Single Stream Recycling Comes to Chez Deb
Oct. 25th, 2008 02:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdebOur city is switching to a new way of recycling.
Old way: Place glass, metal and #1 and #2 plastic bottles into a blue recycling bin. Add a bag for paper and maybe a tied packet of flattened corrugated cardboard. Set out every week with the trash.
New way: place glass, metal (including, bizarrely, aerosol cans), #1-#7 plastic of any rigid shape, paper, flattened corrugated cardboard, and now boxboard (like cereal boxes and soda boxes) into a huge cart, bigger than our trash can. Probably twice as big. Set out every other week with the trash.
So we can recycle way more stuff! Woo hoo!
In the olden days, we kept a paper bag in our bin in our pantry, and then added things to the bin directly or to the paper bag. Then Robin would take it all out on trash day.
The gigantic cart is not at all a reasonable thing to keep in our pantry or any other part of the kitchen--we'll be keeping it outside. Which means now we can re-think how we collect the stuff inside. Maybe two small containers--one for wood-based stuff, and one for everything else. Then we can just dump them in the cart when they get full. I think this will make it easier to get into our walk-in pantry.
Have any of you Austinites (or other others) gotten the new carts yet? If so, have you changed your collection system?
We are already using the smallest size trash can, but with the extra things we are allowed to recycle, are any of you switching to a smaller trash can (it's cheaper!)?
Happy day! (See, I told you I could like change.)
Old way: Place glass, metal and #1 and #2 plastic bottles into a blue recycling bin. Add a bag for paper and maybe a tied packet of flattened corrugated cardboard. Set out every week with the trash.
New way: place glass, metal (including, bizarrely, aerosol cans), #1-#7 plastic of any rigid shape, paper, flattened corrugated cardboard, and now boxboard (like cereal boxes and soda boxes) into a huge cart, bigger than our trash can. Probably twice as big. Set out every other week with the trash.
So we can recycle way more stuff! Woo hoo!
In the olden days, we kept a paper bag in our bin in our pantry, and then added things to the bin directly or to the paper bag. Then Robin would take it all out on trash day.
The gigantic cart is not at all a reasonable thing to keep in our pantry or any other part of the kitchen--we'll be keeping it outside. Which means now we can re-think how we collect the stuff inside. Maybe two small containers--one for wood-based stuff, and one for everything else. Then we can just dump them in the cart when they get full. I think this will make it easier to get into our walk-in pantry.
Have any of you Austinites (or other others) gotten the new carts yet? If so, have you changed your collection system?
We are already using the smallest size trash can, but with the extra things we are allowed to recycle, are any of you switching to a smaller trash can (it's cheaper!)?
Happy day! (See, I told you I could like change.)