How does recycling work in your town?

[Waffle]

Recycling has been mentioned in a few threads recently and it's got me curious, because it seems the systems/services are quite different in different places. How does recycling work in your town?  What, if anything does your town pick up for recycling - how much does it cost, etc.  Do the services that your town does or doesn't offer make a difference in what you recycle?  (i.e. would you do it even if it wasn't an easy curbside pickup?)

[Deleted]

My town doesn't provide garbage services, so we pay a private company for garbage/recycle removal. They provide a list of what they accept for recycling and they request that you wash out the bottles/cans before putting them in the bin and to break down your boxes. We leave them at the curb with the garbage cans.

The town does do leaf removal so we just have to pile them up by the side of the road.

Household hazards - we have a shelf full of old paint in the basement. I have delegated their removal to DH. 

Our County does a computer/electronic drop-off a few times a year so we get rid of any old computers and such then.

[Deleted]

We're out in the country, but our county has had an extensive recycling program for a long time, so even we have "curbside" pick up.  They provided us with 55 gallon containers and all paper, plastic, glass, tin, and aluminum goes in there (although many take their aluminum in separately to get paid).  They pick up every other week and it is free.  Hazardous waste, batteries, fluorescent bulbs, tires, appliances all go to a facility in town.  Except for a couple times a year, the tires and larger items have a disposal fee. 

Before the curbside totes there were buildings located all over the county where you could drop off recycling.

We're told there are fines for throwing recyclables in the garbage, but I don't know if that is ever enforced, I would imagine you'd have to be a pretty big offender to catch anyone's attention.  I've been sorting and recycling since long before they ever made it mandatory here (like 10 years ago), and if they went back to having to haul to the drop points it wouldn't change anything about how I do things.  I would just feel weird throwing something recyclable in the garbage.

[sheilaincali]

In our city the trash service is included in our bill for city water.

We have co-mingled recycling and they give us a small bin that we put out on trash day next to our large (city provided) trash bin.  They have two different trucks that pick up- one for recycling and one for trash.

One of the companies in our town has a "dem fill" and if you are a resident of the city you can drop your green waste off for free.  They turn it in to compost that they re-sell and the tree branches and that get turned into landscaping mulch that is re-sold.

We have a hazardous waste drop off location that is open about 1/2 of the year.  For Electronics one of the local charities does a drop off thing where you pay by the pound.

One month a year they dedicate those 4 weekends to a trash drop off event.  You can drop off anything for free provided you are a resident.  They also have the cops there if you want to drop off firearms, drugs, etc.  No questions asked.  They separate everything and deal with it individually.  For example all of the tires go into one area and are sent off to be recycled. 

[sheilaincali]

Cost-  I just checked my water bill.  The fee I pay for "refuse" is $13.65 per month. 

Trash service is once a week.  My garbage day happens to be today- so every Tuesday morning they pick up the trash and recycling bins that I bring down to the end of my driveway

[Waffle]

I think my little town is behind the times.   They provide garbage pickup twice a week and yard waste once a week during the season. But no curbside recycling - if you want to recycle you have to take your items to the city garage.

[sheilaincali]

Our "city" is kind of screwy.  We have our regular town "X" and then "North X".  Technically North X is across the river and in a different county but they share a lot of things.  They have a separate police department, fire department, mayor, etc. but they share the school district and several other things.  Both cities have the same garbage/recycling program BUT the city wide recycling thing and the free drop off of green materials is for the regular city only. They'll make you show ID to prove you live in the Regular X and not North X. 

Combined the two cities have a population of around 60,000 but the Regular city is around 2/3 to 3/4 of that total.  I grew up in North X but I live in Regular X now. 

[bean29]

Cost- I have no idea - it is part of our property taxes. 

We have a huge  recycling cart.  Website says Cardboard, cans, plastic bottles 1-7, newspapers, phone books, glass etc.  All mixed together.  It says absolutley no plastic bags, but my shredder paper goes in the cart in a plastic bag - I figure it is better quality paper.  The truck comes and picks up the cart with a mechanical arm - I think it would be a stretch for them to catch a violation, however I follow the rules.  Recycling is picked up every other Monday.

