July is Green Home month!

July is Green Home Month! We're continuing this month's theme on blogging products, ideas, and tips on ways to live green. But this won't end when July is over. Last week we launched our AT:Green Home site. We encourage you to click on over and check it out. Best of all, the site acts as a filter for all the AT sites by conveniently compiling our green-themed posts into one place.

We all know how important recycling is, but we're curious about where you live. Does your area offer curbside recycle bins? Please answer the survey and share with us what's available to you (and what city/area you're in) in the comments!

Comments (7)

Amsterdam, Netherlands... has underground containers at a 1 or 2 minute walk, for paper and glass.

We have curbside recycling (in Pittsburgh PA) but we have to bag things in blue bags....one use for the ubiquitous plastic shopping bag--all of our grocery stores offer them in a blue version--I'd hate to have to purchase blue garbage bags.

Yes, in Huntington Beach, CA (southern california) it was just rolled out but they do not recycle plastic grocery bags...instead you are required to bring them to a grocery store.

Luckily, we have curbside pickup in Oakland, CA! They're not fussy about it (no sorting, but boxes must be collapsed), and you can get the bins (large rolling cans, or smaller tubs) from the program. They do, however, have some restrictions on what they recycle. But most folks just take their chances and put all their recyclables in the bin.

If you put in the bin items that aren't recyclable, and no one at the recycling center sees them to pick them out (a step that raises costs), then you can contaminate the entire truckload of recycling at processing time. Please, if you're concerned about recycling for the good of the environment, take the extra minute to follow your local recycling center's rules!

I live in an apartment in Brentwood. I've tried to get the city to contact my apathetic landlord to sign up for the free curbside service. No dice. It's frustrating. In fact, most of the buildings on my street are apartments and I see very few curbside recycling. I've resorted to just leaving my plastics and glass in bags for the determined dumpster divers in our area. But then what about all the paper goods that they aren't interested in turning in for cash?

I tried to look up locations where I can at least drop off recyclables on my own and it's really hard to find anything. Does anyone have any ideas on where I can dump off recyclables in the L.A. area? I don't need to get paid for the redemption value, I just hate seeing so much of it go into the dumpsters.

Berkeley is very picky about what they take in the bins. If we accidentally put something in there that we shouldn't have they leave the contents of the entire bin and we have to sort it out ourselves and try again the next week.

It also has to be packaged just so - loose papers must be in a paper bag, etc.

Luckily they have good literature that spells it out pretty well - just wish we had it when we first moved in!