October 4, 2009

A Note About Recycling

Keep in mind that most city's recycling rules are constantly changing.

For example, we had a list up on our refrigerator of what could be put into our blue recycling bin for pick up, which included plastics #1 and #2. But I recently went to the Department of Sanitation website for something else, and found out we can now recycle ALL numbers of recyclable plastics, plus a lot of other things, including some styrofoam. Good to know.

Click here for the link to the Department of Sanitation in Los Angeles. There's a complete list of everything that CAN and CAN'T be recycled. Otherwise, just do a google search to find the Department of Sanitation in your area.

Does your city have a recycling program? I remember the old days of saving newspapers and bringing them to a recycling center. I'm so glad Los Angeles has progressive recycling policies.

8 comments:

Auntie sezzzzzz... said...

"For my husband, I’m going to come home with a blue streak in my hair. He’s always trying to get me to do something like that, but I’m more conservative than he is about that kind of thing."

Just saw your comment [above] in 'The Non Consumer Advocate' blog. And had to bounce over and tell you, how cute that sounds!!!!! :-)))

'Aunt Amelia'

Angela said...

Hi Aunt Amelia- Thanks for bouncing over! How sweet, and what a great way to start the day. I've seen your comments on Katy's blog, my absolute favorite.

Thanks for commenting and I hope you come back!

Betsy Talbot said...

Seattle has a great recycling program, and we have done everything well except the composting. It seems hit or miss for us, so last week I bought a small countertop compost container and biodegradable bags and just took out my first "contribution" to the compost container this morning. I was pleasantly surprised that it didn't smell over the course of a few days at my house (with only 2 people, we don't generate enough compost to fill the bin for several days).

I'm feeling a lot better about our contribution, especially after watching No Impact Man last week with Kate at An Exercise in Frugality. So thank you for motivating me to add composting to our recycling habits!

Angela said...

The meeting of Betsy and Kate- yay! Congrats on the compost bin- I really don't know what's going on back there in that bin, but it's great not to throw it in the garbage!

Carla said...

Citywide recycling? In small town northeast Texas? hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
'scuse me while I try to recover... Ahem.

No, we don't. Why do you ask?

Seriously, there are parts of the country where people just KNOW you are a wide-eyed hippie liberal (maybe I am) if you even bring the subject up. Sigh. Actually, I'm not hippie or liberal or conservative, politically. I just think it makes good sense to try not to trash my home, ie. the earth. So no, there is no citywide recycling unless you count the couple of bins which take only a few things and are very hard to find in the first place. I mean, we are ENTITLED by the Constitution to our plastic here, right?

Angela said...

Carla- This is what my husband and I noticed on our cross country trip. Most of the southern states had little or no curbside recycling, even when people wanted it, it just wasn't available. Very sad.

But maybe if enough people in a community want it, they can bring about change. It would be interesting to read about how recycling became commonplace in places like California in the 1990s.

Are there places you can at least take newspaper and glass? And maybe you could start a compost bin. I find that's cutting our garbage almost in half.

Thanks for your comment, Carla!

Jenna said...

I like to put everything that looks even remotely recyclable in my bin, because if it can't be recycled, they just leave it in there :)

Angela said...

Jenna- Actually, I've heard that's not true, that if something CAN'T be recycled, it contaminates the other stuff that can be somehow. I'll look into it, it's definitely something to think about...