When we first moved here almost 10 years ago, we were the only people on our entire block of about 20 homes that recycled plastic, paper, glass in the containers they give you from the Sanitation Department. They are red, white and blue plastic containers and they pick up every two weeks.
Then, about two years later, two other homes on the street also started to recycle and it was then a grand total of three homes on the entire street. Nothing much changed over the next 7 years or so until this week.
Suddenly, I look outside this morning and now 9 homes are recycling!
I have no idea why this sudden change in attitude, but just thought I would share the news.
That is great! I would be happy to see that as well.
I learned recycling very early in life. My mother, younger brother and I, have been picking up aluminum cans and recyling them since the mid to late 70s.
It was YEARS before we saw anyone even do that.
In my house now, we have 3 huge bins on our porch for plastic, glass and metal cans, a box full of card board, a bag full of paper, and another container for the aluminum. We have a little recycling center in our own home.
It isn’t that hard to do, just takes a little space and planning.
We have one of the city’s recycling bins (we had two, but one got stolen by some asshole neighbour too lazy to walk down the street to get one!) and recycle a LOT. We have twice a week garbage pickup and once a week recycling, but I think they should swap that around - we generate much more recycling than garbage!
I find that Montreal accepts less stuff than Hamilton, where I used to live, but it’s getting there. Most municipalities that I’m familiar with have a recycling program, and I think people are good at getting at least the larger, basic items into the proper bins.
I hate throwing stuff into the garbage, and we have a paper/cardboard recycling bin, a metal/glass/plastic recycling bin, and a big green wheelie bin for kitchen scraps and other compost. The city also takes lawn clippings and garden waste during the summer for composting. Pretty much everybody in our area has them out on garbage pickup day.
I’m not big on volunteer labor for good causes. Tax me and hire homeless people to sort through my trash, already. You don’t make me drive my trash to the dump. You don’t make me dig the hole to bury it in. You don’t make me select optimal places to bury trash. Why do you think I would want to do this one, also needed, yet inane and waste-of-my-time step in the process?
That is truly wonderful!! It was hard (moving here from MD) to see that no one here recycled. I am so glad to see so many people making the conscious effort. Together we truly can make a difference.
It so hard to convince some people to recycle, they truly think it is beneath them to spend an extra few seconds to rinse flatten and add it to the bag. It is the old too much trouble can’t be bothered attitude, but once you start it gets easier and easier. My recycling urge is so strong it has come to the point where everything that passes thru my hands i want to recycle it! And I have to transport it to the county facility myself.
I feel it is important especially since the plastics industry is crying for a steady supply of post consumer plastics to reuse as raw materials.
I am not terribly obsessive about it, but we have regular recycle pickups, and big bins for recyclables, so when I have a pile of plastic bottles or cardboard, I definitely put them in the correct bins.
But I personally doubt that that kind of recycling really helps much, and is probably a waste of energy. In the long run it might amount to something, but I even doubt that. Real recycling ought to be making things out of materials that are reusable, rather than needing to be broken down and reconstituted.
