In San Francisco there are now garbage police (Trash Inspectors) who will go out and randomly check bins for improper items. You get fined if you are putting things in the wrong bin. .
In my town we have curbside recycling of motor oil and batteries. You have to make it convenient or thoughtless people will dump motor oil in storm drains or put it in the trash.
They could give a rat's ass what you do with recycled garbage. They're jes collecting revenue. It's what govt agencies do.
nb
Interesting. We're in a rural area so I doubt they do that here, but I think we would do OK if they were to check.
Yep, we can set out motor oil in milk jugs and batteries on top of the bin here too. We never have gallon milk jugs and I don't want to risk one leaking all over the place by accident or vandalism.
I usually have other chemicals that need to be recycled as well (coolant, brake fluid, old paints, etc.), so I just take it all to the recycler myself. One or two trips a year is easy enough.
Anthony Watson
No motorized devices here -- other than cars. I arrange to change the oil just before the first weekend of a month and pour the waste oil into the container from which the new oil came. Then, drop it off at the local hazardous waste facility with any batteries (from UPS's) that have died in the past month.
As our municipal water is all well sourced, I'm not keen on stuff finding its way into the aquifer (for my generation -- or the ones 100 years hence)
Don,
I've never checked myself, but I've heard larger 28 ounce cans of tomatoes have more liquid per volume than smaller 14 ounce cans. No point, just an interesting rumor. :)
My shredder sits next to my desk in the office. It's easy to feed in sensitive documents as they come in.
I have switched to electronic billing wherever possible so I don't have much paperwork to shred anymore. I keep the electronic documents on an encrypted drive and have multiple backups.
I don't shred CD's or credit cards as that would contaminate my recyclable paper with unrecyclable plastics.
That's one of the reasons I like building my own computers. I only replace the parts that need updating, such as a hard drive or graphics card. Other than my laptop, I haven't bought a packaged PC in over 20 years.
In most cases, I've been able to sell my old motherboards and other computer parts on eBay.
We should recycle more items from the bathroom, but it's on the other end of the house and there's no convenient "staging area" to set things till we can take them out to the bin. It's mostly just laziness, as it's easier to toss these items in the bathroom trash can. Thankfully, the volume is quite small.
We've been using Rubbermaid containers for years as they are easy to store, wash, and reuse. We have an assortment of ziploc bags in a drawer, but mostly just use them when we travel (packaging we don't need to bring back home).
Thankfully, I haven't reached a point that I need to take regular medications. We always use up our over-the-counter meds so we don't have those leftover either.
Anthony Watson
So, take it some day when you go to buy auto parts. Better than sending toxic wastes to the landfill. That leaches into the water and makes people sick.
We have garbage picked up every week, and recycling is picked up every two weeks. Our bill averages around $20 a month (paid every two months).
We could probably switch to bi-weekly garbage pick up, but I've kept the weekly garbage so I can set out my garage garbage when needed and not pay the extra can fee. Setting out an extra can costs more than the difference between weekly/biweekly.
I normally take garage garbage to the dump myself, but they charge a $20 "tip fee" just for showing up (plus the weight of the garbage). So whenever possible I cut things up into pieces small enough to fit inside our normal garbage can. When the garage garbage can is full, I set that one out for pickup and save the house garbage till the following week.
Anthony Watson
Unless you are dumping a LOT of food down the drain (garbage disposal?), or dumping things that shouldn't go down the drain, your septic is either undersized or is not functioning correctly. Anaerobic bacteria should normally break down the waste in your septic tank, so you should only end up with a very small amount of undigestable sludge.
We are required to have our septic system inspected every three years, but I haven't had to pump my septic tank since 1999. Even then it wasn't really needed, they just pumped out of routine when the inspection program was started.
Anthony Watson
Yep, same here. When waste management sends us the recycling newsletter, they often include a photo of the sorting machinery clogged up with those plastic bags. Every so often they have to stop the machine so some poor guy or gal can go in and cut all those bags out of the machine. Yuck.
We take ours back to the grocery store. Personally, I would be happy if they did away with the plastic bags and went back to paper. The plastic bags always seem to break or have holes in them. And I could reuse or recycle the paper bags.
I frequently see those plastic shopping bags blowing around in town, caught in tree branches or stuck to fences. Such a shame for something that won't degrade in the environment.
