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Bunch of dumb questions about recycling
It's kind of frustrating to me what my township (or most) will or won't take. Maybe this post is just about me venting but it is ridiculous how difficult our country makes it for normal people to just be more responsible about our waste. I have a friend that swears she would recycle if her condo complex had it, but they don't. I collect all her bottles every time she has a party and take them home myself! I do this to my co-workers too, and I feel like this is the only message board that won't laugh at me for doing so, lol.
1. Anyway, my township says specifically "NO tin foil", used or otherwise. I'm a teacher and we do a project with making boats out of aluminum foil. I have a giant trash bin of never-used-for-food crumpled up tin foil boats. Also it says no yogurt or margarine containers. Can I really not recycle these? Any ideas on what I can do with all that tin foil?
2. Also, it says they CAN take "junk mail". Now I know junk mail must be full of all kinds of non-recylcable things... plastic inserts, the gooey things that stick the credit cards to the paper, foil stickers... Does this get picked apart by humans? I'm afraid they will just throw it out and not recycle! lol
3. What is your current system in your home for organizing/dividing up the recycling? We bought a house last year, and currently I have the bins outside the back door, so I pile bottles by the door and throw them in once a day. It's ugly.
4. Is it worth it for me to be rinsing all my bottles well? If this is a waste of water then it is defeating the purpose of my recycling the container.
Re: Bunch of dumb questions about recycling
I don't have much time this morning, but i'll give you a couple quick answers and i'm sure someone will fill in the gaps.
It's so sad that circumstances are such that you feel recycling is mocked. I assure you it isn't the whole country (but is an unfortunately large portion of it).
I collect all her bottles every time she has a party and take them home myself.
Yay! I do this, too.
1. Anyway, my township says specifically "NO tin foil", used or otherwise. I'm a teacher and we do a project with making boats out of aluminum foil. I have a giant trash bin of never-used-for-food crumpled up tin foil boats. Also it says no yogurt or margarine containers. Can I really not recycle these? Any ideas on what I can do with all that tin foil?
You may be able to take them to a place that pays for metal to recycle it (and might even get paid).
2. Also, it says they CAN take "junk mail". Now I know junk mail must be full of all kinds of non-recylcable things... plastic inserts, the gooey things that stick the credit cards to the paper, foil stickers... Does this get picked apart by humans? I'm afraid they will just throw it out and not recycle! lol
I think it separates when the paper is dissolved into a pulp and strained out. Not 100% sure.
3. What is your current system in your home for organizing/dividing up the recycling? We bought a house last year, and currently I have the bins outside the back door, so I pile bottles by the door and throw them in once a day. It's ugly.
Ours is ugly, too... We have a little nook between the fence and part of the house where we keep the bins (the big ones that go out to the curb), so it's not too obvious. We keep two bags under the sink: glass (which we have to take in to recycle) and mixed (paper, plastic, metal), which is picked up. We take out the bags when they fill.
4. Is it worth it for me to be rinsing all my bottles well? If this is a waste of water then it is defeating the purpose of my recycling the container.
Yes, even the water wasted far outweighs the energy saved and the environmental impact of extracting the raw materials required to make new glass, plastic and metal containers.
Best sound ever: baby's heartbeat! (Heard @ 10w1d)
Every municipality is different in what can be recycled and also in what method they will take them (ie: my sister has to put her newspaper in plastic bags, we are not allowed to do that).
1. It sounds like your municipality does not take a variety of plastics which is why they don't take yogurt and margarine containers. Can you reuse yours for art projects at school? Can you make the boats from something other than tinfoil?
2. I doubt junk mail is sorted through in that detail.
3. We have a big bin under our sink, when it is full I take it to the garage and separate it into our 2 bins (1 for paper and cardboard, the other for glass, plastic, tin).
4. We don't have to rinse our bottles here. Check and see what your local rules are.
I have lived in places that only take "narrow neck #2 plastic" e.g. milk jugs, detergent jugs. So there can be strange rules that exclude things that are recyclable, but facilities don't exist.
Currently, my town takes all plastic numbers except plastic bags/flimsy plastic, they also take a wider variety of other things that some towns I have lived in won't take - like tin foil and greasy pizza boxes. My college wouldn't take pizza boxes and yet they win awards for being green, where is more pizza consumed than a college campus???
We have one town issued box that we keep in the kitchen, it's ugly. The stuff can't be mixed, but they only give one box - so I have 2 small trash cans and a small dish pan inside the big box to try and sort as much as I can.
They don't care too much about how well things are rinsed, they have to be clean enough to not get nasty between 2 week pick ups.
We have a bottle deposit, so drink cans and bottles go in a separate bin and get taken to a redemption place to get the deposit back. You don't need to rinse anything that goes to the redemption center.
Have you checked earth911.org? Put in your zup code and it'll give you the scoop on what your area recycles. If you're passionate and serious, which it sounds as if you are, you may find a more comprehensive system with a drop off facility in the next county.
No, no one will laugh at you here!
I feel the same way! Every.week DH puts the Sunday newspaper, plastic bag cover and all, in the recycling bin. Every.Week I take off the plastic bag, and he stops me and points to where it's written on the bag "Please Recycle This Bag." To which I say "Yes I know it says that. The bag itself is recyclable, but our recycling company does not accept plastic bags." I do this dance with DH every.single.Sunday and it drives me bonkers.
My DH will also not let me bring home bottles from a friend's party. These friends drink a lot, we're talking a case or two of beer bottles that don't get recycled. DH says "it's rude, it's their house they can do what they want with their waste." We fight about this too, obviously.
For your questions:
1.) Ditto PP, try a metal recycling facility, they may pay you for it! Personally, I wouldn't go to all that trouble for random foil use at home, but for a large amount of foil like from your class I would do it.
2.) Our recycling company says the same thing about junk mail, and I have the same thoughts you do. I called their 1-800 number, and they said I can throw the junk mail (plastic inserts and all) into recycling bin. I don't know what they do with them, but I doubt they're getting recycled. IMHO, I think the company knows that the average person *likes the idea* of recycling their junk mail, so they pretend to accept it.
3.) We're lucky enough to have single stream recycling. We were given a huge recycling bin on wheels, and we can put anything that's recyclable in there. No sorting required. We keep it out on the patio. Our company also gives you points based on the # of pounds you recycle, which you can redeem for coupons and discounts at local merchants. It's a pretty awesome program actually.
4.) We give them a quick rinse otherwise our recycling bin gets ants in it. I don't think a quick swish of water "defeats the purpose of my recycling the container." If you feel strongly about it, I would call your recycling company and ask them if the items need to be washed.
Re: yogurt containers - a lot of places won't take them. I use them to start seeds in (wash them really well first, cut a good hole in the bottom for drainage) and there are several stalls at my farmer's market that collect them for the same purpose. Maybe that could be a project for your school kids?
We do this too, and it works INCREDIBLY WELL. We just started using yogurt cups this year, and the plants in the cups are doing so much better than the plants in the other pots we've saved from Home Depot/nursery plants. I think the light from the grow lamp reflects inside the container. Seriously though, we're saving yogurt cups like mad now so that we can only use those next year.
Ditto RiverPlate, you have to wash them really well. I washed them well with dish soap, then a light spray of bleach and rinsed thoroughly. I had DH drill 3 small holes in the bottom of each one. They drain nicely.