do you recycle?

[bigbadmax]

Personally I recycle everything I can, from glass to food cans and paper to furniture....fuck the environmental reasons... I recycle so that others can profit from the waste (local authorities etc)and save money ie donate to charity or to www.freecycle.com

what do you think/do?

[Rudy75]

i'm looking for a way to recycle condoms...

[lizard-lix]

Since we live out in the country, recycling is an effort, but we do it. We recycle all the usual stuff (cans, bottles, AL foil, plastic), we have to haul it to a center on Monday mornings between 6:30 and 11:30 AM. We do.

We also try to reduce and reuse as much as possible.. We buy things in bulk when we can, use our own cloth bags, etc. We also reuse a LOT, we compost the green garbage, feed leftovers to the local critters (the turkey vultures love us for the meat fat/scraps and bones lol, the birds and deer get the non meat/non compost stuff) and we don't replace stuff until is it beyond repair (we typically keep our TV 10+ years and our cars 13 -15 years, etc).

This computer is the first 'new' one I've gotten in over 10 years, I usually keep collecting broken ones from friends and customers and rebuild/recycle them (oh yeah, this one is a factory refurb).. I did the same when my wife finally needed a current laptop (I usually get used ones on eBay), I got her a factory refurb..

We are not like some folks who bring glass jars to the grocery to avoid plastic trays for meat and fish, but we try to cut a reasonable path of being both thrifty and conservationist while not being obsessed or having our place look like a recycle bin. You'd not know by looking at our place that we are not average consumers, except for everything not being brand spanking new.

Just trryin' to stick with our share and no more...

Liz

[lizard-lix]

i'm looking for a way to recycle condoms...

Balloons for a party?? :tong:

[abstruse_ric]

Personally I recycle everything I can, from glass to food cans and paper to furniture....fuck the environmental reasons... I recycle so that others can profit from the waste (local authorities etc)and save money ie donate to charity or to www.freecycle.com

We use Freecycle and generally have had pretty good luck with that, though we can get some pretty strange people at our door depending on what we're trying to give away.

We recycle as much as possible but California insults you by charging recycling fees on computer monitors, motor oil, etc, and then makes it a damnable hassle to properly dispose of those very items.

[bigbadmax]

Lizard,

do you get paid for your recycling in the USA?

In the uk few supermarkets pay £0.01 per re-use bag via their loyalty points.

Money is the motivator...not green issues

The local council have recycling targets..they get heavily fined if targets not met.

[bigbadmax]

Abstruse-ric,

free in uk if all household waste!

[fpb09]

I try my best, mostly for money for me ! LOL , but let's be honest most states requier a fee for recycling! The only way they can make a profit 4 whatever it may go to! To me this should be done, volunrtly or encoraged never forced on people ! SORRY FOR THE SPELLING ! LOL

[Annika L]

We recycle as many items as our community supports (unfortunately, they don't have paper recycling, for instance).

But of what we can't recycle, we reuse as much as possible: we have a large heap of scrap paper with print on one side that we can write on the other side as scratch paper; we use leftover newspapers to start our charcoal chimney for grilling; we use old cans to collect bacon grease until the can is full (then it goes in the trash); we have a compost heap for vegetable scraps, and we use the compost on our garden.

Some of this is environmental awareness...some is cheapness/frugality...some is both, or just some sense of cosmic rightness. We are very aware that we live on a finite self-contained planet and that our (US in particular, but more and more everyone else, too) consumption has increased so much that wherever we can NOT consume something new, we're NOT adding to the problem...and that before too very long, society will run out of resources, and our frugality will become a necessary skill that we'll be ahead of the curve on.

