Recycling, Composting and Reducing Garbage

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• Recycling

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Project Started On

We got recycling bins for plastic, glass, cardboard and paper, and metal. We also got a compost bin. We canceled our garbage pickup, that's right canceled it! We haven't looked back since. We recycle and compost about 85% of all the waste we produce, so the small amount of garbage that is left over (generally one small bag per month) is just put into the neighbors garbage can (with their permission of course).

Sick of paying like $75 dollars every 6 months for a garbage service that we didn't even use. They pick up twice a week and even before we were recycling and composing we barely made enough garbage to fill our can up once a week!

Reduce the amount of waste we produce by buying products with less packaging and buying more recyclable/compostable products.

We called the garbage company and told them to cancel our service, filled up the garbage can one last time and set it out on the curb. They came and picked it up and kept it. We now have three bins in the house, one for paper and cardboard recyclables, one for plastic and metal recyclables (Escambia county does not recycle glass!!), and one for everything else that cant be recycled or composted. We take the compostable stuff directly out to the compost pile in the backyard. The only part that we needed outside help from was getting rid of our small one bag of garbage each month, which our neighbor was glad to help us out with, since the garbage comes and picks up 8 times per month they have no problem with letting us put one or two bags in there each month.

I would strongly recommend that if you are able to do this go for it. Many people can not because they simply make to much garbage or are too lazy to recycle. To be honest, it may take about a total of 30 minutes more each month because we have to go drop off the recyclables (because ESCAMBIA COUNTY OFFERS NO RECYCLING PICKUP!!!). But other than that, if you find yourself not filling up your garbage can twice a week, try recycling and composting and see if you can even fill it up once a week. I bet you won't be able to!

Be sure to have at least three separate bins so you can stay organized.

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