post consumer recycling

[M A V I C]

We've had curbside recycling for a long time. It's kind of a scam here though. They charge us to pickup the materials and then get paid to recycle them. In other areas I remember getting paid to recycle.

We can recycle pretty much anything, paper, glass, plastic... the list of "can't recycle" is smaller. Pizza boxes or other materials with food in them (though we can put pizza boxes in our yard waste for composting.) Can't recycle things like plastic car parts and such.

Last year this city had over a 50% recycling rate. Meaning, more than half of the stuff picked up was recycled. Recycling is required. If more than 50% of your trash contains recyclable material, there's a fine.

[raz]

[quote cbelt3]People with pickups go around every trash night and take all the metal and anything of marginal value off the curb.
Re-use is better than re-cycle.

[DaviDC.]

My town supplies ridiculously small boxes for recycling but may not pick it up for a month.
I recycle all of my aluminum cans & newspaper. Food products go to the compost pile & the rest for curbside pickup.
I'd feel a lot better about my trash production if I could find a way to deal with catbox litter.

[JoeH]

[quote raz][quote cbelt3]People with pickups go around every trash night and take all the metal and anything of marginal value off the curb.
Re-use is better than re-cycle.
Probably not reusing, just taking to sell themselves. Downside is that sellable recyclables in a town run recycling program often help defray the cost of disposing of other recyclables that do not have a current paying market. That happens in the university's recycling program at where I work. Some groups of recyclables like electronics will cost to dispose of depending on the current market. Typically $5-10 a ton as compared to over $30 a ton if they could be landfilled. But they might get paid a few dollars a ton for paper or cardboard.

As for my town, curbside recycling of paper, cardboard, metal cans, and a range of plastic containers. Some other items can be dropped off at the town transfer station, depending on the item there might be a charge. For instance, the town charges $10 for a monitor or TV, but takes waste oil and auto batteries for free. Town DPW burns the waste oil to heat its building in a waste oil burner.

[vicrock]

Our small "city" has voluntary recycling - those of us in the rest of the county don't have trash pickup, but there is a huge recycling center at the landfill and recycling dumpsters in outlying areas of the county.

There is a usually a wait to get into the recycling station, and I believe that participation is very high.

We can recycle cardboard, newspaper, mixed paper, all types of glass, #1 and #2 plastic, steel and aluminum cans.

There is also a hazardous waste center for things like paint, oil, anti freeze, etc.

[MacManMaz]

We've been recycling for at least 20 years now. The town cut a deal on a transfer station and it has been win/win for us. Really kept the landfill costs down.

On the other hand, most of the stuff that you think is being recycled ends up in just another pile somewheere else. For example, around here we seperate out plastic bags from the supermarket, but there is no demand for them and eventually they go back into the landfill. A truck driver that works at the landfill recently said that the only recycleabls that have been leaving the landfill are cardboard/paper, colored glass, and metals. Plastic, especially grocery bags and water bottles aren't worth the feul cost to transport.

Ask for paper bags at the supermarket.

[mrthuse]

The township provides free large blue recycling containers (about half the size of a large trash can) for glass, plastics w/ recycle logo and cans. All paper except foiled cardboard (like beer carriers) gets recycled too. The town's population's about 100K and has an extraordinary recycle track record. The MUA keeps winning awards from the state for their efforts.

[raz]

[quote MacManMaz]Ask for paper bags at the supermarket.
Bring your own canvas bags

[TLB]

We have curb side recycling for most plastic, metal cans, glass, newspaper and all types of cardboard. We separate it from the main trash, but not by item--it all goes in an unsegregated recycling truck and is sorted at a cenral recycling center. My understanding is that if the spot price for a material isn't at a certain threshhold, it just goes out the back of the plant and off to the landfill. Unfortunately, rumor is most is going to the landfill now since the market has tanked (except for milk jugs and aluminum).

We have mandatory lawn waste recycling, but it has to be transported to a central "green dump" for mulch and composting.

We have monthly collection of appliances, metal, electronics and hazardous waste, again with self transport to a central site.

[LyleH]

In a suburb of Portland, Oregon we put the following in one large plastic can that is picked up every other week: Cardboard, Plastic bottles, tubs, jugs, (rigid nursery plant pots 4" to 5 gallons) No plastic lids/caps. Any clean paper including newspapers, magazines junk mail and shredded paper, milk cartons, drink boxes - items with food should be rinsed out. No wax paper or frozen food boxes or hard-covered books.

Also, rinsed out tin cans, and the paper labels do not need to be removed, aerosol containers with the caps removed, metal paint cans with 1" or less of dried paint.

And, clean scrap metal (size limitation) and no appliances.

All the above is combined in one large plastic can.

We also have a small red plastic box for glass items.

Every other week they collect a large yard debris barrel for mostly grass, shrubbery trimmings, leaves and smaller wood/tree items no larger around than a thumb, but no large quantities of dirt.

We also have an annual fall leave drop-off place for 2 weekends - I usually bring about 12 plastic bags of leaves. This drop-off is free, but a donation is requested of some canned good items for a local charity.

And finally, we have a smaller trash barrel for items that won't qualify above that is picked up weekly.

With this setup they can now pick up all the items using the hydraulic lift on the truck, except for the glassware, which has to be loaded manually.

Most local grocery stores have a drop-off spot for plastic bags, but I have no idea if they actually recycle them.

LyleH