Several years ago, the town I live in instituted a curbside recycling program.

It started out on the classic scheme: Separate containers for glass, metal, paper, cardboard and plastic. Truck came by once every two weeks and placed your carefully sorted recyclables in separate bins/compartments on the truck.

A couple of years ago, they went to "single stream recycling" and weekly pickup. Everything in clear plastic bags or otherwise viewable containers so the pick up guys could check for garbage/non-recyclable stuff. Then it all went in the same compactor truck they used to pick up garbage, just on a different day. WTF?

I thought the idea was to RECYCLE the stuff, not mash it all together in a big lump. But, hey it was still "free" (paid for by property taxes) and it cuts down on the volume of stuff that I have to stuff into bags at $1.50 a pop, so whatever.

Now they tell me that as of September 1st, no more recycling. Too expensive. Regular garbage to the landfill is $75/ton. Recyclables is $200/ton. What the actual fuck?

I assumed (silly me...) that the point of recycling was that reusable materials were...well...reused. I was even naive enough to think that the town was being paid a small sum for the material (like I am when I take scrap metal in) or at the very least getting a better rate on disposal.

The good news (if you can call it that) is that I can still dump my recyclables at the Transfer Station for free, I just have to take the trip up every couple of weeks or so.

We use clean water to rinse out containers so they can be recycled.

A lot of places in the world don't have the luxury of clean water.

A couple of months ago, our recycle vendor sent a letter prohibiting garbage bags and and soft plastic(think walmart bags, plastic packaging wrap) because they were fouling the sorting machines. The news stations then ran a story on recycling, explaining that most recycle items are compressed and bailed to be shipped (wait for it, drum roll please) to CHINA for sorting and processing. Now you know why it is $200/ton.

Now if that doesn't make you think WTF. Now we probably have to pay tariffs on that

That stuff going to China was mostly just going into landfills there, I’d guess. I thought the Chinese were restricting this, and that is why costs are increasing. It is a scam to make people feel better about their own consumption.

Paul, if it makes you feel any better, I’m using your recycled RCBS Case Prep station to its full potential, so that recycling worked great.

Twice in a one month period, my recycle bin was left with all the contents. The neighbor's bins were empty.
This was a few months after one other time the bin was left full.

Up to that point, I put things in two bins sorted and neat, to make it quick and easy.

Now I use the recycle bins for car parts storage in the garage.

Everything goes in the trash.

I never owned or killed any dinosaurs, so I have zero Notsaurus guilt.

Living in the country, we have to drop our trash off at a collection location, no cost for us to use it. According to the guy that works there, they pay for the equipment, salaries, and service by selling paper and cardboard. The plastic and metal is a bonus that goes to the general fund.

We have to separate paper and cardboard, then the plastic and metal are in a container together.

My pickup people do not recycle, so we have to take it to where I used to work they have a recycle bin.

We make a lot of garbage, some times it slips under the recyclables in that bin.

County here forced us to recycle! I didn't mind it at first now its a PITA! colored crap here. glass there....basically I feel like they want me to do all the work for them. I just throw it all in the same bin now screw them.

I'm down with recycling... been doing it for years. It doesn't take much effort. I've got a plastic storage tub in the garage, and every week or two I take it up to the "big green bins" a couple of blocks away and empty it. I don't mind, and it's not an inconvenience. Heck, I drive by another set of bins every day on the way to work. Not long ago, the county/town put out some additional bins specifically for corrugated -- nice!

Garbage collection is roughly 17 bucks a month, using "issued" cans that are designed for the new automated trash truck. (We spent how much on that, as compared with the cost of "convict labor?") Okay, fine. That won't break me, but this can is WAY bigger than what I need. Still, no biggie.

Now, a couple of months ago I got notification from the town that they're going to start curbside recycling. Okay, cool. The catch? They're going to bring me another big@$$ can, and charge me five bucks more each month for it.

Wait a minute. You're going to charge me five bucks to do something for me that I did on my own, voluntarily, for free. Well... um... why don't I just continue dropping off my recyclables myself, and spend that five bucks on gum or beer or other triflin' things? Ohhhh, I see! Because you're going to make the curbside-recycling-got-another-can-to-deal-with thing mandatory! Well, then!

Oh, look! I can opt out. There we go. Fine.

Not so fast, vthoky! Opting out means you opt out of pickup altogether! That's right... you can continue doing what you were doing, at no real cost or inconvenience to yourself, and the penalty for doing so will be that you have to haul off your regular trash now, too. Essentially, the town is saying "you can opt out if you want, but then we're going to do even less for you than we did before."

I get it. Really, I do. It's all about economies of scale, and if the waste contractor allowed individuals to opt out, um, individually, then the town would never collect enough revenue to pay the contractor to come through and pick up the materials from those who don't want (or have time) to go to the bins themselves.

First world problems, right? It's just economics, and it's just five bucks. But somehow I still find it easy to complain about being mandated to do something I was doing voluntarily, and to have to pay the town for the privilege. Grr, I say... grrr.

