recycling (Mart: coupons, credit card, store)

[emtblue4life]

I totally agree with you Emmablue. I live in an apt. and they do not have recycling what so ever. I just visited my brother in Austin. There is recycling bins everywhere there. I would love it if Plano and the surrounding cities could get up to speed with Austin. How could we get us to where they are??? EMAIL ME A REPLY!

[MurphyPl1]

FWIW Murphy did implement the weekly 95 gallon recycling cart program. And total tonnage collected has gone up from 55 tons/mo to over 100 tons/month. I've got people telling me they want a second recycle cart.

Waste Management is now using Murphy as a success story for the 95 gal carts on a weekly basis. (Something they actually thought was overkill).

[greenuptx]

I live in Austin and my children live in Caddo Mills. I think it is a disgrace that there are no recycle options for this community. I have been searching on-line all morning to find alternative recycling sites. The closest that I found were Greenville and Royce City, but it looks as though they may be for the residents of their respective cities. If anyone has any information about independent recycling options for Caddo Mills, TX can you please let me know. And thank you. [email]jenvieve@sbcglobal.net[/email]

[TXNGL]

And just a cultural shock that I would like to share... I came to buy something in a Walmart (or other grocery, there are so many of them around). And they automatically push my stuff into plastic bags! So I said:"Or, please, I really do not need any plastic bags, it is so bad for the environment"!

The lady behind the counter simply ignored me! But at the end, I managed to convince her that I REALLY do not need any plastic bags! People waiting in a que were pretty angry at me (????? WHY????). What's wrong with people here? Or - is there something wrong with ME? And - what are you actually doing with all those plastic bags? Do you recycle them, or simply throw them away - so that your kids will have nice garbage hills all around Dallas?[/quote]>>

I'm surprised you're having this problem now as most stores, including the Walmarts that I have been to, are not at all surprised at people requesting they not use the plastic bags. In fact, they're all selling the reusable ones cheap these days.
We do take home a few plastic bags once in a while and I use them to pick up after my dog. I use the plastic that comes with the newspaper for the same thing.

[lbhamilton]

Confirmed. The UPS Store in our neighborhood is delighted to take packing peanuts.
For recycling, the Terre Colony location was great, but has gone out of business. Try:
Foam Fabricators
900 E. Keller Pky., Keller, off 114, (817) 379-6520
[url=http://www.mapquest.com/maps/900+keller+parkway+keller+tx+76248]Map of 900 Keller Pkwy Keller, TX by MapQuest[/url]
I just called and they verified they still take styrofoam. I’ll check it out next week and re-post if there are any problems.
-------------
I hear some shipping companies will take the styrofoam peanut packaging stuff.
Here's a company that might take in the bulk styrofoam, anyone been here?
Metro Styrofoam
1628 Terre Colony Ct
Dallas, TX 75212
(214) 231-3626

[lbhamilton]

Hello,

Welcome to the States and the Metroplex!

1) Recycling is not standardized here. Each city has different ways of dealing with specific things. I'm sorry I can't speak to the UTD area very well, but in Carrollton we do not separate glass; it goes in the rolling bin with all paper, metal, cardboard, and all numbered plastics except bags. Styrofoam has to be taken to a company in Keller. Most campuses I've visited have specific bins for plastic bottles or aluminum cans - I don't think I've seen anything for glass. Whole Foods, however, has huge bins where people can leave glass and more, and there's one at Beltline and Coit, not too far from UTD.

2) Most of those return bottles are no longer taken in Texas, but list the states where that applies. We mostly have to recycle the plastic.

3) WalMart is not the leading edge of the green movement here. If you want to raise awareness and you have the patience, that's a good place to go. Some people are very cool there, but the gross generality is that it's not the place for people who care about workers' rights, the environment, or mom and pop shops. If you want to talk to like-minded people, Whole Foods is my favorite. I also hear quite positive feedback on Central Market, Roy's and Sprouts, but don't know how they address recycling, specifically. Almost anything but WM is a better grocery store for the concern you expressed (Kroger, Tom Thumb, Albertson's, etc.), and they mostly have bins for recycling plastic bags. Remember, you can always take your own cloth bags wherever you go I put them on the conveyer belt, and follow with the merchandise on to check out.

[MurphyPl1]

"what's wrong with the people here?"

It's entirely possible they were upset you were holding up the line and not your bag choice. I hate standing behind high maintenance people on the rare occasion I go to hell-mart.

And if you were as snarky as you just came across, I can imagine that didn't endear you to anyone.

[BigDGeek]

Here in Richardson they take a wide array of recyclables. We do not have bins but we do have blue bags that you can buy at various places in the city. There is no limit to how many blue bags you can use, and our recycling is picked up once a week (trash is picked up twice a week).

Richardson does not provide green bags/rolling trash bins for green waste but you can set piles of brush at the curb and they will pick it up. On their website they specifically request that the brush is kept separate because they compost it.

[sftransplant]

TXNGL, you're not alone. I find the people in TX sweet and helpful, but somehow not very conscious about the environment (atleast most of them). Back in California, I'm speaking for Bay Area, people don't even think they're environmentalists but automatically recycle most things, especially plastic. I think the legislators there are about 20 years ahead of the rest of the country, many standards are similar to those of Europe (for eg., if you take a can of paint that contains carcinogens, it will say "Known to cause birth defects and/or cancer according to the State of California" or something to that effect. Rest of the country benefits from CA's stringent standard as well since paint manufacturers just include that warning in almost all their cans anyways - less overhead for them).

Basically, CA protects the consumer, Texas protects the business/corporation. Unfortunately, the cost is externalized to the citizens and the environment. Now there's a plastic gyre in the pacific TWICE THE SIZE OF TEXAS. Its killing marine life and its all because we don't recycle! Just google "great pacific garbage patch".

[TXNGL]

Originally Posted by sftransplant

TXNGL, you're not alone. I find the people in TX sweet and helpful, but somehow not very conscious about the environment (atleast most of them). Back in California, I'm speaking for Bay Area, people don't even think they're environmentalists but automatically recycle most things, especially plastic. I think the legislators there are about 20 years ahead of the rest of the country, many standards are similar to those of Europe (for eg., if you take a can of paint that contains carcinogens, it will say "Known to cause birth defects and/or cancer according to the State of California" or something to that effect. Rest of the country benefits from CA's stringent standard as well since paint manufacturers just include that warning in almost all their cans anyways - less overhead for them).

Basically, CA protects the consumer, Texas protects the business/corporation. Unfortunately, the cost is externalized to the citizens and the environment. Now there's a plastic gyre in the pacific TWICE THE SIZE OF TEXAS. Its killing marine life and its all because we don't recycle! Just google "great pacific garbage patch".

For some reason, my post didn't really show that I had quoted the person I was responding to, so it looks like I wrote the whole thing. My response was that I'm surprised they're having this problem, even at Walmart.
Maybe it's because I'm a homeowner in Dallas, but recycling for me is easy. We have once a week pick up of both recycling and trash and we are provided with blue bins. Plastic, glass and paper all go in the blue bin, so simple! The stores around here all sell the cloth bags and the employees all know exactly what they're for, no problem.
I'd say that 90% of my immediate neighborhood recycles (just from seeing the blue bins lining the alleys on Mondays), and I'd be hard pressed to say that any of them would call themselves environmentalists.
Sounds like maybe some of the areas around Dallas could improve their recycling programs. The city of Dallas has really stepped it up in the last several years and it's worked very well for us!