Do you re-cycle ?

[michel]

We thought we didn't.

My older son is green (no, not Martian, he cares about the fate of the Earth)..........Recently, he has really made us aware of how little we recycle. We British are perhaps behind everyone about cleaning up our act.

Then we thought "Hang on............."
1.Most of my clothes come from Charity shops. When I worked in the Bank, I never paid more that £5 for a suit (who cared if they were out of fashion); when they needed cleaning, they went back to a charity shop (dry cleaning would have cost more than the suit originally cost me). That would be after my wife had washed the suits (Dry clean ONLY) Hogwash!!!!..Now, most of my clothes belonged to My wife's Dad, My dad, My wife's uncle......... who have all died.
2. Crockery, drinking glasses, cuttlery (mostly) come from Charity shops.
3. I once pulled a Vacuum cleaner out of a dustbin on the main road (yes, I am that sort of an idiot), simply for the flex, if nothing else.

When I plugged it in, it worked! Feverishly, I realised it wasn't aspirating. The knot of hairs and rubbish, stuck in the right angle of a bend in a hose came out quite easily.....

4. A few years ago, (it would have to be, I was cycling then), the saddle post of my old second hand byke wasn't long enough for me. I tried all the shops, in vain.........

One day, on the bike, my knees hitting the handlebars, I passed a houdse that was being demolished. I saw some steel water piping in a skip............

"d'you mind if I take some ?", I asked the builders; "Nah, help yourself "said one guy, looking at me as if I was slightly 'off-balance'.

He didn't know that the diameter of the pipe was the same as the saddle post.

Sure, my byke became rather heavy, but my knees stooped being bashed.........

Any one like that here ? (who will admit to it )

 

[Mystic-als]

I don't recycle at all. Not that I don't want too it's just there isn't that much said or taught about it where I live. We are so focused on Aids that most everything else flies out the window.
Sadly I am guilty.

 

[sparc872]

I do my best but I wasn't born and raised into a family that recycles a whole lot, so it makes it a little difficult. I do have a box in my room that I organize all of my papers so that I can recycle them later though, and I'm a member of freecycle.

 

[ChrisP]

Sure do. Unfortunately, if you investigate, I think you'll find that (besides glass) over 95% of the stuff you "recycle" goes straight to the waste heap anyway

 

[Melody]

Sure do. Unfortunately, if you investigate, I think you'll find that (besides glass) over 95% of the stuff you "recycle" goes straight to the waste heap anyway

We do not recycle as we live in the country and to drive our stuff to the recycling place would be just as wasteful on the fuel consumption....particularly since, as Chris said, much of it ends up in the landfill anyway. Our recycling tends to be in the same way as Michel....

• If we get rid of a piece of furniture (i.e. old couch), we stick it out by the road with an "I'm homeless, please take me home and love me" sign. They're usually gone the same day.
• We do recycle cans and bottles but I'm too lazy to take them back and stand in line to use the recycling machines, so I generally donate them to my son's school. They turn them in for fund raising.
• Most of our kitchen waste (non-meat) goes into our compost or out to the chickens. My sister's dog lives for his meat scrap treats.
• Newspapers are saved as ground cover underneath the mulch in my flower beds.
• Clothes, toys, and other items that we have no more use for are taken to any number of charities (Goodwill, homeless shelter, etc.) around town.
• We don't use chemicals in our household cleaning products since we have a septic system...which means the septic system can do its job and not have to be sucked out and dumped as waste.

I think my brother and his wife are the ultimate recyclers. She has contacts from the days when she freelanced engraving headstones at local mortuaries. Now they give her the marble headstones they can't use (an error was made in the engraving). My brother breaks them up and uses them as edging around his flower bed, drive, etc. Can you imagine archeolists in 1,000 years? "Hey Fred! I found an ancient burial ground!"

 

[MaddLlama]

I do not recycle.

