We used to have collection once a month, but, if you forgot, it was just wait a month. Now we have large collection bins that take a mix of all recycle-able items, and it's only about two blocks from me. I love it.

Our town requires us to recycle corrugated (but not other) cardboard and newspapers, plus all cans and glass. The collections alternate every Wednesday, paper one week and cans/glass the next. Other than that, we use our food scraps as compost, give dry bread to the birds, try to minimize our garbage for pick-up. We pay for garbage pick up. And there are rules-no more than 3 CANs, must be neatly wrapped or covered. Some neighbors save by hauling their own trash to the town dump, about 3 miles away. I laugh when I see my next door neighbor putting his garbage cans in the back of his pick-up. I say he's "taking his garbage for a ride."

Sure. Easypeasy! Curbside recycling. Just take our
recyclables out to the curb every other week with our
garbage.
We do have a community recycle that is open 7 days a week
they take things that you can't put curbside... paints,
pesticides, oil....etc.

We recycle a lot at our house.

Cans and bottles one week alternating with all types of paper the next week. Right now we are allowed two garbage bags but soon this will be going down to one bag a week. Compostable material is picked up every week and we can even put kitty litter in it as long as it is in a paper bag.

Any garage sale type items we no longer need go to a Big Brothers/Big Sisters store or if it is too big an item to fit in their store we put it to the curb offering it free and the article is usually picked up by someone within a half an hour or so.

We used to have a unmanned recycling center, but people were leaving old furniture and junk and the city closed it. So for the past few years we've only been able to recycle newspaper (at the school) and plastic bags (at the grocery stores). The county just opened a new recycling center not a half mile from our house so now we've been collecting plastic and glass in addition to what we were saving.

We do save aluminum too and we sell that in a nearby town.

Craigslist has been a big recycling help to us as well. We've given away a lot of items (especially scrap building supplies leftover from our room addition) that would have ended up in the trash.

My town makes it very easy and desirable to recycle. Every household has its own big green bin on wheels for glass, cans newspapers, junk mail, cardboard, etc. It takes me three or four weeks to fill it up but you just roll it up the driveway and leave it next to the regular trash every Monday morning. We have to purchase special bags for regular trash. Small bags cost $1 and large ones are $1.50 so it pays to thrown away as little as possible.

We live in rural WI and take our recycling to a small town nearby. Unfortunately, the center is only open on Saturday mornings, so our stuff builds up when we've got travel plans or company. They take all glass, plastics #1 & #2, cardboard including food package cardboard, aluminum, steel cans, newspaper, and household batteries. The place is normally staffed with 4H kids, and they make it easy by coming out to your car and carrying everything away. Couldn't be easier!

I throw out a lot of plastics that can't be recycled here, including tons of yogurt containers and other things. Such a shame. All of the clothing and household items that we no longer need go to Goodwill or Savers.

We separate our trash into household waste and garden waste. The household waste goes on conveyor belts at the trash company, and people pull out the recyclables as they pass by. I visited the trash company on a tour and saw them doing it.

We also have a recycling center about 5 miles from home, and they take just about anything. Large bins are organized by the plastic number on the bottom of the plastic container. They also take catalogs, pressboard, junk mail, shredded paper, etc. I take a lot there because I don't think the conveyor belt people get everything. I carry stuff in the trunk of my car so I have it when I pass by the recycling center.

I try to re-use things. Kids at school plant in milk cartons which I collect. I collect dead batteries at school, but not everyone turns them in to me (shame!). I take them to hazardous waste recycling along with old paint and other things. I'm tired after work and often get take-out. I always feel bad about the amount of plastic which carries a take-out meal for a few minutes and is thrown away.

My garbage gets buried in the garden.

This is probably more than anyone wants to know, but I feel bad about the waste going to landfills.

