I live in a city in New Hampshire. We have to put out our trash in special trash bags sold by the city--$1.25 for 15 gallons of trash, $1.75 for 30 gallons. Recycling pickup is weekly and free.

Being mostly frugal New Englanders, having to pay by the bag for trash pickup means that almost everyone recycles. You can recycle glass, metal, just about any plastic, paper and cardboard with the curbside pickup. My household of two people can sometimes take two weeks to fill up a 15 gallon bag.

You have to drive to the transfer station to recycle yard waste, construction debris (they've just started charging $.10 a pound for that), CLF bulbs, things like refrigerators and washers, computers and printers and TVs and microwaves (they charge $5 apiece), car batteries, waste oil (like from your car), cell phones and tires. There's probably more--the list gets pretty specific.

There's also a little shack at the transfer station where you can leave books and other people can pick some out for free.

The one thing I notice on your list that we can't recycle and have to put in the trash is food containers like pizza boxes.

I have two large, sturdy, reusable grocery bags that I bought about 20 years ago, when there was a push to get rid of the plastic ones. Sometimes I buy more food than they will hold, but I need some plastic bags to deal with cat litter, so at least those get reused before hitting the landfill.

Cam - that's a pretty neat idea - I'm sure that really encourages people to recycle.

Frankly, I cannot understand people NOT recycling!!

We live in a small rural area, near a big city. We are in the county, so no city services available. We go weekly to a transfer station in the city to drop off garbage and items to recycle. Glass, cardboard, aluminum, metal, plastic, etc. They also take motor oil and some larger items (building materials). They now have a Goodwill trailer set up on the property - so that is nice also - to drop off household items/clothing that you wish to donate. Our county sets up sites quarterly for paint and chemical recycling.

We could pay for garbage pick-up and I don't mind that except we are way back off the road - up hill a ways and do not want to deal with getting containers up and down to the road. Also not sure how much you can recycle through pick up.

It's amazing how little actual "garbage" we have after recyling!

tina

On another forum I frequent, there are posters who don't recycle much because it is difficult in their area. They have to drive 50-75 miles to recycle cans, say. Then they have to drive elsewhere to recycle paper, and somewhere else to recycle the one or two types of plastic that they are able to recycle in their area.

I think taking hours to recycle is something only dedicated recyclers are going to do. The difference in convenience between curbside pickup and driving anywhere is enormous.

And having an incentive to recycle, as we do in our city, where recycling is picked up free and trash costs you by the bag, is an incentive for the non-recyclers to recycle.

Incentive is very important. I don't uderstand communities that don't make it easy, especially after all these years of stressing how important it is. When we first started recycling and composting thirty or more years ago our six kids were young. We filled three huge garbage cans every week. I started composting for the fun of it and was surprised that it seemed to make a little difference in the garbage. Then we started recycling everything else and our garbage went down by more than a can. Now, with just the two of us here, we often don't even take the garbage can to the curb every week, but the recy bins overflow.

We never bought milk in cartons, always deposit glass. Same with pop. It amazed us that while returnable-for-deposit glass bottles were being phased out, we were starting recy campaigns! I hope it is cheaper to recy bottles, rather than wash and reuse returnables.

We're also dedicated recyclers. Living here in a small mountain community, we have to pay for our weekly trash pickup. But we have a great village recycling center run totally by volunteers that takes newspapers, magazines and all other kinds of papers, cardboard, aluminum, #1 & #2 plastics, cans, etc. It unfortunately does not accept bottles or batteries, and so once a month we drive 20-some miles one way to another recycling center that does accept them.

Our worn out but still usable towels and blankets get donated to our village's no-kill animal shelter. They put them to good use there. We donate our good used clothing and homegoods to the Goodwill store down in Albuquerque.

Larger items that are still in good shape we donate to Habitat for Humanity (hardware, tools, cabinets, windows, doors, wood, etc.)or the local "free store" in a nearby town. Just last week I gave them a washer. We've also given them beds, dressers, lamps, tables, chairs, refrigerators, good sheets, blankets and bedspreads, bikes, toys, cribs, and even a good running car in the past.

