Do You or Don't You Recycle?

I recycle everything I can. I actually feel a sense of guilt when I have to throw something in the trash that can't be recycled (like aluminum foil with food on it or a pizza box). I just try to minimize using anything like that. I never use paper plates or even plastic cups. My latest save the earth initiative is working on not using straws (they are TERRIBLE for the environment, and can't be recycled.) I am not a tree hugger, but recycling cuts my trash output by 1/2. This is huge, especially with a family of 4!

YES, I love to recycle...everything I can. I'll even pick up recyclable trash on my walks and pop it in my bin.

You know what pisses me off - my in-laws, drink only bottled water, some weird paranoia they have and the DO NOT recycle. Irks me to no end....but I ask them every time I'm over at their home..."Where's the recycle bin? ...just to make them uncomfortable with their lie that their community does not recycle...ugh...it's hopeless. Sorry world.

We have recycling bins available by the water company, so yes, we recycle EVERYTHING we can! It gets me so upset when we go to my parent's town and everything gets thrown away. So wasteful!

We are lucky to get our recyclables picked up by the city. It's encouraged and we have a large trash can for those items. We bought a trash can for in the house that has two spots...one for garbage and one for recyclables. It makes it pretty easy. We also compost, so the vegetable, fruit and plant waste stays out of the land fill too. Our trash is minimal compared to many others we know.

Now that we recycle and compost we only produce about 1 bag of trash a week!

We are fortunate to have recycling in our city at the curb. It is a special blue can. We can put all paper, cardboard, plastic and cans in there.

My husband has ADHD and still cannot get the hang of it. He says it all just looks like trash, so I do have to sometimes, pull cans or bottles from the trash.. Sigh..

I take all of my magazines to the library, they have a shelf for people to leave or take donated magazines.

We recycle everything possible! We also compost.
I totally understand about your husband. Mine used to be the same way. He was raised on a farm where they threw EVERYTHING, even combustibles, onto the burn pile. Yeesh! I grew up on a farm that did the opposite! My parents recycled before it was trendy.

Well, now my husband is firmly on the recycling bandwagon, but I had to be pretty firm about it. You could try asking for a recycling bin from your county, and then your husband might be less inclined to throw it in the pit.

Good luck and keep up the good work.

I am a california girl and I love to recycle! I recycle anything that I can :)

we recycle almost everything. Since they brought us the bigger recycle cans last year we have been filling that to the brim, at times the lid wont even close all the way. I have noticed that our regular trash can (which is bigger than the recycle can) is only about halfway full, if that, each week. It is just amazing to see how much stuff can be recycled and it doesn't make sense to me that if people are able to (their city has pickup and they have a can) recycle they dont because they think it is too much work! It is a wonderful thing to recycle! thats just my opinion!

We do recycle most everything as we pay for a bin to keep it in and have it picked up. We also keep worms to eat up our food leftovers and compost our garden stuff and keep a garden. We try and be as back to the basics as possible. BUT, I'm not giving up my diapers or the plastic baggies I wrap them in!

I/we definitely recycle our plastic, glass, cans, newspaper, magazines, & compost. We have some men in our area who collect metal (broken patio chairs and such) so place it front of our house for them to pick up on their rounds. The kids help and earn money from what we sell, and are currently saving for an Xbox 360.

Get different cans to separate your recyclables, so your husband can easily see what goes where.

Yep...our garbage cans out here in California are teeny tiny so you are forced to recycle. I personally think recycling is a good thing but I am not an over the top "go green" recycler. I do it because it makes sense to reduce&reuse as much as we can.

It is quite convenient here in Cali. We don't have to take our stuff to be recycled. We have 3 separate cans that the city gives us. One for recycling,one for organic waste and one for garbage. Garbage is tiny..the other two are gynormous...guess what they are hinting at ?!!!

We have weekly pickup so yes, I recycle everything. It would be much harder if I had to take it to a center. Plus, at least in jax, we don't have to sort it ourselves. I just put everything in the bin as we use it and set it out the night before so people can pick the metal out if they want before it gets picked up.

We have 3 garbage cans to put out once a week for pick up. One is grey for garbage, one is green for lawn clippings, and one is blue for recycleables. We save cans in our own big bin and take to the center and get cash. We share the sunday newspaper with the neighbors so she gets the coupons I dont need. We recycle the glass, paper, plastic and cardboard.

We live WAAAYY out in the country, we do have trash pick up, but no recycling anywhere around where I live, I would have to haul my stuff an hours drive to recycle, which would use a lot of gas and negate the whole thing.
If I had pick up, sure I would.
I have a burn barrell, which I burn paper and wood trash in.

