recycling, etc.

[BlazingDriver]

I work at a recycling and waste depot - so get ready for a rant! The blue bin programme drives me CRAZY! 90% of the people who come in to drop off recyclables have absolutely no idea what is and what isn't recyclable. I spend a very large portion of my day picking garbage out of your recycling bins. Whenever someone comes in and gives me a big sermon about what dedicated recyclers they are I always check their stuff because I know that a good part of it is garbage. Putting something in your blue bin doesn't make it recyclable. Having people not be bothered getting to know what goes in the bin is costing your municipality hundreds of thousands of dollars - because the product is contaminated (so they don't get the best price) and in the cost for wages. Where I work there are several full time people who's only job is to clean up the mess the uninformed public makes.

Here's a link to Stewardship Ontario. Click on your town/city and see what does and doesn't go in your blue bin. Get informed!

http://www.stewardshipontario.ca/con...x/what-goes-in

[abbasgirl]

I recycle paper and cans,etc. My building has big recycling bins. I'm not sure if they really get recycled or just gets thrown out by the city though because people in my building get confused and put things in the wrong bin so it all gets contaminated. Apartment dwellers in my city are not on the green bin program yet and I'm not sure how consistent I'll be when we are. I won't be keeping a bin in my kitchen because I don't have space and don't want the mess. So most stuff will probably just go down the garbage chute with the rest of my garbage.

[Andit]

I work at a recycling and waste depot - so get ready for a rant! The blue bin programme drives me CRAZY! 90% of the people who come in to drop off recyclables have absolutely no idea what is and what isn't recyclable.

What I find annoying is that in Toronto, where municipalities are *supposed* to fall under the same rules, there is no consistency. I'm downtown & we separate paper & plastic/glass/cans. My folks in Scarborough, have to separate out cans from plastic from glass. Depending on which truck comes along to collect the recycling, they are put in the truck separately or dumped all together. So...why bother separating things out when it all gets dumped together?

[BCSparkyGirl]

I only get garbage pickup once every 2 weeks. I must, or I overfloweth all over the neighbourhood.

[FallenPixels]

We recycle and much of our building does, we have the large bins and recycling pick up twice a week and they are still always overflowing

[travelgeek]

The cleanest place I've ever been to, it's a tie actually, Sydney Australia... if you throw something away that can be recycled you can bet your azz someone will tell you..

yup, i'm in australia now and this is so true. even on the qantas flight, i was about to throw the newspaper into the rubbish bag before landing and was told sternly to wait until they come back and collect the recycling. on other airlines, everything goes into the trash.

[madchives]

this has been very interesting,,,think i had hoped most
of canada was better at recycling/green bin stuff.
still irks me here to put beer bottles into the recycling bin,
then again they put them in the garbage - or the bon fire.

[MercyEhm]

I work at a recycling and waste depot - so get ready for a rant! The blue bin programme drives me CRAZY! 90% of the people who come in to drop off recyclables have absolutely no idea what is and what isn't recyclable. I spend a very large portion of my day picking garbage out of your recycling bins. Whenever someone comes in and gives me a big sermon about what dedicated recyclers they are I always check their stuff because I know that a good part of it is garbage. Putting something in your blue bin doesn't make it recyclable. Having people not be bothered getting to know what goes in the bin is costing your municipality hundreds of thousands of dollars - because the product is contaminated (so they don't get the best price) and in the cost for wages. Where I work there are several full time people who's only job is to clean up the mess the uninformed public makes.

Here's a link to Stewardship Ontario. Click on your town/city and see what does and doesn't go in your blue bin. Get informed!

http://www.stewardshipontario.ca/con...x/what-goes-in

I get angry when I see a Pizza box in a recycling bin or cans that haven't been rinsed and still have the label on them.

I've been know to pick them out and anonymously leave them on porches *do be do be do*

In Qc it's done differently. They send out a flyer EVERY year and the Pizza Box is on TOP. We can recycle strawberry containers and things like that here. As long as it has the 3 arrow recycle sign on it it can all go in the bin. We can even put our recycling in specially made Blue see through bags.

We don't have the composting like Ontario does. In the fall however, they'll pick up your bags of leaves provided they are placed in large ORANGE bags ONLY.

