Recycling

[RocketDawg]

What's the recycling situation like in your town?

Here, for the past many years we've had weekly pickup of the blue bin and they'd basically take anything made of plastic or metal. No glass, allegedly for the safety of workers.

Now they're changing to monthly pickup, and instead of small blue bins we're getting big blue carts just like the big garbage cans that are picked up by the lift on a truck. They're only taking #1 and #2 plastic - no plastic bags, none of the plastic things that hold drink cans together. Also, a biggie in my opinion, no aluminum foil or aluminum pie plates and the like.

Participation in my neighborhood is near 100% under the old method. It'll be interesting to see how many people just stop recycling because of the items they take, and the lack of anywhere to keep the big blue cart.

[Gutter Cobreh]

Recycling is tied directly to the tariffs ongoing with China. I'm not trying to divert your topic into one that is political, but the facts are the facts. I suspect whomever is picking up your recyclables was taking a loss and now only wants to try and salvage what they can without losing their shirt.

To answer your initial question - where I live we have a company that promotes single stream recycling where they sort it at their facility. The truth of the matter is this is simply a marketing ploy and it all ends up in the landfill.

[RocketDawg]

Recycling is tied directly to the tariffs ongoing with China. I'm not trying to divert your topic into one that is political, but the facts are the facts. I suspect whomever is picking up your recyclables was taking a loss and now only wants to try and salvage what they can without losing their shirt.

To answer your initial question - where I live we have a company that promotes single stream recycling where they sort it at their facility. The truth of the matter is this is simply a marketing ploy and it all ends up in the landfill.

I don't think so. They don't charge for the service, and there's a lot of expense in supplying the large carts/bins and paying to collect. They wouldn't stay in business very long if they did it just for the optics.

[Gutter Cobreh]

I don't think so. They don't charge for the service, and there's a lot of expense in supplying the large carts/bins and paying to collect. They wouldn't stay in business very long if they did it just for the optics.

I was speaking simply about the situation where I live. My provider doesn't provide a separate bin, simply says they sort at their facility and thus you are recycling.

[ScoobaDawg]

Just saw this.. gotta do my part to remember to come over here and participate myself.

Recycling is a big part of my life. I try hard to recycle as much as possible, I'll carry plastic items home if no recycling solution is available.
In my current setup, I use my leftover 30lb dog food bags as my container of choice (plastic not paper) , and then them to the local dumpster dedicated to recycling. No separate bins anymore, everything goes together. Technically they say no broken glass.. but I just don't get that as when you dump the glass in (or the truck dumps it out) glass is going to break. So I put as much in as possible minus paper food products or anything that can't be quickly rinsed off.
Next, besides the traditional stuff. I try to recycle all my old electronics, there are companies around here that will take almost anything for free (minus old tube tv's).
I have also found a company that takes fabrics at the end of their live in order to reuse them.

On a similar note, I also pay a little more for my power to make sure it is almost all clean energy (wind powered).

[viverlibre]

Plastic water/soda bottles are having a huge impact on our waterways. One way to combat this is to go back to glass bottles with deposits. This worked well up through the 80s and is still in practice in many parts of the world. Return your empty glass bottles and get a deposit back ($.25?), the bottle is returned to the bottling factory and sterilized and reused. It would cost money to get this jump started and likely cost more per drink, but it would help keep plastic bottles out of waterways and teach kids a little about commerce.

[ScoobaDawg]

Plastic water/soda bottles are having a huge impact on our waterways. One way to combat this is to go back to glass bottles with deposits. This worked well up through the 80s and is still in practice in many parts of the world. Return your empty glass bottles and get a deposit back ($.25?), the bottle is returned to the bottling factory and sterilized and reused. It would cost money to get this jump started and likely cost more per drink, but it would help keep plastic bottles out of waterways and teach kids a little about commerce.

Did that use to be a thing in more places than certain northern states? michigan / ohio.. some others are the only ones i could remember growing up..never anywhere in the south...

[BeardoMSU]

Plastic water/soda bottles are having a huge impact on our waterways. One way to combat this is to go back to glass bottles with deposits. This worked well up through the 80s and is still in practice in many parts of the world. Return your empty glass bottles and get a deposit back ($.25?), the bottle is returned to the bottling factory and sterilized and reused. It would cost money to get this jump started and likely cost more per drink, but it would help keep plastic bottles out of waterways and teach kids a little about commerce.

We have deposits on glass, plastic, and aluminum here in Mass. 5 cents for each one. There are automated kiosks at every grocery store where you can bring your stuff to recycle, which you then use as store credit. It's a great way to incentivize recycling, and I wish every state did it.

[BrunswickDawg]

Did that use to be a thing in more places than certain northern states? michigan / ohio.. some others are the only ones i could remember growing up..never anywhere in the south...

They weren't deposit bottles, but the grocery stores had in Metro Atl in the late 70's - maybe even into the early 80s - would take back your glass and send it off the bottlers. My job when we went to the grocery store was to carry the 6 pack of Pepsi 1 liter glass bottles back to the recycling window.

[Martianlander]

Going way back (I'm 70) stores paid two cents per bottle to bring in to recycle. Good way for kids to make extra money. Also for the Saturday morning movie you could bring a six pack of empty bottles and get in free. Regular price to get in was 15 cents. So two cents was worth a lot more then than now. (Just to put in my 2 cents worth)

[ScoobaDawg]

They weren't deposit bottles, but the grocery stores had in Metro Atl in the late 70's - maybe even into the early 80s - would take back your glass and send it off the bottlers. My job when we went to the grocery store was to carry the 6 pack of Pepsi 1 liter glass bottles back to the recycling window.

BLASPHEMY! Pepsi bottles in Atlanta you say?

[Mjoelner34]

Did that use to be a thing in more places than certain northern states? michigan / ohio.. some others are the only ones i could remember growing up..never anywhere in the south...

I remember returning Coke bottles in South Mississippi back in the 70's when I was a kid.

[viverlibre]

Did that use to be a thing in more places than certain northern states? michigan / ohio.. some others are the only ones i could remember growing up..never anywhere in the south...

We did in the 'Sip at least through the late 70s, I remember taking bottles back to get the deposit to buy another coke.

It is still done in Germany on some beer bottles. Mexico still sterilizes and reuses coke bottles, but I don't know if there is a deposit system.

[redstickdawg]

Recycling is tied directly to the tariffs ongoing with China. I'm not trying to divert your topic into one that is political, but the facts are the facts. I suspect whomever is picking up your recyclables was taking a loss and now only wants to try and salvage what they can without losing their shirt.

To answer your initial question - where I live we have a company that promotes single stream recycling where they sort it at their facility. The truth of the matter is this is simply a marketing ploy and it all ends up in the landfill.

A lot of the so called recycled plastic just ends up being sent to China and then dumped, part of why there are such huge amounts of plastic being sent out in chinese rivers. There are very few ways to recycle post consumer plastic, it is technologically very difficult. Glass and metals are easily recycled. paper use it as fuel.

[BrunswickDawg]

BLASPHEMY! Pepsi bottles in Atlanta you say?

My parents were weird like that. My mom picked up Pepsi in the early 60s living overseas and in California (even though she is Native GA). I've always been a Dr. Pepper man myself - but Coke over Pepsi and it ain't even close.