Recycling

[Rich Riddle]

Our local sanitation bill doubled last year and will have a significant increase this year. Included in the doubled price for sanitation was a reduction of recycling to every other week. A neighbor suggested that many places simply aren't really recycling the materials any longer but simply disposing of it at the same place as trash. He claimed prices for used paper and metal bottomed out and made it unprofitable. Do you folks recycle? Do any of you know if they still really recycle items?

I recommended to a couple of the city commissioners that they might consider putting the sanitation contact up for competitive bid instead of simply offering staggering increases and reductions in prices. The concept seemed novel to them.

[Malcolm McLeod]

We recycle. But as participation increases, the need decreases, and they're getting really picky.

Our service provider, will not take pizza boxes (dirty); nothing in opaque bags (they simply remove it from hopper and set it on our driveway); and just announced they don't want any colored glass (they'll take it, but "it will probably be sent to landfill"). They prefer clear, and I assume driving force is that there is a glut of used colored glass.

They don't like highly-colored, clay-coated paper either. And with the miracle of modern packaging being what it is, EVERYTHING is colored and coated paper.

...But aluminum is recycle king!

[Garth Almgren]

Our garbage is collected by the city, and our recycling is collected by Republic Services. We tend to recycle a lot because of the peculiarities of how the city charges for the next level up of garbage service - we currently are on the once a month pickup schedule, as opposed to the every other week schedule. The recycling and yard waste are picked up weekly, so it just makes more sense to recycle more so it doesn't fill up our trash container.

Once it goes on the truck, who knows what Republic does with it? They don't seem to be very picky at all about what is thrown in there. At our old house we had Waste Management, and I know they have a facility in the region where all the recycling goes to be hand sorted. My guess is that Republic does the same thing, perhaps even using the same facility.


Edit: I just noticed that the recycling page I linked above says no glass... That's news to me - I'll have to go check the sticker they put on the recycling container itself.

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi Rich, we have 4 waste streams where I live.

Yard waste which is branches, leaves, however no grass clippings.

Compost which is stuff like food scraps, pizza boxes, feminine hygiene products, cat litter........on and on

Recyclables, paper, metal, foam food packaging, plastic wrap

Electronic recyclables, computers, TV, personal electronics etc

Garbage.......Gee, we almost have zero garbage because of the above.....I kid you not, we have one garbage can (you pay for each can, about $280 per year, 26 pick ups), and many months it doesn't go the curb to be picked up.

Compost bin weighs a ton, and is picked up every week. Often in the spring I go pick up a cubic metre of compost for free from the city.

Recycling bin is often full, it goes out every second week.

In Toronto single family homes have a 65% diversion rate from the landfill...............Rod.

[glenn bradley]

I pay the same no matter how many or what size the cans are. I have one recycle bin that gets anything that can be recycled and one green barrel that gets any plant life and my sawdust. My trash, like Rod's, is almost empty and only gets taken to the curb if things get stinky.

This is what they claim happens to the recycled materials:

"Collection trucks bring recyclables to a WM Recycle America
facility. The recyclables are unloaded onto an area called the
“tipping floor.” Notice that this is a ”single-stream” facility.
That makes recycling easier for everyone in the community,
since recyclables don’t need to be separated for collection.
From the tipping floor, recyclables are placed on conveyor
belts, where they are sorted by machine or hand into
broad categories of paper, plastic, glass and metal."

[Dimitrios Fradelakis]

Here in NYC we recycle and the city is responsible for collecting it once a week. We recycle paper, plastic, metal, glass, aluminum, empty ice cream containers and juice containers etc. The paper they aren't picky about like they are on Long Island where they don't want any corrugated. Property taxes pay for waste collection, obviously. Businesses are required to hire a private carting company to collect their trash. From what I have seen they only separate cardboard from the regular trash but that too is taken by the same truck which is ridiculous. NYC has several recycling centers through out the 5 boroughs and 1 is even privately owned which is SIMS Recycling in Brooklyn and minutes away from the Tools for Working wood store. AC's and refrigerators need to have the freon removed before the recycling truck comes by. You have to call 311, set up a day. and leave the item out on the curb the night before the appointment. Someone from the Department of Sanitation stops by, safely removes the freon and tags the item so it's safe for disposal. I imagine the city reuses all the freon that they collect.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Would you believe in the small city where I live in Idaho, we recycle.

