I was well-trained at a young age to recycle and fortunately my hometown had a good curbside service. I’ve found as I’ve moved around that that’s not the case for most municipalities. I knew such green meccas as San Francisco and Portland would have fantastic recycling programs, but I was tremendously impressed with the detail to which the Golden Gate city’s program goes as outlined in this NYT article today. Does your city recycle paint and then provide it to nonprofits to use?
uh, no. They don’t even throw out their trash properly.
This is one of those things that use recyclers/re-users really don’t like talking about and then doesn’t even phase the majority. This being said, you will be surprised how little recycling centers actually recycle and how much they sell to the land fill. Restriction to type, color, number, washed, dirty, and many more stipulations go into what each individual center will take and the rest they pay the local land fill to come pick up. That way the recycling center can make a profit from the publics lack of education as to what they recycle. Memphis is one such place. Sorry for the downer.
Yeah, when I was in college we did a project with our local recycling program and they explained how little they recycle. It really has to do (in many areas) with how much money they can make from the recycled materials. For example, we have no paper recycling here (aside from corrugated cardboard), and it really sucks. But it’s because they can’t make money off of it.
But some cities are awesome. And I’ve gotten good about knowing what materials they’ll take and what they won’t so I can avoid buying what won’t actually be recycled. That article is great! I’ll link to this post tomorrow.
Doubtful! My city won’t even give me a recycling bin and I have called 5 times requesting one. I just take all my recycles to non-profits and churches once a week. A little extra effort but totally worth it!
It’s infuriating to me that I live in a pretty major metropolitan area (The Triangle – Durham, Raleigh, Chapel Hill, Fayetteville), yet we’re not allowed to recycle plastic that isn’t bottle shaped, regardless of whether it is #1 or #2 at all. Bah. Maybe one day we’ll be up to that level.
Dustin: I hear you. The fact that recycling stations just toss bottles that still have the caps on them rather than just remove the cap DRIVES ME CRAZY. It does help to be well-informed about exactly how your city practices recycling.
Vanessa: I had the same problem in Nashville. I lived just outside the recycling service zone. So I had to haul it myself to a station. Pain in the butt, but worth it.
Ashley Sue: Seems like the Triangle is progressive enough that they’d have good recycling services! It’s my hope too that as people realize more and more how important it is that cities will come around, even if it’s not the most cost-effective progress.