[Cherokee_Mountaincat]

Yep yep. We use that here for cans, bottles, cardboard ect. Some places buy soda and beer cans, but its a huge hassle. I usually give my soda cans to the kids around the block...let Them deal wif it..lol And, on a deeper note I Have gotten some nice things off of Freecycle. I got a Beautiful craft table last year and was surprised in the condition of it. Its Really nice. :}
Go Green, Ya'll..:}
Cat

[abstruse_ric]

I try my best, mostly for money for me ! LOL , but let's be honest most states requier a fee for recycling! The only way they can make a profit 4 whatever it may go to! To me this should be done, volunrtly or encoraged never forced on people ! SORRY FOR THE SPELLING ! LOL

I don't necessarily object to the fees charged here in California, it's the mismanagement of the programs that...well...is oh so California. The fund that collects fees on computer monitors actually became insolvent last year. Only in California. And the motor oil fee? In my town there are only two--two!--places that accept used motor oil, and as of yesterday they weren't accepting any because their tanks were full. Most auto parts stores simply refuse to accept any used oil so disposing of it is a major inconvenience. And yet, I've already paid a disposal fee on the stuff. Curbside pick-up? Dream on. Again, only in California.

[fpb09]

& ur shocked in Calf.?

[abstruse_ric]

& ur shocked in Calf.?

Oh no. This is par for the course in California. It makes no sense, and it makes perfect sense.

[12voltman59]

Where I live in the 'burbs, the trash hauler provides recycle bins and these days---I tend to have more stuff in that bin than in the trash can itself.

Where I spend my summers----its a bit harder---I have to collect the stuff--taking it to a common site where that county has large containers where you put cardboard in one container, paper and chip products in a second and cans, glass and the number of plastic bottles and such they take in the third one---I can tell ya---people sure do make use of that since after a big weekend----all three of those containers will be full to the brim with their respective sorts of items---it is heartening to see that such is the case.

I know that around here--they have begun a real push to encourage people to only put those sorts of things in the "regular trash stream" that needs to go into it--so that we don't fill up anymore landfills.

Also in the summer--I now have a compost heap set up so things like egg shells, veggie cuttings, tea bags, coffee and other items of this sort go to help make soil that I am using in my garden space--I am just really getting started on that to any sort of degree--but expect to do even more of that this year----I have the pile filled with mulched leaves from last fall's leaf fall---which they say really makes for some incredible soil---I do know that I must be doing something right----when I turn the lower levels of the pile up--it is full of nice, big fat earthworms!!!

[tenni]

Tonight is put out the recycle material night. Every week our recycle waste is picked up and our "garbage" is picked up every other week. Sometimes, I don't have enough "garbage" with weight to prevent the bag from blowing away before it is picked up though. Weekly we can put out tin cans, glass jars/containers and most plastic but not all(styrofoam being one thing that can not be recylced here). Liquor/wine glass bottles, beer aluminium cans and box wine may be taken to the Beer store(we do not permit beer and liquor sold other than government stores..ie some one brand wine is in most grocery stores but not beer & liquor). There is a deposit on beer bottles and liquor bottles etc. that you get back when you take the bottles to the Beer Store to encourage recycling. Paper and cardboard including old phone books etc. is put out in a separate bin(so I have been trained). Wet compostible material may be put out separately. In the summer, I put such things in a compostible bag in my freezer but in the winter it is really cold enough that I don't have to worry(going down to -16C tonight). Yard waste such as leaves, clippings can be put out in special compositible paper bags except during the winter(duh...snow here). A couple of times a year, you may put out items such as couches, tables and things. It is kind of fun watching people come around picking up these items before pick up. Batteries are to be taken to the recycle place and that probably cuts down on it getting recycled. I noticed that some sports gyms take batteries though.

[bigbadmax]

My local authority recycles 50% household waste and. 72% communal site waste.
Current tax for waste disposal is £48.00/$75.00 per tonne rising soon to £75.00/$110.00.
Wheres theres muck-theres brass.

[Bluebiyou]

LOL
The waste disposal services are all privately owned in my major city. You pay around $30 per month for pick up.
There is/was a program with them for recycling paper. Bundle it up. And the garbage collectors throw it in the back of the truck with the rest of the garbage. It's true (here it is, anyway).
There are free public recycling centers you can take your stuff to, including regular bagged garbage for the landfill.
Mrs. Blue and I separate the recyclable stuff (cardboard, metal, plastic, glass). After crushing it amounts to almost 1/2 the volume of our garbage output.
I estimate less than 25% of the folks around here recycle at all; probably closer to 5% or 10%.
I've never seen any financial incentive at any store for using your own bags.
Recycling of motor oil and car batteries is encouraged locally; purely an ecological issue.

