I put the most effort in reducing the amount of garbage I generate. For groceries, I buy lots of fresh produce, juices in concentrate and fresh chicken, beef and seafood in moderation. I almost aways stay away from packaged food like snacks, anything in cans or bottles, frozen foods or convenience foods. I have yet to find a way of buying fresh milk without all the packaging.
I do not subscribe to any newspapers and the few magazines generally get re-read by others before recycling. I would be very interested in learning of relatively hassle-free ways of reducing my junk mail volume.
Our home is at about 110% of its maximum storage capacity, so we have to throw something away for every “thing” we buy. Rather than buy a bigger place, we just don’t buy much for the house unless we really want it and are willing to sacrifice something else.
Reuse, IMHO, requires a bit more creativity than I usually possess. We reuse plastic grocery bags for kitchen garbage bags. Those 32 oz plastic drink cups you get at fast food places get re-used until the dishwasher finally melts them. Back in the day, I reused glass apple sauce containers for drinking glasses.
My otherwise seemingly enlightened community does not recycle. From the unreliable scuttlebutt I hear, communitywide recycling generally is a money loser. Consumers have the sorting skills of three year olds and much money is wasted either resorting or just combining everything= inefficient. This was years ago, but in Chicago the price of recycled plastic was so low that companies stopped recycling and began stockpiling unrecycled plastic in warehouses in hopes of a return one day of higher prices.
Although I recycled “religiously” in communities where I have lived that offered it, I think there is still far more waste in the system than recycling can consume. IMHO, every pound of waste not purchased reduces the amount of end waste by one pound. Re-use often only delays the inevitable and recycling is only fractionally as effective as reducing.
Methinks thou might be far happier living a simpler life out in the woods somewhere or in a less developed country. Why not actually live the lifestyle you believe is right, instead of the overconsuming American one? Sounds like you’re feeling guilt over buying applesauce, which is too bad.
BTW - milk has to have some sort of packaging, cuz, you know, it’s liquid. You can buy it in glass bottles if that’s any better than waxed paper cartons. Your call. But I don’t think you’re ever going to be able to buy it unpackaged, unless you want to suck it directly out of the cow.
Point well taken and I do appreciate your input. Sadly, after having visited a third world country for what seemed like an eternity, I have concluded that I am too much of a wuss to live for any length of time without 1st world conveniences such as climate control, running hot water, top quality roads, customer service, marketplace competition, cheap gasoline, cheap and reliable cellular service, 1st world police and fire protection and things of that nature.
So I compromise.
Sounds like, so far, I missed the mark by more than a mile. My intent was to learn what other Dopers do concerning reducing, reusing and recycling, not what they think of my habits. I spent much too much time on my soapbox and should have ended my little sermon with “So, what (if anything) do you do regarding recycling, etc.”
Ok, I’ll risk being flamed or otherwise thought badly of by people.
In general, I don’t pay a lot of attention to recycling efforts. If I’m on campus and finish a soda in a can or bottle, sure I’ll drop it in the appropriate bin. If I’m elsewhere? Well, I could either set it on the ground or toss it in a trash can - if I set it on the ground, first, I’m littering (which inspires great guilt feelings) and it will probably end up in the trash can anyway.
Newspapers - I read one a week at this point. And I’m after the extremely poor paper this morning, I’m reconsidering whether the 10 minutes it takes to read the local Sunday paper is worth it. I don’t subscribe to anything else, preferring to get my news online. But I admit to having no idea where the closest newspaper recyclying location is for my area. I could use the excuse that I just moved…but I’ve been here two months.
I don’t pay a lot of attention to how things are packaged before I buy, partly because I’ve evaluated the purchase prior to buying and that means it’s something I need. I don’t buy a lot of prepackaged foods, not because of the packaging, but because of the expense. I do drink sodas, either purchased in 12 packs of cans or in 2 liter bottles, and I will buy water in the 2.5 gallon size container rather than the individual bottles, but again, this is about cost, not packaging.