I drop off all my read magazines at local schools for the staff lounges. My DD's outgrown jeans and other appropriate for school clothes get dropped off at a local middle school (although she was in high school until recently, she was a slender size 0, then a 2 and her clothes fit more mid-schoolers than older girls). The staff at the school would then discretely send them home with girls that could use them. I like to see things put to good use if at all possible and not just crushed in a landfill.
I use all purchased vinyl(?)reusable shopping bags from Trader Joes for my groceries and when I do get those plastic shopping bags at places like Walmart, I drop them back off in their recycle boxes the next time I'm there.

And, being Southwesterners who live with dry conditions year round, we always try to recycle our water as well. Even our leftover drinking water goes into a pitcher on the kitchen counter and is used to water plants. By now it's so ingrained that it really bothers us to just dump water down a drain when we travel.

BTW, I love your town's idea of actually having a Goodwill truck there at the recycling center. I'll bet it encourages a lot more donations just because it's so convenient. I'm going to suggest that our own local recycling center try and get this started as well. Thank you for your great thread. I think a lot of us will find new ideas here for ways to recycle more.
Lynn

We have a wheeled recycling container for curbside pick-up as well as one for trash and one for green waste. There are quarterly hazardous materials collections at a nearby park or you can arrange a special pick-up twice per year for free. There is a recycle center for glass and cans relatively nearby and most grocery stores have a container for depositing used plastic shopping bags. I've been using reusable grocery bags for several years. I actually prefer them to plastic bags because they hold so much more and sit flat in the car. I don't have a good place to compost so I use the sink disposal for most food scraps.

I'm not only surprised at the lack of recycling in some areas, I'm also surprised at the lack of public trash receptacles. Here in southern California, every commercial center has trash receptacles/litter baskets out front. In most places, you see very little litter on the ground. Yet, when I travel to certain other states, there are no trash receptacles to be found, even when there are take-out restaurants in the center.

When I lived in Boston, Goodwill had a trailer for drop-offs in the parking lot of a supermarket. It was so easy to make a donation there--you pretty much went there every week, so you just had to remember to put the stuff in your car before you went.

Fanatical recycler, here! Almost to the point I feel I need an intervention. Do you rinse out plastic bags to reuse? Save bread bags and ALL plastic containers various foods come in? Rinse off aluminum foil to reuse? Break down cereal boxes, as well as other cardboard items, to the smallest size possible to accommodate even more in your bins? Same with plastic bottles/cans. Get in the container or bin(with Ugg boots on!)and stomp down anything that's isn't already flattened? Dispose of plastic grocery bags at drop off bins? Use brown paper bags to wrap gifts being sent? Take glass/paint/auto oils/styrafoam to recycling center? Household items to Habitat for Humanity? Clothing/shoes/etc. to Goodwill? Have I left out anything?

And I hate my neighbors who don't recycle! ;o)

I forgot to add that I also bought some reusable mesh bags to put fruits and vegetables in when shopping at the market, so now the only plastic bag I use is on the raw protein that I buy.

I bought a nice set of snap top glass containers in various sizes to use for food storage. It took a little gentle reminding to make using them a habit, but now we rarely use a plastic storage bag. When we do, I wash it to reuse. We've also stopped using paper napkins and paper towels. Fabric napkins can be used for several meals assuming you haven't eaten something greasy or messy before they need to be washed. I also use lots of dish cloths and dish towels instead of paper towels. We are saving lots on paper goods. Unfortunately, water is expensive, so I'm not sure there's a net savings. Also, I have to use electricity and natural gas to wash and dry all of the cloth items, so I don't know if I'm really reducing my carbon footprint.

About 2-3 years ago, our city ramped up its recycling program. Of course, there were some people who didn't want the "government intervention" and those who complained about the cost, although the program has actually saved a lot of money. We can recycle office paper, cardboards, 1-5 & 7 plastics (no #6), metal and spiral cans, glass, magazines. We have a 96-gallon tote that is picked up bi-weekly. Most weeks our tote is either full or nearly full.

For bulk trash, if you by Monday, they will pick it up on that Wed's pickup. We have also donated larger items to charity where they came to pick it up. I regularly donate to Goodwill, too. Our Goodwill had a fire maybe six months ago, and they are rebuilding and restocking the store.

A few weeks back I took some used motor oil from the lawnmower and and old paint to the drop-off site. Had never been there before.