It is a huge waste of money, a waste of time and resources, and all of the things made from recycled plastic and paper would be cheaper to make from scratch. We're not running out of landfill space, some beaurocrat simply made it up, and that lie is what started the recycling movement. And, recycling paper causes more harm to the environment than cutting down trees. Besides, we make paper from trees so we grow more trees to make paper. It's just more tax money wasted on something that doesn't work. Most communities *loose* money on recycling programs every year.

Recycling aluminum is good recycling though. It's cheaper to recycle aluminum than to make new.

Strange coming from someone who concerned for the environment, but I choose not to tow the line on this.

 

[Green Gaia]

I recycle everything I can. I wish more was easily recycable. My kids are really into it too. In fact, we went camping this past weekend and they were very distraut that there was no recycle bin at the campsite and we had to throw things away because I was not hauling it back home. Granted, that's what I should have been prepared to do, but didn't plan for it. I'll know for next time.

 

[michel]

I think my brother and his wife are the ultimate recyclers. She has contacts from the days when she freelanced engraving headstones at local mortuaries. Now they give her the marble headstones they can't use (an error was made in the engraving). My brother breaks them up and uses them as edging around his flower bed, drive, etc. Can you imagine archeolists in 1,000 years? "Hey Fred! I found an ancient burial ground!"

:biglaugh:

You have just reminded me of when (at work) they needed to dispose of what were called 'concentrators' (computer interfaces - goodness knows what they did); this was in the day of steam computers.

They were very sturdy things, and when time came to dispose of them, the guy who did the 'disposing' in our branch aslked me if I was interested ........

At that time, my reputation was such that my sons would come home from school, proudly handing me a nut or a bolt they had seen lying around in the road; they knew their dad well!

Now, I have two of those empty IBM carcasses (the concentrators); they weigh a ton (even when empty) and are used for storage. I often have this image of a bomb falling on the house, with these two carcasses standing amongst the rubble, unblemished.

 

[kevmicsmi]

If we get rid of a piece of furniture (i.e. old couch), we stick it out by the road with an "I'm homeless, please take me home and love me" sign. They're usually gone the same day.

Where I live, if I put a sign that says free on furniture out side, nobody will touch it......However, I have found if I put a sign saying "for sale $100", it will be taken in one night.

 

[Scuba Pete]

I recycle all the time.

Aluminum and plastic are picked up once a week. I fix, rather than buy new.

 

[michel]

I do my best but I wasn't born and raised into a family that recycles a whole lot, so it makes it a little difficult. I do have a box in my room that I organize all of my papers so that I can recycle them later though, and I'm a member of freecycle.

I know what you mean (about it all being 'new'); I lie awake at nights wondering if I should have taken the paper off the youghourt carton!

Seriously, my wife picks something up and says to me "does that count as plastic ?".beats me.

 

[evearael]

Do you re-cycle ?

Absolutely! Most things we buy, excepting food of course, is second hand. We donate our things to charity if we no longer need them and they are in good repair. We recycle all our glass, plastic, paper, and so on, and only need to take out our one trash bin every month or so.

 

[Buttercup]

I don't buy the notion that everything that is recycled goes back into a landfill.

Millions of products from carpet to stationery are made from recycled products. It's not just lip service.

We recycle practically everything that comes into our house. From old windows, car oil, cereal boxes, batteries and the tons of standard items our local recycler takes. Oregon has a 5 cent deposit on bottles and cans which practically forces return unless you like to waste money. If we go out of town, most of the time I save our glass or plastic bottles to recycle at home. I feel really guilty if I don't try to recycle everything that I can.

 

[MaddLlama]

I don't buy the notion that everything that is recycled goes back into a landfill.

Not everything. About 20%-40% of what you recycle ends up in landfills.

But, not everything that is recycled is more cost effective or even equal quality to what is made from raw materials.

 

[Buttercup]

But, not everything that is recycled is more cost effective or even equal quality to what is made from raw materials.

I agree. It is still important to contine to strive for reuse of products however, even if it's more expensive. And I think the entire Western world needs to manufacture products and packaging that is multi use instead of once and thrown away. We're such a disposable global society anymore and it's a shame.

