[stoney]

I know this sounds like a stupid question, but do you personally recycle? I was reading something a while back about how states with cash refunds have much higher rates of return (CA 87%, WI 99% - iirc).

I know in CA most urban area have the blue recycle bins for residents which people just toss bottles into. Shockingly in SF it's actually illegal to recycle your own bottles/cans if you have a recycling bin on premises?! Apparently SF has an exclusive/non-compete contract with Waste Mgmt Inc for recycling...

We normally just use the blue bins in our complex, but recently I have started actually saving our bottles and it's shocking how many we go through. I am also OCD about our finances and have CA redemption value broken out as a line item in our balance sheet. We usually get about $150/year in bottle and can fees. At $.05 per bottle, it adds up to a pretty decent amount of coin pretty quickly.

Before BB or SS say it, I know the easy way to not waste bottles is to brew your own beer as you just cycle through the bottles.

But do you recycle?

 

[clarkenstein]

But do you recycle?

i do, but here in the great state of NJ, we don't get compensated for it. and if we do, i've been missing out.

we finally made the move to using reusable water bottles in the home with water from the tap about a year ago. man has that made a difference in the amount of recycling that goes out on the curb every other week. it leaves a TON more space for beer bottles so i've been hammered ever since we made the change.

 

[binary visions]

Yes, through our apartment building. We separate out almost all recyclables.

I could probably be a little more diligent - sometimes I'll toss something without thinking, or I'll just not want to wash out the tuna can so it'll go in the trash. But I'd say 85% of what can be recycled in our house, does get recycled.

We have a paper shredding service at work that shreds and recycles, so any paper goods just get tossed into a pile and I bring it into work once a month.

 

[jimmydean]

My bin is actually green with a yellow lid for mixed recycle. I recycle much more than I toss, but I'm not Toshi anal about it.

I use company resources to dispose of important docs. Shred and recycled.

<edit> I cash in the cans and bottles at $.05 a pop including water bottles in OR now. Beer money.

 

[jonKranked]

i'm with clarkstein, no deposit no return, but i still recycle. condo complex does it. all goes into one bin, paper glass metal plastic.

 

[SkaredShtles]

We have mixed recycling so I just put the stuff in boxes, old laundry baskets, etc. And we actually recycle WAY more than we put in the garbage. I'd personally prefer recycling service weekly and garbage every other week...

We compost all compostable stuff. We routinely have only 2-3 grocery bags of garbage in the trash bin when it goes out.

 

[jonKranked]

We have mixed recycling so I just put the stuff in boxes, old laundry baskets, etc. And we actually recycle WAY more than we put in the garbage. I'd personally prefer recycling service weekly and garbage every other week...

We compost all compostable stuff. We routinely have only 2-3 grocery bags of garbage in the trash bin when it goes out.

my trash / recycling is about 50/50. once i own a house i'm gonna start composting

 

[Pesqueeb]

We have mixed recycling so I just put the stuff in boxes, old laundry baskets, etc. And we actually recycle WAY more than we put in the garbage. I'd personally prefer recycling service weekly and garbage every other week...

We compost all compostable stuff. We routinely have only 2-3 grocery bags of garbage in the trash bin when it goes out.

This. Though we actually have a can and its Green. I realize its difficult for apartment dwellers to compost but a compost bin makes a HUGE difference in the amount of stuff that actually makes it to the curb on trash day. Like SS I'd be surprised if our "trash" would fill more than 2 grocery bags. Though I do also fill a grocery bag with poop from two big dogs and a cat every week.

 

[stoney]

I'm hoping to get a compost bin setup once we have space. That would be huge for our little garden, as 90% of our trash is food waste.

 

[RoboDonkey713]

My wife is a Recycling ninja. Everything that can get recycled does. Our town has no sort so it is wicked easy to pile all the plastic, metal, paper and glass in one big tub. Maine has a .05 return on bottles so once a month I get more booze money.

 

[AngryMetalsmith]

I do recycle at the studio but there is no curb side service in downtown so I take it home.

 

[stevew]

yes.

also....

i use one sheet of toilet paper at a time.

both sides.

 

[stevew]

Though I do also fill a grocery bag with poop from two big dogs and a cat every week.

1. put poop in bag
2. put on FBI neighbors door step
3. squirt with lighter fluid
4. light with match
5. ring doorbell
6. run

 

[Pesqueeb]

1. put poop in bag
2. put on FBI neighbors door step
3. squirt with lighter fluid
4. light with match
5. ring doorbell
6. run

Rep Given.

 

[jonKranked]

1. put poop in bag
2. put on FBI neighbors door step
3. squirt with lighter fluid
4. light with match
5. ring doorbell
6. run

ROR when he calls the sh*t "poorp"

 

[stevew]

Rep Given.

you should have been tossing your dog sh!t in his back yard the day after your first encounter with him.

 

[MMike]

We have the giant blue bin (360 liter) on wheels. We have way more recycling than garbage. In the winter, our garbage collection is only every two weeks. Recycling is once a week year round.

 

[H8R]

I recycle aggressively. Our trash bin is less than half the size of our recycling bin, and it's maybe half full each week, often it's empty.

We also compost.

I recycle at my print shop too, and re-use things whenever possible. I also plan on re-use when I can. Example: shop rags are all the synthetic microfiber kind, which I can wash at home every couple weeks - no paper towels allowed.

 

[kazlx]

We have a grey top bin for recycling, which I use just to not take up so much room in the trash can. We get one green waste can, on recycling and one trash. It all gets sorted out as our trash facility anyway, but I guess it makes it somewhat easier for them.