I'm so envious. Where we lived before recycling was too 20th century--all them modren ideers. When we lived in town there was a recycling center run by the town, open Sat. mornings. It got to be "too expensive" and they closed it.
Now we live on a farm and almost everything is recycled. What we can't compost we take 25 miles to a recycling center that accepts most everything. Furniture, clothing, anything we find we don't need in that line we take to a local food bank that runs a thrift shop. We use our own canvas bags for groceries and anything else we purchase, and I try not to buy anything that is shrink-wrapped to the nth degree (one of my pet peeves).

We have curbside recycling every other week. It is very easy. The city supplies a large wheeled container and there is no sorting required. Plastics 1-7, glass, metal, paper and cardboard. Our recycling volume far surpasses our trash, but trash service is every week. (not a bad thing in the heat of the Summer, although we compost too.)
Households can choose 3 sizes of trashcans and are charged accordingly. You can buy extra bag stickers at the grocery store if you need additional space one week.
We are charged for trash and recycling on our (again, City) electric bill.

My husband saves aluminum cans and sells them. I don't use bottled water so no plastic there, and we don't take a newspaper. I do save the plastic shopping bags we get and reuse them. There is no re cycle pick up with our trash pick up.

Sue

I'm very big into recycling and so is our city. They give each house three large bins on wheels, one for trash, one for green waste and one for recyclables. Our recycle bin makes it to the curb far more often than our trash bin. At work we recycle batteries and with pressure from me and others I'm sure, free bottled water is no longer offered. Instead, we have a filtered BYOB hot and cold water dispenser.

Jodi-

I recycled in CA for about 25 years. We had curbside recycling and I saved aluminum cans and got money for them. Ames burns trash to produce electricity so all newspapers go in the trash. We are not supposed to put glass in with our trash and that means we have to take it to glass recycling ourselves. Now the aluminum can place started charging for cans instead of paying for them. Shame, shame on Ames and most of Iowa for poor recycling systems.

I do. They started offering curbside pick up years ago and we participated immediately. When I remodeled my kitchen in 2004, I opted for a pull out trash can with two bins. One I use for trash and one for recycling.

They just recently (maybe 2-3 months ago) started a new recycling program here. Instead of the small rectangular open bin we used to have to put our recycle items in, they provided us with a large upright bin with a lid.

The pick up is automated, using a machine on the truck instead of guys picking up the bin and dumping it into the truck. And we get credit for our stuff. I'm not sure how they do it, weigh it or something.

I don't have a WHOLE lot of points yet but we just started recently. So eventually I hope to redeem points for free stuff although I have no idea how good those offers are. I think you have to have a TON of points to get anything good but that's fine with me. I recycle because I want to, the points are now just a perk. And I can be patient and let them add up.

Also, with this new system we can recycle glass which they didn't used to take. I think it's a great system and I'm glad they are doing it. I hope it has increased participation!

I try to recycle what I can. For instance, I donate all my clothing , household goods, etc., that are recyclable. I try to reuse cardboard boxes and compost a little of my veggie scraps. The school collects newspapers and waste paper so I save that for them. We don't have a good local recycle system for glass, cans, etc. It would become a hardship to store them long term so they get thrown away. I've been able to reduce the amount of waste that gets hauled away by the garbage truck each week so I'm happy about that.

We have plastic, aluminum cans and newspapers picked up once a week.

But the fact is...not much goes into the trash or recycle bin until it's been recycled a few times within the house :)
shipping boxes, newspapers(the original paper towel) for wiping windows, etc., plastic bags for storage/lining wastebaskets/wet garbage....we hate to toss anything that can be reused.

I live in a small town, 20 K and we are big on recycling. We have curbside in town and here in the country we just take it to the recycle center in town/ All you have to do is pull up and the guys there unload and put the items in the proper place. I save cans for my housekeepers son. He collects the can for a little extra money.

We've been recycling curbside in blue bins for at least 25 years in two different states, and composting also. We recy every other week at the curb and add to the compost pile almost every day. We have very little actual garbage and sometimes skip taking the can to the curb every week, but our recy bins are always filled to the brim (hub is a retired journalist so we subscribe to two newspapers a day) and we have enough compost to take care of all our gardens every year.

