What do you recycle? In my area they take newspapers, cardboard, cans, glass, and plastic. I think they ought to take more than this but that's all they do here. We can recycle our phone books, too, if we take them to the park or zoo where they have the trucks.

we can recycle what you mentioned too. i've also found a place where you can recycle aseptic material so i recycle all my soy milk containers too.

and don't forget about reusing plastic bags :)

I live in a town that has curbside pickup but I prefer taking it to the next town over and dropping it off in the bins. It's very convenient. Glass, plastic, and metal all go in one bin, paper in another, and corrugated cardboard in another. Plus I drop off my used plastic bags at Wal-Mart (they have a box just inside the door for recycling them). Only problem is I don't fill up regular sized garbage bags quick enough and they can get a little smelly so I think I'm going to get a smaller can and use those plastic bags from the store for trash.

Ironically, Delaware has a good recycling program here. Mostly it's the University. I recycle Mags, papers, aluminum, glass, and plastics. I reuse some stuff like plastic bags for trash, and the many many paper cups I get from the coffee shop.

Does anyone reuse coffee grinds or tea bags for planting? I read/heard somewhere something about this... Anyone?

We're pretty serious about recycling. We can recycle aluminum and paper. Every scrap of paper that can be recycled gets recycled. Our mayor killed the glass and plastic recylcing so we "export" our glass and plastic up to my mom's house to be recycled. We reuse plastic containers that can't be recylced. We also "recycle" kitchen scraps in our composter. We try to bring our own bags to the grocery store and recycle the ones we don't use.

Yes Max, coffee grounds are great for acid loving plants.

Which ones like acid? None of my plants seem to be tripping or really hyper and none of them listen to Phish or Moe or anything like that, so...

Duuuuude. My aloe plant is melting.http://www.mediawatchers.nl/smileys/freak.gif

Um, I actually don't know which ones like it in terms of house plants. I may or may not have killed one accidentally with some lethal Starbucks.

Which ones like acid?

Shrooms?

Dammit, I went back and read your post and see you already made a joke about trippy plants. :D

Originally posted by Poesía
I may or may not have killed one accidentally with some lethal Starbucks.

Yeah that toasted northwest stuff'll kill anything!

I am not sure but i think that they should recycle anything because of all the trash people have and then they have to dump it somewhere. If they recycled everything then they wouldnt have mounds of garbage everywhere. =P

Does anyone reuse coffee grinds or tea bags for planting?

We don't have coffee grounds (use instant) but T bags I recycle into the compost heap. I don't use them neat, although my gran used to as a mulch on hydrangeas. Wet T bags are my favourite missile for throwing at local cats when they're stalking birds in the garden. They're handy, heavy enough to travel to the cat, soft enough not to hurt it but still deliver the message and they can stay where they land.

Glad I got some new ideas from everyone. I personally could not use coffee grounds in my houseplants because I have birds and coffee is lethal to them should they get into it.

We can only recycle aluminum, glass and newspaper here. anything else would have to be shipped to the mainland, and noone's willing to pay to make that happen. So it goes in the landfill. which is almost full. and unlined.

unless you live in a major community, everyone here takes their rubbish to their local "transfer station" where they toss the bags into a freight container. No one asks where it goes from there... Like most communities, people like to pretend that trash magically disappears somehow... there are recycling stations set up at the transfer stations, and I believe most people sort their stuff, but no one really knows what happens with the stuff...

Our store has some bins in the alley for community recycling, and people fill them regularly. We call the recycling company and they pick it up, and that's all I know about it...

Well, I'm glad they have something there. I made the mistake of putting my newspapers in plastic bags a few weeks ago and they would not take them and put big green stickers on them. It said thank for recycling but we cannot take the plastic to the recycler. I was mad at first because they left them and they got wet and real heavy and I can't lift much. But then I was glad they at least appreciated my attempt and I put them in paper bags. ugh.

my neighborhood just got a curbside recyclng program a few days ago. It accepts paper (newspaper, magazines, etc), alunimum and tin cans, plastic jugs, cardboard and milk cartons, etc.

We reuse plastic and paper shopping bags, We have several bags full of them in the landry room that we use for various reasons. they are very usefull.

And we also have a big compost heap in our backyard.

I use the store bags to line the wastepaper baskets and the blue ones for recycling. Then I use the paper ones for newspapers.

yeah, I reuse all the plastic bags or give them back.

here's # 2 :D

I recycle anything they will take, we have curbside recycling and we also have a recovery facility for those that do not live in the city.

I recycle...
Cardboard-boxes, tissue rolls, etc...
Aluminum-cans, aerosol cans(or pressurized cans), foil, etc...
Paper-newspaper, magazines, envelopes, brown paper bags, etc...
Plastic- #2 w/seam, #1 PETE


We also recycle paper, cardboard, and magazines, phonebooks at work.:)

In Nova Scotia we have a really great recycling program and have for about 5 yrs now, recycables and compost is picked up every two weeks on garbage day. They accept paper products like newspapers, magazines, telephones, fast food trays, envelops including one's with windows, plus they accept plastic, glass, tin cans etc.

Manitoba only accepts plastics #1,2 and 5. I was at a local recycling plant the other day and they said they just put the #5 plastic in with the #2, but if they get too much #5, they garbage it because they don't make any money from it. it's a shame. We also recycle paper, glass, aluminum, cardboard.

Who works in your recycling depots and plants? Here in Manitoba it is volunteers in small towns, but in cities they get ex-cons, mentally challenged people, and people who have to do community service to do it because it's smelly, messy work.

Our city just started a really great recycling program. In the past we've been able to recycle only #1 and #2 plastics in one bin and paper products in another bin. Now we're able to recycle all plastics #1 through #7, as well as a lot more types of jars and cans, aluminum foil, as well as a lot more types of paper products including all junk mail, phone books and everything else, and nothing has to be seperated, all can be thrown in the same bin. I wonder how they do it all on their end of things, and what made them change to such a broader program.. Oh well, I'm quite happy to be able to recycle so much more now.

Which ones like acid? None of my plants seem to be tripping or really hyper and none of them listen to Phish or Moe or anything like that, so...


Good one!

But seriously, folks, tomato and pepper plants and the like grow very well with coffee grounds in the dirt. Egg shells put a lot of nitrogen in the dirt. If you eat eggs, wash out the shells and smash them up and mix them in the dirt. Plants love it.

In NYC, Bloomberg had the nerve to cut plastic and glass recycling the first day he was in office to "save money". Turns out it cost just as much to recycle the plastic as it did to have the garbage men pick it up, so we're recycling plastic again. :cool: Glass is still a garbage item, though, until this summer, I think. We can recycle all kinds of paper items, which is good.