Recycling is fun! (And a LOT of work)
We are on our second full week of recycling. My kids love sorting out our "trash" and catching Daddy when he forgets. Overall it has been going great...except for where to bring it. My husband has said (a few times now) that he does not want to pay for recycling which means not adding it to our garbage pick up. And like I said before-there isn't much emphasis on it where we live. I found a few places to drop off but some require an annual fee and the other has a main focus on metal. So for our first week, my awesome cousin's fiance took our bags (literally 8 bags) and dropped them off in her town. So we are still on a mission to find something local.
Here is what we are currently using until I find a more permanent solution:
These are Flings Pop Up Recycling Bins. I found a coupon online and decided to try them out.
These ones come in a package of 3 that we found at Target. They come smooshed down like that and then...
POP up like this. They look huge in the picture but they are not really that big.
They make a great hat I suppose...
Getting some stuff together to start out our adventure.
As you can see, they are not huge but they can hold about a weeks worth for our family of 5. We kept overflowing the plastics container so we ended up having to use a plastic Target bag to put out water bottles/jugs into. Now it works good.
Here is out set up.
Plastic~soup cans~cardboard/paper
Since our state (MI) has deposits on pop/soda cans we keep those in a separate space as well.
These are perfect height for Kynlie...we have found many toys and other random things in these! So we have to double check them a lot.
For me, the hardest part is making sure everything is rinsed out. I don't want any extra creepy crawlies in our house.
I'm also working with Nyla to make sure to take the label off of any cans we have-carefully so she doesn't get cut.
Easiest one...and fills up quickly!
What is nice about these: they stay clean and you can reuse them over and over and then when you are done with them, you can recycle them!
Here are our goals from last week:
Our first 5 family recycling goals:
1. Visit the recycling center in our neighboring town (ours doesn't have one)
2. Find some reusable snack bags and not buy any plastic ones from now on (gonna be tough on Daddy! Although we do use a lot of Tupperware)
3. Un-paper towels and napkins all the way(we are doing this partially already)
4. Do at least one recycle craft per week-sneak peek here for next week
5. Finish our recycling station/bins (including a picture on the bins per Nyla)
I was able to get some reusable snack bags and are excited to get some more. We have a few napkins left that we are still trying to "get rid of" but then we are on a mission to make our own napkins or find some WAHM ones. (any suggestions)
We ran out of time for the craft but it is on the schedule for tomorrow. I'll post about it next week. We also got our bins up and running (without pics) and it is going great!
Do you recycle? What is your solution? Do you have tips for us?
I also have gotten a Lunette cup for review! I am super excited about this because I HATE paying for tampons! This is a great way to save money and help out the environment. Look for the review on it next week!!
I found a coupon online for the flings and paid for them myself. I have not contacted flings for this review. All opinions are my own.
4 comments:
Not sure where in Michigan you are but if you are in holland or grand rapids the Treehuggers store accepts most recyclables and random items like toothbrushes etc
You may already know this and I missed it, but something that pared down our plastics recycling bin was knowing what numbers of plastics our area couldn't/wouldn't accept.our area only accepts #1 and #2 plastics, so any others are unfortunately garbage. :(
Wow I can't imagine a town that doesn't have recycling!
Our old town in MA required recycling, if you didn't put out the recycling bin with items in it, they wouldn't pick up your trash. (granted they didn't check your trash but its a start).
Our current town in NH is all about recycling. We don't have a dump but a transfer station. The town pays for someone to take our trash, but they pay us for our recycles. So it cost the town less the better we recycle.
They could still better at promoting it though.
We can put all our recycles in one container so we have a pull out converted cabinet that has a trash bin and 2 recycle bins. When they are full, they get dumped into a larger trash can or another bin in the garage for recycles. Then eventually they get hauled off to the transfer station.
My SIL is in a town that recycles but her condo association does not. And the town won't stop their to pick up. Not sure what options she has looked into but currently she brings her recycles to her MIL house that she goes to every weekend for daycare reasons. So its not too weird asking family for recycling help!
Oh BTW, The Whole Foods around here accept both general recycling and some harder recycling items like cell phones and the CFL Light Bulbs. Their bins here aren't huge though, so you wouldn't want to collect up TOO much before visiting.
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