the 3R's - in my house

**perSue** · 03-07-2009, 09:08 PM

so my family probly thinks i'm nuts anyway. but i'm getting them on board... say they're helping "me" out - but they're not... they're helping everyone out.
our community doesnt permit recycling (ppl w/in it aren't willing to pay extra for it! *sigh*). so there's a new recycle plant near us that i'm going to start taking our trash to.
i'm probly gonna get diff. sized bins (with recyclable bags) to place in the kitchen to have diff. material in. the kitchen is sorta the "main" trash center in our house. but i got the guys on board to help me out with sorting trash (so i dont end up sitting going thru all the trash cans in the house - eww!).
they think i'm weird because i re-use a LOT and obviously reduce everything i possibly can.
it feels good that i can finally do something that i've felt horribly guilty for yrs for not being able to do.
just wanted to share.

**miss_thrifty** · 03-08-2009, 12:49 AM

well thats great that ur recycling and ur getting ur family on board with it.I wish that when I was a kids instead of land fills we had recycling. Better late then never . I always say.

**dogmatix** · 03-08-2009, 09:21 AM

I've had to hold my husband's hand to when it comes to to recycling. He's getting better but I still have to pick stuff out of the trash occasionally.

One thing that opened his eyes a bit though, we used to have to take out the trash daily, now since we recycle, it's once a week. Saves on bags and trips to the dump. $$$$$

**perSue** · 03-08-2009, 12:42 PM

oh that's great!
thanks for sharing your stories.

**miss_thrifty** · 03-10-2009, 09:51 AM

per Sue-- whats funny about it my hunny was always on board with it, and growls us iff he thinks were doing anyhting wrong. Ours in PEI is very detailed of the break down 1 clear plastic bag puts the paper, dry eggs cartosn and milk cartons,the other puts bag puts all recyable platics #1-5
6 and 7 are waste . we try not to get alot of groceries even if in sale with too many boxes that have no recycling on them. less packaging helps the enviroment.
Plus the plastic bags that are used for the recycling seperation gets recycled again at the shop.

**perSue** · 03-10-2009, 11:02 AM

lol
miss-thrifty, i sure hope my family gets that way.
ds is already ok with the idea. he's a quiet environmentalist. Shhh!

dh is still, well, he just thinks it's something silly i do cuz it makes me happy... doesnt harm anyone, so he puts up with it.
BUT, he has learned (quickly in fact!) how to sort the items himself!

next up... types of paper. *ooooh* LOL

thanks!

**hotprincesscm** · 03-21-2009, 02:35 PM

Well that's great that you finally have a recycling plant near your house! It really does cut down on the amount of trash! I live in an apartment complex that has a whole recycling "dumpster" that you can sort out your recyclables into their designated categories! Although I don't know how many people actually use it, I know I sure put my fill in!!

**Spirit Deer** · 03-21-2009, 07:44 PM

That's great, Sue! Glad that's working out for you.

We have free recycling here. All we have to do is drop it off at the recycling center in town.

We bought two totes for our walk-in pantry. One is for tin cans, pop or beer cans, plastic jugs, plastic bags, plastic packaging, etc. All those things go in one place at the recycle center, so we don't really have to sort that. The other one holds paper, lightweight cardboard boxes, newspaper and that kind of thing, which does not have to be sorted either. We can also take corregated cardboard there too, but that goes into a shed they have. We recently added a cat litter pail to our recycle bins for glass, so we didn't have to sort it from the plastic anymore. We don't recycle much glass so such a small container works fine and takes little room in the pantry. Our solid waste transfer station recycles appliances for free, which is great too.

With recycling, we haul out about six trash cans full of household trash twice per year, and a lot of that is cat litter. So it saves a lot of money to recycle.

Additionally, we can recycle stuff from our solid waste transfer station, which is nice. They have a shed where people can put usable items they want to get rid of like doors, windows, good lumber, old cabinets, that sort of thing. It's free for anyone to take if they can use it. There are a lot of seasonal cabins and hunting shacks in the area, and that works great for people who don't want to put a lot of money into a place but still need to do some work now and then. We can also recycle off the metal pile. I've gotten lots of good stuff there, like an old washer tub to use for a fire pit outside, various tables for outdoor use, a folding luggage cart, an entire storage system with wire drawers, etc. It's amazing what people throw away. I've also recycled a lot of refrigerator drawers out there for all kinds of uses. The enamel ones are nice for setting oil and other messy stuff in out in the garage so things stay cleaner out there. I got a really big white one that cleaned up spotless and works great sitting on a shelf by the back door to hold gloves and winter caps. Two aluminum ones fit perfectly in our side by side freezer and keep stuff organized there. I also picked up two really nice wire baskets for our chest freezer. I recycled a steel cabinet with two file drawers, a large drop-down door, two shallow drawers, and another door that now holds tools and boxes of fasteners in the garage. The list goes on and on! Direct recycling is great because it takes no energy for the metal stuff to be melted down and re-worked into something else, does not have to be shipped anywhere, doesn't cost us anything even for the gas to go 'shopping' for it, and is just a great way to get cool stuff.

I recently picked up a beautiful sauna bucket out there. It won't hold water anymore, but it looks very cool next to our cast iron heating stove in the living room, where it holds pet grooming gear.

I feel lucky we have such a nice place in our area.