If it was made simple in my area, sure I’d do it more often, but I’ve never lived in an area where it was simple or easy or made to be an important issue in people’s lives.
Gah…ok, think terrible things about me now, folks.
Our city offers weekly curbside recycling of a vast array of materials. According to the trash collection and recycling newsletter we get every quarter, (printed on 90% post-consumer paper, I might add) about 70% of the recyclables we put out are actually bought and recycled - the rest goes to the landfill.
I don’t know whether having 30% of your recyclables going to the landfill is a good figure or bad, in comparison with other places.
As far as my own habits, I tend to recycle as much as I can, but like others here, I try not to buy very much packaging in the first place. When possible, I try to stick to glass and metal containers, preferring not to use a lot of plastic and cardboard. A lot of stuff goes down the electirc pig in the kitchen sink, some of it goes into the compost pile in the back yard.
So, as a result, I put out at least one recycling bin each week, but I only put out a full trash bag about once every two to three weeks.
My biggest gripe is mail-order. I buy a LOT of stuff online and it all arrives at my home in cardboard boxes - that’s not the problem. The problem is all the OTHER stuff in the cardboard boxes - plastic bubble wrap, styrofoam peanuts, etc. Heaven forbid that I actually buy a piece of electronic equipment - there’s more styrofoam than product in those boxes.
At least I’ve been noticing a trend toward more recycling friendly packaging on the part of the shippers. I just got some parts for the motorcycle shipped in - they arrived in nothing but cardboard, newspaper and those water-soluble cornstarch peanuts (which dissolve quite nicely in the toilet before a flush.)
I’m with TV guy and Lorenzo. I try to buy as little as possible and reuse what I do end up with. We garden and freeze/can a lot of our food so we re-use a lot of that “packaging”; and have the requisite compost pile to go with it so our organic waste doesn’t go into the trash. I make my own soap and laundry detergent so I have no giant detergent jugs to try and get rid of. I hang dry my clothes when the weather permits.
Our community does curbside recycling but we don’t use it because the guys that collect it are jerks and it’s less trouble to load the stuff in the car and take it up to the recycling center yourself and get actual money for it. I do cans and plastic bottles, but usually try to re-use the few glass jars we do have, and throw away any other glass (which in my case is a liquor bottle a month or so, heh.)
I run my own small business, so any boxes/packing material get stored to be re-used, and I use an internet postage service, so I’m not wasting gas running back and forth to the post office all the time.
I tend to buy the majority of my clothing, books (and a good deal of housewares) at thrift stores and yard sales. The only thing I have a hard time finding good quality used is jeans in my husbands size, and I tend to buy my shoes new about 90% of the time because they show wear so easily. I do have a pair of “Beatle boots” I bought new when I was in high school (late 1980’s) that still fit, look somewhat decent, and are due for their second re-heeling.
I don’t get any newspapers and the few magazines/catalogs I get are scattered around waiting rooms and left on transit for others to enjoy, or else are taken to the library for their donation bin. (I also try to keep a few colorful ones to shred and use as packaging material when I’m out of stored “peanuts” or bubblewrap.)
You could always quit drinking milk. I did and don’t really miss it (I only drank it on cereal though.) It’s supposedly really bad for you anyway.
Unfortunately, Boston’s curbside recycling program is not applicable to large apartment buildings. If I wanted to be able to recycle, I would have to petition my landlord to put in a special recycling station next to our dumpster. Since this is the same landlord who didn’t want to pay to repaint my nicotine-caked apartment or replace my non-functional burner unit in the kitchen, I don’t even feel it’s worth bothering. THis leads to immense guilt on my part whenever I throw away glass or plastic containers, and especially as concerns my daily subscription to the Wall Street Journal. I am actually holding on to the papers in the hopes that I will find a place to bring them (I did find out that Boston does have a place you can drop off your recyclables but I’ve lost the brochure that says where it is found and since I’m stuck with public transportation only, I’m not sure how feasible it would be to get there in any case). So I have an apartment full of old newspapers, which is no good as a fire hazard, so soon I may bite the bullet and reluctantly throw them away. I do recycle all my soda cans, but that’s because they have the 5 cent deposit and I can take them to the grocery store with me to redeem them. I miss my old apartment in Brookline, there we could participate in curbside recycling no problem, but I understand why that can’t happen here: dumpster=no curbside trash pickup=no recycling pickup.
