Recycling: I'm not happy with the thing I have going here.

[EFerrari]

Lately, the idea that I could do more is driving me a little nuts. This is a small place but I have a deck where I could put a larger container to hold stuff until pick up day.

Do you recycle? Where do you put all that stuff until it gets hauled off? :shrug:

[Oeditpus Rex]

1. I have a 32-gallon garbage can in my kitchen

with a sticker on it that says "Recyclables." We don't have to separate, so everything goes in there until it's full, at which point I dump it into the 64-gallon recycling bin, which gets put on the street (when it's full) Wednesday nights.

I've also got a ginormous plastic bag hanging from the pantry doorknob. Plastic bags go in it, and when it gets full I take it to Albertson's for recycling. I've cut way down on plastic bags, though, by getting some canvas bags.

Got an extra waste basket here in the office for paper and stuff, too.

[EFerrari]

4. If I put a 32 gallon garbage can in my kitchen, I'd have to hang

out the window. But I do have a plastic bag hanging on a hook and it's not enough.

My deal is, if I put a 32 gallon can on the deck, how do I get the contents downstairs on trash day?

Maybe a smaller can and two or three trips a week down to the communal recycling can?

:crazy:

[Oeditpus Rex]

16. That's what I'd do, yeah

Hey, what district you live in? I have a friend who used to live in this great old walk-up on Mission near 280, but she moved and I'm not sure where she lives now. Still in SF, though.

[EFerrari]

17. I'm out here at the edge of the world, in the 'way outter Sunset.

Between the beach and the park. So, you can imagine that this whole green thing has been getting to me because both places are so great, I don't want to do anything to endanger them.

[Oeditpus Rex]

19. Oh, cool!

That's one of my favorite parts of SF. I love drivin' along the Great Highway.

19th sucks during the commute, though. There's a traffic light every, what, 15 feet or so?

[EFerrari]

20. Yes! And I wanted to change our city logo to a "no left turn" sign.

:)

[Oeditpus Rex]

24. LOL! I forgot about that!

Every time I've come down 19th, it's like, "Can I get over to Portola now? Nope. Now...? Nope. Now...? Nope."

:rofl:

[EFerrari]

25. Exactly. Why does San Francisco hate the left?

:rofl:

[Oeditpus Rex]

27. Yeah, you'd think of all the cities in Mer'ka...

Still, I'd lots rather drive on 19th than downtown. Where'd you get those cabbies, from old kamikaze squads? :shrug:

[EFerrari]

31. I don't ask. Mostly, I just close my eyes and think of England.

lol

[mopinko]

26. no shit!

driving in san fran is NUTS!!

[EFerrari]

44. When was the last time you drove in Los Angeles?

:rofl:

I used to drive a truck to my office job many moons ago so I could be bigger and scarier than other drivers in the financial district here. Hey -- they moved!

[mopinko]

47. never been to la

isn't it flatter? excuse my ignorance.
after a couple of trips to san fran and environs, i now understand the whole thing about californians and their cars. i am still having bad dreams about some of those roads. if i hadn't had a built in compass in the vehicle we rented, i would still be there, circling around the hills, trying to figure out which direction is was going. it hurt my head.

how are you, btw? didn't get a chance to responding to that thread. hope you are feeling better, and dealing with the medical industrial mafia.

[EFerrari]

48. Let me put it this way: Drivers in L.A. don't want to be

behind you or in front of you.

They want to be where YOU are.

:rofl:

[Taverner]

2. Check out the vertical kinds

That let you stack the plastic tubs on top of each other, yet you have full access to each

[EFerrari]

7. I don't have to sort but vertical is the only way I can go.

This place is less than 900 sq ft and there is a little second story deck.

[NMDemDist2]

3. it builds up next to the sink, then I take it outside to containers on the deck

when it gets full, I haul it into town to the recycle bins

I usually let it build up in bags til I remember to load my car :banghead:

it takes real dedication to recycle out here in the country

[EFerrari]

5. Our building has a big blue can that goes out twice a week.

And I'm embarrassed that I can't figure out a way to get my stuff collected and down one floor into that can. lol

Hell.

