Living Car Free - recycle + cash = bike accessories, tools etc.

I've been recycling glass, aluminum and plastic since I was a kid. But I don't recycle glass anymore. I reside in Southern California and we get $1.60+/lb. for aluminum and $ .90/lb. for plastic [with coupon]. My buddie from St.Louis said a couple years back he couldn't even get $1.00/lb. for aluminum. If you just throw these items in the trash, then someone else is going to make the money. I put the money I make toward my bike. It can be for accessories, tools or saving up for components. Feel free to comment.

That's awesome. I recycle too, but I don't see a penny.
I just make my weekly trip to the transfer station and distribute my recyclables into the appropriate bins.

The best deal I have seen locally is $250 for a ton of aluminum. Nothing smaller.

Recycling cans and bottles was worth it when I was a kid, but not now. We used to get 5c for a bottle which was fine for a kid in the early 80s, but I don't think there is a deposit on bottles in Victoria anymore. Also lots of kids used to go to the show (fair) and collect cans, cash them in and buy showbags - dosen't work now.

It was great to see recycling in action when I was in Germany recently - there is a deposit on plastic bottles, 15-25c, and pretty much everyone brings them back. Also no plastic bags in most shops.

Unfortunately for me there is no glass recycling in the Helena Montana area. Three times per year a local environmental organization sets up a station to collect plastic bottles. They only collect three types of plastic. They don't pay people for their plastic.

Another group organizes plastic and can collections at about the same times of the year and uses the money to buy trees for the parks and roadways.

I don't understand why neither group collects glass. The local scrap yard will accept cans of all types. I don't know how much someone would need to bring in to get paid any money.

I am about to buy a water distiller because I won't drink the water in our system. It has fluoride added to it. I will have far fewer plastic bottles to bring into the collection centers next time. For the Spring and Summer months I'll need to rig a way to use the distiller outside so as to not heat the apartment that has no air conditioner.

24 cans equals a pound

You have to recycle where you can. When I started my new job they used to toss the Cans into the dumpster with the plastic. I now take it home and my nephew recycles them for extra cash. I broght home about 8 bags a month. When I replaced the hurricane shutters on my house I took the olds ones to a metal recycler. I am working on recycling paper into a potting soil to add to my garden next year. We have to start somewhere. It is always better to recycle than just throw it away.

Yesterday I took 6 months worth of bottles and cans to the recycling machines. All of them had the 5 cent deposit yet the machines only accepted less than a quarter of them. I think if thee going to charge 5 cents for everything than they need to make the machines except everything you put in that has a deposit.

Yesterday I took 6 months worth of bottles and cans to the recycling machines. All of them had the 5 cent deposit yet the machines only accepted less than a quarter of them. I think if thee going to charge 5 cents for everything than they need to make the machines except everything you put in that has a deposit.

Still done the old fashioned way around here. Human eyeballs accept all deposit cans and bottles, human hands disperse the money.

We have some metal recyclers in town that pay by the pound. The result is that any metal on your house is considered up for grabs by the meth heads. I've lost forty dollars worth of downspouts, heck someone even stole the copper flashing off of Columbus city hall. All of my downspouts are now made out of PVC, which sucks because I have to keep replacing them when they break in the cold weather.

That being said: the city provides recycling collection (via a contractor) at the grocery store I use. So every other week I take my recycling back with the grocery run. I wish we had a bottle deposite, maybe that would cut down on some of the glass along the MUP, although I doubt it.

At work I take home my compostables but we recycle the plastic and paper.

I think that the compost pile I have has eliminated far more trash than any other recycling measure, and it goes into my garden rather than getting transported around the city. To top it off my tomatoes were top notch this year.

I leave all of my recyclables out on the side of the street on trash day. The bums take the stuff worth collecting, the recycling company takes the rest.

Saves me the effort of bringing empty bottles back to the store, while still being environmentally friendly.

I guess Michigan leads the pack in recycling. We have a dime deposit on cans and bottles, so you NEVER see them littering the roadways. Almost every community, AFAIK, has curbside recycling collection.

How come you guys don't have this?

Florida is so far beind the curve. I am trying to make changes at work. But it seems to be a losing battle. But I tried to work on the cans and bottles. I am also trying to get the library to order us water bottles. I joined the WATER club. So we now have a water service that drops off water to our cooler and we refill our Naglene bottles there. Just trying for small steps.

We have curb side recycling but I'm not going to throw out 5cents per bottle. I'll haul my cans to another machine tomorrow.

I have the distinction of living in one of the more backwards states in the nation when it comes to recycling. The state has a fine for putting aluminum cans in the trash. The county I used to live in had no recycling other than voluntary. It still doesn't outside of the town limits:rolleyes: At one time the recycling centers were a joint effort between private enterprise and the local town government, then the town decided to take the more profitable stuff ie; glass and aluminum away from the local business. The business when broke when they couldn't sell the recycled plastics for enough to even cover the cost of transportation. So that deal went away. Plastics are one of the worst for recycling, only very small amounts of what is produced ever get recycled, something on the order of 10-15%. All foods are packaged in virgin plastic, so every food item purchased in plastic is the start of the problem chain IMHO.

Aaron:)