Keeping Your Recycling Area Organized Keeps Family Motivated to Literally Pitch In!

Recycling at my house is not always the easiest chore, but it is one which we find rewarding. The problem some people have with doing it at home is finding a place for the bag and bin that will hold your recycling through the week. We have a standing agreement that my job is to help fill the recycling bin and also to take the full bags to our local recycling drop off containers.

We have been recycling for as long as I can recall, and in all these years we have learned a few tricks that make our job easier. One of the first things I taught the other person here who is tasked with recycling was that there is absolutely no reason to dish wash the jars and bottles, just rinse them and put them in the correct bag.

People are forgetful so we use one color bag for recycling and another for trash. There is nothing worse than getting to the recycling bin with a stinky sack of trash. The white 13 gallon size is about the largest that will fit through the openings in the recycling dumpster anyhow.

Another thing we need to worry about is accidentally forgetting that the recycling or trash bags are on the roof of the car when heading out the driveway. The white ones are called snowballs on our street, and you can see them periodically from when neighbors have done the same thing, left the bag on their roof and tooled out the drive to get to work on time. We have a long driveway and the simplest thing is to place the bag where you can see it like on the hood, but on my Jeep it tends to slide off when I stop the car, so it ends up on the roof. The roof rack held it in place one time and it was still there when I got to work.

Another thing that helps us recycle is knowing what to crush. Some things like water bottles are very easy to crush, but the trick is to screw the lid back on tightly so the air does not refill the bottle once in the bag. That incessant crinkling noise can make you crazy. Crushing these can save a lot of space in these very light bags of recycling.

Next you need to have a storage place out in the garage or barn to hold six or eight bags until you can make a recycling run. We have a spot that holds at least 12 bags, but that is too many for my Jeep anyhow, so we tend to get the bags over to the recycling drop off about every two weeks.

Something you can do to save space in your recycling is to nest smaller items inside larger ones, for example a coffee can will hold a soup can which will hold a small pickle jar. This helps conserve space so the bags are full enough to make our recycling trip worthwhile. Remember the bags are not free either, and every one you fill up you then need to get another.

Things to watch out for are batteries, light bulbs, chemicals and solvents. There are proper ways of disposing of these items and the regular recycling bin is not really the best solution. If you are in doubt contact your recycling container company, or your local garbage collection company. They can advise you on how to handle special wastes that may be recycled.

Recycling at home can be one of the easiest chores providing you have a decent setup for the primary container, and a secondary place to hold them until you head off to the recycling drop off center.

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