Don't forget to wash the trash..... (Albuquerque, Farmington: living in, moving, food)

[sjbasin]

Farmington has instituted their MANDATORY curbside recycling program. Citizens are charged $4.00 or so each month whether they recycle or not. My wifey is really in to it. She dutifully rinses our trash before putting it in the proper container to be hauled away to who-really-knows-where. I tease her about living in the desert with a shortage of water and washing our trash to make ourselves feel better. We're idiots for complying with this farce.

[songinthewind7]

I'm proud of your wife.
She's doing something for the good of the earth and if recycling is being offered to be done, I say go for it.
Wish they had something like that here.
I wouldn't wash the trash but rinsing out bottles and cans would be all that's necessary.

[Minathebrat]

It's mandatory to recycle where I live now or they fine you $$. Love recycling..don't like coercion, so I'm pretty pleased the way Farmington is handling it.
I just rinse things out to make sure they don't smell in my recycling bin, or if I have room in the dishwasher I throw the empty jars or cans in.
Are they collecting cardboard too, sjbasin?

[_yb]

If you were in Albuquerque they would just bury it in the landfill and call it green.

[hopeful transplant]

Sure wish they recycled up here in Raton. At least they could do plastic and cans, that would even help. I imagine it will be several years before they think about it up here. When I lived in Seattle, they gave you a rebate every quarter for the amount you recyled, it was a good incentive even if it didn't make you rich. Made you feel like you were contributing in a positive way.

[sjbasin]

Originally Posted by Minathebrat

It's mandatory to recycle where I live now or they fine you $$. Love recycling..don't like coercion, so I'm pretty pleased the way Farmington is handling it.
I just rinse things out to make sure they don't smell in my recycling bin, or if I have room in the dishwasher I throw the empty jars or cans in.
Are they collecting cardboard too, sjbasin?

They do recycle cardboard here. New Mexico has a paper mill in Prewitt, which is between Gallup and Albuquerque, that processes it.


I'm still not convinced that the resources such as the additional plastic required for the full-sized containers, the trucks, and the fuel to haul this stuff 400 miles is carbon-neutral. When I asked the city to demonstrate to the public that the net effect of curbside recycling in a remote area like Farmington was truly "green" they couldn't do it.

[highdesertmutz]

Originally Posted by sjbasin

Farmington has instituted their MANDATORY curbside recycling program. Citizens are charged $4.00 or so each month whether they recycle or not. My wifey is really in to it. She dutifully rinses our trash before putting it in the proper container to be hauled away to who-really-knows-where. I tease her about living in the desert with a shortage of water and washing our trash to make ourselves feel better. We're idiots for complying with this farce.

You have got to be kidding?
washing out bottles? YOU paying to recycle? that is ridiculous.
Let me tell you why: before moving here to lovely new mexico, we were residents of a village called Pleasant Prairie, wisconsin. we had a voluntary recycling program. you could participate if you wanted to. and guess what? they supplied the green baskets, and paid us to recycle. it wasn't much, $0.72 per month on average. and we were happy to, not have paid for recycling, and we didn't have to wash our darned bottles either. they took it all, all you had to do was throw it in the cycle basket. comingled newspapers, dog food/people food tin cans, pop cans, plastic bottles, anything that was cycleable, the driver at the curb separated the comingled reuseables!
Now, our neighboring city, Kenosha, wisconsin, it was mandatory to recycle, and, if the pickup drivers spotted recycleables comingled into regular rubbish or waste, your bag was RED TAGGED and left at the curb, for you to separate your trash from the recycleables, nice folks huh?

[Minathebrat]

I got one better, because here they will then proceed to write you a ticket for not recycling your recyclables. That is the way of bureaucracies and money-hungry municipalities.

However, that said, and however annoyed I may be with the way that folks in charge like to run roughshod over people, I am all for recycling.

Now I wish we could do something for that sea of plastic sludge floating out in the Pacific.

[Poncho_NM]

In Albuquerque recyclables are separated and sorted at the City's recycling processing facility. They are then baled and sold to recyclers in New Mexico and across the US.



Rich

[Zoidberg]

There is a company recently announced in Albuquerque that makes planting material out of recycled glass, and they say they could take 20X what Albuquerque produces for recycling.

There's a great slate article at Is it worth it to wash out your recyclables? - By Nina Shen Rastogi - Slate Magazine that addresses bottle washing for recycling.