Recycling Bins, Bags or Whatever

[MrsPinecone]

Our community doesn't have any kind of recycling program, so I haven't been recycling the way I should. The guilt is finally getting to me. I will have to bite the bullet and take the recycling to some drop off location when I locate it.

What I need is a way of keeping all of the plastic, cans, and glass neat and tidy in the garage before I take it where it needs to go. They need to be fairly good-sized, since I don't want to run to the dropoff location too often.

Anyone have a system to recommend?

[BzyBee]

You might want to check with your recycling drop off and see how they accept items...will they take them bagged, do you have to have newpapers bound, how much do you have to separate....???

Our trash company provides rubbermaid totes (we have two, one for papers, the other for everything else). You could use trash cans with bags in them for easy transportation, paper grocery bags are cheap and sturdy but you may have to go more often than you want as they fill up quickly.

http://www.organize-everything.com/larebisetof3.html

[too-old-now]

Drive by another neighborhood that has them, like mine, and help yourself. That seems to be what everyone else does! Grrr! I hate it when someone swipes my recycling totes. It has happened 3 times in the past year 14 months! The last 2 I have used a permanent marker on it and written our name and address on it. Three other folks on our street have had them ripped off multiple times as well.

[BzyBee]

Originally Posted by too-old-now Drive by another neighborhood that has them, like mine, and help yourself. That seems to be what everyone else does! Grrr! I hate it when someone swipes my recycling totes. It has happened 3 times in the past year 14 months! The last 2 I have used a permanent marker on it and written our name and address on it. Three other folks on our street have had them ripped off multiple times as well.

:eek:
That is awful!! I am assuming yours are left outside for pick-up?

[berlinsmommy]

Do your plastic, cans, and glass have to be seperate or does the recycling center separate them? Also, double check that they take glass, many do not. I recommend that you keep some sort of small container to fill in your kitchen that can be transferred later. For example, 3 small trash cans in the pantry. Then once per day when it is convenient, you can snatch up the 3 cans and carry them to the garage. Otherwise when its cold or you are holding the baby you will often just skip it and toss it in the nearest trash can.

Our recycling doesn't have to be sorted but does have to be put in a specific container that the city provides. Its actually a nice container, pretty big too, but I don't feel like walking down to the garage every time I polish off a can of Diet Coke, so we keep 2 trash cans in our pantry, one for trash and one for recycle. Then we empty the recycle into the bigger container just like we empty the trash can into the barrel. We find this to be much more convenient and as a result almost everything that can be recycled gets recycled at our house, which wouldn't be the case if we took out each item individually.

[6months]

We use one of those 3 section hampers, lined with a garbage bag per section. It works pretty good, and when each section gets full, I pull out the bag and put a new one in. I don't tie them up tight, because we just take the bags to the bins downtown and dump them and reuse the bags.

[katytibbs]

We keep a plastic trash barrell (provided by the county) just inside the garage, so we can just open the door between the house and the garage and toss the cans, jars and bottles in there. WHen I am lazy, I line them up near the sink (after they are washed) and when I collect a few, I walk the 20 feet to the garage. Then we keep a paper bag near our garbage in the kitchen for paper recylables. (I just redid my kitchen cabinents and included a pull out shelf with room for two garbage cans, so one is set aside for the paper bag. But we did this even when I just kept a paper bag near the kitchen garbage.)