DH made the comment last night with the regular trash pickup that if we did compost, we'd hardly have any trash. I've travelled a lot for conferences, and it certain cities like San Francisco and Denver, the convention centers had compost bins plus trash and recycling with signs indicating what went in what. That was great.

I mostly use cloth grocery bags, but do have to keep some plastic bags on hand due to vomiting senior kitty and to take out cat urine clumps from the box.

Pattycakes, I have never bought storage containers of any sort. Mine are all repurposed glass like mayo jars, capers bottles, jelly glasses, anything with straight sides and a wide mouth. I have a good range of sizes for almost any purpose. And, yes, of course I save breadbags and wash plastic bags. Wouldn't dream of not doing it. I even used to save the wax paper liners from cereal boxes to roll pie crust in, but we never eat cereal any more. Rubber bands from produce? Yup. I don't wash foil, though. I use old foil to scrub pans and the charcoal grill with.

We don't buy disposable razors, either. If a piece of paper has a blank side, I cut it into fourths for notes and lists. I buy cheap washrags instead of swiffers. I use vinegar and water to clean with, except when I need to sanitize with bleach and water. Et cetera.

It is very different in different areas and it highly dependent on funding.

We lived in Maryland for many years, and Montgomery County had a fantastic program - they provided a giant blue bin that you filled with any recyclable, plus a convenient transfer station where you could take any items for little or no cost.

Fast forward to rural N.J., where we pay the highest property taxes in the country for no services. We have to pay for recycling pickup by a garbage hauler that enlists a whole host of requirements - only specific items allowed, items must be bundled to a certain size, cardboard must be broken down to a certain size, etc. There are some days you can take specific items to a municipal or county site, but that requires a long drive at specific times. It's the worst recycling program I've ever seen.

I live in Monmouth county, NJ. Each town seems to have a different set of recycling rules. My town has now gone to single-stream recycling - all the recyclables can go into one container. Every two weeks we recycle #1,2 and 3 plastic, all cardboard, newspapers, other paper and magazines and 'tin' cans. If we have electronics, appliances or large quantities we can bring it to the dump. We also have more recycling than regular garbage.

One strange thing I've noticed is that the older residents on my street all put their recycling out when it's scheduled...my younger neighbors never seem to have any recycling garbage to put out...however they insistently put out any cardboard boxes whenever they put out their garbage. I'm really constantly surprised that the younger ones are not more compliant and conscious of the environment.

I've even dropped mention of the recycling program into a generic conversation when we meet just in case they weren't sure as to when recycling takes place - although everyone else seems to be...hasn't helped.

Helene

Goodwill and DAV are the chief recipients of my re-usables. My community has no recycling program and the county dump only has accommodations for newspaper and cardboard recycling. How archaic is that?

Recycling at work is even more dismal (US Govt). Paper, cardboard, plastic water bottles and aluminum cans are recycled. However, no packaging materials are collected/recycled and that's an enormous waste stream.

The best work recycling program I ever experienced was where the manufacturing facility established a recycling center for EVERYTHING (all office materials and packaging) which was accessible not only to employees, but to the public at large (preference to charitable organizations).

By the way, don't fail to donate to Goodwill your used clothing/fabric goods that are NOT in good condition. Goodwill is supposed to separate them from the re-sale stream and send them out (I can't remember where) to be recycled.

If some piece of clothing is torn, stained, or worn beyond all reason, I won't put it in the Goodwill pile.

Such interesting ideas! It's good to hear that people are recycling. I would love to start composting. Being a master gardener I know how much good compost enriches the soil and out here, our soil needs all the help it can get! But, around here in the mountains compost draws black bears and I have a strong fear of wild bears. I like the fresh air and sounds of nature I get through my many screened patio doors, but know that a bear could easily get through them (which has happened in the past in this area). I've been told that even the closed composting drums draw them. So, I don't compost:~(

Like Sherrmann, I reuse a lot of glass jars for food and
other storage. I have this love of glass jars for some reason, especially canning jars and use them for storing raw nuts and some pastas, too. I think it must be hinged on my love of all things Cottage(LOL).

Patty Cakes: Yes, I'd say that you definitely are a super-recycler! I'm still chuckling at the thought of you out there inside! your recycling bin, stomping it all down in your Ugg boots (LOL). Good for you!

