Recycle?

My family isn't really into recycling as much as simply not producing trash. We try to buy products that don't have a lot of extra packaging. We also post items that we no longer use on sites like freecycle so it can be used by someone else instead of being thrown away. I also try to make a lot of the things we use or buy antiques. Modern products are made to be disposable, they expect them to break quick so you have to buy a new one. I prefer antiques because they were made to last for years. Back to the trash issue. My family only produces about 1 bag every 1.5 weeks.

I try to be as "green" as I possibly can. I do however draw the line at recycling, simply because I am unsure if recycling isn't worse in some cases (specifically paper and plasitic) then just throwing those items aways. In the case of paper, huge amount of inks and chemicals used to remove those inks leave a nasty byproduct inky chemical crap which may as some studies suggest be worse for the environment then just letting the paper break down on it's own, which in will in time, without the added mess of all the additional chemicals used to remove the ink. Plastic I'm also on the fence about. The pollutants that are released into the air are truly nasty and I'm just not sure that it is any better, if not worse than just disposing of plastic in landfills. I've seen studies going both ways, and have yet to make a conclusion. I do however applaud your effort. I'm just not sure that recycling those items isn't worse for the environment.

I honestly didn't recycle until we moved into this housing area. We were given a bucket by the city and they come by every other week to pick up. That isn't near enough for us, though. By the time they come around, that little bucket is 1/2 full of metal cans (I seperate so they don't have to) and glass jars, but then there are at least 3 large trash bags full of plastic containers piled next to it. All I drink is milk, plus my husband drinks it in cereal and we cook with it. My oldest son only drinks apple juice. My youngest only drinks white grape juice. That's a lot of jugs right there, plus I also clean out and recycle ketchup containers, yogurt containers, laundry soap jugs, cottage cheese containers and so on. We don't have many glass jars (a few from pickles, mayo, steak sauce and so on) or steel cans (mostly Beefaroni and veggies) but I wash them all and put them on the curb for pick up. I honeslty didn't do any of that until they offered to do pick up for it. I always wanted to do it, but lack of space and having a way to haul it where it needed it go kept me from doing it. I always felt guilty filling up trash bags will all of that stuff that could easily be put in a recycle bin. I like that we have recycling pick up and have no problem seperating stuff before just tossing it. It only takes an extra second to rinse it out and toss it in the recycling bin next to the trash can instead of in it.

We probably aren't as good about recycling as we should be, however we try to to what we can. We give away whatever we can't use on freeCycle or to one of the local places that give clothing to the needy. Buying in bulk and repackaging in my own containers at home is another way to save on all of the extra disposable packaging. Aside from that, I wish that they made recycling easier for those of us in my area.

Throughout my life I have gone through serious recycle periods alternated with much-reduced recycling. We live in a rural area now, and recycling is a lot more difficult because we have to transport everything ourselves instead of having curb side recycling like we did in town. Our garbage pickup out here is via having a dumpster of our own, and lately I have been appalled at the fact that we overfill this dumpster every month. I told my husband the other day that I wanted to set up a recycling program and he reluctantly agreed; he is afraid we will have stuff piled up all over. We already use a compost pile for compostable items. We also already have about ten trash cans from when we were transporting our own trash to the local dump. I am going to get a can crusher for aluminum, and set up cans for each type of recyclable item. The cans can stay neatly in the transport trailer, and when they are full I will do a trip to the nearest recycle center, which is about 45 miles away from home. I already give away or sell everything we don't need that is still useable and try to purchase items with less packaging but I still think there is so much more we can do! It looks like recycling is becoming my new passion once again. :-) Hopefully this time I can really stick with it.

Hi there. Yes we are big on recycling in our town... From plastics and rubber, tins and different metals, papers and cardboards, clothes and shoes, everything you can think of... In our home, we mainly recycle our paper stuff, plastics, tin cans, aerosol tins and glass... We have one of many recycling trucks that comes down the street every monday morning to collect these things... We support the recycling which lessens the land fill every year in our town...

I try to do it when I have the chance to do it, because where I live during the summer, we don't have the opportunity to do so. Since I've had the chance to begin recycling and saw how much we truly waste, it's sad really. So I try to recycle what I can, when I can. At least I'm doing some part in lessening the footprint I leave upon the earth. I'm passionate to a certain extent. I think people should recycle what they can, but I'm not going to push it on anyone even though I do think it is important. I do it simply because it's helpful and it's really beneficial.

I try and reuse as much as I can and try not to waste anything if I can.I see so much garbage along the road that I wonder if our planet isn't just becoming a dump sometimes.