[NMDemDist2]

8. lol

:hug:

[EFerrari]

11. People like me shouldn't live on second stories.

We have issues.

:rofl:

[idgiehkt]

6. what is here

I put in garbage bags until I have a bout four or five of them and then I haul it off to the landfill which has a recycling section. I also usually already have a carload of paper from my jobs because I recycle things from the buildings that I clean here and there, not alot but some things i just cant stand to be thrown away when it could be so easily recycled.

[EFerrari]

9. Those big green garbage bags wouldn't be a bad solution for now.

Ugly but better than knowing I'm part of the problem. I bet I could cut down on my noncycled garbage by about 70%. Darn the recycling fairy that put that thought in my head. :)

[KitchenWitch]

10. I have a bin in the kitchen that gets emptied into the big cart three times a week

[EFerrari]

13. God, I feel so stupid. lol. Do you take the bin out to the big cart

or is the contents in a bag in the bin that gets emptied into the big cart?

Maybe I should just stop consuming anything. :rofl:

[KitchenWitch]

15. My stuff is loose in the bin

the big cart is in my garage and gets put out every Monday.

Oh, and for cans and bottles, because I am frugal, I take them to the recycling center to get my CRV back.

[EFerrari]

18. And then there's this whole other can for "compostibles".

What the heck is that?! Old tortillas? What about cat litter?

There's no CRV on cat food cans or wine bottles and that's a shame. :evilgrin:

[KitchenWitch]

21. Yes, I agree about the CRV thing

I have a cart for the "green" recyclables, AFAIK it is only for the plant materials, and not for all compostables.

I really should start a home compost bin in our side yard, our soil here could sure use the nutrients.

It irks me to no end that the company contracted to take our garbage gets paid twice to haul our recyclables away, first by us, and then by whoever is buying it from them.

I wish I could find a place that I could take stuff myself and get paid (other than the cans and bottles.)

[EFerrari]

22. My mom Rosa does composting on her land.

I lived there for three years and it was amazing. A lot of work but at least you went to bed knowing you weren't Dick Cheney. lol

[KitchenWitch]

23. I already go to bed knowing I am not Darth Cheney!

But I do know what you mean.

[Nikia]

12. We have our city issued recycling bin

WE usually keep it in the garage. I try to get our recyclable items in there as much as possible so there is less stuff lying around and less of an effort the night before pick up. We have been saving our aluminum cans separately now because we live near a scap yard that buys them for currently 60 cents per pound. Everything else, we put together. We occaisionally put paper and cardboard out in boxes but have to be careful about that because we have been issued a warning about not having everything broken down. I don't know if we will be fined or they will refuse to pick up stuff if we continue to put paper and cardboard in other boxes.
One of the major recycling issues that I have is that we don't have plastic recycling (or glass or non aluminum can metal) at work. It is a rural pick up that recycles paper. Someone else has a can in the break roon for aluminum cans (recycling them is profitable after all). I try to bring my plastic wastes (and whatever else I see lying around) home. My husband has complained though because sometimes we have trouble fitting everything in our city issues bin. He has also said that I should never bring chemcial bottles home again because the police who have nothing better to do might think that we are building bombs or manufacturing drugs. It makes me upset to see it all being thrown away though.

[EFerrari]

14. The Patriot Act is definitely not green.

lol

:hi:

[mopinko]

28. i kid myself

we have blue bag recycling here. i know very well that it is fake recycling, that waste management gets paid to sort it, paid to store it, then paid to put it in a landfill anyway.
i could clean up my act and take it to the ward streets and san yard, and put it in the big dumpsters there. that stuff actually gets recycled. and i could go whenever i want.
but i am lazy. and tired.

