Reduce – Recycle – Reuse
Those three words have become ingrained in my brain. I feel I do a pretty decent job of all three, bringing my own canvas bags to the store and taking a refillable cup to Starbucks when I visit, but recycling isn’t quite as easy when you live in an apartment. Some apartments don’t have a way to separate out the recyclables, so that leaves the job up to me.
It’s not an impossible task, it just takes more planning and doing. Thankfully, I have a very resourceful husband that makes it easy.
Step 1
Find a place in the apartment to store cans and bottles in bins, tubs, or trash cans. This is the tricky part if you’re limited on space. We use a closet in our office. Two trash cans fit side-by-side: one for cans and the other for bottles and plastic jugs.
Step 2
Purchase tubs, bins, or trash cans to hold the recyclables. Trash bags work too, but if they leak they can make a big mess. Find containers that fit the space you have available. If you have space for two containers, you can separate the bottles and cans as you go. If you only have room for one, this will require a little more work at the recycle facility. If you have a patio, don’t just throw the bottles and cans on the patio (this actually happens, I’ve seen it!) It’s messy and there’s a good chance you’ll forget about them!
Step 3
Once the bins fill up, take them to a recycle facility. Don’t wait until they’re overflowing – it just makes more work for you. I’m fortunate that I live in an apartment with an elevator. I’m not so sure carrying heavy bottles would work if I only had access to stairs. However, if you only have stairs, stick with aluminum cans; they’re light enough to carry down a flight or two.
Every few trips, rinse out the bins so they don’t become moldy. If you have access to a hose, this makes it easy (the money you make off your first trip might allow you to purchase a small one for yourself). If not, using a shower works as well.
Recycling not only helps the environment, but you make a little money back on your original purchase as well.
Do you recycle your bottles and cans?
4 Comments
When I lived in an apartment there was no easy way to recycle. I ended up bring the paper with me to work and recycling it there. Makes me sick thinking of all the stuff that end ups in the landfills!
@Paul – That’s the worst part, all the crap that ends up in a landfill that could be recycled. We have many huge dumpsters in our building and every weekend they are overflowing, many times with furniture that could be recycled or reused. What a waste!
I found recycling in an apartment much easier, because there were big bins that we could put our recycling in. Probably not every building has them though. We just lucked out.
@Daisy – We have the big, blue bins in our building, but no one really uses them or puts them out. When we do it ourselves, we know for sure they’re getting recycled and we get a few bucks back from our original purchase.