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Recycling

Posted at 1:57 PM on June 21, 2008 by Sareen Dunleavy Keenan (4 Comments)

I keep forgetting to write this post, but I have so many thoughts on the impact of being a locavore on my recycling habits.

In the beginning of the project, many people talked about how their garbage decreased. Our garbage at the time was already pretty small. We stay pretty consistent at one large kitchen sized bag per week. Total. I thought that with baby, the garbage would go up, but that just hasn't been the case for us on a day-to-day basis. The peak of garbage production was post baby showers when the gifts were amazing and wonderful, but the packaging was overwhelming. One party increased our garbage by four times. WOW.

What I have noticed recently is that our recycling is very very limited. It isn't that we don't recycle whenever we can, it is that we just don't buy items that have packaging. Where did it all go?

Plastic? We have given up bottled water and our milk is in reusable containers.
Glass? Again, reusable pickle containers (canned) and the beer is all in kegs. Aluminum? We make the limited soda we do drink and there isn't much else that is local and canned.
Paper? This was the biggest remaining area, but with getting rid of our junk mail and now hopefully our phone book delivery we have little paper to recycle too. Seriously, NO junk mail. Try it.

The most difficult part of recycling for us now is the fact that we have to have paper bags to recycle. We use our cloth bags wherever we go, and have gotten very good at remembering not to take bags from the store. But that results in... no bags. When the city of Minneapolis requires all recycling to be sorted and put into paper bags, there we have an issue. I have left notes, please put the bag back in the bin and I have talked to the guys. Unless I am right there when they are loading the trucks, I have to get four new bags every two weeks. I have actually gotten to the point where I have to ask friends and neighbors for paper bags just to recycle. There has to be a better solution.

I guess when you think about it, it makes sense that your recycling would go down when you buy primarily meat, dairy and produce, but it sure shocked me. We went from three curbside tubs to one almost overnight. It almost makes me feel guilty looking at all of the other people with overflowing bins. Recycling is good right? So the more you have, the better effort you are putting into it, right? At least that is what I think at first glance. Now I know that a small bin does not automatically equal earth hater. We do our part by never using the containers in the first place. You just might never know it from the alley.

What about the waste that cannot be recycled? NE Minneapolis is trying out a new program for some of your other pesky plastic containers. There is a new pilot program to recycle more plastics than can currently be recycled in Minneapolis. Here are some of the details from a recent memo:

"The Eastside Food Co-op, the City of Minneapolis and Consolidated
Containers, a plastics manufacturer, have joined up for a pilot expansion of
Minneapolis' recycling program. On Thursdays and Fridays, 8 a.m. - 4.30
p.m., from now until September, plastics may be taken to the Eastside Food
Co-op for recycling."

From what I hear, they really want to get some consistent metrics to see if this is a plausible thing to run for the entire city. So, for now, they don't want any non-NE Minneapolis plastic. But there is hope for the rest of us right? Sort well NE-ers, we all want to turn in our yogurt tubs.

Comments (4)

Linden Hills, in Minneapolis, is starting a new food recycling (composting) pilot. Basically, if you don't compost at home, you can put your compostable waste on the curb with your recycling and it will be composted. Sweet for those of us with a very limited sized yard. I hope it becomes city wide soon.

Posted by Kassie | June 21, 2008 3:39 PM

Actually, you don't need to put your recycling into paper bags. The city of Minneapolis accepts other containers. I have a friend who uses a brand of cat litter that comes in plastic buckets that are about the size of a grocery bag. I have been collecting excess buckets from her.

I just ordered recycling stickers from the city of Minneapolis, so I can start using the buckets in lieu of bags.

Here's a link that talks about what the city will and will not accept.

http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/solid-waste/recycling-bins.asp

Posted by Robin | June 23, 2008 8:06 AM

Hi Sareen,

I was just noticing the same thing this past week and I was going to sit down and write an entry about it.. and then I saw yours. I completely agree.

Eat Local, Recycle Less. Funny.

Best,
Tim in NC

Posted by Tim Baird | June 23, 2008 6:34 PM

Robin, I am so excited by the news! I have shared it with everyone I know who has the same problems as me (no paper bags). I use a toy storage unit from IKEA to sort my recycling. It holds four small wastebasket sized containers that, as soon as the mail gets in, will now have lovely recycling stickers placed on them from the city of Minneapolis. It is a strange thing to be excited about, but it was quite stressful tracking down these bags so I don't the notes saying I am doing it wrong.

Kassie, I didn't know that. It is great news. My compost pile is... a stinky pile. I won't be sending mine out, but I do need to get some additional information on my technique. I think there is likely more to the whole composting art.

Tim, I am glad I am not the only one who has this "issue." I really felt guilty for a few days, looking at what more I could be recycling.

Posted by Sareen | June 25, 2008 3:12 PM