem? What are your thoughts?

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@noodleann 

Living in the country we pay for weekly trash pick-up.  Nothing has changed with that.

While my County mandates recycling as yours, we are not included in the pick-up.  So, we take ours once a month to the County Recycling location which, oddly enough, is open with reduced hours.

[Catty2]

My city is still picking up recycling once a week but it now goes to the landfill instead of the recycling center, due to the virus.  

[noodleann]

Interesting that so many still have access to recycling.

Thank you for all of your responses. I'll try to make more room in the garage, and trash any cardboard that's dirty or covered with tape. I'd flatten the cans, except that if they're eventually  recycled, it messes up the automatic sorters when things are flattened.

First world problem, I guess.

[AuntG]

Two bins, one for trash and one for mixed recyclables. They get picked up weekly by a garbage truck that has a hydraulic arm. The only employee is the driver.