I honestly am addicted to reusing glass. I hate plastic. Here's one of my latest uses.

I take things apart to recycle properly.
I refuse to buy anything put in Styrofoam. I really seem to hate that stuff.

I used to recycle religiously. Then the recycling place (30 miles away) started having irregular hours so you show up with a truckload already sorted just to find the gates locked. A few years ago Wal-Mart put the huge con-ex recycling boxes in their parking lots for free use to the public. Even had separate bins for glass, plastic, paper, etc. Well, folks just started putting their household garbage in them so they dropped the program. Some folks will ride a free horse to death + at the same time screw everyone else.

I just found out the other day that if you want to re-cycle something, don't wait for the re-cycling service, put in a box with FFEDEX all over it and put it out by the front door, eventually someone will come by and "claim" it.

We recycle, but I'm not convinced that is how things turn out. You just have to do it on faith.

My introduction to "recycling" was in Venezuela. "Zero Discharge" was the rage, and key driving force for PDVSA, the national oil company. We religiously separated all garbage and drilled cuttings on the rigs, and shipped them to shore in designated bins and barges. Found out later the drilled cuttings were spread on farm land, and the garbage, recyclable and otherwise, were all dumped in the same landfill. Their interest in recycling was just for show.

I work in an industry that has a lot of palletised material delivered wrapped in bubble wrap.The wrap is removed and binned , destined for the landfill.

I have official sanction to rescue the wrap , and donate it to many small local businesses so that it can get at least one more use before being dumped.

Its a small gesture but every little bit helps . Just dont pop the bubbles - they are full of Chinese air so who knows what they also carry....

I'm better at recycling than I am at being a practicing Catholic.

It really isn't difficult, and it's just the right thing to do.

Like Ken, I have doubts about the process after the materials get picked up, but on my end, it gets done like an act of faith.

When I settle on a house, I'll also go back to composting. At that point, our actual output to landfill is about a grocery bag per week. Most gets recycled or composted.

It takes me 4-6 weeks to fill my trash bin for pick up. I'm putting it out on Thursday, it will only have three standard 40 gallon kitchen bags and some compressed feed sacks. I reuse quite a few of the feed sacks but not all so I do set a lot out for the trash man.

It's also time to go to the scrap yard with a trash can full of compacted aluminum cans and other aluminum items. Took 5 years to fill it.

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It's also time to go to the scrap yard with a trash can full of compacted aluminum cans and other aluminum items. Took 5 years to fill it.

What are you going to use the money for?

Here in Jacksonville FL all trash collection, recycle and yard debris pickup is city-operated (contracted out) and included in our property taxes.

Trash is collected once a week and recycle material once every other week. The city provides receptacles; trash can are green with green lids and recycle cans are green with yellow lids. We have to provide our own yard debris containers, or bag it, tie in bundles, etc.

Trash has to be bagged but recycle items cannot; they have to be put in the containers separately (plastic bags jam the sorting machines).

Some things can't be recycled: plastic grocery bags, styrofoam, aerosol cans, etc.

Sometimes I wonder if recycling is really cost-effective?

I tried recycling former wives and girlfriends just couldn't get them back to their original shape.LOL

The cost savings is in the “not having to create, maintain, and monitor additional landfills”. Doesn’t matter if the recycled materials pay for the labor it takes.

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Originally posted by Use Enough Gun:

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It's also time to go to the scrap yard with a trash can full of compacted aluminum cans and other aluminum items. Took 5 years to fill it.

What are you going to use the money for?

LOL, I probably won't get much for it! Probably put it towards my feed bill at the co-op.

Jim Kobe, that reminds me of a story I heard on Paul Harvey several years ago when the garbage strike was going on in NYC right at Christmas. Some enterprising guy boxed up all his trash, gift-wrapped it + went downtown, parked + left his window open. Sure enough when he returned it was gone.

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posted document.write('<nobr>'+ myTimeZone('Thu, 04 Mar 2021 20:15:57 GMT-0800', '05 March 2021 08:15')+'</nobr>');05 March 2021 08:1505 March 2021 08:15Hide PostJim Kobe, that reminds me of a story I heard on Paul Harvey several years ago when the garbage strike was going on in NYC right at Christmas. Some enterprising guy boxed up all his trash, gift-wrapped it + went downtown, parked + left his window open. Sure enough when he returned it was gone.

Poetic justice.

Dave

What's the point, most of that shit just gets exported to some third World country, to deal with ?

Grizz

A shame I do agree, but the reality is is that it WILL happen. Human nature. Cras as it may sound, it is better to be at the top of the "food chain"than below.

Here is a very interesting video talking about the recycling process and how the companies creating the "plastics mess" shift the responsibility to the consumer, how foreign countries are less willing to accept our garbage, and how the U.S. is doing very little to help the situation.

If you can get past John Oliver's brummie accent and attempts at humor, he brings out some incredibly disturbing facts surrounding recycling:

1. How little is actually being recycled
2. How we are led to believe most plastics are recyclable, when they are not.
3. How much plastic trash recycles back into our own body.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fiu9GSOmt8E

"Recycling" is a very discouraging situation.

Getting back to glass, which is highly recyclable and IMO environmentally friendlier compared to plastics...

When I do buy food products from a store and they are packaged in plastic I transfer it to a glass container when I get home. Mostly because plastics are notorious for containing bad chemicals that can leach into edibles.