Wednesday, January 2, 2008

I cant believe it either

One of the drawbacks to living in a small town is that you don't have as many resources as you do in a larger environment. Case in point....RECYCLING.

I am so stressed over this. There is NO recycling in this darn town. How can I sleep at night? Coming from an area that does offer recycling I just got used to the idea of filling up another receptacle that was designated for recycling only. I never sat back and pondered over it. I just did it. I used something that I could recycle and it went into the recycle can. Now that I can't recycle I have to see all the things going into the regular garbage and know that they are going right into the dump. I am having major stress over this.

I have one option. And to be honest it is not a very good one. The larger town that is about 10 miles from here does offer a recycling drop off area. It has these great big dumpsters with nice pictures on them that tell you what to put in where. Sounds great, right? Well, not really. See, the dumpsters are hardly ever emptied and to make it even worse, people will just drive by and dump their regular trash in there. Taking advantage of the fact that they then got rid of their garbage for no cost. This, however, makes it harder for the people who are trying to use the dumpsters for the actual idea of recycling. When the city sees the trash in there they then have to close down the whole site in order to do a clean up. So, it stays good for a few weeks then starts all over.

AHHHHHH....does anyone have any ideas for me? I try really hard to limit my use of plastics. Really hard, but sometimes it is near impossible. When I do have to use it, I would really like to know that it is getting recycled. Glass I can try to reuse myself. I save a huge amount of plastic just by having my milk delivered to my home in glass jugs. But, I still need to do more.

Can I like write a proposal to the village and ask them to offer recycling? Yes, we are a village. Not a city. Not even a town. Anyone?

10 comments:

Lori Stewart Weidert said...

My '08 resolution is to start recycling again; my neighborhood doesn't have recycling, I share a dumpster with others in the neighborhood. I can't take it anymore either, and finding recycling resources is on my list of things to do TODAY. I'm embarrassed it's taken me so long to get on the ball with this, since I moved here.

What did you use before?

sugarcreekfarm said...

Bummer! No advice, just sympathy. We have a county dump, and a tri-county landfill. The county dump is manned, and it costs $2 a trip to bring your garbage. But bringing recycling items is free. Hope you find something (or light a fire under somebody :)

Unknown said...

Le Roy has recycling once or twice a month downtown. You could look into how they get such infrequent service - there must be a provider.

frugalmom said...

Gnightgirl: Our garbage carrier had to come by once a week to pick up recycling. It was on the same day as the garbage pick up which made it easy to remember. I actually had to switch carriers because I continually saw my previous one putting my recycle items into the garbage truck. That really ticked me off and I made sure to let them know that was why I was canceling my service.

sugarcreekfarm: Lucky duck! I wish I was able to do that. I am good at lighting fires! I may have to try that route.

frugalmom said...

Rayne of Terror: Thanks for the tip. I will have to look into that.

Anonymous said...

It only takes a spark...

I think you should totally campaign for easier recycling in your village. I bet in this day and age you would get a lot of supporters...

Anonymous said...

I'm in the same boat girl. You'll find all kinds of ways to reuse everything you possibly can on your new property. My sister has just moved and there's a recycling center near her. So what I plan to do is enlist her help with our recyclables. She lives in a village. I don't even know what the local "town" near me is. It has 1 blinking stop light, a bar, a gas station and a shoebox post office. Population? 800ish. Good luck! And let us know if you have any success with your village.

Christy said...

I would write a proposal to the village. And until they get recycling I'd make a montly drive to the recycling that is available. This is what I have to do. I store it all up for a month or so and then drive to the recycling bins and sort it all out into the proper bins.

frugalmom said...

boogiemum: I am looking into it. The last thing I have lots of is time, but this is just crazy.

farm mom: Yes, I bet I will. I do already and I am only in the rental property. I just hate seeing it all going in the garbage. We have about 2700 folks here. Wouldnt you think that would be enuf to need some kinda recycling.....

Christy: Yeah, i will attempt to do that. Like I said tho, it is very rarely available to add to. It is always full. And you arent supposed to leave things sitting out of the dumpsters. Which is good. Otherwise it would be everywhere.

Anonymous said...

How close is the closest town or city with a recycling program? The village may be able to con them into swinging out your way for a much lower cost than starting their own.