I recycle very little. Out building has no recycling facilities, and I’m not motivated enough to drive my stuff around trying to find a recylcing centre. At school, I do make efforts to sort my garbace, but the city of Guelph has a really easy system: Wet and Dry. All the Wet goes to landfill and all the Dry goes to a facility where they sort and recycle (apparently sorters are paid a LOT of money, but no one works there for long).
Despite recycling little myself, I do make efforts to reuse what I can, and to not buy too much packaging. If I have a bottle of juice in the car or something, I’ll try and make efforts to throw it out when I’m in Guelph rather than here in Hamilton, if that counts for much.
I think the problem is that recycling is not regulated enough. I lived in Germany for a couple of years, and it was forbidden by law to NOT recycle. We had to separate “food waste” from paper and cardboard from "others (metal and plastic) from glass - even the glass had to be separated between brown green and clear. It was VERY efficient, and not all that difficult to do, and appropriate bins were readily accessible. Not so here. When you have to go out of your way to separate your glass form your plastic, you’re definitely less likely to do it.
I suppose someone might say that maybe I should petition or something to make changes, but I’m not that motivated either, not to mention the lack of time for it I don’t know - it has been bothering me a bit more in recent years, but not enough for me to get off my butt and do something about it. :shrug:
Sure, the landfill business is uncomfortable, but what really bothers me is the thought that somebody farming 400 years from now plows up a field, breaking a glass jar I dropped, and instantly creates 30 razor-sharp landmines for the next person who comes along. (Like the child who’s weeding the crop.)
By the way, apparently the recycling movement is losing ground in the U.S. A recent article said that now that it’s not seen as being PC, fashionable, and trendy, many are starting to ignore it. The article added that while it’s still very efficient to recycle aluminium, glass and plastic recycling loses money. Of course – living in an area which has been targeted to change in the next 50 years from a little on the hot side to straight desert (Silicon Valley) – it seems like there are other issues than convenience and cost.
By the way, I apologize if I came off as attacking the OP in any way. I think recycling is a great idea. It’s too bad it’s usually not efficient enough or cost-effective enough to do any real good.
Here in the Puget Sound (all communities close in, not just Seattle) home recycling is big. I like their system: you get a teeny-tiny city-issued garbage can, and a great-big city-issued recycling bin, into which goes all paper and plastic. Glass goes in a separate smaller bin, also city-issued.
This happens to work out really conveniently for me. I generate way more recyclable stuff than real garbage, and the recycling bin is so huge it takes about a month to fill up. Since the only garbage is things like food-stained packaging and non-recyclable plastic items (lids, tops, etc.), it usually takes me 2 weeks to fill up the tiny garbage can. Since the recycled stuff is clean, the bin never smells or gets dirty like a garbage can does.
But I have no illusions that the city is making money on recycling, or that I’m helping to shrink the landfills. It’s a heavily subsidized, inefficient, money-losing program paid for out of tax revenue. It’s convenient enough for me in the short term, but in the long term, I’m sure they’ll ditch it. It exists not to help the earth (it isn’t really helping) but so that we PC Northwesterners can feel better about ourselves. As such, I’m of the humble opinion that it’s a lot of bullshit. I’ll enjoy the big clean recycling bin while I can but there’s no reason for me to feel particularly good about myself when I recycle.
Let’s face it: as Americans we tread much heavier on the earth than the undeveoped world does. I’m afraid this is one of the costs of civilization. I consider it well worth it; that’s one reason I plan on continuting to be an American and not feeling too much guilt about it. We’re all going to die rather soon, and one day even the earth itself will no longer be here. Eat, drink, and be merry in the meantime.
