Social Question

Hibernate's avatar

How much do you recycle ?

Asked by Hibernate (9019 points ) May 30th, 2011

I should ask first if you recycle ^^

If so do you use separate bags for trash // paper and cardboard // glass // plastic ?

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35 Answers

Dutchess_III's avatar

Not nearly enough.

BarnacleBill's avatar

yes, everything they will take. I have 4 recycling bins. I compost, and donate household goods to the Goodwill.

Jude's avatar

Quite a bit.

I live in Canada, and every other garbage day, they’ll pick up recyclables, as well. Plastics, glass, cans, and cardboard; they all go into the recycle box.

I don’t compost, though.

aprilsimnel's avatar

I do. Trying to get my roommate to do so is a huge challenge, because he doesn’t give a shit, even thought it’s the law here to recycle. He thinks it’s a pain (!!!??!!1) to put bottles and papers into a different bin 3 inches away from the rubbish bin. I don’t get it.

Neizvestnaya's avatar

We can go about 3 weeks before having to put out the regular trash bin to the curb but our recycle bin goes weekly. It’s not that we’re so attentive but more that what we buy comes contained and/or wrapped in a lot of excess. We pretty much have to bag our own groceries as they’re rung up or else the checker sends us home with 3 times as many bags as we need and so many items come in containers that are then wrapped individually and then wrapped again to be sold as a group. Gah.

rebbel's avatar

Paper (newspapers, leaflets, etc.).
Green stuff (vegetable skinnings, left-overs).

Though i am not 100% disciplined.

JLeslie's avatar

I do it kind of half assed. If I do a big sort through papers, I create a paper recycle bag and for the rest of the week ntil recycle day I keep filling it up. Plastic bottles like washing machine soap usually gets me started on putting my plastics in one place and recycling that week. If I lived in a building where I could always get it all out of my house I would do it regularly and more efficiently. If my house was better set up for it, I would do it in a better way also.

I do try to reuse plastic containers myself when possible, and not dispose of them, if I can find another use for them, and I almost never buy items packed individually.

zenvelo's avatar

I recycle glass, cans, paper, cardboard, and appropriate plastics. We are lucky where i live that it all goes in one container, not sorting anymore. I take one bag out to the recycling bin everyday, and 1bag of non-recyclable trash out every third day. It would be less if I could compost here, but my landlady won’t have a composter at the back of the apartment house.

MilkyWay's avatar

A lot. I hardly ever need to make much of an effort.
Biodegradable waste goes in the compost bin in the garden, whilst paper, tin cans, glass bottles etc. go into a seperate recycling bin in the kitchen, which is then emptied into the recyclable waste bin the government has provided.

SavoirFaire's avatar

I recycle everything that is recyclable here. I used to separate, but the place where I drop off my recyclables now all but insists that I not do it myself. I still tend to put paper products in a different bag from everything else, though.

Cruiser's avatar

I recycle 4 bins per week and the rest.

Mikewlf337's avatar

I don’t

marinelife's avatar

Yes, I recycle. It is impossible not to when you see the difference in your garbage that recycling makes. Our recycler just takes paper and cardboard separately, and then takes glass, plastic and cans together.

Neizvestnaya's avatar

We have a pull out drawer in the kitchen that hold two bins, once those are full then we dump them in the big curbside bins. Stuff we get in the mail gets broken down right away to go into the recycle, same for after a visit to the grocery. Our curbside recyclers collect the giant rolling bin and then separate further at their unload sites.

Kardamom's avatar

We recycle as much stuff as they will take. Luckily for us, the recyclers give us one big bin for glass, paper, cans, specific plastics and cardboard (all mixed together) and then you can put out as many of your own bins filled with yard waste, that gets taken to the dump and turned into mulch. We also donate stuff to the thrift store fairly often. And several times a year, some local organization holds a “hazardous waste” disposal site. They will take things like batteries, electronics, paint and other chemicals that you might have in your garage.

bkcunningham's avatar

I don’t curbside recycle.

Brian1946's avatar

I recycle plastic bags, plastic, paper, (rttttttttjjjjju6yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy- kitty just walked on my keyboard ;-p), cardboard, paperboard, tin cans, wire hangers, aluminum, Styrofoam, and glass.

I’ve curb cycled an old window AC unit, a TV set, and an alarm clock. In our area, if you leave anything containing metal on the curb, some random scavenger will pick it up, and turn it in to sell it for the metal contents.

I also compost all my food waste.

All of our recyclables go into a blue receptacle provided by the city. The receptacles are put out on the street by the curb, emptied into trucks equipped with hydraulic lifters. and taken away each week.

Pied_Pfeffer's avatar

In the US, I have almost stopped all attempts at recycling. Our town does not have pick-up for separation of items other than yard waste versus regular trash. I used to separate items out for recycling and take them to the local center, but stopped when I read their requirements. For example, envelopes with a plastic window will not be accepted unless it is removed, and there are strict limitations on the grades of plastic. I have donated a ton of personal items, like clothes, books, etc. over the past two years instead of tossing them into the trash bin.

My SO can toss almost any paper, plastic, or metal items into one bin that gets picked up every week. He also composts. Recently, we found a local recycling center in his town that accepts just about anything. We took a bunch of computer equipment and other items down there.

Kardamom's avatar

@Brian1946 Where do you recycle your styrofoam? They won’t accept it in our recycling bins and I have not been able to find anyplace in our area that will take it.

Ajulutsikael's avatar

I recycle a lot. I have been this way as a child and continue to be as an adult. I think it’s also easier if you live in a city that really encourages a green lifestyle as well. I’m also thinking of composting food with worms, but that’s when I get my own place.