And as a side note: a friend at work told me today that she was expecting a call from the town PD. Why? Because she worked late (second job) on trash day, and didn't have her can back off the street and on her porch by 6pm... and the HOA has "issued a notice," saying she needs to contact PD to sort out the infraction.

Where I live in Florida recycling is voluntary.
When it first started we separated glass,plastic, aluminum and steel could go together and paper and cardboard could go together.
One day I saw the recycling truck. I watched the driver put all of the separated stuff in one bin on the truck.
I asked and he said we never had to separate it. I told him the county said we did. He laughed.
Now it all goes in one big bin the pick up with an automated truck. The driver never has to get out of the truck now.
Now our county tells us no more glass. The have no one to take it for recycling and only certain plastic.

In San Francisco, the garbage trucks pick up both the garbage and the recycling at the same time. The trucks are designed to look as though there are two separate compartments; however, I went to the dump one day and one of the trucks had the rear hatch open. It's one common area for both garbage and recycling. Just a big scam.

 
Our garbage collection company gives us a separate, blue, 95 gallon container, on wheels just like our regular trash container. They have a truck that reaches arms out and grabs it, raises, turns it upside down and dumps into the truck. Our recycling rules are few. Recyclable material only, no wood, no shredded paper. I have learned to avoid small items like plastic bottle caps because with our constant winds, they just get blown around during the dumping-into-the-truck part. We just throw everything into the barrel.
 
The trash barrel has rules saying everything must be in plastic bags. The recycle barrel is all just loose junk.
 

I agree, much of recycling is just a ‘feel good’ measure for many. Unless subsidize, it’s not cost effective to recycle.

Such is life, I don’t find to much worry in the whole deal.

Truck missed my full recycling bin today. The neon green one they provide. Grrr. We fill it full every week.

Here in the Yoop,you pay an extra ten cents on the recyclable aluminum cans you buy. Then you take them back to the store and you get your dime back.
Problem:
To do this you go into a nasty room in the Yooper grocery store. The floor is sticky. The machine you put the cans into is disgusting. You wait in line behind alcoholic college kids who are recycling last weekends toga party cans by the hundreds. When you finally get up to the machine, you put in three or four cans and the machine shuts down because its full! So, back in line behind the next relay of drunks and their cans. Oh... from time to time, the machine says your can is not acceptable.
The entire process is a disgusting pain in the ass.
But... I am saving the planet! And I get my dime back!

I like recycling. I recycle all plastic, aluminum, metal, paper, and cardboard. Here they give us two large trash cans, one for trash and one for all the other recycling. Most weeks my recycle bin actually has more stuff in it than the trash bin.

The inner green peace democrat on my left shoulder FEELS good about doing it. Truth is, I have no idea what they do with the shit after they smash it all into the truck. I do know that metal and cardboard is pretty valuable, so if they at least get something from that, then that's great. I know it takes a lot of energy to mine for new aluminum and metal for tin cans, so if my waste can at least be recycled, that's doing my part.

I dont understand people that dont recycle, especially in my town, when its free, and the county provides you with both a trash bin, and a recycle bin, free of charge. How hard is it to throw the recyclable stuff into the proper pickup container?

Who the hell knows what the do with all the various plastics. I cant believe that all that plastic is recycled and reused. That seems far fetched. If they ship it to China and they dispose of it, whatever.

What I find amazing is that we humans can't comprehend that if we just dump it all in a landfill it will still be recycled... even if we aren't around in 500 years to dig it all up and reprocess it... it will still all be 'recycled' over the next couple hundred million years which is really not that long in the scheme of things.....

quote:

Originally posted by bubbatime:
I like recycling. I recycle all plastic, aluminum, metal, paper, and cardboard.
<snip>
I know it takes a lot of energy to mine for new aluminum and metal for tin cans, so if my waste can at least be recycled, that's doing my part.

I dont understand people that dont recycle, especially in my town, when its free, and the county provides you with both a trash bin, and a recycle bin, free of charge. How hard is it to throw the recyclable stuff into the proper pickup container?

I like recycling too. The problem is, they're NOT recycling it. They're picking it up in a recycling truck and paying $200 a ton to dump it at a land fill. In other words, they're blowing smoke up our ass.

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:

quote:

Originally posted by bubbatime:
I like recycling. I recycle all plastic, aluminum, metal, paper, and cardboard.
<snip>
I know it takes a lot of energy to mine for new aluminum and metal for tin cans, so if my waste can at least be recycled, that's doing my part.

I dont understand people that dont recycle, especially in my town, when its free, and the county provides you with both a trash bin, and a recycle bin, free of charge. How hard is it to throw the recyclable stuff into the proper pickup container?

I like recycling too. The problem is, they're NOT recycling it. They're picking it up in a recycling truck and paying $200 a ton to dump it at a land fill. In other words, they're blowing smoke up our ass.

This !! It's actually cheaper now to generate corrugated product from scratch vs. recycling. Recycling was a great concept while it was cost effective.