HELP! Recycling is filling my house with clutter!

[hedgehog]

The problem is that we are recycling more and more. I know it's good for the environment, but it's driving me crazy. I have garbage cans for the un-recyclables,that's OK. I have a separate blue garbage can for glass, plastics and metals. The little blue box we were given by the county just wasn't cutting it anymore. So that's OK. But the paper recycling has run amok. We're supposed to bundle our recycled paper. Right now that includes flattened cereal boxes, newspapers, magazines, catalogs, mail etc. By the middle of the week I have a line of four grocery bags packed with paper sitting in my dining room. Any suggestions?

[NMDemDist2]

1. i take mine in and drop it off

is there a dumpster on your travels?

[Warpy]

2. One thing Wally's does here

is keep a recycling station in their parking lot.

Perhaps there's a recycling station somewhere in your area. A phone call to your town's solid waste department might turn one up.

Another way to cut down on waste/recycling is to buy things in bulk from a health food store. Plastic bags can be reused on successive trips.

I really hate overpackaging, the stuff you want to buy in a bag inside a box inside a plastic shrink wrapper inside one of those plastic bags from the market. Buying in bulk solves a lot of the problem.

[hedgehog]

3. I am ready to kill sometimes when I see people bring plastic bags

into the house. No one will throw them away, but they never make a trip back to the store to be recycled, either!

[hedgehog]

5. You forgot things sealed in plastic to deter shoplifters that take a

small chunk of C-4 to open once you get them home!

[eleny]

4. Thanks for posting about this

I've slacked off on recycling. But yesterday, after reading your posting, I checked for some centers in my zip code and found that the Shriners have a bin 4 blocks from the house. They don't even want us to sort anything and they take so much variety. We went through the house to gather stuff and today I brought over two bags of junk mail, magazines, flattened cardboard boxes, plastic bottles, food packaging and pop cans. I know I have more boxes to flatten and bring over. I can make a trip each week and it's entirely convenient.

:hi:

[hedgehog]

6. Thanks for your replies. I'm calmer now, just having a bad day attacking clutter.

[NMDemDist2]

7. i don't get the newspaper and my paper goes into my compost heap mostly

i keep by recyclables next to the sink and every couple days bag them up, put them next to the door and the next time I go to the car, they go in the trunk

I dropped them off today (three or four bags full)

makes it easy, I used to store them in bins on the deck and it was a big fat hairy deal to remember, this way is working out better. more stops at the center, but it's on my way to work and it gets done often and easily

:hug: thanks for making the effort! :yourock:

[Mist]

8. We have curbside recycling for plastic bottles and metal cans. All cardboard

and paper go into a box in the back of my car, to be recycled in bins in a local shopping center parking lot. Every time I go out the door, I check for anything that could go into the recycling box in the car. I only buy the Sunday paper nowadays--need to cut down on my magazine purchasing, though! I'd like to be able to get by with the gallon bottles of cola, but they just loose fizz too fast, so I'm stuck with the cans.

[Jersey Devil]

9. Why do you have to "bundle" your paper?

We used to do that (tie it up with cord) also, but there really is no reason for it. What we do now is simply take the newspapers each day, together with junk mail and put them in a paper grocery bag. Cardboard boxes are flattened and put at the curb also. When the bag fills up I bring it to the garage and lean it against the wall. Personal mail goes into the shredder and then stuffed into recyclable paper bags. Every two weeks I put it at the curb and they take it away, usually about 3 full grocery bags. Why would you have them in your dining room? Even if you live in an apartment there must be a staging area for recyclables somewhere in the building.

If they won't take the paper in bags then go to your local town meeting and ask them to change it. That's what someone did when I was on my town's Council, then we talked about it and changed it because tying up the papers was a pain in the rear.