 

[Tigress]

I do not recycle.

It is a huge waste of money, a waste of time and resources, and all of the things made from recycled plastic and paper would be cheaper to make from scratch. We're not running out of landfill space, some beaurocrat simply made it up, and that lie is what started the recycling movement. And, recycling paper causes more harm to the environment than cutting down trees. Besides, we make paper from trees so we grow more trees to make paper. It's just more tax money wasted on something that doesn't work. Most communities *loose* money on recycling programs every year.

Recycling aluminum is good recycling though. It's cheaper to recycle aluminum than to make new.

Strange coming from someone who concerned for the environment, but I choose not to tow the line on this.

Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle, courtesy of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Do the Benefits of Recycling Outweigh the Costs?, courtesy of About.com

 

[Todd]

I absolutely recycle. It's a pain sometimes, but I feel better that about half or more than half my trash goes to recycling instead of the dump. Plus, we sometimes make compost piles out of excess food and leaves and we also throw old food out in the backyard for the birds to eat.

 

[Booko]

We could certainly do more here in Atlanta, but there are some things I do regularly.

The biggest thing I do is composting. My fellow Master Gardners joke that I am the Compost Princess, being 2nd in line behind our Compost Queen. I compost *lots* of things. Paper shreddings, veggie scraps -- all go in the compost bin. Sometimes new neighbors leave plastic bags of leaves out, thinking the lawn waste guys will take them (they won't) so I do everyone a favor and chuck them in the back of the van, and toss the detritus into the compost bin.

I give talks and demonstrations on practical ways to compost. It doesn't require fancy equipment or any significant time, unless you're in a rush for the finished product, which I'm not.

Recycling other things is not so easily accomplished, but I use very few tinned goods or glass bottles anyway. Mostly I just need to find a place to accumulate the stuff until I head to the big farmer's market where they have a recycling station. I'm using fewer and fewer tinned and bottled goods because I can't eat prepared foods anyway. I just make my whatever from scratch and keep what I've made in reusable containers. If I lived down my street a bit in Chamblee proper, I would just be using their recycling program.

Like Michel, I've been known to go trash dump diving. I've picked up several perfectly fine bulletin boards and white boards that way. I have no idea why they were tossed instead of given to charity.

Most of my furniture has been bought secondhand. The exception is a couple of upholstered pieces. The secondhand furniture is, quite frankly, more likely to be made of actual wood, as opposed to being particle board with a picture of wood grain glued on it. :sarcastic So I get a better product a LOT cheaper. If it needs refinishing -- I love refinishing anyway.

I keep things until they die. I never own a car less than 10 years (and I put a lot of miles on a car). My "main" teevee is this tiny little portable thing that we've had for nearly 20 years now. But it still works, so there isn't much point in tossing it. It was cheaper to buy the RF box to make it work with the DVD and satellite box.

I've seen all the tips on "how to save gas" ....I haven't seen anything new show up on those lists for years, and I've been doing all of that since I learned to drive. I'm just waiting for the plug in hybrids to show up. *Then* I'll replace my van.

We had a new garage door and windows put in the house years ago, and that made a huge difference in our heating and cooling bills. Also when we remodeled the downstairs, we had some actual insulation put in (what a novel idea). We have themostat controlled exhaust fans in the roof, which is very important in warm weather to keep the upper part of the house cooled.

My landscape is arranged with decicuous trees on the south side, to let the warmth in in winter and keep it off the house in summer. There are evergreens on the north side to block the winter cold, and there won't be any warmth coming from that direction anyway.

What I'm really interested in is how I can hook up solar panels to my house.

 

[SPQR]

At my home, we use paper bags from the market until they wear out, plastic bags as well, and we recycle tin cans, aluminum, bottles, etcetera. Most other stuff is thrown out.

 

[Green Gaia]

What I'm really interested in is how I can hook up solar panels to my house.

That is something I am interested in too, even though I don't have a house yet! It will definitely be on my to-do list.

Would you mind starting a thread on some tips for composting? Pretty please?