Stores used to ask if you wanted paper or plastic, but the last several years they don't even ask and just use plastic. For a while I asked for paper, but they acted annoyed and often didn't have any at the register anyway.
We did switch to reusable shopping bags for a while, but just stopped doing it at some point. I don't remember why, probably just laziness.
Anthony Watson
Shampoo bottles, yes. So you want to recycle a snotty tissue? Icky Q tips? That stuff should be incinerated after you wipe your body secretions on it.
We pay by the bag for trash. Large bag is $2, small bag is $1 Recyclables are picked up free. There is a fee schedule for things like furniture too, but all seem reasonable.
I take my trash to the dumpster at work, but if I had to pay it would work out to about $12 a month.
In case some old lady here want to complain, we pay a fixed fee for weekly pickup of the dumpster so my trash add nothing to the cost. I'm not stealing. I've also given permission to a couple of others to use it too.
Safety Kleen in Breslau Ontario re-refines used oil, producing "new" engine oil.
Burning PCBs is only possible at very high temperatures - like the temperatures Lime kilns burn at.
trader_4 wrote: ...
using hot water to clean recycling containers is a waste of energy. and as water gets tougher for some areas to come by they will also usually be much better served by a larger facility doing the cleaning in bulk.
i rinse stuff out with cold water and some soap if needed to break up the fats.
in a perfect world all containers would be recycled and all manufactured products would get recycled. there's only so much metal/petrochemicals to go around and eventually they'll be gone. we'll probably be mining old dumps at some point.
songbird
Ed Pawlowski wrote: ...
if the q-tip is cotton on paper stem it's digestible by worms or composting.
songbird
I can't speak for Mike Duffy, of course, but...
Flies seem to find a way in regardless. Our current container is provided by the trash hauler (we have no choice; it's designed to be picked up by the mechanical arm on the truck), and the lid doesn't close very tightly. When we bought our own garbage cans, flies still managed to get in to lay their eggs.
Luckily, it's only a problem in the summer here. Cold weather kills the little devils.
Cindy Hamilton
I find that there's usually enough room in the dishwasher to add the occasional mayo jar or whatever recyclable needs to be cleaned.
My recyclables are stored on my enclosed porch until I schlep them out to the (detached) garage. I don't want a bunch of smelly food waste sitting around on my porch, which is also my laundry room.
Cindy Hamilton
Dunno. I use a few 106 oz cans of "ground tomatoes", plus a few of the
16 oz cans of puree (spices, etc.) and a REALLY long simmer (12-16 hours) that is designed to "burn off" the moisture (let it condense on the underside of the lid, then wipe it off every hour or so).I get annoyed because each "move" requires me to find a suitable vendor of tomato products. I used to make a great sauce with "6-in-1" brand products but can't find them, here.
[I make it in 16qt batches. Sauce is probably the only justification, IMO, for tomatoes! :> ]We keep ours in the garage -- adjacent to the (small) recycling bin (which we periodically empty into the large recycling "barrel", outside)
We don't like having "online accounts". So, our utilities, bank statements, etc. all come in dead tree form. I keep all my business paperwork virtually indefinitely -- yet it all still fits neatly in a single file cabinet. "Project files" probably account for a disproportionate amount of that volume; often, there are documents that came with a project that only exist in hard copy (and I am far too lazy to scan everything just to save space!)
The paper and plastic go in the same recycling container, here. As well as tin cans, etc. Seems like it has to be incredibly inefficient to have to sort this stuff at a central facility but that's how The Powers That Be have decreed it...
I rescue machines that others may have outgrown. Or, were looking for an excuse to upgrade. Or, that businesses shed in their 18-36mos upgrade cycle.
E.g., this Optiplex 645 set me back $10 and another $5 for the 22" display
OTOH, my first 386's set me back $8K/each. So, I figure I'm entitled to save a few bucks :>
I don't sell "things". Give them away or recycle. I don't want to worry that someone will not feel they got "good value" out of a sale.
I recently noticed that the Atari Tempest I gave to a neighbor now sells for ~$1-2K (factory new condition).
Currently trying to convince myself to break this habit and *sell* some of my older, collectable kit (e.g., an ASR-33 in the garage that really deserves a better home)
Shampoo bottles get hand carried to the "bin" in the garage (it's really convenient having it there). When it fills, it gets dumped in the bigger container outside.