Garbage goes in a cart also, picked up weekly.  You can get an extra one, but since we have two carts already, I try to seperate recyclables from garbage so we can get by with just the two carts.  We are lucky b/c they pass down the opposite side of the street on their way out of the subdivision about an hour after our 7am pick up so if we have extra garbage I throw it in the cart and put the cart accross the street on the curb.  I do that 3-4 times a year.

We have a city it is open 3 days a week.  Easy to use.  The take everything the garbage men take, plus yard waste, TV's, Computers, Printers,   Tires, Appliances (15 for freon appliances) Tires ($3.00) charge. 
You need a Driver's License or ID with a city address.

The hazardous waste goes to a seperate facility.  I have never had to use it, but it is a county facility and not too far from my house.

[Chocolate Lover]

You have to take your separated recyclables to the containers around the county. Cardboard/newspaper, plastic 1-4 and aluminum. No glass. A city nearby does do glass but I have yet to find their facilities or a place in my house for another sorting bin.  

[Tiny]

We have mixed recycling - every house has a ginormous wheelie bin provided for recyclable and a ginormous wheelie bin for actual trash. You can order additional bins if you need them. The Waste Management company will also replace or repair them (the lid on my recycle bin broke off and cracked so I called and they came out and replaced the lid.)    Pick up is once a week.

I think the mixed recycling is kinda wasteful - atleast for paper/cardboard cause once it gets wet or get food residue on it it's supposedly useless for recycling. I can imagine they can easily seperate out steel and aluminum cans and probably glass - but I'm not sure how they separate out the various plastics. I guess there's a warehouse with a conveyor belt and a bunch of people hand sorting the stuff? not sure.

Anyway, most of the household plastics, glass, steel/aluminum, other metals, paper products can go in the recycle bin. No ceramics, light bulbs, batteries, electronics.

There's a yearly "spring clean up" when you can bring toxic stuff - batteries, electronics, paint, household cleaners, etc for recycling - but you have to take the stuff to the drop off point.

Waste Management is part of my water bill and part of it covers the recycle pick up AND subsidizes having the city do the pickup - because there is no profit for the city. So when someone takes stuff out of the recycle bin - I've already kinda PAID for thse cans to be recycled.

Overall, I'm for recycling. It's not perfect but it's better than nothing.

[teen persuasion]

Our trash and recycling is billed on our annual property tax bill in January, I think it is around $150 or $175 for the year now.

Trash pickup at curbside weekly (up to 6 bags/cans) and recycling recently changed to every 2 weeks when they gave us new huge wheeled totes.  Nearly everything can go in them, it seems: glass, paper, cardboard, cans, plastic.  Pop cans and water bottles have a deposit on them in my state, so those we return to the store for the deposit.  Yard trimmings (grass clippings, branches, leaves) can just be piled at the curb in season; the town makes mulch from it, and I believe we can pick up finished mulch at the town garage for free if we wish.  

[Anne_in_VA]

Our city provides two trash barrels to every house - one for garbage and one for recyclables. Every once in a while they also send out a list of items that can be recycled.  The cost of trash collection is billed separately. 

If we have large or bulky items to dispose of we can call and they'll send a truck out for that type of items - I think there's a set schedule, but I'm not sure about that. 

We also have a where you can drop things off if you live in my city at no charge.  DH just took a load of stuff left over from our move today.

[Deleted]

We have private trash pick-up here.  It is fairly cheap.

Recycling requires taking the items into town and to the recycling center.

Most people here still burn all of their trash.

[tcu2003]

We have curbside trash and recycling, each picked up once per week. They'll also pick up weeds, leaves, etc. if they are in those brown compost bags. Our trash and recycle bins are each the same size, and are the large wheelie size. We can recycle paper, most plastics, cardboard and glass.

Yes, I would recycle even if it weren't curbside. That's what I did when I lived in an apartment before marrying DH.

I'm not sure of the cost - it's part of our water, sewer and trash bill that we pay quarterly.

[Sunnyday]

I don't know the cost because we don't get a separate bill for it. It must be in the property tax.

We have garbage, recycling and compost.

They pick up compost every week. And they alternate picking up garbage or recycling.

There is a center for other dangerous materials and electronics.

I think that our system is great. Especially the compost! Our garbage never smells because the the things that usually make garbage smell all go in the city compost bin.

