Do You Organize Your Recyclables?

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I seem to go around daily collecting odds and ends that belong in the recyclables pile. I call it a pile because I don’t have much of an organized system. We have a spot in our home that we have claimed as the “recycling center” and all of recyclables manage to make it there. Sometimes it’s tidy and other times it’s a mess.

We started out having two trash cans that we’d place plastic and aluminum into. Within the last 6  mos. my husband stopped drinking soda so it eliminated much of our aluminum waste. Not to mention, since we’ve kicked the water bottle habit we rarely have a water bottle. Overall, the waste baskets hardly get used in that manner anymore. We still end up with plastic crap to recycle…such a milk jugs and food containers and other misc. plastic recyclables though. Before, they were separate, one would fill up with water bottles and the other with cans. It’s a heap of miscellaneous recyclables now.

A lot times I’ll grab a paper bag from a forgotten B.Y.O.B. trip and fill it with recyclables throughout the week then toss it directly into the city recycling bin. It’s amazing to me how many recyclables there are at the end of the week. Our recycle bin fills up before the regular trash can that what I call amazing.  It always feels so good to empty the recyclables container because I know it’s going to be re purposed in some way.

For bottle caps, I’ve been tossing them into a shoebox. Once the shoebox is full I will send it to Aveda so they can recycle them. Our e-waste drop off is the 1st and 3rd weekend of the month. We don’t have a lot of e-waste & misc. usually so I keep batteries, steel aerosol cans, electronic devices (last time we took an old alarm clock that finally gave up) and in a paper bag also. We take it to the dump when it fills or when we manage to remember if it’s the first or third weekend of the month.

Sometimes it just seems like so much to keep up with. Oh! I just remembered the pile of paper I will need to shred before it makes it to the recycling bin. I don’t do it on a weekly basis because it’s not conveniently situated in a spot (shredder) and besides I have a curious two year old and I don’t want to keep it plugged in all the time for his sake (and planet). So, when my pile starts to get to high I take some time to shred- shred, shred. I seem to have a rhythm to my recycling method…but I’m curious how others do it too.

My MIL has mentioned a couple times that the recycling centers have been busier than normal due to the recession. I’m glad to hear about more people are recycling but I hope they continue to do it when the economy picks up.  Last week, while on twitter @1800GotJunk (1-800-Got-Junk) announced an article from the Examiner announcing  that recycling is going to become mandatory in California!! This means that all businesses, apartment complexes, and mobile home parks will be required to institute a recycling program. I was so ecstatic, especially when I was told recently that my city isn’t reaching it’s recycling quota.

The article mentions…

“This new mandatory program will keep over 5.5 million tons of trash out of the state’s land field. This level of recycling once instituted will be the equivalent of taking 1 million pollution causing automobiles off of the road.”

Imagine if it was mandatory for residents and for every state…

In any case,  how do you manage your recyclables?