What are the best methods of recycling?

I look at that big disel truck starting and stopping on my block around 30 times to pick up 2-3 cans at each house and I gotta think to myself, not every green initiitive is good for the environment. And some of them are good, but others are better. So what is the best and the worse? What methods are overhyped and ment to make us "feel green" and which ones give you the biggest green bang for your buck?

I've always felt that paper recycling is over rated. Weighs a lot to transport, already biodgradable.

On the other hand, I like battery recycling. Imagine a 55 gallon drum full of batteries going into a lake versus the same amount of paper.

So give me your thoughts on this. I don't know much about recycling, just what I'm forced to do by my city.

People bring their sacks of garbage to the dumpster, and the truck picks it up. They're usually close enough that you can walk to them. It's often a nice little evening walk, to go throw the crap in the trash.

The downside? Someone has to live near that bank of dumpsters. And that really sucks when there's a garbage strike!

waste stream citywide into recycling or composting already (WAY ahead of target). The recycled container glass makes more containers and also fiberglass insulation. Recycled paper makes more cardboard, more paper, and cellulose insulation.

I see no downside whatsoever to this. Putting our waste into landfills, where it could be used elsewhere instead, is insane, regardless of the dollar cost to pick up the recyclables. Landfill space doesn't come cheap anymore.

I haven't taken the actual garbage out in three weeks now, it's pretty just unrecyclable plastic and combinations of things that can't go in the recycle bin.

Plus, te stuff has got to be picked up anyway, at absoute worst you're doubling or tripling the fuel used in the pickup trucks. But that situation won't stay that way for long as companies react to the changing loads, an individual truck can make many more stops if it is picking up a lot less stuff at each one.

to recycle. When I moved from the house into the apartment two years ago, one thing that disturbed me deeply was that it meant I no longer had a blue bin for recyclables pickup. I was ELATED when, shortly after I moved, the city began offering recyclables pickup for multifamily dwellings.

We put all recyclables together, and it gets sorted down at a big facility that hires developmentally disabled, so there is a social benefit to recycling, too. It employs people who perhaps can't get mainstream jobs easily.

Here's what my city does:
http://publiccsd.lacity.org/CSD/outsidecsd/index.cfm?QTP=C0A34F25-1711-4BB4-9982C2C83490CA6C&CITYURL=http://www.larecycles.org
http://publiccsd.lacity.org/CSD/outsidecsd/index.cfm?QTP=D12259E8-0902-4648-9B9ED42E5E34C42C&CITYURL=http://www.plastics.lacity.org
http://publiccsd.lacity.org/CSD/index.cfm?QTP=33E76D79-BAF3-46FE-B5B08EF3DDCD4FE3&Fuseaction=viewservice&SERVICE_ID=3644

Best centralized page:
http://publiccsd.lacity.org/CSD/outsidecsd/index.cfm?QTP=B6C8A396-4C78-48EB-80AF5B6D042E7736&CITYURL=http://www.lacity.org/san/services/services_all.htm

All Clean Dry Paper
computer, ledger, wrapping, colored, arts and craft paper, unwanted mail, flyers, telephone books, note cards, newspaper, blueprints, magazines, file folders, paper bags, Post-it notes, catalogs; and all envelopes including those with windows

All Cardboard Boxes and Chipboard
cereal, tissue, dry food, frozen food, shoe, and detergent boxes; paper and toilet rolls; and corrugated boxes broken down and flattened

All Aluminum, Tin, Steel Metal, and Bi-Metal Cans
rinsed if possible, soda, juice, soup, vegetables, and pet food cans; pie tins; clean aluminum foils; empty paint and aerosol cans with plastic caps removed, and wire hangers

All Glass Bottles and Jars
rinsed if possible, soda, wine, beer, spaghetti sauce, pickle jars, broken bottles, and etc.

Here's what my city has:

http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/solid-waste/what-to-do-B.asp

Notice that yours has the language "all" quite a bit? My city has many instances of items that can't be recycled and need to be thrown out with the trash. Isn't this odd? This is why I'd like to learn more about recycling. I don't think your city is more technologically advanced and thus can take most anything, I think they just take everything to make you feel "greener". Your mentioning of how you miss recycling when moving to an apartment shows my point. Putting garbage in the blue recycling bin could do more harm than good.

I remember a PBS special on landfills some years ago that illustrated that by picking 30 year old newspaper out of a pile, still legible.

As for that diesel truck, around here it's not picking up a couple of cans, it's picking up bales of newspaper, huge sacks of plastic and aluminum, and bales of cardboard. People take their recycling seriously and don't make the truck stop unless the bales and bags are full.

The only problem with recycling recently has been this economy. The bottom dropped out of the prices for recycled material along with everything else.

It takes far less energy to turn recycled material into new product. That's where the energy savings come in.

30 years for a newspaper doesn't sound like it was biodegraded "correctly". All the sources I've seen put the time anywhere between a few weeks to a few months at best. But if it's on PBS is probably true.

B-)

You say paper recycling is overrated, too much transport.

OK, think about how much transport is involved in planting, nurturing, harvesting, processing, and then delivering trees made into paper.

Used paper cuts out huge parts of that use of resources and energy AND means less material goes to landfill.

It works pretty much the same way with glass, aluminum, etc.

Some are hyped more than others, I suppose, but all are important.

We recycle more than goes in the trash bin.

Cardboard, paper, plastic and aluminum. The truck comes by picks up the bins and dumps them hardly stopping in the process. Sometimes I don't think they do, I will find the bins 20 - 30 feet from where I set them in the morning.

Now they have started a reward system based on each week you recycle. A sending unit on the recycle container registers with the truck each time they pick it up. Point are rewarded and can be redeemed on more stuff that can be recycled.

such a complete and utter failure, as they were told it would be, that they were counting evaporation as part of their diversion stats. they were that desperate.
we are getting a second cart for recyclables soon. ironically, my ward has the highest rate of recycling in the city, so we are last to get our carts. a lot of people take a weekly drive to the ward streets and san yard, where they have the giant dumpsters. they are always overflowing.

Recycling is actually a different topic because what we're really talking about here is garbage separation.

Trash pickup is very expensive here in Germany, but the paper and plastic bins are free. So not only do the laws require separation there's good incentive for your effort and a stiff fine if you get caught cheating. From what I've seen the compliance is nearly universal.

Plus there are regular hours for drop off of electrical, electronic, paint, light bulbs, batteries, etc. at local collection sites. Yearly pickup of large items.

More interesting than that are the "bio-bins" for food or yard waste. There are no in-sink garbage grinders here (I believe by law if not by tradition), so all food waste goes to the bin. That means less fresh water wasted in moving it, smaller sewer pipes, a lower burden for the treatment plant, and cleaner water on the outflow. Currently most of it is composted for fertilizer and land reclamation, but there is no reason it couldn't easily be used for biogas production.