How do you store your recycables?

[IntlMom]

Me? I am not very organized this way. I have a large bin for cans and another one for bottles. Usually, the cans line up the kitchen counter till I cannot stand it and then I get one of my boys to smash them and take them to the bin.....

Everything else goes iinto what our area calls "the big green bin". I hate it. What it means it that you throw everything away in the garbage. EVERYTHING. Then it is picked up by the garbage truck and taken to a sorting facility. All of our garbage is sorted for recyables, so everything that can be recycled get recycled. Sounds great, I know. But all it teaches my kids is that you throw stuff away and someone else takes the responsibitly to recycle. I have called and called the refuse center.....there really is not another option. **sigh**

How about you? How do you store them?
( and do you have any suggestions for me?)

[pollypurebred39]

We have VERY limited space so I have a rolling dog food bin I line with a plastic bag. Once full we take outside and separate into bins.

As far as getting your boys really getting it I would separate it and bag it. Then dispose of it with your regular trash. At least they will be learning how to recylce for the future.

[McD]

I keep a bin behind our trash can that we put our recycling into. When it gets full, I take it out and put it into our big green bin.

Traci, see I am so opposite. I love our big green bin. Sorting the items and stacking them just so was a big hassle to me with everything else we have going on here and we just didn't recycle. This way, it makes it easy and efficient. Even Wesley is figuring out what we can recycle and what goes in the trash.

[Contrary Housewife]

We have "blue bins" here and weekly pickup like trash. It all goes in the same bin unsorted, paper, plastic and cans. They don't take glass.

I barely have room for the 1 bin, let alone separate ones for cans or paper, etc.

Is there a 3rd party recycling center where you live. I see them around town where they have big dumpsters for paper, glass, etc all separate. You bag your recyclables and deposit them there.

[Liane]

We put our paper in paper and carboard in paper bags or boxes. Our cans and bottles go in our recycle bucket. We have recycling on Monday's and trash on Tuesdays. In the house usually the bottles and cans sit on my counter until I get my daughter to recycle them. Now my plants have taken over the counter. In the meantime we hand a bag on our backdoor and put cans and bottles in there until the bag is full. Takes up no room and no counter space which is great for me. I have very little space to begin with. Have your boys separate the recycle from the trash and if you can compost. It cuts down on your trash dramatically

[KeithBC]

We have a couple of plastic boxes on a large cupboard. Into one, we put paper and cardboard; into the other, cans, glass, plastic, and used batteries. We have some extra boxes in case of overflow.

On Saturday mornings, I sort them: all the cardboard together, all the newsprint, all the "good" paper, and put them back in the same bin, sorted. I remove caps from various containers, flatten the soymilk cartons, etc. Then I take it all to the recycling depot. They have separate bins for everything, and it is easy to to dump my pre-sorted stuff into the appropriate bins. They have a sledgehammer there for flattening tin cans.

Our recycling depot takes just about everything, so we only produce about one bag of garbage every two weeks. They have separate bins for refundable returnable drink containers, with the name of a different local charity on each one, so you can donate the refund to whichever organization you choose (or you can collect the refund yourself). They take cans, glass, plastic (if it has a recycle code on it), batteries (both automotive and dry-cell), paper products of all kinds. They also have a box where you can pick up bundles of newspapers to use as fire starter.

[stinkbug]

We have the big blue recycle bins also....all recyclables go into it unsorted. It's a huge improvement over our old system. Ours is collected on trash day every other week. I always have way more blue trash than regualr trash! Love it!

[Rippin508]

When we moved into our town, we were given those "green bins" because the town picks up our trash and recyclables. We have two bins, one used for paper products like newspapers/magazines and the other for plastic/glass/aluminum cans.

Most aluminum cans that are redeemable are recycled at Walmart or liquor stores to get back the 5 cents.

The one thing I wish they would accept are plastic #3-7. I have seen on other surrounding town websites that they accept these, but you have to be a resident of that town to recycle them. I have done some research and the places I could recycle them are either too far away or you have to pay a facility to recycle them.

Both of our bins are placed on the back deck. It would smell horribly if we left them inside.

[happymomof4]

Our trash company gave us 2 bins one for paper and cardboard. The other one if for everything else. So I have the 1 for plastic and cans in the laundry room. We put the newspaper in a orange crate. When that gets full I put it in the big conainer in the garage that the trash company gave us. All the cardboard goes directly into that bin in the garage. The trash company takes the recyables every 2 weeks. Which works out great because the bin with the plastic and cans gets full just in time to take it out.

Beer bottles I put back in the cases. We carry them directly to the bottom of the drive way on recycable day. They dump the bottles and take the cardboard box with them.

[mndtrp]

The recycling center is about a mile from where I live, so I don't use the trash companies bins. Instead, I throw everything but paper and cardboard into a big trash can I pulled from a dumpster outside of a hotel that was remodeling. The paper goes in a much smaller bin next to the larger one, and the cardboard is flattened and stored behind the two.

As far as inside the house, I just let my fiancee throw everything away in whatever trash can she wants, as long as it isn't into the kitchen trash. If she's in the kitchen, I ask her to set it on the counter, and I put it where it belongs as soon as I get home. It got to be too difficult for me to get her to put the recyclables where they belong, so I just do it for her now. The various trash cans around the house only need dumping about once a month, so when they are full, I sort them into their proper places.

[monkeywrangler71]

I keep the blue bin for paper in the front closet, that way I can chuck the junk mail into it on the way into the house. The blue bin for cans and plastic is under the sink, along with the compost bucket and the regular garbage.

It will get more complicated when we move back home, as the beverage containers are refundable, and the recycling goes in bags instead of bins.

[frugalwarrior2]

We have a breezeway to the attached gargae. I put up coat hooks several year ago. We hang a trash bag and toss everything into it. Our private company doesn't ask us to sort. I have a second bag of pop bottle. At the end of the week we take the whole bag and dump it into our orange bin. If it's super full we just put the whole bag in and they sort it at the place. Best way to me.

[frugalfranny]

How about taking them to the sorting site so they can see what gets done with the stuff that you toss? They would probably be thrilled that you are trying to educate them about it and might even take the time to explain more to them.

Mine is picked up each week so I don't have to 'sort'.......I just toss it in the bin and put it out with the garbage.

During the winter, when I stop garbage pickup, I use big plastic bags hung on hooks(nails) in my garage. But we probably have more limited recycling than you do..especially plastic. I can only recycle the 'pete 1'.....so any 2's have to go in the regular garbage.

[nancycg56]

We have the big blue bins here, too. Everything that is recyclable goes into them, we wheel them out to the curb every other week and the recyclable truck comes and picks it up. I love it!

[savvy_sniper]

We have a large bin on the back porch for all recyclable plastic (1-7), two bins in the laundry room - 1 for tin cans and glass and 1 for aluminum.

When the bins for tin cans, glass, and plastic get full we take them to MILs house and put in her city recycling bin. She earns points that she redeems for gift cards.

We have a can smasher for the aluminum and redeem for cash from time to time. Everybody knows we go to the metal recycler so people give us various metal things to recycle and earn a little extra money.

All paper and cardboard are taken weekly to the recycling bins at any of the schools and churches in the neighborhood.