Recycling ~ How Much Do You Do?
 

When posting, please keep in mind forum rules regarding politics etc. This is intended as a general interest thread, not a witch hunt.

I know that some countries are much better at this than others, and that some people make more of an effort to do it. I thought it would be interesting to hear how good or bad forum members from different parts of the world are on recycling.

At home we have a green bin for plastic bottles and tins, a grey bin for paper, a black bin for bottles and broken glass etc. We also have a brown wheelie bin for garden cuttings and cardboard, and then a green wheelie bin for non-recyling waste.

It sounds like a real pain but it's surprising how quickly you get into a routine of sorting the waste. So I consider myself a good recylist, but I do wonder about commercial waste here, most companies in the UK (as far as I'm aware) do not recycle at all! I find it hard now to throw stuff in the bin at work which at home I would normally recycle :eek:

_Malc

It really depends on what area of the country you're in here in the U.S. When I lived in Vancouver (US not Canada) Washington (State not DC). We had three bins, paper, glass, then metal. But since moving to Seattle we have one large trash can for everything. Personally having the three bins was no big deal, but having one can for all really takes the hassle out of it all.

We sort cans/tins and bottles, newspapers/magazines, batteries, neon lightbulbs and cardboard separately - all are collected at various intervals.

Here in Mississauga, we recycle all of which Malc recycles (except the boxes are different colours). We currently have a 3 garbage bags per household limit each week. I really wonder how some families reach this limit when my family of 4 puts out 1/2 bag per week along with 3 boxes of recyclying. All of our organic waste is composted in our backyard. Our city also takes yard wastes (leaves, etc) on routine schedules.
Our next door neighbour, Toronto, does the same but also has a Green program which allows for pickup of their organic wastes.
Unfortunately, the majority of the GTA's (Greater Toronto Area) waste is shipped to Michigan which means we don't take responsibilty for our own waste.

don't remember if it is all of EU but the law
 

don't remember if it is all of EU but the law demands us to do such. We have big boxes to go to and every box has a label on it. Newpaper in one box and cardboard like in a nother. Plastic one for soft and one for hard. one for metal and two for colored or non-colored glass.

and one for dump? we also have boxes for batteries and printers and vhs casettes and electronic gears like hairdriers and electrical Irons and such.

Re: don't remember if it is all of EU but the law
 

Clearly not EU law, in the UK our domestic waste sites (or maybe just some of them) are set up for recyling all sorts of waste. And I think most of us do it dutifully, but there are still many people that do not bother as there is no threat of being fined.

_Malc

Re: Recycling ~ How Much Do You Do?
 

We probably fill up a couple of ten gallon recycling bins a week with uncrushed empty aluminum soda cans and plastic water and Gatorade bottles.

At home, my recycling bin is twice as large as my trash bin so I throw anything that looks remotely recyclable into it. :) The truly recyclable stuff supposedly gets sorted out before it goes into the landfill.

(I saw somewhere that only aluminum is really worth recycling in the U.S. when you factor the energy and byproducts required to recycle something versus the cost of mining or harvesting its raw materials.)

I also make a point to cut the plastic bottle rings and take care of any other packaging that looks like it might be a death trap for animals in a landfill.

We have two carts for recycling. One is a green cart for plants and fruit plus any paper product that has been food soiled. The other recycling cart is for all clean paper including newspapers, styrofoam food containers, recyclable plastics, aluminum and other metal containers. These are picked up once a week on collection day.

What's really cool is that the recyclables in the green cart are converted to compost which the city distributes once a year to all residents for free -- one large bag per household -- with proof of residency. We really look forward to getting the compost 'though we make our own compost, too.

Commercial waste
 

What about where you work, does your office or factory recycle?
Here in the UK I don't think many businesses recycle at all!

_Malc

I'm generalizing here, but most businesses in Silicon Valley recycle paper at least. A lot recycle aluminum cans and some recycle the plastics. As btn pointed out what his company does, it is true for most of tech companies I've worked at and the company I'm working at now (until next week).

Cities contract out garbage collection to companies. I don't think a lot of cities or towns handle that themselves. Here, two of those companies are Waste Management and BFI (Browning-Ferris Industries). The city I live in requires the company they contract with to offer a good recycling program for both residential and commercial customers. So it's easy to implement a recycling program at the workplace or at home.

I forgot to mention in my first post that we can also recycle used motor oil by getting a special container from the garbage company and setting it out on collection day. That's for people who change the oil in their vehicles at home rather than going to a business that does that (like Jiffy Lube).

BTW Happy Earth Day!

Ya we do that also and I wonder how much it really matters anymore?

I mean what would they do if someone put everything in the same bin?

This is a recycled thread :D, from 2005.

Yeah, @Bamb0 digs up old stuff all the time.

Not recycling, more like regurgitation of pap, when there are more worthy topics.

Were I live that is what we do, the garbage men do the sorting. When I lived in Japan it was sort and wash everything. They had specific days for specific trash. Also specific bags for specific types of trash. They are very picky.