[msventoux]

Not very well.  Private companies can be hired for trash pickup, but they don't offer recycling options.  You can take recycling to the main waste transfer station, but it's not close by and you have to pay a fee to get in.  There is a non-profit community recycling center, but it seems to be plagued by mismanagement or infighting so they're not open that often and I'm not sure that anything that's dropped off there actually gets recycled anymore. 

[marvholly]

I live just outside Chicago. Trash & recycle costs are included in my town budget= part of property tax.

We have 2 trash cans. Brown is 55 gal real trash picked up 2x/week. Green is about 40 gal for recycle and picked up 1x/week. Recycle includes: newspapers, junk mail & other paper, plastic bags, aluminum, plastic bottles (2L soda & milk), cans, most styrofoam................

[tcu2003]

I'm jealous of those of you who live in municipalities that do compost! I wish we had that - and I know, I could do it myself, but that's realistically not happening right now. Maybe some day.

[Sharon]

We have 3 garbage cans and a red plastic box.  The grey cart is for your everyday household garbage.  The blue cart is for mixed recycling (paper, cardboard, plastics 1-7 and cans).  It is picked up every other week.  The green cart is for yard debris is picked up on alternate weeks.  I have so much yard debris that I have ordered a second green cart but was able to downsize on my household debris cart so it wasn't too much extra.  The red plastic box is for glass, batteries, latex paint, motor oil and cooking oil.  This is picked up on the weeks the blue cart is picked up.

Every Thursday households can take hazardous waste out to the transfer station.  People can also take electronics and any of the above other recyclables out to the transfer station on their own if they wish for no charge.

I pay $50 every other month.  On the alternate months I receive a water/sewer bill.

[jeffreymo]

I think our monthly bill is around $20.  This includes weekly curbside pickup of trash, recyclables in separate bins, almost anything that you can set on the curb including furniture, mattresses, water heaters etc..., and yard waste.  For hazardous materials they have collection events 2 times a year at one of the parks.

[tskeeter]

Dec 17, 2013 8:59:32 GMT -5 Waffle said:

Recycling has been mentioned in a few threads recently and it's got me curious, because it seems the systems/services are quite different in different places. How does recycling work in your town?  What, if anything does your town pick up for recycling - how much does it cost, etc.  Do the services that your town does or doesn't offer make a difference in what you recycle?  (i.e. would you do it even if it wasn't an easy curbside pickup?)

The types of services depend on what people are willing to pay for/what the politicians and bureaucrats decide is appropriate.  Easier for homeowners to recycle = higher level of recycling.  But, aint' none of it free.  Depending on the community, recycling probably adds 10% - 25% to the cost of your waste disposal, after you account for any revenue for materials that can be sold.  (DW used to work in accounting for a major trash hauler/recycling company.)

[Deleted]

Dec 18, 2013 8:52:39 GMT -5 tcu2003 said:

I'm jealous of those of you who live in municipalities that do compost! I wish we had that - and I know, I could do it myself, but that's realistically not happening right now. Maybe some day.

If you live in a house, all you have to do is designate a small area and put your compostables there. You can compost veggie scraps, etc.. and coffee grounds. Turn it over once in a while and you are golden. Best soil for a garden that there is.

You can also compost in a bucket. Just turn it on occasion and add a bit of dirt to it to keep down odors.

[kittensaver]

My City (and the County) have curbside recycling. We get three bins: trash, greenwaste/yardwaste and (mixed) recyclables. It's really handy to be able to toss everything recyclable in the same bin and not have to bother with sorting it. Our bins get picked up once a week, with the regular trash pick-up. The cost is included in the regular trash collection bill. The city and county both have active compost programs from the greenwaste bin collections. They use it for schools, parks and other projects but they also make it available to the public for free . If I were willing to travel across town I could have free compost any weekend I wanted it.

My neighborhood is very well known locally for pretty awesome yard sales - people from all over troll our neighborhood every Saturday. There is usually no need to call for any kind of pick-up of large items (although that City service IS available). Even if it's broken, if you put it curbside on Friday night it will be gone by morning. Especially metal/scrap metal - whoosh, it's gone.