I also reuse things like glass jars. I never bought plastic containers for food storage because so many things come in excellent jars - practically no plastic in my kitchen, and it doesn't matter to me that the odd glass jars don't stack neatly in my cabs. I also use cast iron pans and stainless steel pots, so no teflon.

I do use things like cling wrap and zip lock bags, but I wash the bags and reuse them till they fall apart, causing great laughter amongst my grown children even though they grew up with it. Actually, most of my kids run their kitchens and homes pretty much like I always have, but they eat out a lot more often than we do, too.

I have recycled aluminum cans in the past. There was nowhere to take anything else in this area. That has changed now.

Reycling is not mandatory in my small community. However, there is a collection station 2 blocks away at the fire station, so there's no reason not to. It takes many kinds of recyclables.

Thanks for this post. I really have been meaning to get going on this and this is my kick in the rear.

Tammy

I was used to curbside recycling in Minnesota and that was great! It makes things so easy to recycle at home. And all the MN rest areas all have recycle bins for glass and plastic. How cool is that! Three Cheers for MN!

Here in Michigan it's not so easy. We do have a recycle center a few miles out of town and it is open on a limited basis (most days I think but only for a few hours). My husband drops our recyclables off, that's why I'm a little iffy on the hours. They take a pretty good variety of recyclables, but do not accept glass because they can't find a market for it! I hate throwing glass out, but other then those containers I can reuse, I can't think what else to do with them.

We recycle paper products, plastic, aluminum, and anything else that we can recycle in our own home.

We go to a transfer station (no trash pickup here) and dividing/recycling is mandatory. It is part of how they pay for the transfer station, from what they make on the sale of the recyclables, so it reduces taxes. If you opt to pay a private company for trash pickup they provide a bin.

We drive about 14 miles to the city recycle place(paper, cans- both kinds, glass, plastic, cardboard) and take our other trash to the county compacter about 20 miles from home. We pay about $2 a month to dispose of our trash. That's a huge savings from we paid someone to pick it up once a week, then it was about $30 a month.

We've been recycling for many years. At both the house and suburbs and the one in the country, the town provides reycling buckets for glass/plastic/aluminum an bins for paper. In the suburbs, we put the recycling out on our regular weekly pick-up day. In the country, the town picks up trash twice a week, but recycling only once. Both counties have hazardous waste recycling days--every few months or so--when you can drop off things like electronics, aerosol or paint cans, dead batteries, etc. My husband always takes the old oil from the cars to the auto stores that collect it.

Not only do we recycle in those ways. but old clothes turn into quilts or rugs; we mulch our lawn rubbish and use in the garden; I save plastic containers (deli, bbq beef, etc) and wash and reuse many times. We yard sale or donate household items we can no longer use to charity. Instead of using wrapping paper or throw-away paper gift bags for gifts, I often sew a coordinating tote bag. We use fabric bags at the grocery store. When we do get plastic bags, we use them for other things before disposing of them. I do drink bottled water, because I'm always grabbing one as I go out the front door, but I wash them and refill them several times from the spigot. We're planning on installing rain barrels on all our downspouts this summer so we can 'recycle' our rain water to water the garden. I buy my books from the used bookstore, and return them when I'm done with them. I refuse to buy those popular one-use products that are out today (Swiffers, handi-wipes, etc).

The really nice thing about recycling is that besides helping our environment, it generally helps your pocket as well. By recylcing your plastics and newspapers, your town gets a credit instead of paying to dump trash. When you reuse things in general, you save.