Yard waste, grass, plants, leaves and tree limbs up to 4" in diameter are picked up weekly until December. From December to March, they are picked up only in the 1st week of the month. From March until November these yard waste materials are placed curbside in homeowner provided 35 gallon containers. From November to March the typical plastic bags are accepted. The paper yard waste bags are accepted all year round.

For recycle we have a large roller mounted bin that we can put any paper, aluminum foil, tin cans, cardboard etc.

Appliances, batteries, oils, construction materials, large metal objects, electronics the home owner is expected to take to the transfer station where they accept those materials.

Glass isn't taken in our home recycle bin but there are several special glass containers around the city where home owners can separate and deposit their glass. Glass can also be put in the regular garbage bin.

We recycle a lot. The rate for regular garbage pickup is cheaper for the larger recycle bins. Our garbage is picked up weekly while recycle is picked bi-monthly.

Since it's just the wife and I at home now, most often, our huge recycle bin is full and the same size normal garbage bin has one or two small bags in it.

[Rich Riddle]

My complaint with the city is that before they changed the program, we recycled far more material than the trash picked up. I would have preferred they pick up trash every other week instead of recycling. They more or less encourage us to toss things we formerly recycled. I supplement the recycling with trips to cardboard/paper bins spread over the county where the farm is located. Luckily, owning the farm allows us to use their recycling bins. Otherwise, we'd be overflowing. Convenient it is not.

[Barry McFadden]

[QUOTE=Rod Sheridan;2632112]Hi Rich, we have 4 waste streams where I live.

Yard waste which is branches, leaves, however no grass clippings.

Compost which is stuff like food scraps, pizza boxes, feminine hygiene products, cat litter........on and on

Recyclables, paper, metal, foam food packaging, plastic wrap

Electronic recyclables, computers, TV, personal electronics etc

Garbage.......Gee, we almost have zero garbage because of the above.....I kid you not, we have one garbage can (you pay for each can, about $280 per year, 26 pick ups), and many months it doesn't go the curb to be picked up.

Compost bin weighs a ton, and is picked up every week. Often in the spring I go pick up a cubic metre of compost for free from the city.

Recycling bin is often full, it goes out every second week.

In Toronto single family homes have a 65% diversion rate from the landfill......

Rod....I live just north of you and I'm surprised that you pay for garbage pickup. We are allowed 2 bags picked up every second week and unlimited recyclables and food waste every week and yard waste every second week which does include grass clippings. We would only pay if we wanted to put out more that 2 bags of garbage...

[Matt Day]

Ideally we'd have single stream recycling, which I hope is the future. Everything in one container, they sort it and a large majority gets diverted from the dump. I toured the single stream recycling plant where I used to live in central VA. It was impressive AND they were making a killing selling off the content after sorting. Win win.

Currently we have a large rolling plastic can for recycling and one for trash. Our recycling is full each week and trash is usually 1/2 full. I'd like to start composting at some point to lessen the trash.

Glad to hear so many of you are ceculing. I do know that things like oil prices affect recycling. Oil prices dip to a certain point and it doesn't make financial sense to recycle some plastics. I haven't heard about colored glass.

Drives me nuts at my in laws when they don't recycling a darn thing.

[Tony Zona]

I understand what Rod is explaining. I visit my son and family north of Toronto and I get a lesson on what to put in which container. I commonly wonder around with trash in hand and ask where this goes.

At home, we compost out in the field on our own. Paper, metal, glass, most plastic and cardboard goes in one container.

Plastic foam is troublesome. I cut it in pieces to fit in garbage bags and take them across town in batches to a company that recycles. I've seen suggestions to dissolve the foam in acetone. Then what? And breathing acetone is none to healthy.

[Mel Fulks]

Some of the plastic foam is now water soluble.

[Bruce Page]

We recycle. The city doesn't get the aluminum cans - I take them in once a year and make $50-60 bucks. I only put out the recycle dumpster when it full. It's just the two of us, so we easily can go two weeks and sometimes three weeks between pick ups.

[Wayne Lomman]

The only solution in my view is to think very carefully about what is brought home. I am 50km from the tip and get a minimal fortnightly rubbish and recycling collection. Basically if I bring it home it has to be useful or I have to work hard at getting rid of it. It makes you buy minimal packaging and good quality belongings. Cheers

[George Bokros]

In our city you pay an annual fee for recycling metal, plastic and paper whether you recycle it or not. If you are over 65 you can recycle but are not charged for recycling.