[EFerrari]

32. What is a ward street, mo?

[mopinko]

42. sorry chi-speak

the ward streets and san yard- streets and sanitation- garbage collection, snow plowing, all that. one in each of the 50 wards.
actually, my alderman, who i keep insisting is an honest, good guy, which no one can believe, really fought the blue bag from the start. we used to have a subscription recycling service. it was a small amount a month, and they picked it up weekly, and it actually got recycled. the whole blue bag thing was designed by waste management, big time contributor of the mayor's, to make money. they recycle almost nothing. water evaporates while it sits around, and they pretend they are trying to sell it, then they count that as recycling. i kid you not.
so, when they went to this b.s. joe tried to get them to let us keep our service. "oh, no! that would hurt the economics of the program!!"
for those that have never heard of blue bag, the theory is that you put recyclables in blue trash bags (which are mostly only available in small packages, at 3 times the cost of other bags) separated into wet- glass, metal, plastic, and dry- paper. you put them in your regular dumpster, they pick them up in the regular truck, squash them all together, dump them off a 20' dock, and pull the bags out and separate. then when the papers is full of garbage juice, and you can't recycle it, you put it back on a truck, and haul it to the landfill anyway. they recycle less than 10%, and about half of that is evaporation.
they are getting ready to junk this idea. they are surprised that few people bother to play the game.

[EFerrari]

43. Wtf? That sounds unbelievably dumb!

Lol! What is the MATTER with people?! :hi:

[mopinko]

45. money

that is what is the matter- money.
for the most part, i love my mayor. he has done a great job of running this city. it is a booming, growing, great place since ritchie has been in charge. BUT, the rich get richer, money buys favors, organized crime will never go away. (although he has pretty much de facto decriminalized weed. he does understand the lessons of prohibition. he has tried to point them out to others, but there again, money.)

[SeattleGirl]

29. One thing you might do that could help cut down on the space taken

is get a can crusher. That way, whatever you use for a container wouldn't fill up quite so fast.

We do recycle, as it is mandatory here in Seattle, and have a large city-issued container. For the house, we have a medium-sized container that we empty into the larger outside container when it gets full.

[EFerrari]

33. Where do you keep that medium sized container?

My kitchen must be 8X8.

[SeattleGirl]

35. In the utility room by the back door.

The container we use is about 24" high by 18" wide and 12" front to back. Has a separate top on it with a flap door. That might work in your kitchen.

[EFerrari]

36. Got it. It would work on the deck. The kitchen has no room for one

more thing, let alone I'd hafta get a permission slip from cats. :crazy:

[SeattleGirl]

39. There you go!

If I'm not mistaken, I think ours is a Rubbermaid brand, but I'm sure you can find somethng that could work well for you. (And not piss the cats off.)

[Screwfly]

30. The only people

in my area that are into recycling are meth heads who can't get a honest job because of drug testing, and I have feeling they're more interested in casing neighborhoods than they are with picking up aluminum cans.

[KitchenWitch]

34. Boy is that ever a hopeful outlook.

Do you recycle at all?

I don't mean to rag on you, but that was a rather negative statement and done with a fairly broad brush.

[Kali]

37. aauuughghhh the porch, of course

HUGH!!1!! bags of crap. And I have to haul it off as well.

But I just CAN'T throw it in the regular trash.

[EFerrari]

40. That's how I've been feeling every time I try to throw something way.

And realize most times, I can RECYLCLE this. :hi:

[InvisibleTouch]

38. I use an old laundry basket for glass and plastic...

...and when that fills up, I have to take it to the recycle bin at a nearby hardware store. Fortunately it's on my way to puppy classes, so not really an out-of-the-way trip. Steel and aluminum cans, I let pile up in the basement until I have enough to make it worth the trip to the scrapmetal dealer. It's just me and the animals living here, so the recyclables don't pile up that fast, but I'm not in any hurry.

[EFerrari]

41. Just my slavemasters and me, too, so I have some leeway

if not much space. It's an organizing thing more than anything.

[datasuspect]

46. the dirty little secret of city-administered recycling programs

it all ends up in the solid waste stream.

yes, it still ends up in the landfills.

[Gormy Cuss]

49. Out in burb land we are issued 64 gallon containers for that purpose.

One for garden waste, one for recyclables (no sorting, one undivided bin.) The bins are big enough and covered so the night critters don't bother them, and there are wheels and handles for convenient movement to the curb on pick up day.

When I lived in the city (different city ;) ) the recycle bin was next to the trash can inside and everything except paper was stored there until pick up day. Newspaper and cardboard was stored in a cardboard box.