I've cut down drastically on our use of paper napkins. I now have over 120 cloth napkins that we use for pretty much every meal. But I'll tell you, folding 100+ napkins at one sitting can be a real PIA! On the other hand, I love my paper towels, but stick to the ones that are narrow, allowing you to use the small half-size as need, which, for me, is most of the time.

Our town makes it easy. Our trash collection includes 3 bins: mixed recycling, compostable items, and real trash. Twice a year, the town makes the compost available to residents, just bring your own container. This has improved my trash habits considerably. Landfill space is not cheap, so I think this is double win: less trash with compost for the garden.

Kelpmermaid, what a wonderful, environmentally-friendly thing for a town to do . . . I love it!!! I'm going to propose that to our own local trash collection people. We're all in the same boat out here, being forewarned to not compost. If they would do this for us, they could sell the compost later, making money in the process. The only drawback I can see would be that everyone would need to keep their compostable trash inside their closed garages until the morning of trash day, but we have to do this anyway with all our food trash. If you put it out the night before trash day, you may be picking it up, spread down the entire road the next morning! Still, this might be a really good idea for us. Thanks!
Lynn

I just found this list of reasons to recycle and thought you all might enjoy reading it, too.
Lynn

*If not recycled, one quart of used motor oil could pollute 250,000 gallons of drinking water.
�Recycling one ton of old paper saves, 7,000 gallons of water or, put another way, every ton of recycled paper requires 7,000 fewer gallons of water to manufacture than virgin paper.
�Every ton of recycled paper requires 4100 KWH less energy than virgin paper to produce.
� Recycling saves energy and reduces air pollution as well as greenhouse gas emissions.
� Half of all polyester carpet made in the United States is made from recycled plastic (PET)
� Recycling the steel from six cars can provide enough steel framing for an entire new house.
� Recycling one glass bottle saves enough electricity to light a 60-watt bulb for four hours.
� Aluminum cans produced in the United States can contain at least 50 percent recycled content.
� Americans represent only five percent of the world's population, but generate 30 percent of the world's garbage.
� Forty percent of all U.S. municipal solid waste consists of paper and paperboard products.
� Each ton of recycled paper saves 17 trees.
� Each ton of recycled paper saves over 3 cubic yards of landfill space.
� The estimated 272 billion aluminum cans reclaimed during the 1980s saved 2 billion feet of landfill space.
� Recycling reduces taxes and landfill fees.
� Making paper from recycled materials results in 74% less air pollution and 35% less water pollution than virgin paper.
� Manufacturing with aluminum scrap saves an estimated 95% in energy costs.
� Manufacturing with copper scrap saves an estimated 85% in energy costs.
� Ninety-nine percent of all beer cans and 97 percent of all soda cans are made of aluminum. American consumers and industry throw away enough aluminum to rebuild the entire United States commercial air fleet every three months.
� Recycling generates jobs and revenue.

I cut and pasted this list. When I went to "Preview Message" to check it, there were nice little squares in front of every new point. Hope you can get past the weird computer jargon that replaced them, as there is some good info here.

I'm trying not to use as many paper towels/swiffers/pledge wipes/various other wipes. My old flannel pj's make the best rags, I've even cut them to size for my swiffer mop. Hey, it's what Mom used, and if it was good enough for her it's good enough for me!

Lynn, back in Ca I had the largest of the blue recycling containers, I think it was 50 gal. I would stand on a ladder to get in/out. Here in Austin I only have two of the blue bins, but will use the neighbors if they're not full. Problem is, of the 6 neighbors on the end of my street, only 1 recycles!

I also wish retailers would change their ways. For example, Chico's wraps bag handles with ribbon and puts each piece of jewelry into a separate fabric bag (granted, it's reusable but I'll bet most customers throw them away) that's then placed into the larger bag. And they use a lot of tissue paper. I always ask clerks not to do this and they look at me like I'm crazy. I'm not even an obsessive recycler, but it just seems so wasteful to me.

I don't have an issue with stores using some tissue paper (to keep clothes from getting wrinkled) or nice paper bags, but it just seems over-the-top, even though I recycle the stuff on my end.

Hi! It's nice to read that something similar was done 10 years ago!