We have curbside recycling every week including green waste.
I have a compost bin, too.
I have been recycling and being aware of Earth's limited resources for a long, long time.
A funny story about recycling: When DH and I were in Yosemite having a snack at Curry Village Pizza bar we sat next to two women who commented on the Yosemite consessionaire using bio-degradable "plastic" utensils. We were informed they were corn based and would biodegrade in three months if tossed away indiscrimently.
Added to their story one woman told of their church using bio degradable products and the first product they tried (spoons) promptly dissolved into their soup at a church dinner.

Let's be truthful, we used to all recycle when we would return our soda bottles and get our deposit back.

I've recycled ever since it was common, bundling paper and tin and aluminum cans, etc. and taking it to the recycling facility in our town. The town we live in now has a recycling program. We were issued 2 large roller bins, one for trash and the other for mixed recycling. We don't have to sort or anything. We just toss in the mixed paper (including newpapers, magazines, cardboard, shredded paper, etc, metal containers, glass jars and #1 or 2 plastic bottles). They pick up the trash weekly and the recycling biweekly, and they have a Heavy trash pickup once a month. On that day, the company actually sends around multiple trucks and they stop and sort your heavy trash and they do the recycling.

It's wonderful. As you drive through the town almost everyone has out their recycling bin on the proper day. So everyone is recycling -- at least some.

Our refuse company started recycling several years ago under a mandatory situation for trash haulers. They provide 3 large garbage cans with wheels--Waste, Recycle, and Garden Refuse. So in my kitchen, I have two garbage cans to separate waste from the recycle.

But they still do not recycle styrofoam.

I do recyle, it's very easy here. My town gives us a large recyle can and they pick up the recyles every other week. We don't have to sort. I do rinse things with food on them and sometimes I even wash really dirty cans in the dishwasher after taking off the paper. My can is always very full.

Even though it is so easy probably only half the people in the neighborhood do it. I think that's a shame.

I just found out fairly recently that you should remove the plastic tops to containers and just throw those away.

Oh, yeah, big into recycling. Our city started blue-boxing in 1981, so it's absolutely second-nature to us.
They take newspapers, aluminum, paper, glass, tetra boxes, all kinds of goodies.
Within the past couple years the city started using green bins for households. It's going to be expanded to apartment buildings soon.

I compost as well with my worms, so between recycling, composting and using Freecycle to get rid of unwanted items (re-use vs recycle) we don't have a lot of garbage.
It frustrates me with bubble packaging and that things have to be double-packaged(when it reality they don't).

We have curbside recycling every other week. We are given a greeen bin big enough for 3 paper bags. One each for paper, plastic and cans. Labels must be removed, cans and plastic must be washed and no lids. Aluminum cans we keep and sell. Plastic can only be #1 or #2. Recycling pickup is billed on our property taxes. I usually have two or more paper bags full of plastic and the extra bags get set alongside the bin. Cardboard is broke down and put under the bin(unless small enough to fit inside bin). Glass is also an extra bag(although I don't set out glass that often)and when I have an over abundance of paper bags, I put them in a paper bag as well and set them out.

I live in a little city within a big city. They give us a great big rolling container for all recycleables and a small container for trash. Since I live alone, it takes me two to three weeks to fill up the recycleable one, but since getting the big container, I recycle so much more than when I just had a little bin that only held the newspapers each week. And we can put yard waste out with the regular trash and put out extra if we buy little red tags (75 cents each). I pay a lot in property taxes, but feel that I get great value for it. Every other month we get a little newsletter and they tell us how much the city is saving because they have to pay to get rid of the trash, but not the recycling. My elderly neighbor collects aluminum and takes it in to get cash. We all save our pop cans, beer cans, etc for him. After reading everyone else's replies, I feel pretty lucky that our city makes it so easy to recycle and most everyone here does.

We recycle just about everything we can - even the empty cardboard tubes from toilet paper and paper towels. We've tried to seriously reduce the amount of paper towels, plastic wrap and alum foil too.

Our town picks up our recycling every other week - it's paper, cardboard, glass and plastic. We have 2 huge carts we put at the curb every week.

