Yep now flame me. My yellow and blue bins have been collecting standing water for the past 30 months since I moved back to the US. We didn’t have a curbside recycling program abroad and in the chaos of moving home and downsizing there was no way I was bothering with figuring out how we were going to set this up. Pure laziness.
I have recently started to look at getting recycling going again in my home but I have a strong instinct it is a waste of my time. And a brief scan of the interwebs didn’t change that instinct. When I look at the sortable bins in public spaces most of the time its a complete joke and I often wonder whos actually sorting this crap, janitor? I doubt it. Nobody is I figure. Thoughts like this make me think messing with the recycling thing is a waste of my time and precious space in my tiny home.
I always have a laugh when its garbage day and my house is the only one without the blue and yellow bins out.
Open to being swayed here, and also open letting everyone in on the fact that recycling is a scam.
Recycling consumer plastics is stupid for many reasons. There is more than enough industrial plastic, which is far superior to consumer plastic, to supply all the world’s recycling.
And it cracks me up when people get all made about it. About we focus on using LESS. When we get good at that. We can talk about how creating the multiple extra steps recycling requires is something that may or may not be good.
I always recycle metals. I drink a barrel of diet Pepsi a day so tons of aluminum cans. The local pickers will haul away any bulkier scrap metal in a couple hours so I always just set that out by the road.
Paper and plastic recycling is so hit and miss that it is kind of pointless. We don’t generate much of those that fall into easy recycling, almost all paper is shiny or food waste and no pop bottles, so I don’t worry about it.
I only have single stream collection dumpsters available to me and that makes glass recycling less viable. Broken glass in my big bin is a mess and the trash glass is completely inert so I generally don’t.
This thread reminded me that I need to set up a separate recycling station for my son’s bottle/can drive. They do it as a fundraiser for hockey, and my wife drinks 2-3 Bubly’s every day.
I collect all that stuff in one bin and it takes me about 3 minutes to sort at the end of the week. Where it goes and what happens to it once it leaves my property? Don’t know, don’t care.
But yes, I “recycle”.
Pretty sure a lot of it is still going to landfill.
I collect all that stuff in one bin and it takes me about 3 minutes to sort at the end of the week. Where it goes and what happens to it once it leaves my property? Don’t know, don’t care.
But yes, I “recycle”.
Pretty sure a lot of it is still going to landfill.
At home we separate bottles and cans from other house hold waste. It gets picked up every other Wednesday. I have a strong suspicion it goes to the same place and I’m wasting my time.
At work we collect all of our chips and recycle them. We get about $1000 a week from the guy that picks the RORO up.
Lucky for us, we don’t have to sort, 2 bins, 1 for trash, 1 for recycling. and since our recycling bin doesn’t get food in it, its in the garage right by the door, so easier to throw shit there, than the trash.
Paper, cardboard, metal, glass – all worth recycling.
Plastic - throw it in the trash.
Someone mentioned food stains, if it just a grease stain, and not hunks of food, recycle it. The % is what matters, and in the mix with all your amazon boxes and things that little bit of pizza grease is no issue at all.
I recycle, à long time habit ingrained from living in San Francisco for 20 years. . When I first moved to Tennessee they didn’t even know what the hell recycling was. Our garbage gets picked up weekly and recycling now gets picked up twice a month. It was once a month when I moved here. For my single per person household, they could pick up garbage once a month and the garbage container wouldn’t even be full.
A lot of my paper goes to a shredding company because of work. For glass, we have to do that separately since they are not yet so evolved as to pick up glass with the rest of the recycling. So I just put a bin outside and put all the glass in there and take it myself.
Around here, the city has mandated a few things that make it pretty much essential for a largish family (5 humans and 3 furs) to recycle. plus it really isn’t hard to do.
garbage bag limits (pick up every 2 weeks, max 6 bags). No limits on recyclables.
bags must be clear. If there is too much recyclable material, they won’t take it. One opaque “privacy” bag is allowed within the 6, but that’s not something I ever do, because that would mean buying 2 different garbage bags and additional sorting.
city also picks up compostable material separately in a green bin - weekly in the summer, biweekly in the winter.
I recycle cardboard boxes, mostly because I live in a hi-rise and that’s the only way to get rid of them. They won’t go down the garbage chute, so you just take them down to the recycling room.
When I was living in Japan, they had it down to a science. Each day was for a different type of trash, separated and in clear bags so they could see whether it was the right stuff. Each morning, you put your bags out in a common collection area. The collectors wouldn’t take it if it was the wrong type, and neighbors would even put your trash back on your stoop if you put out the wrong stuff on the wrong day. My understanding is that, even with as seriously as they take it, the actual benefits they’ve achieved through their recycling programs have been minimal.
