Going Green: Recycling Simply

My next “going green” project has been to start recycling.  We don’t have curbside recycling here… we don’t even have curbside trash service!  Nope, out here at The Sticks we have to take our trash 6.5 miles to the “convenience center”.  And all that is, is a bunch of dumpsters in a fenced in area run by the county landfill.  But it’s not a bad thing since we drive past it every time we go into town and it is open 5 days a week.

However, while one dumpster is for general unsorted trash, there are many others specifically for recycling! 

Each one is labeled so it is easy to sort.  There are plenty of categories too so a wide variety of items can be recycled.

I’ve set up a recycle area in the garage so we can participate.  Each drawer corresponds to one of the bins at the center.  Large boxes are stacked on the top of the drawers (that’s my kitchen compost bin sitting there now).  

To the right of my recycle area is an area  to hold our burned out florescent tubes.  All the downstairs lights are florescent tubes, as are the closet and bathroom in our master suite.  The big box hardware stores have an area for recycling compact fluorescents but not the big tubes. 

A couple times a year the landfill holds a special event called “hazardous waste day”. 

This is when you can get rid of anything you have that is considered ‘bad’…chemicals… cleaners…

… old paint.. batteries… computer things… microwaves…anything and everything.  All you have to do is to get it down there.  They unload it for you and send you on your way quickly.  I had a load of really old paint and about 15 florescent bulbs. 

It was great to get them cleaned out of the garage!