Recycling (lack there of) (Colorado Springs: renting, HOA, new house)

[DrDog]

Do people here not recycle? In the neighborhood I am renting while our house is built, I see maybe 5% of homes put out a recycling can each week. Isn't Colorado a "green" state? Far fewer people recycling here than anywhere else I have lived.

[BornintheSprings]

Colorado Springs still has some catching up to do in some areas.

[beezle1]

If could be that you have to pay extra to recycle and people just don't want to fork out the expense. I have a house in Santa Fe which has mandatory recycling, meaning the trash companies HAVE to give you a recycle container (and charge you for the service), but they cannot make you use it. Probably maybe 30% of the homes I notice use it, even though they may for the service. I actually save my recyclable stuff from Colorado, and bring it down there to recycle.

[TCHP]

For a recycling program to be successful, you have to have not just generators, but an equal or greater number of consumers for the material. There simply are not enough industries in Colorado consuming recycled material compared to the quantity of generators of recyclable material. Nor do we have the plants to render the excess material in such a way as to expand its available market and uses. This means excess materials must be shipped a day or two east of here to places that will use it. As a result, many trash companies charge for the donating recyclable goods to help manage the costs of the program. Added fees means a large percentage will not sign up for the service.

[Mike from back east]

When I lived in the Briargate area we had WM as our trash/recycling hauler. I swear the driver told me the recycling went to a local site in the city, was dumped on the ground, run over by heavy equipment to crush it, and then loaded into cargo containers and shipped to China. Sounds crazy, but that's what he told me.

IIRC recycling in COLO SPGS was voluntary, not mandatory, thus a lot of people didn't care to do it.

[MsMetal]

It's really sad here. 30 yrs ago in MSP, the city paid US to recycle. Then we moved here & it was like a dirty word. For years I had to take our recycling to various drop off sites. Then most of those either closed or started charging. Then finally I got it with trash pickup, but we had to pay & there was still a fair amount they didn't recycle.

Now that I've moved into a brand new house, the HOA set up a trash company & recycling is included. There's no choice, you must use their trash company & everyone gets both toters. It's pretty cheap though, less than I paid in my old hood where we had to negotiate it ourselves. In my hood, I'd say most do both, but I know I have some neighbors that don't use the recycling toter at all.

I take all my cans to the Humane Society drop off, b/c I want to help the animals.

ETA: Both in my new & old hoods, using the big trash co's, they only p/u recycling every other week.

[smdensbcs]

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

IIRC recycling in COLO SPGS was voluntary, not mandatory, thus a lot of people didn't care to do it.

Of course a lot of people don't care to do it. A lot of people also get a kick out of owning those monster trucks with dual exhaust pipes high in the air to advertise their freedom to pump enormous amounts of black smoke in the air every time they put foot to gas. Free country - try to stop me da**-it. Don't tread on me and all that good stuff. If I don't wanna recycle like some kinda tree-hugger how they gonna make me? That's pretty much half the country and roughly 60% of COS, give or take.


The rest of us pay our $5.15/mo to Bestway (or whatever company) for weekly recycling pick-up. Really easy, really cheap, really convenient.

[TCHP]

...and its cut my actually trash bin requirement in half.

[orngkat]

Back in the city we moved from, recycling was mandatory. However, once you start recycling, the regular trash bin is usually mostly empty. We were able to pick from three sizes there and smaller ones cost less. Definitely not a priority here for many.

[dr.frog]

They don't make it easy to recycle here. As a single person, I usually generate one bag of kitchen trash per week. I'd be happy to sort my recyclables, but Bestway's only option for recycling is paying for a giant container that's twice the capacity of my regular trash can. Perhaps I could share with neighbors, but then we'd have to figure out where to store the bin, who's going to pay, etc. For the amount of stuff I generate, it just doesn't seem worth the extra hassle.