Recycling in Pittsburgh (Mars: moving to, eat, rated)

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by ferrarisnowday

How would they know it was recycling and not garbage?

They manage to figure it out in the suburbs!

I guess the recycling bin has something to do with it, but when the recycling bin is overflowing, they still KNOW the difference between recycling and garbage.

It's not because the garbage is in cans because the cans can be full too.

We just set it all out there---garbage bags near the cans and recycling near the overflowing recycling bin.

It just all works out.

[creepsinc]

Originally Posted by Hopes

Why blue? Why can't the city accept recycling in any color bag like the suburbs do?

I don't know, but I don't think it's just Pittsburgh since several large national (international?) companies make those blue bags, which are labelled "recycling bags".

[BrianTH]

By the way, I'm actually now wondering how trash and recycling pickup looks in Hopes' area (not in an argumentative way, just curious).

In the City, it tends to be pretty chaotic: people just put out a pile of stuff in bags and bins and standing alone and the pickup people have to figure out what to do with it. In that context it makes sense you need to identify in some way what in the pile is supposed to be recycling if it isn't in a recycling bin.

But I am now imagining Hopes' neighborhood does something much more orderly to begin with.

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by creepsinc

I don't know, but I don't think it's just Pittsburgh since several large national (international?) companies make those blue bags, which are labelled "recycling bags".

I guess my township knows that less people would bother to recycle if they made it complicated.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Hopes

It just all works out.

Hmm, are you sure?

Cities and recycling companies plan for a certain amount of wastage as people don't comply with the rules or screw up or so on. I wonder if in a case where it isn't a big problem, some cities will just plan to let some unmarked recycling go to the landfill.

Or they might be doing something to sort it. I just don't know.

[creepsinc]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Hmm, are you sure?

Cities and recycling companies plan for a certain amount of wastage as people don't comply with the rules or screw up or so on. I wonder if in a case where it isn't a big problem, some cities will just plan to let some unmarked recycling go to the landfill.

Or they might be doing something to sort it. I just don't know.

With the sincerest apologies to Hopes, whom I like as far as the people who post here go, "It Just All Works Out, Somehow" should be the universal motto for suburban living.

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

By the way, I'm actually now wondering how trash and recycling pickup looks in Hopes' area (not in an argumentative way, just curious).

In the City, it tends to be pretty chaotic: people just put out a pile of stuff in bags and bins and standing alone and the pickup people have to figure out what to do with it. In that context it makes sense you need to identify in some way what in the pile is supposed to be recycling if it isn't in a recycling bin.

But I am now imagining Hopes' neighborhood does something much more orderly to begin with.

Well, we are orderly. It's basically at the edge of our yard afterall! There's one grouping of garbage (the cans and extra bags if the cans are full) and there's another grouping of recycling (the bin and the extra bags if the bin is full) a few feet away. There are two different trucks that come---one pile is for one truck, the other pile is for the other truck. It's very straight forward.

Some people might be more disorganized. But what's the worst that happens? Some recycling gets accidently thrown into the garbage truck? (And dont' think that doesn't happen in the city either. Garbage man can easily pitch blue bags into the garbage truck when in a hurry.) Some garbage gets missed and you're left with a garbage bag to put out again the next week? The garbage would never get into the recycling since the recycling guy semi-sorts everything into different areas of the truck.

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by creepsinc

With the sincerest apologies to Hopes, whom I like as far as the people who post here go, "It Just All Works Out, Somehow" should be the universal motto for suburban living.

But it does work out! I'm usually outside with the dogs when both trucks come. I see that it all works out!

[creepsinc]

Originally Posted by Hopes

But it does work out! I'm usually outside with the dogs when both trucks come. I see that it all works out!

[greg42]

Originally Posted by Hopes

Why blue? Why can't the city accept recycling in any color bag like the suburbs do?

Because they collect on the same day. Our recycling pickup is on a different day (and only 2 days a month) than our trash pickup. Based on your remark, I suspect yours is similar. In the city, recycling is every other week and picked up the same day as trash. Thus there needs to be a distinction so they don't accidentally take recycling with the trash or vice-versa.

No generalizing about the suburbs; every place is different. Like I said, there's that crazy and expensive setup they do in Marshall with multiple bins (the flip-top kind picked up by the automated truck. I swear that system is slower, but it does take less labor.) Not everywhere even has curbside recycling, even within Allegheny County.