How do you organize recycling in your house?

Question

I'm thinking of starting to separate trash into paper-plastic-glass -trash. I'm concerned about smells from containers..and also not sure how to best organize them. Should I use 4 plastic bags or 4 open boxes...


How do you do it, so that nothing smells and it's also fast to dispose of stuff?

Answer 1

At my house we put our recycling on the kitchen counter (glass, plastic, aluminum, tin, etc.) to get rinsed out. It then goes immediately out to the recycling can in our back yard. The paper, cardboard, etc., goes next to the kitchen garbage can and gets put in the recycling can when the trash gets taken out. ALL of our recyclables go into the same can. If you need to separate them, put your recyclables into boxes (since they can be recycled as well) and your trash into a plastic bag (to reduce the smell).

Answer 2

well, I too once started separate containers for each, but now I practise this: i keep a huge plastic bag in the kitchen and a smaller cardboard box in the study. both hidden out of sight. put in all the recyclable trash TOGETHER nicely stashed to save space. when any of the bags is full i go and sort the contents into the separate municipal containers. This takes just a couple of seconds longer than if i had separate containers at home. And it
1. saves me the hassle of separate boxes/bags at home that would take longer to be filled.
2. when i am not returning home i can throw in the recycling bag too. (no expensive waste sorter)
3. absolutely no smell, because recyclable things shouldnt be filthy anyway and the kitchen bag gets full (and emptied) quite often, so an empty milk bottle is not a problem. the box in the study receives only things that dont smell. When something recyclable is way much soiled i wash it or choose not to recycle it.

I am very happy with this system. of course i tend to keep like paper at one side of the recycling bag and plastics at the other (or even better inside a smaller plastic bag) so that i dont have to actually sort every single small plastic item separately when i empty my recycling bag in the municipal bin

Answer 3

I have 6 recycling bins that I keep out by the garage, next to my rubbish can. Some of the bins came from the city, some I bought myself. I prefer having separate bins as opposed to putting the recycling in paper bags ~ there's one for glass, cans, plastics, mixed paper, newspaper, and bundled magazines or cardboard.

To manage the recycling, I keep a milk crate right outside my back door, and rinse my cans & plastics before placing them in the crate. When the crate is full, I empty it in the appropriate bins.

Answer 4

I have recycling bins that the city provided. Plastic, aluminum and glass all go together and all paper goes in another one. To avoid any smell..I wash out all recyclable food containers.

Answer 5

Everything that you recycle should be cleaned of food residue before you recycle it; no rotting food = no smell. The trash on the other hand will obviously need a lidded can. My city lets us toss all our recyclables in one bin and collects it every week, so it is really easy.

Answer 6

I throw it all into the recycling bin and once a week, the recycling people come and pick it up. I do rinse out food containers so that I don't attract vermin.

Answer 7

i have separte plastic bins for each thing being recycled. i cut a hole in the side so i can stick in the trash but keep the lid on and it dosnt smell.

Answer 8

Plastic containers, issued by the city for collection purposes, produce very little odor when you place the items directly in them.
You can also rinse you plastics and bottles first, that will help.

Answer 9

At our house we jsut have seperate boxes and they dont smell as long as you rinse out the container before you throw it in. We have one for glass, one for aluminum, one for paper, and one for tin/steel cans.