apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

No, but I'd love to hear some ideas. I've been using shopping bags stuffed in the bottom of the pantry.

We had been doing the stack 'o recycling for a couple years, but since we've been on a push to recycle as much as possible (it used to just be aluminum cans and bottles) that stack was getting out of hand. We have a small galley kitchen with a laundry room off of it that then leads to the garage. Neither the kitchen nor the laundry room is particularly conducive to extra bins so I went to Target and bought a smallish plastic basket with handles. It's about 9"x12" and maybe 5 inches deep. It sits on the counter where the pile used to be and all the items go into there. About once a day I go out to the garage where I can dump it into the big bin the city gives us. The basket was in the pantry/kitchen organization area at Target, the ones in the standard rubbermaid storage area were too big and bulky. This one is a stackable thing I think, for pantries, but it is working great. Now when the basket is full it goes out, it gives a boundary to an otherwise nebulous pile of stuff. It's also easy to clean if something leaks and looks much neater than the pile ever did. I suppose you could go with wicker or whatever suits your tastes, but this was about $4 I think, and is nice to have handles, containment and a system in place.

I've been thinking about this too, because I always used to just use a paper bag and then just recycle the whole thing when full. But lately I haven't been getting paper bags, and this has led to piles. I was actually thinking the Tub Trug you lot are gung-ho for might be a good option for me.

Do you have any wall space? Maybe you could use a Trones.

IKEA Sortera http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/90076364

Best little stackable bin in two sizes. I use two shorter bins stacked for plastic/glass and paper. The sit on top of a larger bin for garbage.

I have one trash can for trash, one trash can for bottles and cans and a plastic bin under the sink for newspapers and magazines.

On a side note, the cashier at Bed, Bath, and Beyond was beyond horrified and shocked that I would buy a nice trash can for RECYCLING. I guess one is only supposed to buy a nice trash can for proper trash...

IKEA TROFAST children's storage - http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S19819557

We have a small galley kitchen as well, and there was roughly a 12" space next to the stove that was going unused. Recycling was piling up everywhere - in the entryway, by the pantry. While looking for shelving at IKEA recently, we were inspired by the children's things, and bought the trofast with 3 bins to match our kitchen - white frame with red bins. Now it's plastic/glass/paper, and once the bin is full, it immediately goes into a paper bag and out the door.

This is what we have. You could probably have more than one if you liked to sort and it would work great. We only have room for one though. :(

http://marbargarbo.blogspot.com/2008/05/recycling-bin.html

Where I live, we don't have to sort the recycling -- paper, glass, etc all go in together. (I hope they are sorting it at the other end, and not just dumping it!) So I keep just one pail, behind the trash pail, in a pull-out cabinet/drawer thing we have.

Though lately, we have been saving all the bottles and plastic for our housekeeper who comes twice a month. We keep it in a plastic grocery bag hanging from the hall closet doorknob, and she carries it home on the bus. She says she makes about $50 extra a week from the recycling she collects from her customers.

Sometimes I'm hard pressed to find a bag though, now that I finally consistently remember to bring my own re-usable bags to the market. Which is a new dilemma - what do you use for garbage, if you no longer get bags at the market? It seems counter-productive to buy garbage bags.

Like another poster upthread, I also live in a city that doesn't require sorting. We have two bins in the kitchen--one for trash, the other for recycling. When they're full we toss the contents into their corresponding city bins in the backyard.

I have the same issue as jennifer in sf.. we are going through our old paper shoppings like mad! We're about to move, though, and when we do, we'll get another "trash bin" for recycling.

p.s. Don't forget the toilet paper tubes!

If anyone's interested, those are trash cans by brabantia - brabantia.com (evil flash site so no direct link)

we love this product called binvention... unfortunately it's only available in the UK... i have mine up for sale in nyc if anyone is interested:
http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/fur/681194820.html

Have you guys seen these from Container Store? They have an open lip area in the front so you can stack all of them and then retrieve the contents without having to de-stack and take all the lids off.

http://www.containerstore.com/browse/Product.jhtml?searchId=14113957&itemIndex=3&CATID=245&PRODID=65119

This photo is interesting. I saw this exact idea (photo of contents on the lid of a flip can) done for Wish Magazine and their tv show The Style Department. And yet here it is in Living Etc too. They even had the words Recycle on the wall. I can't believe they copied the idea and so exactly.

I, too, live in a city that does not require sorting. And yet I still sort (paper in one, everything else in the other). I have no idea why.

my dad is lucky enough to have designed a pull-out under the kitchen island that holds two bins side by side in front (one for paper, and one for plastic/glass/cans), and the trash can behind it. everything is out of sight, sorted, and easily accessed in a central location. which is fantastic, because it used to be pulling teeth to get my brothers to walk the 14 steps to the garage door to toss things in the recycling bins, when the trash can was only a foot away.

annoushka - i'm going to ikea in a week or so and picking up the TROFAST! what a wonderful idea!

If I had enough room in my kitchen I wouln't mind the idea of several trash cans. But I do have room in the hallway in a cuboard where I put plastic bottles and glass in paper bags that I can just take out and bring to the recycling place every few days. Behind the door in my kitchen I also have a bag for cans.
I am lucky in the respect that our apartment block has a special room to store cardboard till they pick it up and also paper. I have to add I live in Switzerland, the country that supposedly recycles the most in the world, so from my house it is only a few minutes walk to the next place where you can bring your recyclables.

I like that "binvention" and it looks super easy to make one yourself out of sturdy cardboard.

Just take a large rectangle of cardboard. You will decide how wide the bottom is, then how "long" the legs will be. Mark two lines across the cardboard where you will fold to form the bottom. Mark four "legs" that run from that line into the area where the bottom is. You will cut those legs out so that they can be popped out to stand up the "bin". Once you fold the bottom with the legs popped downward, you can cut those crenelations in the top sides where the bag handles will be looped.

Et voila, a "binvention" of your very own, and recyclable in its own right when it wears out.

If you wish to be arty, decorate it.