 

[SkaredShtles]

What the hell - Toshi doesn't recycle? Travesty...

 

[stevew]

What the hell - Toshi doesn't recycle? Travesty...

free pass...battery powered bike.

 

[Quo Fan]

Condo has bins for recycling, and a dumpster. We did have to separate our recycling, but not any more.

 

[SkaredShtles]

free pass...battery powered bike.

OMG - you suppose he tosses those batteries in the trash?

 

[-BB-]

Shockingly in SF it's actually illegal to recycle your own bottles/cans if you have a recycling bin on premises?! Apparently SF has an exclusive/non-compete contract with Waste Mgmt Inc for recycling...

That and you can't even snip your kids schlong... what is my city coming to!! (Still an honorary SF resident at heart).

 

[-BB-]

I'm hoping to get a compost bin setup once we have space. That would be huge for our little garden, as 90% of our trash is food waste.

Now THAT is a whole separate issue.
Probably worse than not recycling (though I'm not really one to talk). You should know how much fossil fuel goes into production and transport. Starving kids in Ethiopia etc.

 

[-BB-]

We have a grey top bin for recycling, which I use just to not take up so much room in the trash can. We get one green waste can, on recycling and one trash. It all gets sorted out as our trash facility anyway, but I guess it makes it somewhat easier for them.

Yeah, Blue = Trash.... Green = Yard waste.... Grey = recycles.

I have to say though that the amount in my recycle bin went WAY down once I started to brew my own beer. Not only the beer bottles, but we also drink a ton of carbonated water (2L bottles). Now there are no more beer bottles AND I use the left over 2L bottles to store and carbonate my beer!!

 

[RUFUS]

I recycle everything that I can. I try pretty hard to and am trying not to buy products with a bunch of plastic.

If I get a to go container, I wash it and reuse it for awhile as a tupperware.

 

[Serial Midget]

I stopped buying news papers, magazines and bottled water years ago but I still defile the planet with paper coffee cups; one per day everyday.

 

[stoney]

I stopped buying news papers, magazines and bottled water years ago but I still defile the planet with paper coffee cups; one per day everyday.

I felt it was worth buying the $2 cup. A lot of coffee places will charge $.10 less per cup if you bring your own cup.

 

[dhmike]

I recycle sometimes .

 

[Serial Midget]

I felt it was worth buying the $2 cup. A lot of coffee places will charge $.10 less per cup if you bring your own cup.

We have our own automatic espresso maker... I have no excuse for the paper cups - if Costco didn't sell them I wouldn't buy them.

 

[nyhc00]

That and you can't even snip your kids schlong....

wait...what???

also we recycle far more than we add to our garbage cans, and will be composting in the near future.

 

[Beef Supreme]

I am also OCD about our finances and have CA redemption value broken out as a line item in our balance sheet.

Do you have a line item on there for the opportunity cost of making overly detailed spreadsheets?

 

[CrabJoe StretchPants]

The waste collection company I use also does recycling, just fill up a big tupperware bin every week. They alternate every other week between paper products and plastic/glass/metal products.

 

[zdubyadubya]

We have a paper shredding service at work that shreds and recycles, so any paper goods just get tossed into a pile and I bring it into work once a month.

I use company resources to dispose of important docs. Shred and recycled.

good to know i'm not the only one who does this--the secretary at work still hasn't figure out why i need to borrow the shredder so often.

we totally recycle. our family of 5 (3 adults) will fill a huge blue bin on wheels (like mmikes) once a week. unfortunately we also fill the same size bin with trash bags i need to work on that one.

 

[stoney]

Do you have a line item on there for the opportunity cost of making overly detailed spreadsheets?

Nope. Knowing exactly where our money is spent has allowed us to drop our monthly expenses by ~$1800/m post-tax since I stopped working. Our lifestyle is pretty much the same and we in effect gave ourselves a $28k/year raise over Wifey's income. It was easy cutting the fat because we knew where it was. I just need to start brewing beer onsite and we'll save an additional $40/m.

 

[Toshi]

What the hell - Toshi doesn't recycle? Travesty...

NYC has good recycling programs, but I'm not in the city. My area of Long Island/Nassau County has near nonexistent recycling. We recycle our cans and bottles but that's it. No food waste, no paper (unless you bundle them up with twine like newspapers--that's not going to happen), nothing else.

 

[I Are Baboon]

Recycling is a lot easier since our town switched over to the huge bins that don't need separation. We recycle just as much as we did before but it's easier now. The bin gets emptied every other weeks...on weeks I don't get a paycheck, which makes it easy to remember. Not that I ever get a paycheck anyway since the wife handles all the money. But I digest...

 

[mantispf2000]

When I lived in Tacoma, they started a curb-side pick-up of recyclables. Made it easy to get started and maintain a program. Now that I live south of Carson City, I use Big Blue for glass and plastic, take newspapers to the recycle center, and aluminum cans to the pound so they get the money to feed the animals.

I know I can do more, though I'm happy with what I do now.......

 

[BikeMike]

It was a shock when I moved from CA, where it seemed that virtually everything was recyclable since forever, to Perth, where people seemed to not have heard about recycling. It took a year to get a paper recycling bin on our floor at work. I still have to take bottles home from Friday beer-o'clock at work or else they go in the rubbish bins. I can't pinpoint any specific reason why, but it is bizarrely disturbing to see glass bottles being thrown in the trash.