Our community does not have curbside recycling, so we keep our recyclables separated here at home and take them in to our local recycling center when the bins are full. We used to take them to the "rePlanet" kiosk at the local shopping center, but they don't take non-CRV plastic (though they do take glass and metal, go figure), so I found another local place that does. The new place pays more for other stuff too, yay!
CRV stands for California Redemption Value and is like the old-time bottle deposits. We pay 5¢ or 10¢ extra for beverages in bottles or cans (depending on size), except wine or hard liquor, and if you turn in the bottle or can, you get the money back. That said, redeemers are allowed to pay you by weight rather than per item if you bring in a quantity of containers. Read more about it here:
Our local center accepts both CRV and non-CRV plastic, metal, and glass containers. They also take any sort of scrap metal you bring in, so when our shower flow shut-off valve broke last week, I threw it into the recycle bin. I also save used aluminum foil (washed, of course) and any other type of metal bits we end up with.
Here's what we took in today:
That's two 13-gallon bins plus a paper bag of overflow.
Once at the recycling center, we had to separate it by CRV status and material:
They provide the sorting containers, which are all marked with their tare weight so they only pay for what you bring. Here's our receipt for what we brought in today:
As you can see, our 2-person household doesn't generate enough to get rich from recycling. 😉 But this keeps it out of the landfill and that's really what's important.
This center doesn't take hazardous household waste like batteries (though they take vehicle batteries), fluorescent bulbs, or electronics, but I collect them too, and we periodically take them over to the county e-waste collection facility. We collect very little of this stuff, actually, and so we won't have enough to worry about for a while longer.
We also collect #2 & #4 film plastic - stuff like plastic shopping bags, ziploc bags, plastic wrap, etc - and take that to our local grocery store where they collect it for recycling. Today, we took in a 13 gallon garbage bag full of it.
None of our local recycling centers take paper. In the summer, I shred all of our household paper and put it into the compost bin. Thin cardboard such as paper towel or toilet paper rolls gets composted, but cardboard boxes get reused for shipping things I sell on eBay or Etsy or as part of my music business. In the winter, we burn our paper and cardboard in the wood stove we use to heat our house. This past winter, we didn't use our propane furnace at all! All the ashes from the wood stove end up in the compost bin, too.
Speaking of compost, I don't usually put our food waste in it. Instead, I throw it over the fence into our "back forty". Our 2.5 acre property is divided into 2 sections: our house sits on a fenced-in section of about an acre which is somewhat developed, while the rest of the land (also fenced-in) is "just like God made it" (as described by the older gentleman from whom we bought the place). Veggie ends, pieces, and peels get eaten by bunnies, while meats, bones, and such (such as the chicken carcass after I make broth) usually get eaten by the big beautiful ravens we have up here.
Since we don't have a lawn - and thus, no grass clippings - and I don't put our food waste into the bin, our compost is a bit "brown" heavy. To make up for this, I do two things: I get herbivore manure (horse, sheep, llama) from neighbors and I put a scoop of high-nitrogen fertilizer into the bin when I add items. This added nitrogen keeps the compost "hot" enough to break down the brown stuff. Since i don't use the compost to grow things, only as a waste management system, I don't worry about putting things like ink and toner from the printed paper in it.
So that's how we manage our waste here. Could we do more, almost certainly, but I think we do pretty well considering what facilities are available to us here in the High Desert.
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