Anyone else out there recycling conscious? This is the only forum I really chat with others from around the country, so I am curious if everyone is on the Green bandwagon like the Pac NW.

How far do you take it? Cans, plastic, paper, housewares, etc?

The big thing up here now is yard waste and compost...including napkins, pizza boxes and paper plates. Every week we fill 50 gallons of yard waste, 2 x 40 gallons of cardboard, can, plastic, glass and only about 20 or so in trash.

Are these resources available everywhere?

Recycling centers are county agencies here, and located approximately 6 miles apart. The center closest to me has various dumpsters for different material - tires, oil, paint, metal, furniture, paper, etc. My kitchen has a trash compactor but I don't smash trash, I use it to hold a paper grocery bag of kitchen trash, that I take to the center every other day or as needed. I don't have to take yard waste as I have a place for 'cooking' my own compost. I have a tub for aluminum, glass, and plastic which goes into one dumpster at the recycling center. I keep a box inside the house to accumulate newspapers, magazines, junk mail; it goes in a different dumpster. I have a 30 gallon can outside for yucky stuff - cat litter, leftover food, etc.

The county landfill and main recycling center is close to the county detention center. Inmates work at the recycling center, sorting and loading/unloading.

The recycling center here is run by private companies and paid for by taxpayers. Somehow they can never make a profit, though certainly it was proposed as a cash cow to help subsidize normal garbage disposal. We have garbage pick up once a week and recycling is done the same day by a different truck. Yard waste is picked up I think the following day though folks along my short road just bring up their trimmings and pitch them over the fence to my goats. Only one house in the area has grass trimmed by a 'pro' who collects it to take off site (to feed to his goats). My SO standardly has his lawnsweeper hooked up behind the mower to sweep it for the goats and mows around here only enough swaths per day to keep them in fresh cuttings.

We create very little trash. I take plastic bags, styro meat trays and egg cartons back to the grocery for recycling, we collect our aluminum cans and our scrap metal to take to a recycler for cash, organic stuff gets thrown over the fence for the goats if there is sufficient quantity but otherwise gets thrown into the garden during that part of the year it is too hot to have a garden (and then rototilled in when getting the garden ready for planting). Most paper gets shredded and used as the first layer of mulch under either decorative mulch or soiled hay mulch from the goat pens (we don't use it around food plants because not all inks are soy based these days, there are still some heavy metal inks out there). Ash from the charcoal grill gets pitched into the garden or used around plants needing that change of pH. When we burn the branches and such that the goats won't eat, that just stays in the barn lot to help the soil there.

Old furniture and appliances are picked up by the county, though usually there is a scavenger who grabs the appliances within hours of them hitting the curb to take to the scrap metal recycler for cash after salvaging working parts. Recycling bins are also picked over by scavengers for the aluminum. Electronics and hazardous materials can be taken N/C to the sorting center fairly close to downtown any Saturday for proper separation and handling. Any load of "stuff" going to the dump has a $15 entrance fee per vehicle. They now forbid removing anything from the dump (there was too much of a problem with scavengers lying in wait to grab anything they felt was of value and getting in the way of incoming trucks). Yard waste is composted under contract to a private company and free for the public to take. We brought home several trailer loads a few years back and it was so loaded with shredded black plastic, metal and junk that we never did that again.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/20/2009 02:41PM by Flash.

I'm not entirely convinced that our recycling efforts are going in the right direction, at least in my county, and I'm saddened from what I've learned.

I had discovered only in the last year that the county in which I live (approx. 3 million residents) had signed a contract about 30 years ago, just before the current recycling band wagon arrived on the scene, with a privately owned waste management company, for 99 years. Yes, according to the 99 year contract with the county, this wmc charges a fee per ton of waste to bury our trash in a local landfill owned by the wmc, so, naturally, the wmc wants to add as much as they can get on the weighing scales, which also includes recycled items. The county paid for two enormous incinerators, at taxpayer expense, to deal with recycled items, which are operating at approximately 10% capacity, and our landfill "mountain" continues to grow. And very few people are even aware of it. Make no mistake, this wmc has profited millions of dollars, and generous campaign contributions go to the local politician who can keep their mouth shut.

Yes, I could add more drama to this story, but like everyone else in my county, each household "obediently" pays a nominal fee for “convenient” curbside trash AND recycle collection, which also means that nobody will know, or see, exactly where their trash ends up at.

If you dig deep enough, you might be surprised to find something similar in your area.

That sounds about like what is happening here except the contract is let in 4 year cycles (sound suspiciously like the election cycle for local officials?) with the new contract being let in July (with the old local officials) to begin the following Jan 1 so they can send out property tax bills with the ad-valorem for the upcoming garbage pick up services. The political campaigns generally rev up in late August with incumbents well financed In our area the landfills are public land and it gets ever more expensive as they must have an impermeable liner to protect groundwater in our porous soil area. But our incinerator runs day and night as well.

I wouldn't be surprised if there was more to it everywhere than people know. I haul my own trash and recycling to one of the centers, which is on the way to wherever I'm going. Twice a year, free mulch is available for the taking, from Christmas trees, sticks, etc. It's ok, but not what I like.

For two years, we had a landfill in our backyard. Decided we didn't want the 20x40 in ground pool that was a money-pit. Filled that big hole with hundreds of milk jugs, cans, bottles, a washer, a dryer, gas grill, barbed wire . . . Then we filled it in with tons and tons of dirt and screened topsoil. Beautiful grass and flower beds now.

Don't tell about your backyard landfill or you may get to excavate the whole thing and 'dispose of it properly'.

I think 'organized crime' was big into garbage in the NE for years and certainly some of the corporations that get our contracts bring back those memories when you call to complain they missed your street and are transferred to talk to Lenny or Alonzo.

I've wondered if my backyard will come back to bite us. When it was a landfill, at least half a dozen times a state trooper friend came over. He'd throw his beer cans in just like the hubby. Have also wondered if and when we'd ever sell, if anything like that is on the disclosures.

It depends on what the laws are in your area at the time of your sale. I had a rental property that I needed to put in new fuel oil tanks. The contractor told me the old ones underground were empty--though whether by rust through or just all used he couldn't say. The top spigot was knocked off, the heavy equipment rolled over to partly crush and soil added to level the ground. New above ground tanks were installed. That was on year 2 of owning the place. Year 10 when I was getting ready to sell I got a notice to show proof that old tanks had been properly excavated along with any contaminated soil and properly disposed of. What had been completely legal when it was done was now illegal. Luckily I could assign over cleanup to the State under a program designed to bail out--you guessed it--oil companies for taxpayers pay the cost of clean up at old gas stations. A disclosure was required on the sale paperwork but it was accompanied with the indication that the State had assumed the responsibility of any/all cleanup.

Cool...very interesting stuff...
Flash: I must look into a way to get rid of styro and to-go containers..that is the one thing they don't take. Good to know that someone has found a solution.

We compost like crazy, well, we try with my Dad being ADD with his gardening plans. We definitely use the city option now, and the best worm food for ourselves.

Unfortunately my grocery only takes styro egg cartons and styro trays that veggies and meats come in. The 'to-go' containers show up in our house only with restaurant remains from shop dinners and they are a problem, though definitely only about a weekly occurrence. I have no good solution for them as relatively few restaurants are eco friendly.