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Recycling Facts

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Saw this on CNN and started wondering how big recycling is in your town. Here in North Georgia, it's not a big thing. We don't have our own recycling center, and very few bins around town.

Facts:

Almost all recycling programs accept plastics numbered 1 and 2. (Look for the number on the underside of a product, inside the ubiquitous triangle of chasing arrows.)

Recycling facilities work to keep similar papers together so they can get the most money for their products. (For example, office paper, which has long fibers, is worth a lot more than the "mixed paper" of cereal boxes, which has shorter fibers.)

Another factor is food contamination. Plastic, glass, and metal containers are cleaned to remove food, but paper is not. Food particles can contaminate an entire batch, as the food (along with the paper) begins to biodegrade if it is left to sit.

As for aluminum cans, recycling just one saves enough energy to run your TV for 2½ hours.

More facts here. So, do you recycle? Do you have a place to take it? Do you have to pay or do you get paid???

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missb's picture
missb
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Re: Recycling Facts

Well where I live they're not too strict really, they usually collect the recyclables about once a week. In Ireland its a completely different story though, they recycle everything over there. They have "bottle banks" that you bring your glass to, a green one, a clear one and a brown one, and you better not put a brown bottle in the green one Laughing They have 2 large garbage cans each that get collected I think once a week, one for cardboard and paper and one for plastics. They also have a smaller brown one that is used for food, yep they even recycle food over there, there is practically no waste at all. And here when you bring your own bags to the grocery store they give you 2 cents credit for each bag off your bill, over there if you don't bring your own bags they charge you 5 cents for each one that they have to give you, I don't really know which one is more encouraging, getting credit or having to pay out?

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Re: Recycling Facts
I recycle. Because the receptacles are available. It was mandated that each person with a house buy a "City" garbage and recycling receptacle for their home. So when the green container's staring at you in the face, you might as well! Good for the environment as well. And i grew up with it. I am a good girl--i clean my recycle-ables completely, throw away the caps, and then put in recycling bin.
Now to get cranky for a minute:
Even though we have probably 50 plastic bag recycling receptacles at stores in our city, our city just passed a law.
If you throw away a (ONE) clean plastic bag in the trash, you could be fined 100 dollars the first time, 200 the second, 400 for the third and each offense thereafter.
Oh and they passed- without discussion -the spending of up to a quarter of a million dollars on "City" plastic bag recycling receptacles to be placed around the city and 5K separately to make radio ads to remind people about it. That's not including annual operating costs.
But apparently this was a compromise between banning plastic bags and not banning... :? Wish they would've just done more to get the word out about rewarding people for reusing plastic bags (apparently, stores here will give you 5cent credit--i didn't know that until i researched it).
BUT As they say, my city is 78 square miles surrounded by reality.

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Re: Recycling Facts

Out here everyone has individual garbage and recyclig bins. You take them both out the the end of the driveway on garbage day. They aren't strict about it; they don't write any notices and stick it on your door if you don't recycle, but I think most people just do it anyway because they made it so convenient to do. The only people who don't recycle here at this point are the extremely lazy who can't just throw one type of garbage in a different bin.


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Re: Recycling Facts

Its the same here but we only have one recycling day a week pick up (trash its twice). The county give everyone 2 bins, one for aluminum and one for paper/plastic. I'm also a big fan of bringing those cloth bags to the grocery store and not using the plastic ones they give.

What is really really bad is plastic bottles. I love to go fishing with my dad and at times we see patches of plastic bottles, its so sad and disgusting.

The Plastic Sea

A June 2006 United Nations Environmental Program report estimated that there is an average of 46,000 pieces of plastic debris floating on or near the surface of every square mile of ocean.


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Re: Recycling Facts

I recycle to the point that my recyclables go out more frequently than my trash. It's not mandatory here but the homeless help fix some of the problem. I live near the college so the dumb kids throw out cans like crazy. the homeless pick them out and recycle them. In the last city I lived in I would go to the skatepark sometimes and collect up all the plastic bottles and recycle them. At work we just started a recycling program. We collect it all then take it home to recycle. Recycling is free here but you buy the bin for a few dollars.

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Re: Recycling Facts

They just said on my news now that they are looking (the state of FL) to charge a 5 cent tax on each paper or plastic bag you use at the grocery store. They are pushing the cloth re-useable bags Smile

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