Are you a SERIOUS recycler?

[JDgreen227]

I remember back when Michigan passed the deposit container law back during the mid to late '70's and when I was young and dumb I resisted the idea. But the first time I cleaned up the overgrown roadside where I live, it shocked me at how much of the litter was glass and cans that had been collecting for so long. The older I get, the more I support the idea of putting a deposit on beverage containers. When we visit Tennessee, it always saddens me to observe the amount of containers littering rural roadsides.

 

[Furu]

Not a fan of gov't owned trash companies and having the cost paid out of taxes. Private trash even the large companies are more efficient and cost effective than the gov't will ever be. The trash haulers, like Waste Management, want to recycle not only for the money they rake off the products but landfills are expensive and the less they put into them the longer they last and the more money the company can save/make. Win win by everyone company and environment.

 

[JDgreen227]

Not sure what recyclables are worth today but when I worked in Facilities Management at my old career, we recycled both cardboard and paper in every building, with about an 85% collection rate. Between the manpower costs of collecting, loading, and trucking, unloading, sorting, and repackaging into bales and shipping it out to a waste paper buyer, the entire operation barely broke even (this was back in Y2K). The only way it became cost effective in the long run was that it reduced the amount of trash our operations paid to have hauled away.

Probably much of the profit the local recycling center earns is because the community recycles the raw materials and Granger doesn't go to the expense of collection.

 

[Nissan197]

We have recycled for some time, but on January 1 it became mandatory with our trash pickup. Our rates went up, which I was not happy about. I would rather save money and just haul the recycables in.

 

[300UGUY]

Not a fan of gov't owned trash companies and having the cost paid out of taxes. Private trash even the large companies are more efficient and cost effective than the gov't will ever be. The trash haulers, like Waste Management, want to recycle not only for the money they rake off the products but landfills are expensive and the less they put into them the longer they last and the more money the company can save/make. Win win by everyone company and environment.

Some communities contract with WM type companies to do the trash hauling. But anywhere there isn't a scheme to pick up trash, you get folks dumping on the roadsides. The recycling doesn't seem to be able to break even here, probably because folks will cherry pick the trash for metal.

 

[300UGUY]

We have recycled for some time, but on January 1 it became mandatory with our trash pickup. Our rates went up, which I was not happy about. I would rather save money and just haul the recycables in.

With gas at $3+ per gallon, I really don't want to haul anything.

 

[JDgreen227]

With gas at $3+ per gallon, I really don't want to haul anything.

Which is why I compress my recycling trips to as few as possible. It always makes me laugh when I am there unloading two months worth of stuff, and somebody pulls into the center, gets out and opens the trunk, takes out a 3 inch high stack of newpapers to throw in a bin, gets back in and drives 40 feet and gets back out to fish two milk jugs from the trunk, then drives 50 feet more to get out once again and recycle a cardboard box...LAZY...and FOOLISH to make a trip to drop off such a pittance of stuff.

 

[forgeblast]

We pay by the bag, I use contractor bags they havent said anything to us about it.
The chickens get a lot of the scraps, along with the worms, the dogs get what ever else is left. We burn paper and I use an airshear to cut tin cans and smack them flat. I use the cut off ends as targets to shoot at.
I wish we had recycling, i could probably not have to pay for garbage pickup.

 

[tractchores]

We recycle everything we can and though our town doesn't collect, but does have a good recycling center that takes pretty much everything including oil, TV's and batteries. I don't go often, so every month or two I load up my trailer and bring it in. Usually we have 4 x 55 gallon barrels of recyclables and 2 of trash. Given the continued rising price of commodities it blows my mind that recycling isn't universal. If we think its expensive to truck the stuff around think about the fuel etc spent to either dig it out of the ground or ship it here from other places in the world.

 

[bp fick]

Can't get more back woods than our township. Chainsaws, guns and jacked-up 4x4 trucks. We vote down pickup garbage every time they've proposed it. They've pledged to never put it on the ballot again.

Yet, we have a "transfer station". Sounds intriguing but it's just a big old dumpster and compactor unit that WM picks up. The station's open a few hours a week.

At that station are complete, re-cycling dumpsters and trailers. For a backwoods, hick township? We do the right thing. We just don't need or want garbage trucks running around and the township tagging an assessment onto our taxes. Proving it is possible to be really conservative and enlightened at the same time.

http://BeaverCreektownship.com