We cannot under any circumstance recycle styrofoam and the like.

I've an acquaintance that works in the recyclng plant here and he's always complaining that people throw out more crap in the recycling and don't recycle what they throw out. It's just plain lazy to not get informed. Different cities/burroughs have different ways of operating so if you move PLEASE get informed. It really only takes 2 minutes

[Patty Smyth]

I just came back from Las Vegas. At the hotel nothing was recycled but they wanted you to use as little water as possible. Even at the airports I asked a cleaning lady if there was a recycling bin and she looked at me like I was from Mars.

Yeah but the U.S. are so far behind on everything it's not even funny. They are too busy saving the word from terrorism and defending their bloody amendments to see beyond the end of their nose. You see our friends in the states how they recycle everything into the fire place, they burn plastic for crying out loud. They will never learn. Anyhoo enough of my anti-us rant.

We have orange bag pick up for garden waste, clear bag pick up for reg. recycling and an eco-center open year round to take other things like cements blocks, construction materials, paints, solvents. It's great.

[travelgeek]

come to think of it, recycling should not be a priority, but rather reducing and reusing. i was just on a tour today and the operator collected all of the clamshell plastic lunch containers, not for recycling, but for reuse! i know back home this is the stuff that gets thrown into the garbage, nevermind recycled.

but anyways, recycling still takes lots of resources to collect, gather, sort, melt, mold, etc. and at least in Toronto, a lot of the recyclable goods get landfilled, so there's no guarantee that what you put into the bin actually gets recycled.

[frugal.tea]

Here's a link to Stewardship Ontario. Click on your town/city and see what does and doesn't go in your blue bin. Get informed!

http://www.stewardshipontario.ca/con...x/what-goes-in

I try to whenever I can, but thanks for the info. After going to the site, I think I may have been recycling plastics wrong. I didn't know only certain plastics go in. I use the city calendar that tells what goes in and the Waste Wizard http://app.toronto.ca/wes/winfo/search.do, but I don't remember seeing those numbered symbols. Thanks again for the info, I'm gonna put a copy on the fridge.

[madchives]

they (those crazy americans), do love to bug me
about this - was putting garbage in garbage bin
- saw yogurt container at the same time i saw
yogurt thingy in recycling bag.
literally right beside each other,,,,wishing anyone who
had recycling made so easy would recycle

[jessandjake2005]

Oh man I hate our recycling system here!!! The first Tuesday after the 15th of the month (confusing yeah I know) is newspaper/cardboard pick-up. You also have the option of putting this stuff out with your regular garbage and they will take it - but they won't recycle it if it's with regular garbage. The last Saturday of every month they collect glass, cans and plastic so if you happen to forget you are screwed for another month! Our garbage MUST be in clear or see through bags and have no cans in it. If you mistakenly throw out a can you will get a sticker put on your garbage bag that says "Mixed Garbage" and you must open the bag, remove the can and put it out again next week. Luckily, we do not have to pay for tags or have a limit of bags but that doesn't concern me anyway since I'm big on recycling. We have 2 days a year (one fall, one spring) the town does leaf pick up or grass clippings. Once a year (usually June) we have "Bulk Day" which you can get rid of any crap they won't take on garbage day providing its not too heavy or hazardous. In October, we alternate because 2 municipalities for Hazardous Waste day so you can get rid of any paint cans, motor oil, light bulbs, etc. I would be happy if we had recycling twice a month for ALL recyclables and a depot of some sort to bring any leaves or paint cans to whenever I please and pay a small fee so I don't have to hold it for a whole year!

[nadiabreckon]

We try to recycle as much as we can in our house. Only certain things can go in the clear or blue recycling bags, paper products have to go in seperate grocery bags, boxboard has to go in the green bins with food waste (if they see it in your recycling bags, they will flat out refuse to pick it up). We do have a dog, however she does not eat our leftovers now that she's a senior and it makes her sick most of the time...
Our green bin and the recycling gets picked up every 2 weeks, and on alternating weeks our garbage gets picked up. Pretty gross when you think about it in the summer, when your garbage has been sitting for 2 weeks in the hot garage (and we can't leave it out cause of the critters tearing open the bags). We are allowed up to 6 bags on garbage days, and obviously as much recycling as possible.