[Hephaestion]

More people, more poo.

More money bestows the right to poo on others (and get away with it)

Is cannibalism an ecologically sound idea?

[darkeyes]

Everything we can.. we also have a huge compost heap which is nice for the garden.. but dont just recycle.. we also buy our veggies and refuse to use plastic bags as often as we are able, and only use them then if they are of the type which break down not in the time span of hundreds of years.. our local greengrocer bags them up in paper bags.. our butcher and fishmonger do not wrap up meat and fish in plastic like the supermarkets but in wax or greaseproof paper and brown paper bags.. and the meat and fish is much fresher and tastier.. we use our own shopping bags in which to carry whatever we buy as much as we can.. we do not buy over packaged foodstuffs any more than we can avoid, and most of it is bought fresh.. shop bought pizza is out partly cos we dont like it and partly cos Kate is brill at making them.. and owt for the micro wave.. ready made meals.. ughie.. simlarly toiletries and cleaning materials while we cannot avoid much packaging, this too is of the type which can be recycled in the main.

When out clothes shopping or or pressie buying at Christmas, birthdays or any other occasion, we cant entirely avoid massive amounts of unnecessary packaging, but this too, as far as we are able is of the type which can be recycled.. and often we refuse to accept a stores placcie bags which has on several occasions caused a fair stushie as we walk out of stores, having paid for our goods, but carrying them in our own shopping bags.. but making sure u know where your receipt is soon stops any nonsense there..

In this day and age we can do much to reduce the need for recycling.. recycling itself uses much energy and so is not entirely environmentally friendly.. it is almost impossible to entirely eliminate the need for recycling.. but we can do much to reduce that need.. a little forethought, and we can reduce it dramatically.. it isnt enough simply to expect our local authorities to have a recycling service.. and each authority has its own methods and recycles different things.. we have to make the effort to reduce it as much as we can and so make a real contribution to improving our environment.

[12voltman59]

What is sort of a "sad thing" was that in the time when most people didn't make much money--but you didn't think that you were poor as long as you had a half way decent roof over your family's head, had food on the table, had them dressed in something beyond mere rags, maybe even had a car that you had to say a prayer for and give a few good whacks to get it and keep it running---and you didn't expect to get one thing more than that----everyone used to recycle just about everything in some way.

Then as everyone started to make money and society did get more affluent----and we developed the mass market system---things moved more away from recycling and reusing to being "a throw away" society to where we now that don't even seem to repair things like TVs or appliances when they break down---we throw them out and get a new, improved model with all kinds of high tech bells and whistles. Now they are going to make refrigerators that can communicate with the products in them via RFID chips that call tell you when you are almost out of milk and eggs that its time to restock those items.

I am guilty of getting rid of TVs that work fine---but are now "obsolete" because they aren't sleek, slim and high definition---I have this one huge one sitting in a spare room that I don't know what the heck to do with---not even the Goodwill or Salvation Army wants it--I guess I have to take it to the county trash transfer station where they take old electronics and things like paint, household chemicals and such.

There are many things I do like about things today---but in some ways I wished that we had not gotten so sophisticated that we think its a good thing to simply discard everything when we are done with it or its "out of date" (not when its dead and beyond repairing) and are on a continual push to always get the next best thing.

How long do we really think this cycle of constant consumerism can be sustained??? Do we really think this sort of mass consumerism is sustainable with ever increasing populations all over the world with many of those rising numbers now finally able to buy things like cars, electronics, appliances and other "consumer goods" such as those???

The way we do things now is simply barely sustainable now--let alone if we add a few more billion people to the planet who want all that sort of stuff too.

I really do think we are headed from some kind of "crashing into the wall" with the way we operate our current society.

[foreverbi]

I like to recycle cum. It's fun.;)

[Hephaestion]

Voltie - you hit the nail on the head.

The throw-away society must stop and revert to a 'service' society where redeployment, repair, restoration are the key features. Manufacturers, especially those entwined with the ill mannered electronics industry must be directed into producing without inbuilt obsolescence and otherwise pointless 'market stimulating' style changes, as in the the car industry. These hide behind the concepts of development and evolution.

Intelligent fridges because there is an idiot who doesn't know when the milk has clotted or run out.