At our vacation place they just started single stream recycling. They don't pick up but we just put everything into one plastic bin and when it's full we drive 4 miles into town and dump it into a huge container.

We also get points based on how much the town recycles and we can use them toward coupons at stores, supermarkets or for a % off at other stores. I donate my points to the school so they can buy supplies.

One of the problems with plastic is the demand factor. I live is northern CA and we have a very good recycling program; however, I recently found out that even though they are still collecting plastic bags, the demand for the material is way down and they were/are? throwing them in the trash. Wow! Makes me feel so guilty for all the plastic packaging that we just can't seem to get away from. Also, we have been told we can now recycle clean styrfoam, but the recycling company admitted there is no market for it so it gets thrown as well. In hopes that things have changed in the last year, I still put these two things in the recycling container.

I recycle - pick up is every 2 weeks. I used to compost but no longer do it because of the rat population further down the street. City came around and advised us not to use our composters. I wish we had "organic waste" pickup like some of the county has.

I also take my used batteries to stores that take them. I don't think I have ever tossed a battery in the trash.

Every year we seem to be able to add more items to our blue box collection.

Anne

Super easy curbside recycling in our area. One giant cart for mixed recycling (no sorting necessary) and a small cart for garbage. We rare even fill the garbage can half full. We recycle everything right down to the toilet paper tubes also. Clippings go out on the street.

Of course much of it still goes in the landfill but it's a start and doesn't take much extra effort.

Yes, we've recycled for years, first taking things to a recycling center, later in curbside containers.

I'm a bit overboard with it, though. The woman carrying the huge garbage bags full of empty water bottles home from the school picnic? That was me.

It's great to see how many communities have recycling! Makes me a little disgusted with my own county, which is so proud (based on press releases) of its Recycling Center but requires so much effort on the part of its citizens.

Mcmann's vacation home isn't all that far from here. I would love single-stream recycling! As it is, we have to separate everythingâÂ"types of plastic, types of cans, colors of glassâÂ"and get to the right location on the right Saturday. You can be sure most of our citizens don't even bother.

Good for all you recyclers!!

I recycle most everything and compost to some extent. We live in the woods and just throw produce materials into the woods. We don't put it in an "official" compost pile because we don't use compost for gardening, etc. Any non-vegetable type stuff goes in the garbage. Our recycling pickup is every two weeks and a few years ago they started allowing mixed recycling and added food cans and plastic. Before that we had to separate cans and separate glass by color. Much easier now that you can throw it all together and since they take more stuff. At our weekend lake place there is no pickup but we recycle and take it to a local drop spot - there are a few. I can't bring myself to throw a can or bottle in the trash. If I'm out somewhere and have to throw something like that away I set it outside the trash receptacle and hope someone will recycle it.

I just got a mailer reminding me that more than I think can be recycled and it showed all kinds of cardboard packaging that you'd find on stuff you put in the bathroom. That was a great idea as I don't always think to recycle every little box in the bathroom.

YES!! I think it's very important and doesn't take much effort (here at least). We have recycling pick up once a week (trash is twice) We can put all our items in one bin, no separating. I could probably do more, but I drive my DH crazy now as it is. Reuse many times before it is pitched.

My mom got to the point that she could recycle away most of her trash. She doesn't eat a lot of packaged items. Compost the food items, reuse some items and separate glass/papers/cardboard etc. She was able to do away with trash collection and saved a HUGE amount each year. She bought a punch card to the dump and once in a while takes some bags there if needed. I think that's great!

We do as much as possible. Our cardboard has to be flattened but that's no problem. We recycle newspapers, other papers including magazines, plastic milk bottles and Harry's Arizona tea bottles. I even recycle the plastic sleeves our daily newspapers come in by stuffing empty sleeves with other ones until full and then setting them out by the trash masher for people to use for their doggie doo-doo. Dog owners grab them up quickly! I also use canvas bags at the grocery. I still have meat put in plastic but I reuse those bags for lining small wastebaskets and keep in the car for trash. It isn't always easy, but I wish everyone would do what they can.