Brian1946's avatar


“Where do you recycle your styrofoam?”

I put it in my blue recyclables receptacle, and the city of LA picks it up.

Thanks for asking, because your question prompted me to reread my recycling guide, and it turns out they only want clean Styro, so from now on I’m going to rinse out any that’s dirty.

tedibear's avatar

We have bins for curbside recycling every other week. They take glass, metal, #1 and #2 plastic, paper & cardboard. I start a paper bag inside (the bins live in the garage) for loose bits & bobs of paper and magazines. That bag goes in the bin when it’s full.

#5 plastic I collect and take to Whole Foods to be recycled. My styrofoam egg containers go the grocery store for recycling. (I’ll admit to not washing the meat ones and returning them too.)

Our county does a “hazardous waste” drive a couple of times a year. We missed the last one, so there is still some paint and used oil in our garage. Staples office supply stores will take used computers and components, so those went there about a month ago.

I have randomly composted, but am not consistent with it. I think that if I was an active gardener I would compost more regularly.

Plucky's avatar

Very much. I recycle everything possible ..except compost. I really want to start composting. Since we have a yard finally, I’ve been looking into it. Our city just started offering a compost pick up for an extra fee (with a city compost bin) but I need to check into it and see if we can afford it at the moment (and if it’s available in our area yet).

Bellatrix's avatar

Quite a bit. We recycle plastics, tins, newspapers, paper generally, old directories, spectacles, mobile phones. We also compost any garden rubbish and food scraps.

Stinley's avatar

My to favourite recyling mantras are:
Wash and Squash – clean your recycling and flatten it to fit more in.
Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. Don’t use so much, reuse it if you do, then recycle it after it comes to the end of its useful life.

I don’t buy a lot of stuff, and try to buy second hand where possible. I give stuff away to friends, on Freecycle or to charity shops.

At home we recycle garden waste, glass, paper, cardboard, metal and plastics that are numbered 1–5, but not 6 which is polystyrene ie Styrofoam. These are picked up from the house once a fortnight and general waste once a fortnight on alternate weeks – a big wheelie bin goes out once a week. We have a couple of plastic crates that we put the stuff into before taking it outside.

We also compost veg peelings and tea bags etc. These go into a crockpot in the kitchen with a compostable bag lining it, before I make the journey out the back garden to the large compost bins. About once a year my husband spreads the lovely new soil over the garden.

The council also compost all the garden waste and sells it back to us at a cheap price.

I’m not sure how much good this is doing long term as it feels like me recycling a newspaper is a drop in the ocean of huge industries belching out toxins, and chopping down forests but I do think that less going into landfill is got to be a good thing and I am trying to keep the Earth beautiful.

dabbler's avatar

I do the whole Reduce, Re-use, Recycle thing almost obsessively. I have shopping bags with me. I hoard potentially useful containers.
Add a fourth “R” Repair, as I’ll try to fix things most people would throw away.

Pandora's avatar

I use recycled plastic bags to store all the stuff I plan to recycle and then throw them in all together. Our recycle bins are not seperated so I don’t bother to seperate.
I recycle all cans, newspapers, plastics, cardboard and glass. I’m not sure if they take metal or styrofoam so I don’t recylce those.
I try not to buy or use styrofoam.

_zen_'s avatar

@Dutchess_III I was going to write the same thing – not nearly enough. Which means, we are aware and would like to do more. I say let’s do it together – let’s make a joint consciencious effort to do so. I am literally separating the bottles and newpapers as I write this.


Ron_C's avatar

Not as much as I would like. Our town has a big problem finding facilities that will support our recycling efforts. We are a small town a hundred miles or more from any big city.

WasCy's avatar

I re-use a lot, compost a whole lot, and reduce as much as I can. Otherwise I don’t recycle anything. I’m hopeful that the municipal trash collector will go to “single-stream” recycling as other nearby towns have done. But I don’t particularly care, since I think the value of recyclables these days is nearly nil.

wundayatta's avatar

We have single stream recycling in my city. So all the cardboard, bottles, cans and most plastics go in the big blue bin.

We compost just about all vegetative matter.

Sometimes we try to recycle brown water during droughts, but that’s pretty tough.

We’ll donate old clothes and furniture and televisions and whatnot to the thrift store.

We take old computer equipment to the computer recycling center on days it is open.

We recycle batteries.

We save stuff in the basement for reuse at some future point. Sometimes we throw out a bunch of that stuff when things are too crowded.

JessK's avatar

We have a bin for recycling that gets taken by the city to be separated into glass, plastic, etc. We also recycle most of our old paper, magazines, and newspaper. We are too thrifty to throw out old clothes, so we either take them to Goodwill or save them for the next sibling. We also have a compost bin in our backyard that we put organic matter into. We have a special center for recycling batteries and electronics, so that’s where we take them. We never throw out a plastic bag unless it’s full of trash, and we take in Trader Joe’s bags to grocery stores. One of the cool things I just found out about is Freecycle, where you basically just put out the things you don’t want anymore and get a bunch of other people’s stuff for free!

incendiary_dan's avatar

My town (maybe county?) doesn’t have separate containers for recyclables. I don’t know if that means it isn’t recycled, or if it means they separate it themselves. Anyway, most recycling just saves corporations money. I also blend the reuse and recycle parts a lot by repurposing old stuff.

tranquilsea's avatar

I reduce, I re-use and I recycle: glass, metal, plastic, and paper. I also compost as I have a large garden and I’m too cheap to pay for fertilizer when I can make my own.

Only138's avatar

Beer and pop cans…

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