What To Do With Pure "Trash", Or Garbage.

I have often wondered that same thing! We recycle out of habit and I feel guilty if I throw a can in the garbage instead of walking out to the garage to our recycling bin. Not really an issue anymore as that is my kids job now.

Hi Lenn,

Most cities have a recycling program. This is the best way to go in my opinion.

Have a good day in Loudoun County.

Best, Clint McKie

Here in CT, the weekly waste that is collected goes to bulk trash centers and it is burned and converted to energy. The ash is taken to a land fill.

Our county does not pick up recycled garbage/trash. We can drive it to the collection center and do it ourselves. All trash collectors but one take it in mass to the landfill. We are so behind the times.

In Fairport Harbor, we pay for trash pick up and also have recycling bins for those items.  Put them both out at the curb and they are gone in the morning.  Works for me.

Lenn here in Middletown, CT every homeowner (except in the downtown district) contracts out to a waste disposal company (trash hauler) and they provide homeowners with a large trash container and a large recycle container.  The trash truck comes by once per week to pick up the trash and recyclables.  The trucks have two compartments, one for trash and one for recyclables, however, all the recyclables are clumped together so some where down the line someone must be separating them.

Hi Lenn - We pay for trash collection, but our company also picks up mixed recyclables free of charge. The batteries, paint, old computers, etc. aren't allowed, so there are special collection pints for those, and they also are free. The easier and cheaper it is to recycle, the more successful the program.

Hi Lenn, Back in the Good Old Days, before garbage disposals and recycling, we had an incinerator in the back yard, the garbage truck came once a week for the wet stuff, and everything was fine.

I think we need incinerators again. Maybe by now they can be improved so as nor to pollute the air and the heat produced could heat the water or produce electricity.

I think recycling IS NOT cost effective. We need to rethink this obsession.

Bill Roberts

Lenn, I drive my husband crazy but I try to reduce my trash as much as possible. I recycle everything I can and have a compost pile hidden in the back corner of my yard. Of course I'm in town and have trash pickup for what is left.

Lenn, 

Great information for your clients.  We took a very old car that was literally falling apart to Newell Recycling in Atlanta yesterday to be scrapped.  They process a lot of items - metals, tires, etc.  It was a very impressive operation with many folks working to keep it running like clockwork.  I hadn't been in a scrap yard before and it's a sight for everyone to see and use if at all possible.  

Personally, we are routinely at the rate where we have more recycle than trash.  Now trying to get it to a 2 to 1 ratio.  

All the best, Michelle

Lenn, we live in a rural area so no pick-up out here! Our county has "convenience centers" where we bring our separated recyclables like paper, cardboard, plastics, glass, tin, and aluminum.  We can drop off garbage too, but there is very little of it since we also compost at home!

Recyling has been around for centuries, literally.  It is nothing new.  If "they" really wanted people to recycle "they" would provide an incentive.  "Saving the planet" is a joke and not an incentive. 

So, what's an incentive?  Money.  That's what drives these collection centers!

Lenn- we really do make a lot of garbage. We city folk are so used to trash and recycled products being picked up, I wonder if we ever realize just how much garbage/trash we create.  

     We have a rural mountain cabin in North Carolina.  That County has a system very similar to what you have in Loudoun County.