Agreed. IMHO I think recycling is sort of a feel good band aid that’s a money loser for the most part for now. Perhaps when we’re down to our last 100 landfills the benefits of recycling will justify the effort.
Does anyone else see irony in the thought of driving around burning fossil fuels while looking for a recycling facility? Maybe it would make more sense if it were on the way to somewhere else.
My strategy is to reduce consumption. Mrs. Lorenzo thinks I’m nuts. Choose your poison.
Don’t you guys know that polar fleece is made of recycled soda bottles? If you quit recycling Old Navy will go out of business! (Hmmm, on second thought!)
I recycle by habit, but it’s made pretty convenient in my town. I’m also improving on the reduce and reuse fronts. I have canvas grocery bags which I use, and when possible, buy food in containers I can reuse.
If it was more difficult to recycle here, I probably would do it less, which I see as being to my discredit.
I also live in the PNW, and I fill up my recycle bins every other week…my garbage “toter” only once a month. Actually, that is when they pick it up, but it is never full unless my neighbor runs out of room and throws her trash in mine.
One tip that hasn’t been mentioned is that lots of small postal places…you know, the ones who will package and mail stuff for you?..accept those awful foam “peanuts” that everything comes packed in. I never have any trouble getting rid of those. And I take any bags from the store that I don’t use for garbage sacks to the local Food Bank, who can always use them.
I guess it goes without saying that “Pre-cycling”, or reducing the amount of garbage that you generate is better than “Recycling”, and I try to do that as much as possible. But it is hard to do sometimes, especially with the new laws that came into being when the psychos got the idea of tainting pills and things and returning them to the shelf…resulting in death and injuries. Seems like everything is “triple” packaged these days so you can tell if things have been tampered with. Not much you can do about that.
I pay an additional fee for curbside recycling every other week. Though I am conscientious about using the service, I think I do it more to please the wife than believing there is serious benefit.
It takes a lot of time, money, effort and energy (as in power and fuel usage) to practice recycling. There are negative markets for waste paper, plastics, and industrial waste. I wonder about the gain. Living in a community where the landfill did fill up, we now have the county haul our trash to the same canyon in Eastern Washington that everyone else in Puget Sound uses.
Though it sounds uncool, I think that there are plenty of desolate canyons etc. in America to satisfy our insatiable consuming.
Most households in my city have two “wheelie” bins. One, for general garbage, has a green lid. The other has a “yellow” lid and is for recycleables.
The city councils do not require us to sort our recycleables. All glass (washed), paper, cardboard and cans (washed) are thrown straight into the bin. The bins are emptied every two weeks (they’re about 4.5 foot tall).
I obey this system, but don’t make a special effort to recycle. Except for plastic shopping bags – our bin is sized so that we can use old shopping bags as garbage bags.
Back to the original topic…at the Bodoni household, we concentrate on reduce and reuse. Ever since we learned that a lot of the recyclable stuff is going straight into the landfill, we don’t bother sorting our trash into garbage and recyclable, especially since they’re so picky about the sorting. We use string bags for groceries, with a couple of insulated plastic bags for the cold stuff (works very well, too). Plus we’ll take along the string bags when we go out shopping for other things. We’ve got about half a dozen, which should see us through several years.
We try not to buy stuff that has excess packaging, but sometimes there’s just no choice. We’ve found that in groceries, at least, the healthiest foods tend to require the least packaging.
I DO re-use the various glass jars and containers, much to my husband’s and daughter’s annoyance. I see no reason why I should pay $15 or more for a jar that I can get for free.
We don’t have a working compost heap. This is because every time I’ve tried to start one, the dogs just eat the scraps. Now we just save time and give the dogs the table scraps along with commercial dog food.
We don’t bag grass clippings or fallen leaves, we just sort of mulch them right on the lawn. This is part laziness, though.
I don’t know - it has been bothering me a bit more in recent years, but not enough for me to get off my butt and do something about it. :shrug: