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Parenting
Serious recycling question
How do you recycle without having a bunch of trash lying around your house? What kind of trash/recycling bins do you use?
I will admit that I HATE recycling. Hate it. Every since I lived in Germany where every freaking little thing has to be recycled, everyone had to compost (the outside compost bins stunk and attracted bugs), and you can be fined for not recycling.
We have room for one trash can in our kitchen. If I had room for bins or a divided thing, I would happily recycle more. But I'm not running downstairs to discard every plastic bottle or glass jar into the proper bin. FWIW, I do recycle paper, and yes, I realize I am a terrible person for not recycling more.
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Re: Serious recycling question
I keep the bin in the garage and when there are too many bottles/cans/whatever by my sink I haul them out to the garage.
I've thought about composting but I'm not really sure how to do it without the dogs getting into it.
Kaden William 11/4/06 and Dawson Michael 6/30/10
Dawson's first birthday - at the zoo
We have a spot next to our refrigerator where I put paper bags and stash all the recycling in those. It honestly drives me a little crazy, especially since our town only picks up recycling every other week, but I just can't throw recyclables away (other than the containers raw meat comes in- I won't keep those around my kitchen. Ick).
Alex (11/14/06) and Nate (5/25/10)
"Want what you have, do what you can, be who you are." - Rev. Forrest Church
So you just put the bottles/cans by the sink? See, that would just drive me nuts. My parents do that too.
~Lisa
Mum to Owen and Lucas
Yes, but it really isn't there for very long, just until I make my next trip out. Maybe you could put a small basket in the under-the-sink cabinet instead?
We have to use bags supplied by the city for our curbside recycling (we can leave it all mixed up, though, so that's a huge help), so we hang it on the inside of the little cubby where we keep our kitchen trash can. It gets crowded about the day before trash day, but we deal.
Maybe dump it all together some place convenient during the week and then when you're ready to get rid of it, take 3 minutes and separate it then.
We have two recycling bins in our laundry room (right off the kitchen) which I use for cardboard/food packaging and bottles/cans/glass. We keep a basket in DH's office where we put all paper recycling - newspapers, magazines, shredded things, etc. We also have a small bin for battery recycling that we keep in the laundry room as well.
We take the recycling down to the garage maybe twice a week, then just put it out with the trash on trash day (they are going to single stream recycling soon, so easy)
These are the bins we use:
https://www.containerstore.com/shop/newLowPrice/storage?Ntt=recycling&productId=10005524
I admit we don't compost, although I have been thinking of starting.
It's just automatic to throw the recycling in one bag and the trash into another. I feel like I have been recycling forever....I know we were back when I was in elmentary school. I remember the first crate bins the city gave us. Now our recylcing can (that the city gave us) is larger than our regular garbage can. Our regular garbage can is so small we 'd be hard pressed to not recylcle and try to fit it in that teeny thing. I also co-run the recycling program at DD's elementary school so saving cans etc. and bringing them to be recycled raises money for our school. As far as what bins we use I use bags from stores for recycling and usually have to change it out about 3 times a day.
I was just looking at compost bins yesterday..I'm not totally jazzed about it but it is on my list of things to look in to.
We have a copy paper box in the cupboard that holds the recyclables. We keep glass things on the counter until we take them to the garage. When we lived in an apartment, we kept a paper grocery bag next to the garbage can and we would fill that up with our recyclables.
The compost bin shouldn't smell. There should only be yard clippings, fruit and veggie scraps, and some other odds and ends in there. There shouldn't be any meat, bones, or fat in there. Those make them stink and make them attract bugs and rodents.
We have multiple kitchen size trash bins in our garage right now, but plan on buying the stacking bins made for recycling soon.
FWIW, I hate it too! But after seeing how much goes into the recycling bins, I cannot go back to throwing everything into the trash!
Our garbage company just passed out toters with lids for recycling. It is huge and it has a lid.
we put recyclables (all washed) in a basket and every night DH brings the glass/plastics to our bin outside and the paper gets tidied up and put in the shed.
we compost in a closed bin outside and it doesn't smell at all. We do not compost meat or fat/butter as composting those things are really only for BIG compost bins. They will attract animals/smell if you put them in a small bin. We put our veggie/fruit/bread/coffee scraps in a box that stays in the freezer - again, no smell in the house either.
I lived in the UK and it had the opposite impact on me. I am horrified when I go past my neighbors and they have cardboard hanging out of their massive 96 gallon garbage can that is full. I honestly feel guilty when I throw away a water bottle in public into a general garbage bin.
I have a container in my garage which is next to my kitchen, so I will admit it is easier for me. My friends who are in your position just put a bin under the sink and take it out every other day or so. I also hate clutter, but to me recycling is more important.
I don't understand how people can "hate" recycling.
We have a rubbermaid tote next to our garbage can. Is it out and visible? Yes. But everyone we know recycles and isn't going to bat an eye about it.
If you're concerned about it, you can keep some sort of bin or paper bag at the top of the stairs, and run it downstairs when it's full.
I hate recycling because it is a PITA in my opinion. I hate having trash sitting around. If I had room in the kitchen for a recycling bin or separate recycling can I would do it without any problem. But I hate the constant trying to figure out what to do with trash.
I am not concerned about what a recycling container looks like. I simply don't have room in the kitchen for more than one garbage can, and I don't want bottles and stuff sitting around until someone takes them downstairs to our recycling bin. And I don't want to be running downstairs with every empty soda bottle.
We don't have room either - our cans are out on our 3 season porch. Even in Winter. It's just something you deal with.
We keep our bin (the one given to us by the county) in the garage, just outside the door from the house, so it's easy enough to just open the door and chunk it in. We keep another large open bin (just a large $4 plastic tote from Wal-mart) for paper in the work room. Then we keep another small one on the floor of the pantry, which we empty every night into the bin in the garage.
Well, it's easy for us though, as they take almost everything and allow everything to be unsorted.
We now have two of those simple human step on trash cans in the kitchen - one for trash, one for recycling. We also have a huge trash bin(supplied by the county) to put stuff in.
Before getting the nicer cans, we just used to have two separate bags, and would take them down to the big trash can when they got full. I will admit, it was a huge PITA to take stuff down sometimes, but I did it.