My wife is big on recycling. She had to clear out her old office at work, when they moved to smaller quarters, so she has been shredding stacks and stacks of paper.

This morning, she happened to be looking outside when the city recycle collecting truck came by and she watched the guy take a couple of sacks of shredded paper from our recycle bins and move them to the trash bin.

I contacted the city's Public Works department to find out what's going on.

The reply that I received states that there has been a recent change: they no longer accept shredded paper for recycling.

The will take sheets of paper for recycling, but if you run the same paper through the shredder, it is no longer acceptable for recycling.

Only thing that comes to mind is, shredded paper takes up a lot of space.

Our local system is the same. Frustrating when you're trying to protect against identity theft.

I got told at work that we need to use the recycling and not just throw everything in the trash. So I tried to change my ways. One night I was using the shredder and it filled up. So I dumped it in the recycling bin...I mean, it's paper, right? Got told not to do that again because they won't take it. I'm back to just putting everything in the trash can.

I'm thinking of getting a Weber kettle type charcoal grill. Does shredded paper (strips, not cross-cut) work well for starting?

Maybe it's because it's harder to read if the paper is shredded.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
Does shredded paper (strips, not cross-cut) work well for starting?

It certainly does!.

Shreds are wonderful for starting the "patio campfire," too.

 
Our local recycling company has the same policy, and has from the get-go. No shredded paper. I'm kind of pleased about it. When the truck turns the can upside down to dump it, there is a one foot or so gap between the can and the truck. On a windy day (which most days here), small, light things get blown around rather than going into the truck. Shredded paper, dryer sheets, plastic bottle caps, etc. all create litter if they're in the recycle bin. I doubt that's the reason they don't want shredded paper, though. Probably something to do with difficulty recycling it.

Ours used to take it, if it was bagged in grocery-store paper bags and stapled shut.

They changed last year, which seemed odd, so I called to confirm.

They said, yep the only place we take shredded paper is at special events which we're not holding at present, so, put it in with the trash.

I didn't think to ask why at the time, but I did Google around and found this explanation from a recycler as to why they stopped taking shreds:

quote:

Did you know that shredded paper is not accepted in most curbside recycling programs? Though paper is recyclable, shredded paper presents a unique problem: the tiny shreds simply can’t make it through the recycling sorting process. Instead, they gum up the machinery or cause a paper confetti explosion. Even if you put it in a bag many recyclers won’t accept it.

I was told by our county they no longer recycle glass.
I thought glass could be recycled over and over again.
The county told us there are no glass recycling plants left in Florida and no one wants it.
I am waiting for them to stop recycling all together, not sure how much money can be made doing it.

Sorry, but that's nothing. Before we left California, the city where we were staying already had separate bins for yard clipping, recyclables, and regular garbage. That's been pretty standard for years. The new twist is there's a new rule where dirty regular garbage has to be separated from clean regular garbage.

I didn't bother learning how to tell the difference from dirty regular garbage from clean regular garbage.

When China stopped accepting other countries’ recyclables for processing about 3 years ago, that was effectively the end of most consumer oriented recycling programs. It’s just taken a while to become obvious as the green crowd attempted to keep recycling going as long as possible. When it ceases to be profitable, it stops. Follow the money.

A few years ago my environmentally-conscious wife enrolled us in a recycling program with our trash service. We actually paid an extra monthly fee for this. Three plastic bins, one for glass, one for aluminum cans, one for newspapers.

They stopped taking brown glass, only accepting clear or green. Then they stopped taking green. Finally, they stopped taking clear.

Next they wanted only the newsprint pages, not the slick-finished or colored stuff. Then they stopped picking up paper completely, wanted everyone to drive it to their recycling center (15 miles each way) and put it into a huge container.

They announced that they would take aluminum cans only if they had been rinsed out, no residue (beer, pop, etc). One of the guys at my VFW post scavenges aluminum cans wherever he can find them, so I bag them up and throw them in my truck, give them to him when I see him.

The only thing that remained was the monthly fee for the recycling program (which I stopped paying). I did get three good sturdy plastic bins, suitable for storing all sorts of stuff in the garage.

I got a “naughty, naughty” “Notice of Violation” hang tag on my recycle bin Monday. Of course, since they just have nonspecific check boxes on the tag, they checked off “over sized items” and “lid not closed” and “items on top of bin lid.” All of these things were patently false. I had to email my council person who sent a referral to Sanitation to learn my shredded paper was unacceptable. I’ve put it in there for years. I know this must be a fairly recent change. The recycle has been a joke anyway. It was supposed to save us money, then they had to increase fees because it wasn’t profitable. Few of my neighbors even have the recycle bin. I just do it because it saves me money on trash bags.

A while back Waste Management started telling us that we can toss scrap food in with the yard debris bin. Presumably it all goes into the same compost heap anyway. I don't throw very much food away, usually only what gets left in the fridge too long and becomes inedible or starts to smell bad. I can't imagine putting that stuff in the yard debris bin and letting it sit there for up to two weeks until the next time they pick it up. Especially in the summer.

quote:

Originally posted by 71 TRUCK:

I was told by our county they no longer recycle glass. I thought glass could be recycled over and over again. The county told us there are no glass recycling plants left in Florida and no one wants it.

The shortage of Claussen pickles is being attributed to the lack of recycled glass.

We need to circulate a petition to bring glass recycling back, so that I can get my Claussen Garlic Pickle fix.

I do not know how much paper your wife had to shred. I burned up a shredder in one night. I finally decided to pay a company to pick up the forty bank boxes. It was not cheap but a tax deduction and much less labor intensive. Sorry for the slight thread drift.

Knowing a few local Execs that work in the Waste Industry, I can say with a reasonable degree of confidence that the vast majority of what folks think is being recycled ends up in their local landfill.

quote:

Originally posted by Graniteguy:
Knowing a few local Execs that work in the Waste Industry, I can say with a reasonable degree of confidence that the vast majority of what folks think is being recycled ends up in their local landfill.

This is exactly correct.

The only recycle products that are profitable are metal and cardboard.. The rest not so much.

My wife just ends up throwing our shred into her big compost bin. The downside is that I can't shred any plastic window envelopes and stuff... I have to separate it all before shredding.