One family can create a whole lot of trash in a single month. What do you do if your area doesn't offer recycling pick up with the trash service each week? Do you toss all of those recyclable materials in the trash and send them off to the landfill to waste away for the next 100 years? No, you do not. Here, you'll find a few tips to help you keep your recyclables organized and removed from your home in a way that will not add to the country's waste problem.
Find the Local Drop-Off Recycling Services
The first thing to do is to find the drop-off recycling services near you. Once you find a location, you will be able to learn how they separate their recyclables. Some areas have plastics to be put in one bin, aluminum in another, along with tin, paper, and cardboard in their own—others combine some of the materials and sort them when the bin is collected. Once you know how the materials are expected to be dropped off, you'll know what supplies you'll need to buy to keep things organized.
Buy a Shelving Unit and Storage Bins
You want the recycling to take up as little space around the house as possible, but you don't want to be making trips to the drop off all of the time. So, pick up a utility shelving unit and some plastic storage bins that will fit on each shelf. You'll need a bin for each material that you'll be recycling. So, if you're separating the glass, plastic, aluminum, paper, and cardboard, you'll need 5 bins and a shelving unit large enough to hold them.
Label each bin so that the other family members will know exactly what should go in them. If you have little ones helping you, you might even want to include some pictures on the end of each bin to help them sort without making mistakes. Consider storing the heavier items, like glass, on the bottom shelves so you don't hurt yourself or have to worry too much about the shelving unit becoming top-heavy and falling over.
Choose When to Dispose
You can choose when to dispose of the materials in two ways—you wait until the bins are full and then make a trip, or you keep a steady day each month to make a trip to drop it off. This could be the first Saturday of the month—then, you won't forget to get it done.
Talk with the drop off recycling services near you. They'll help you find the best way to recycle all of your recyclables and keep them out of landfills near you.
