Recycling/Going Green

[MetalPants]

Just curious what, if anything, you folks do towards recycling or going green.

Myself, I recycle metals and do a lot of composting. Also my house has a lot of energy efficient appliances, and good insulation-reducing my electricity needs.

 

[RoJoHen]

Um...I have a few of those energy-saving light bulbs...

 

[Roger Wilco]

I seperate glass, paper, metal and compost from the rest of the trash.
And as far as "going green", my most significant thing is probably not owning a car.

 

[Jadzia]

Just curious what, if anything, you folks do towards recycling.

We have a recycling scheme: paper, plastic bottles/cartons, metal cans, and glass jars/bottles, and garden waste/grass.

Then there's a large bin for household waste, or things that don't recycle, and these household waste bins are collected once every 2 weeks

In two weeks, my kitchen bin gets only about 1/4 full. And it's a fraction of the size of the household waste bin.

In contrast, my neighbours' household waste bins are usually full to the extent that the lids don't shut properly. I don't know how people manage to create so much waste! It would take me all year to fill it.

 

[RoJoHen]

I fill my kitchen garbage can at least once a day, sometimes twice!

 

[Roger Wilco]

I usually use empty milk cartons as a temporary waste bin and I seldom produce more waste than fits into one carton per day (which is 10cm³).

 

[Finn]

I know a family who go through 3 garbage bags a day.

 

[Canadave]

I use CFL bulbs, and live downtown without a car. Those are probably the biggest things.

 

[thestrangequark]

-I don't own a car, which is probably the biggest thing.
-recycle
-buy locally when I can
-grow my own herbs and spices
-bring my own cup to the cafe for my am lattes
-use my own cloth shopping bags

 

[RoJoHen]

Those of you saying you don't have a car, is it because you actively made a choice to use public transportation instead, or do you simply live in a city where public transportation makes more sense?

Where I live, I couldn't survive without my car. Public transportation blows, and I am not in walking distance from anything useful.

 

[Roger Wilco]

Those of you saying you don't have a car, is it because you actively made a choice to use public transportation instead, or do you simply live in a city where public transportation makes more sense?

Yeah, mostly the latter. I just don't need a car, although it would also be difficult for me to afford it if I did want to own one.

 

[thestrangequark]

Those of you saying you don't have a car, is it because you actively made a choice to use public transportation instead, or do you simply live in a city where public transportation makes more sense?

Where I live, I couldn't survive without my car. Public transportation blows, and I am not in walking distance from anything useful.

Both. I have neither interest nor necessity when it comes to driving, I can get anywhere by walking, biking, or train. Should I move in the future I will only consider places where driving isn't necessary.

 

[Peacemaker]

Composting...lots...heck I even compost dryer lint, phone books, and pet hair.

Recycling as best as we can here. There are some plastics and papers that my city's recycling agent won't accept, and we have to do a lot of sorting into paper bags (yes, paper bags) here, before they'll take it. We only have those small recycle bins here..but they are phasing in the tall ones on rollers (that are as large as the city garbage bins that hold ten full bags), so hopefully that will change.

Energy efficient windows were installed last year. I can't give up my truck...my other half lives 4 hours away, and doesn't driver, so I have to drive to get there. Will buy a new refrigerator soon.

 

[Mary Ann]

Our city has a good recycling scheme. For the rest we hardly use the car (good thing with diesel costing about £1.40 per litre), use energy-efficient lightbulbs and buy locally whenever we can.

 

[CaptainStoner]

I do the usual plastics, metals, and papers. It's appaling how little it's really caught on.

 

[Mr. B]

I don't do anything with the express purpose of helping the environment. We don't have recycling pickup and I don't use toxic light bulbs yet. Even if it was possible to reduce pollution by decreasing electrical usage, power here is generated by nuclear and natural gas so there's no real concern there.

I don't litter and I don't pour paint down storm drains... that's enough.

 

[RoJoHen]

^Yeah, we don't have recycling pickup either, ad there is no convenient place for me to take recycling. If we had it, I would be more inclined to do it.

 

[auntiehill]

We replaced all the bulbs with CFLs, and we recycle paper, plastic containers, aluminum, cardboard --but they won't take plastic bags for some reason. I guess it's single-stream recycling, and the plastic bags screw up the machines.

I have some canvas shopping bags that I take to the grocery store---but not often enough. I keep forgetting to put them back in my car.

 

[AdAstra]

I have all CFL lighting (or not so compact FL ), all low-power appliances (with the exception of my big-ass plasma :-/ ), sort my trash, don't heat a lot (cold = good), don't have a car. Some other things.

 

[Canadave]

Those of you saying you don't have a car, is it because you actively made a choice to use public transportation instead, or do you simply live in a city where public transportation makes more sense?

Where I live, I couldn't survive without my car. Public transportation blows, and I am not in walking distance from anything useful.

I can't afford one, so that's obviously a factor, but I can walk or take the bus pretty easily to anywhere I want to go in town. Just came back from the grocery store, actually, which is a pleasant ten-minute walk for me.

I have to say, though, I do kind of want a small, fuel-efficient car someday. Mostly because it is very difficult for me to do anything outside the city, and I love camping, hiking, etc., which is virtually impossible without personal transportation. I'd probably still mostly walk and use public transit within the city, though.