We gather our newspapers, my parents, and my neighbours and take them to the Humane Society. There's a dumpster outside, we dump them in and the recycling company picks it up and gives the money to the Humane Society. Win-win.

I follow the reduce, reuse part of the recycle far more..

I try to think about what I'm buying and what I can reuse the containers for. I buy in bulk as not to have to much extra packaging.

I use plastic containers mostly recycled for lunch box packing. I no longer purchase sandwich or snack size baggies. I do use quart and gallon size baggies for freezer storage, but those are rewashed and reused unless they held raw meat.
Hubby and I take our coffee cups for fill ups even at the local coffee shop.
We all use reusable water bottles.
I reuse aluminum foil a few times, then clean it one more time and recycle.

It's really not so much about the recycling things...it's thinking about what you use and how you can use something else or reuse what you have.

I do. We have weekly pickup of recyclables along with regular garbage. My coffee grounds in their filters along with all vegetables and fruits get composted which I have done for 40 years.

Blue box for paper (incl. cardboard), plastic, glass, metal.

Green for compostables.

Memo to Torontonians: Please reduce, reuse and recycle!

Your dump is a couple of miles from my house!

ole joyful

We live in an unincorporated area of Sacramento County, California. We have curbside recycle pickup. Each house gets three "trash" cans. One for Garbage, one for Green Waste, and one for Recycle. The Garbage is collected every week, and the Green Waste and Recycle alternate weeks. You have your choice of a 30-gallon, 60-gallon, or 90-gallon can for each of the three types. You are billed according to what size cans you have. You can have more than one of each type but, again, you are billed for any extra cans, according to their size. (And, of course, you do not get a credit if you don't put a can out.)

When recycling cardboard, the pieces of it must fit inside the can with the lid closed. If they don't/won't, you have to call in advance to let the collection company know that you have oversized cardboard to be picked up. Then, you have to have the stuff bundled together with string and set it out next to the Recycle can.

Used motor oil can be left in sealed containers next to the Recycle can.

Oh - the cans are plastic and have wheels on the back, and a handle at the top back. So, you just tilt it slightly and wheel it to the curb.

We recycle curbside every week with our garbage. You can put out as much as you like to recycle, however anything more than 1 can of garbage requires a sticker purchased for 1.75 per bag.

Now that DD is living in Michigan, we save the cans and she takes them in for the return deposit. I no longer buy bottled water- I got a Brita to filter water and we don't contribute to the bottle overflow. When I saw the landfills in the ocean floating with plastic, I was sickened.

To my knowledge there is very limited recycling here in ND> I tried to donate some working computer printers to the Job Corp but the wanted me to pay $5.00 per pound. And the snotty gal told me they just threw them away. Did find another home for them.
At the only recycling place anywhere near us, I took a car full of really good boxes, Pulled up, no one around, bins full and stuff all over the ground.
So sad to say, most go into our dumpster.

We have 3 big bins, one for trash, one for yard waste, and the other for recycleables (mixed) It's picked up every week by the city. We also have the household waste program twice a month.

We recycle newspapers, cardboard and plastic. We get two newspapers which come in wrappers and we save them until we have 3 or 4 wrappers full of wrappers :-) I have been taking them down by the trash compactor and people are anxious to get them to use for picking up their doggie-doo, but I found out Operation Shoebox uses them as packing inside boxes they send to our troops, so I'll take them over to their collection box next time.

Having just taken a trip, it's very obvious how much plastic is thrown in the garbage, unless workers sort through the stuff. At the hotel desk there was a container of water with hard plastic cups, and I'm sorry to say I did use them because I was so darned hot when we got in. Those cups are throw-away and will be on this Earth for millennia. Our mindset concerning disposables and plastics just has to change! I'm sorry to say the California bill trying to get rid of plastic bags just failed.