Organizing and decluttering the homestead

[Hinotori]

We have curbside recycling. Even out here in the country of our county. We get charged a mandatory recycling fee if we have garbage collection. They estimate the value of the recycling to help offset that fee. Glass is not curbside. Have to take it to a collection site. Glass contaminates everything and causes injuries.

 

[CrealCritter]

burning plastic in a burn barrel does not give complete combustion and so that means a lot of nasty pollutants are being released (or left in the ashes). by nasty i mean things like dioxins which can hang around for many years and cause negative results for people and other creatures.

i'll continue cutting the plastic windows out and send them to the landfill (or to a real incinerator). the shiny stuff can be recycled. the useful stuff i'll keep feeding to the worms or burying. it doesn't take me that long to deal with it.

We don't burn anything but paper, cardboard or wood. No plastics, styrofoam, etc... Those get picked up weekly by the garbage company. We have no recycling service or facility close by.

 

[flowerbug]

We have curbside recycling. Even out here in the country of our county. We get charged a mandatory recycling fee if we have garbage collection. They estimate the value of the recycling to help offset that fee. Glass is not curbside. Have to take it to a collection site. Glass contaminates everything and causes injuries.

they used to have glass in the list of acceptable things for our recycling and for the energy it saves in making new glass it should be worth something, but perhaps there is no glass maker within a close enough range to provide a market for it now. i don't think the issue is contamination because no matter what all garbage is potentially hazardous - there are metal lids and sharp blades, nails, screws, etc. in the recycle bins.

i'll have to ask them (i happen to have their e-mail address handy because i sent them a thank you for picking up Mom's wallet off the road and returning it to us)...

 

[flowerbug]

We don't burn anything but paper, cardboard or wood. No plastics, styrofoam, etc... Those get picked up weekly by the garbage company. We have no recycling service or facility close by.

ok!

 

[Hinotori]

Ours said contamination of the paper products specifically, and there were some injuries at the separation facility. They do have drop off bins for glass. Locations are listed on the newsletter they sent every quarter.

 

[flowerbug]

Ours said contamination of the paper products specifically, and there were some injuries at the separation facility. They do have drop off bins for glass. Locations are listed on the newsletter they sent every quarter.

interesting! i got sidetracked... lol

 

[wyoDreamer]

When I lived out west, they stopped collecting glass in the recycle bins because they couldn't find a buyer for the glass. Word had it, they had huge piles of glass at the landfill just sitting there. They even tried to sort by colors to find a buyer, but no go. It seems that mixing all the glass colors is an issue ??

 

[moxies_chickennuggets]

I need to start following this thread. Now that I am moved in with my dad. The whole house needs de-cluttered...baaad.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

No trash pick up here for us, unless you pay a private contractor. Single stream recycling is now the "new" MO at the transfer station. We have to pay an annual fee for a "dump sticker" that must be displayed when using the dump.

 

[flowerbug]

When I lived out west, they stopped collecting glass in the recycle bins because they couldn't find a buyer for the glass. Word had it, they had huge piles of glass at the landfill just sitting there. They even tried to sort by colors to find a buyer, but no go. It seems that mixing all the glass colors is an issue ??

they have optical sorters for glass and plastics (i watch recycling vids) once you can get a fairly uniform waste stream of any material the optical sorting can be fully automated. the thing with glass that makes it very easy to remove from a waste stream automatically is that it is heavy to fall through the initial stages (paper goes over the top). plastic is a major problem in that it gets used for so many things and there are so many different colors and kinds of plastics. they could simplify things quite a bit by restrictions on colors and types (and yes i think they should). there's no need to have so many colors other than cosmetic appeal and for that they could use inks or labels that wash off so that the underlying material can be reused.

i've always been in favor of regressive taxes or fees or forcing manufacturers to take back items for recycling. the more an item can't be recycled the higher the cost. the more packaging used to wrap it in the higher the cost. to me that is reflecting the reality of how much impact an item has on the environment and the waste stream and collecting and sorting processes. it would provide a huge incentive to reduce all that extra packaging and also to manufacture things that are more easily recycled.

we're just too stupid at the moment about this stuff. i hate it all. just dumb waste of energy and materials and this has a large impact upon the larger world.