So, not uncommon to see toilet paper cores, shampoo/mouthwash bottles, etc. These are too big for us to want to put them in our regular "trash bags" (indoors). So, the recycling option works to our benefit (otherwise, we'd have to carry them out to the trash can, outside)
We use rubbermaid and tupperware containers for food storage. E.g., I have many 3C containers that are permanently stained "tomato red" :>
But, in the past, we've used bags to store things like individually wrapped steaks, chicken brests cut into small pieces and individually wrapped, hot dogs wrapped in pairs, pecans/walnuts/almonds in smaller bags (which are then packed in a larger bag), mozzarella cheese in ~2C batches in small bags inside larger bags, etc.
I recently switched to small ~1/2 cu ft containers to use in their place. But, you can't easily repack the things that have now "conformally fit" into the bags; they no longer have nice, regular shapes that would settle into a rigid container well.
So, we're waiting for our "past stores" to dwindle to the point that we can replace them in the *new* containers.
I've had Rx pain meds prescribed (prophylacticly) a few times in the past. Or, Rx cough medications. Usually, I don't need them. So, they sit on a shelf "just in case".
After a while, they lose their efficacy (actually, it is a LONG while!) and have to be disposed of.
[Antibiotics always get consumed in their entirety]The only OTC stuff I buy is Advil. And, we don't buy that in "Costco quantities" so there's no concern of it expiring before we can use it. (a bottle of 100 tablets probably lasts close to 2 years or more -- for the two of us!)
We used to have two pickups a week. Curbside recycling (presort the materials). You could even set out an old piece of furniture (they'd notice it and send someone around to pick it up).
Then, they started getting squirrely. I set some motor oil out in a Clorox bleach container -- clearly marked "motor oil" (my thinking being that the bleach container was far more robust than the flimsy plastic 1G milk jugs). They refused to take it -- until I poured it into a milk jug, the next week.
Of course, *they* simply pour it into the truck and leave the soiled bottle for you! :-/
Another time, I broke down some cardboard boxes and stacked them neatly. Guy got out of the truck to write (in magic marker) that I needed to cut them down to a specific size (just a tiny bit smaller than they were, in their natural form).
(sigh) Fine. I can play by those rules.
For us, it's a block out of our way. Biggest issue is remembering which weekend (first of month) you need to target.
I frequently have batteries out of UPS's that can get recycled, there. Costco used to take them (we're there every week) but has become a bit more finicky. "Fine. I can play by those rules." And, the dregs of the roof paint each year in a 5G pail (they claim I can just toss this in the trash but I suspect not; why accept other paints and claim roof paint is "safe"??)
Recently, my biggest computer failed. It was the power supply, and replacing that fixed it. A lot of people would have had to replace the whole thing (and create more trash) and spend a few hours reinstalling everything (or actually a few days of weeks waiting for someone else to do it), and possibly complaining about the lack of backups.
BTW, I'm thinking of the neighbor who became an unwilling victim of Windows 10.
I have sold some too (including my first "PC", with a 8088-compatible V20 processor and 30MB hard disk that won't work with Windows).
[snip]We have curbside recycling on Thursday, and sometimes the pickup is late. I will look through the mail while standing next to the recycle bin. Most of it goes directly in there.
I repair the power supply. Many ofmy machines have "special" power supplies. E.g., the power supply for my SB2000 is about the size of most tower computers: The power supplies in my FX160's (of which I grow fonder with each passing day!) is about the size of an egg roll. etc. Oddball sizes/shapes and power capabilities.
For me to move to a new computer (even keeping the same OS) is a major headache reinstalling applications -- AFTER sorting out the drivers for the new box. I.e., building my three Windows workstations (multimedia, document prep, eCAD) took the better part of two weeks just to install all the software and sort out licensing issues.
I don't lightly contemplate "upgrades" unless I can see at least a
4-5X improvement (in "something")
We have one of those gi-normous bins on wheels about the size of the regular trash bin. As we don't generate much "waste" (recyclable or otherwise), it often sits for several weeks before we've enough to make it worth the effort to drag to the curb (silly to force the truck to make a stop just to pick up 1/4 of a container full of material!). Trash, OTOH, goes out each week even if 1/10th of a container full.
Especially in the hotter weather!
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.