City Recycling: How Does Yours Do It?

For as long as I've lived here and probably much longer, Austin residents have recycled in these tiny blue bins. They're the size of cardboard boxes, and recyclables must be separated. Cans, bottles, and jars go in the bin, while paper must be placed inside a paper bag or in another blue bin.

But in a few short weeks, all that will change.

Starting the first week of October, our city will drop off 90-gallon blue recycling carts, where everything—including yogurt containers and even those pesky old cd jackets—can be tossed in at one's leisure.

They're calling it Single Stream Recycling, and the program is great news for residents in Austin. We're a pretty Earth-friendly town, but this is still a huge improvement for the city. It'll be more convenient for people with curbside trash pickup, and as an added bonus, it will cut down the number of trucks driving around town because the new recycling pickup will have more efficient routes.

Obviously it's a big step in the right direction for my ever-greening city, even though I'm sure this type of no-sorting curbside recycling has been around in many other cities for a while.

So, tell us--what is your city doing to save the Earth, in giant leaps or baby steps?

Comments (9)

Here in St Pete, a private company has had to step in and start their own curbside recycling program for a monthly fee. For being Florida's first "Green" city, it still has a LONG way to go. I have yet to see a single person in my entire neighborhood that uses the service. (the exception being i suppose my idol neighbor across the street who bikes everywhere in a city with limited public transportation, collects rainwater and hauls his recycling himself. He is just about the greenest person I know...It gives me some hope, and someone to look up to.

www.queercoyote.com

In Seattle we have 32 gallon cans. We don't have to sort anything and it is free. Plus we can get fined if 10% of our garbage is recyclable. They recently converted the garbage/recycle trucks to B20 biodiesel mix to cut down on pollution. Seattle has made a great effort to become more green.

Here in Somerville, MA we have slightly larger versions of the standard blue recycling bin. However, we can throw pretty much anything that we think looks recyclable in them. I've never had a problem, but if you DO put something non-regulation in the bins, the city leaves a notice on your bin indicating why they couldn't take it. It is definitely nice that we can pretty much just throw everything all together. And we just have multiple blue bins for those weeks when there's overflow.

in tucson we just have big blue bins and we're given a list of what can/can't be recycled. no sorting. it's lovely! :)

Seattle - garbage is 32 gallons picked up weekly, recycling is 96 gallons picked up bi-weekly. Mixed items are placed in the large recycling cart, glass has to be in its own bin. If the recycling bin is full, the city will pick up unlimited amounts of recycling if it is placed in paper bags or cardboard boxes and placed curbside along with the bin. As the person above mentioned, we can be fined if our garbage contains recyclables. Also, if you subscribe to yard waste service (required in certain areas like my neighborhood), food scraps can be included in yard waste. Yard waste is taken away to turn into compost.

I live in a rural area in Michigan and have to make a 30 mile trip to drop off recycling. It's a P.I.T.A. but I do it anyway. I tried to stop a few years ago, but guilt made me start again within a month!

We too are getting Single Stream this fall. Our current large can has a divider that they can remove (they must have planned ahead). Our can will get a new lid and we will be able to recycle cardboard, paper board, paper, plastics (1,2,4 & 5), glass and cans.

As of today they take plastic 1 & 2, glass, cans and paper and we have to haul our cardboard and other plastics to a center across town.

My neighborhood in Austin was lucky enough to be in the single stream recycling program for months now. Last week they switched out our 60 gal. bins with 90 gal. bins. We LOVE this program and it's amazing how much we end up recycling now. It's so nice to be able to recycle junk mail and catalogs as well.

We just got a new service and new bins that say "single sort" and list all recyclables. I was confused by this , but I guess it is the same as "single stream". They take more plastics than the old recycler, so I'm pleased.