My region also has a few very active Freecycle chapters. Look them up on the interwebz . . . it's basically a huge internet swap of people who like free stuff and people who want to keep stuff out of landfill.

[mollyanna58]

We have weekly curbside pickup for paper, newspaper, chipboard, cardboard, glass, cans, plastics with recycling codes 1-7 (no styrofoam).  All the paper products can now go into one bin; all the plastic, glass, cans can go in another.  The cost is built into my taxes.

Electronics have to be recycled.  No curbside collection; the items have to be brought to the Dept of Public Works yard.

They only pick up yard waste once a month in the warm weather, but I can bring it over to the DPW yard more often for free. 

Before the town started pickups, I would bring newspapers and soda cans to a Boy Scout troop who recycled as a combination good deed and fundraiser. 

Hazardous waste can be brought to the county transfer station for a fee.  The county runs a couple of free collection days a year.

[Sum Dum Gai]

We get a large green waste, large recycling, and mid size trash bin for curb side pickup. You can pay extra for a large trash bin, but we haven't needed one since all glass, plastic, metal, paper, and cardboard can go in the recycling bin.

County has a free ewaste drop off point at the landfill. Couple times a year they take motor oil, batteries, expired prescriptions, and whatnot for free. Otherwise there's a fee.

[tcu2003]

Dec 18, 2013 14:01:08 GMT -5 @atsahsreborn said:

Dec 18, 2013 8:52:39 GMT -5 tcu2003 said:

I'm jealous of those of you who live in municipalities that do compost! I wish we had that - and I know, I could do it myself, but that's realistically not happening right now. Maybe some day.

If you live in a house, all you have to do is designate a small area and put your compostables there. You can compost veggie scraps, etc.. and coffee grounds. Turn it over once in a while and you are golden. Best soil for a garden that there is.

You can also compost in a bucket. Just turn it on occasion and add a bit of dirt to it to keep down odors.

Yeah, my dad had a compost pile when I was growing up. That said, we're planning to list our house for sale next year, so I'm worried that prospective buyers wouldn't want a compost heap in a corner of the yard.

[Sunnyday]

This is why I like that my city does compost.

With the home ones, you have to designate space for it, and you can only put in certain things. And then you have to maintain it.

The city compost takes everything from muffin wrappers to bones.

[Deleted]

We have the large wheely things also. One for recycle one for garbage once a week.

 I'm amazed at how little trash we have and how much recycle we have.

 Included in property tax so not sure of the exact cost.

City also picks up leaf waste, etc. once or twice a year but we compost ours.

The city has free compost also and it is pretty good stuff except for little bits of plastic, etc. that you might find in it.

[midwestlily]

Each home is issued a recycle bin, not very large (15-20 gallons).  You can also put recyclables in a different bin or a plastic storage box.  They take the usual items, plastic, glass, cans.  They pick up every two weeks and it's "free," meaning that I don't know how it's paid for.  

I know they do some kind of green waste pickup at certain times of year, but I live in a condo so I haven't needed that.

Electronics get recycled separately.  I think there's a place where you can take things anytime, maybe for a fee, but in early May (end of spring semester) they have a free electronics recycling drop-off in the stadium parking lot.  (College town.)

To me, the weirdest part is that we have to pay for each bag of trash that gets picked up.  You buy yellow trash stickers at local supermarkets, $2 each, and they won't pick up the trash unless you have a sticker on the bag (or on the wheely bin, I have one but rarely use it).  I guess it makes sense, the more trash you send to the landfill, the more you pay.  A friend who lives on the poor side of town says that the old lady who lives next door gets around that by taping a single dollar bill to the trash bag!  I should probably be shocked, but I find that kind of amusing.

[sapphire12]

My trash is scheduled to be picked up twice a week. My HOA secures the contractor. In reality, I put my trash out once every couple of weeks or so. It takes about that long for the trash can to be full. I'm single with no kids.
The county picks up recycling one every other week. The county gave us 55?gallon bins for this. Everything is recyclable now -- all plastic, cardboard, glass, cans, etc. I'm guessing this is paid for by property taxes.
The county also pick up yard waste (Apr - Oct).
Residents can take toxic chemicals to the landfill.
Residents can take electronics, i.e. TVs, stereos for recycling.