Absolutely we do!
Paper goes back to the school's recycling bins.
Heavier paper (cereal boxes etc.) goes for the EOW pick up at home, along with plastics, glass, metal cans, etc.

The most amazing difference, I thin is the paper stuff--it's really made a difference in the amount of bags we have for "trash"!

My in-laws are a lot like your hubby--they don't recycle anything, even though they have home pick up--they are just too lazy to do it.

I recycle everything I can. The recycle bin usually has more in it than the trash can.
So glad when recycle bins became available. I used to drive my husband crazy by piling up recyclibles in the garage until I could take them to the center.

I recycle everything that is recyclable.
The stuff I can't get money back for? I still can take it and get rid of it for free.
Try having different bins. Get hubby on board. Get the kids on board.
In certain parts of California, you can't even burn things. We take them to the recycling center. Paper is recyclable.
I'm not a "green" fiend. It's a matter of necessity.
Disposal fees are so high that anything you can recycle for money or get rid of for free is a huge money saver.
I don't know how it works in KS, but it's not that hard to get in the habit of separating things.
Kids are especially great at helping with it.

Best wishes.

We do what we can to recycle ... we are not them best, but we do try.

Our county makes it very easy for us. All recyclables go into a 75 or 105 gallon container (or two, as each household can have up to 2 of any size) and it's picked up every other week along with garbage and yard waste/composting. Everything goes in one bin. So in our kitchen we have 3 cans. A small one for garbage (also our smallest outdoor can), a small one for food waste (goes into yardwaste/composting), and a large one for recycling.

The county has a vested interest in providing free recycling and yardwaste/composte service as they MAKE money off of the compost and recycling.

In other states I've live in the added bonus was that WE got to 'make' that money by separating out paper products, plastics, glass, metal, and they got weighed and we got paid. On average about $100 per month in recycling. In our county of over 2,000,000 if even half of us are recycling that much the county 'makes' $100,000,000 a month off of our recycling. Say 90% of that is overhead (to make up a number, I have no idea what their overhead is) that's still 10 million a month in profit. Even if their overhead is 99%, that's 1 million a month.

I do, I feel really guilty if I don't recycle. I also try and avoid purchasing things with too much packaging. My husband begs me to buy paper plates and napkins... not gonna do it!

I'm a little nutty about recycling. I go as far as making sure the hang tags from clothes get recycled.

My husband is getting better but still argues with me about RISING things out. I sounded like some insane tree hugger last week about how putting an aple juice container out without rinsing will contaminate the process. He risned it and just gave me the death stare. It was actually pretty funny but I want our recycling to be in "full compliance" (insert "Fargo" accent.)

Oh man...out here in the Pacific Northwest we are pretty fanatical about recycling. Almost anything can recycle! Pizza boxes (they actually go in with your yard waste), paper, newspaper...everything! We have a family of 5 and use the smallest garbage can but use a huge recycle bin. Even when we go out now there is always a trash can and recycle bin...at parks, at concerts...just about everywhere. You can actually get ticketed here for not recycling.
L.

We are not allowed to burn trash so we recycle as much as possible. Papers are donated to the library that has a huge bin. the company that collects the bin gives cash to the library so it really helps out there. When I take the papers in every couple of weeks, it is almost always getting full so a lot of others do it as well. I always have to yell at the family when I find a can or a bottle in the kitchen or bathroom trash can. A pizza box can only be recycled if there is no but of food on the box. I try to rinse aluminum foil or pan so it can be recycled. Our area does not ticket for not recycling but if the trash collector reports that regular trash is in the recycle bin, then the owner of the property can be ticketed. But it usually is not reported.

my city just implemented a new system invovling a new trash can for recyclables only(a truck comes to pick it up bi-monthly....i love it!!!!, now i want a composter so the only things ill actually throw away are diapers and plastic bags and pizza boxes (plastic bags clog the machines, and pizza boxes are greasy)

I recycle the hell out of things now!, lol

Its a great program

I recycle anything with a recycle symbol, or anything paper or cardboard.

Our neighborhood was part of a failed pilot program for our city, where each household was provided free recycling pick up, but the recycling company that services our area couldn't get that program to be profitable. So, now, we just have a extra garbage can labeled Recycling, and we drop the bags at the local recycling dumpster, which is at the park at the end of our street.

It is a small thing, but it makes me feel good that we/I am trying to do my/our part to keep our world viable for generations to come.

We average about 3 loosely packed bags of recycling for every 1 bag of trash. That really opened my eyes and convinced me it was worth it.