Organizing Recycling Items

Sort Recycling Directly Into Containers

It was always such a bother to sort garbage to recycle, that I did not do it. Now I live in a rural area and pay to have my garbage picked up, so decided that I would recycle. I have my usual garbage can in the kitchen, but I also have two bags hung by the back door. When a milk carton is emptied, it goes into the bag for plastics. When cans are emptied, they go straight into the bag for cans. That way I do not have to sort the garbage, as it is already sorted.

There are two recycle trucks in the parking lot at the grocery store, one for plastic and the other for aluminum, so I purchased a large plastic garbage can and a large metal garbage can. (I already had a large can for garbage.) The milk cartons, etc, obviously go in the plastic container and the cans go in the metal container. To make it even easier, I put a garbage can liner in each garbage can before I begin filling it, so that when it is full, I just take liner and all out. The big bags are ready to be dropped off.

Source: My mother would have called this "common sense." Her favorite saying was "Use your head to save your feet." I simply used my head.

By Clynnaltemus from Inglis

Keep Recycling By Your Garbage

Keep your recycling container right beside your garbage can in the kitchen. I was leaving mine by the porch and it was just too easy to throw things into the garbage. I use a small bathroom size garbage can that I empty daily into the recycling bin.

By Liz from Ontario

More Room in Your Recycling Bin

Make more room in your recycling bin! Step on your 2 litre plastic bottles to remove most of the air and then put the cap back on the bottle. You'll find it's easier to pack in everything else that you want to recycle!

By Trisha from Ventura, CA

Editor's Note: Many states now have a deposit on 2 liter bottles and smashing them may interfere with the bar code scan. Be sure you don't need to return them before recycling.

Store Aluminum Cans on Yarn

I like to keep my empty aluminum cans hanging on a string of yarn. I tie the first can onto the yarn. The other cans I string on this through the pull tab. You can't pull the tab too high or it will fall off. This works for me because I don't have a lot of space for holding them in plastic bags. I take a string of twelve of them to the church for the youth group every other week or so.

I put a loop in the top and hang it on a nail or anything it will hang on. Sometimes I tie a paper clip to the top and unbend it to form a hanger and then hang it from that.

By Robyn Fed from Hampton, TN

Boxes and Pegboard

I keep a pasteboard box (used for cereal, soda pack, etc.) handy in the kitchen; when I empty a smaller box, I flatten it and put it in there. When it's packed full, I take it to the recycling dump and just toss it in. Another cereal box holds the weekly ads (we don't subscribe to a newspaper, so we only need to recycle the free-distribution ads).

I have a pegboard for hanging kitchen tools, and I hang grocery bags from lower hooks to collect and separate aluminum and steel. Milk jugs go into a large kitchen trash bag on the floor beneath them.

Plastic Totes

I don't have a company that comes to pick up my recycled items, I have to drop them off, so outside I have plastic storage totes. I have different colors for the glass, cans, etc. When they get full, I just load them in my car and haul them away. It is a lot easier to lug the totes around than it is to lug big, full trash cans around. I use a cleaning bucket that I placed under the sink, after I rinse my items, I toss them into that and sort them out when I go outside. I don't have a large amount daily so I just wait until it gets full. It is still small enough to sort out quickly, but large enough to keep them off the counters.