Around here, the city has mandated a few things that make it pretty much essential for a largish family (5 humans and 3 furs) to recycle. plus it really isn’t hard to do.
garbage bag limits (pick up every 2 weeks, max 6 bags). No limits on recyclables.
bags must be clear. If there is too much recyclable material, they won’t take it. One opaque “privacy” bag is allowed within the 6, but that’s not something I ever do, because that would mean buying 2 different garbage bags and additional sorting.
city also picks up compostable material separately in a green bin - weekly in the summer, biweekly in the winter.
Wow, Garbage every 2 weeks would be no biggie for us. our bin is usually less than half full,
Curious about bags, We don’t use “garbage” bags, we just use the plastic grocery bags, so i was wondering, if we then put those inside the clear bags would that be allowed, they cant see what’s inside them, so I am thinking no?
Michigan is talking about getting rid of plastic grocery bags, I will be very sad.
We get compost pick up spring till early dec. with 1 or 2 pickups of Christmas trees in Jan.
Around here, the city has mandated a few things that make it pretty much essential for a largish family (5 humans and 3 furs) to recycle. plus it really isn’t hard to do.
garbage bag limits (pick up every 2 weeks, max 6 bags). No limits on recyclables.
bags must be clear. If there is too much recyclable material, they won’t take it. One opaque “privacy” bag is allowed within the 6, but that’s not something I ever do, because that would mean buying 2 different garbage bags and additional sorting.
city also picks up compostable material separately in a green bin - weekly in the summer, biweekly in the winter.
Wow, Garbage every 2 weeks would be no biggie for us. our bin is usually less than half full,
Curious about bags, We don’t use “garbage” bags, we just use the plastic grocery bags, so i was wondering, if we then put those inside the clear bags would that be allowed, they cant see what’s inside them, so I am thinking no?
Michigan is talking about getting rid of plastic grocery bags, I will be very sad.
We get compost pick up spring till early dec. with 1 or 2 pickups of Christmas trees in Jan.
we’ve been plastic grocery bag-free for a couple of years. It’s really no big deal, and reusable bags are better in every respect. So the grocery bag thing has been a non-issue as far as I remember.
Usually we have 3-4 bags at garbage pickup, but lately we’ve been doing a lot of purging unused crap. some gets donated, but a lot has just been junk or small amounts of material from the renovations.
we’ve been plastic grocery bag-free for a couple of years. It’s really no big deal, and reusable bags are better in every respect. So the grocery bag thing has been a non-issue as far as I remember.
I wish they would do that here, but that will never happen. One time I took my reusable bags and put them in out for them to put the groceries into them. The person put the groceries in a plastic bag and put the plastic bag into the reusable bag. 🤦ðŸ½â€â™€ï¸
we’ve been plastic grocery bag-free for a couple of years. It’s really no big deal, and reusable bags are better in every respect. So the grocery bag thing has been a non-issue as far as I remember.
New Jersey banned plastic and paper bags for more than a year, and it’s been interesting. We’ve always used reusable bags in any case. The first thing that happened was that people started using the in-store baskets and taking them home. So my nearest grocery store stopped trying to replace them. If I was only getting a few items, I just used one of my reusable bags in the store to carry items around. Now, it seems that they’ve seen that people are putting unpaid-for items in their bags and not paying for them. So, they’ve got signs up not to put unpaid-for items in your bags, and bags can be searched. That means you either carry everything in your hands, use a cart, or say FU and use a bag anyway.
most grocery stores here still have paper bags available, I think they cost 5c per bag or so? but they suck, it’s a crapshoot whether you’ll make it from the car to the kitchen with the bag intact.
it’s always the bag with the eggs in it that breaks too. every single time.
most grocery stores here still have paper bags available, I think they cost 5c per bag or so? but they suck, it’s a crapshoot whether you’ll make it from the car to the kitchen with the bag intact.
it’s always the bag with the eggs in it that breaks too. every single time.
You know, there is a very easy solution to this. Just bring your own reusable bags. Easy, cheap, super tough. And no broken eggs on the ground ever.
most grocery stores here still have paper bags available, I think they cost 5c per bag or so? but they suck, it’s a crapshoot whether you’ll make it from the car to the kitchen with the bag intact.
it’s always the bag with the eggs in it that breaks too. every single time.
You know, there is a very easy solution to this. Just bring your own reusable bags. Easy, cheap, super tough. And no broken eggs on the ground ever.
Umm, yeah. I do…
occasionally I’ll be out doing errands and there aren’t any reusable bags in the car. So then I have to get paper bags, or just load it unbagged in the trunk. Depends on what it is.