# Need to better organize home recycling process



## wahoowad (Oct 20, 2007)

Our home recycling is messy and why I don't participate more. Bless her heart, she saves every box, bottle and can but it's in a nasty heaping pile by the back door. I know she doesn't transfer it to our outside recycling bin frequently enough to keep it clean because we don't have good organization out there either. Currently we have one large rubbermaid storage bin on the back deck but that doesn't support sorting and is cumbersome for her to transfer and load into the truck to take to the town center.

I'm sure I can find some better bins for inside the house, but can't find a decent homeowner design to build for greater storage outside. I've googled it a bit and haven't seen many handyman examples. I'm thinking I can build a 2x4 frame and have 3 or 4 storage bins she can easily handle. I need something to prevent raccoons and rain from getting in but not make it difficult to quickly add new recyclables.

Anybody have a link/photos to a good design?


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## Corey (Oct 20, 2007)

I hear ya about the problem.  We have several large boxes lined with trash bags, but even then, stuff still gets mixed up.  Sorry I don't have any good thoughts for a coon proof design, luckily we can store our stuff in the garage, so don't have that issue.

One thing that helped me a bit was looking around at the different recycling places.  I found one that simply has "plastic bottles" and one had 'clear #1', 'opaque #1', 'colored #2', 'milk', 'pop bottles', etc.  Well you can guess which is easier to sort, so we just hit the recycling center and dump all plastic bottles in one bin.  If you have the option, you might be able to at least reduce the number of bins you need.

Corey


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## njtomatoguy (Oct 20, 2007)

I recycle everything that is recycleable, and apprecitate the fact that I don't have to seperate glass/cans/bottles.
I have 2 containers - 1 for the above, and 1 for paper.
Recently cancelled the newspaper- that cut down on a ton of paper to dealo with...


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## wahoowad (Oct 21, 2007)

I go to Lowes to shop for recycling bins and try to decide how to build my bin system. Can you believe they don't even have any? I don't think they even had a place for them. None of the employees seemed to recall them. I know I can use any kind of rubbermaid container but some of the built in design features of recycling bins make them potentially a tab bit more usable.


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## bcnu (Nov 7, 2007)

I've also been trying to solve this problem. We are putting everything under the kitchen sink - and you can imagine how messy that's been. Then is gets taken to the garage and put in whatever. So today, I bought two 54 qt. totes with the folding lids, put a plastic trash bag in each one and put them in the garage. We also have one recycle tote provided by the garbage service(they don't give them out anymore) So I have three totes. Living in the country, we have to separate almost everything, cardboard; junk mail and packaging materials; plastics; tin & aluminium; other metals; clear glass; colored glass; plastic grocery bags. No way can I have enough containers. So, I'll try to separate the highest need and figure out the rest. In town you can comingle all of it in one container. Will need a better system at some point as I can't continue to use the garage.


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## mayhem (Nov 7, 2007)

I keep 2 medium sized rubbermaid bins in the basement...one for glass/plastic and the other for paper products.  The wife puts the recycles into grocery store bags and hangs them on the top of the basement stair railing...when I go downstaris for whatver reason I take the bags with me and empty them out.  When the bins are 3/4 full or more I take them with me to the compactor on Saturday.

Our recycles are only separated out as paper in one dumpster and all glass/plastic in the other, do you guys still need to separate differnet colored glass and such?  That would be a PITA.


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## wahoowad (Nov 14, 2007)

Still haven't found any recycling containers so I bought 5 medium Rubbermaid storage containers from Lowes for $5/each. I'm going to build an integrated storage box / large wheeled cart so I can move it from the back porch to the truck/driveway when they are full and ready to move. Kind of a PITA but I don't have an attached garage or basement to make storage any easier. They have to go on my back deck. 5 of these things side by side takes up a lot of space but I guess I don't use my deck that much. Several of the containers will have an internal divider inside so I can store two different types in the container - for example dark and clear glass in one, aluminum and tin cans in the other. My recycling center requires me to deliver things separated.

Still have no solution for inside the house. Everything above is just for outside longer term storage. I don't want to have to go outside for every can or cereal box so I need a better idea than a bunch of ugly storage bins. Right now it stays a mess with glossy catalogs, boxes, cans, etc going into one container.

Starts to make me wonder if it is all worthwhile after I subsidize the manufacturing for plastic containers, etc. Hopefully I will feel better when I see these bins fill up and know I'm not sending it to the landfill.


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## drewmo (Nov 14, 2007)

Our recycling is a mess, as well. But over the last year or so I've *found* a couple of plastic containers that are quite useful. One holds a case of cans/small bottles. The other holds 12 wine or similarly shaped bottles (fortunately I have two of these). Each can or bottle has it's own slot, so as long as the container isn't tipped, there's no spillage of whatever liquid remains.


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