apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

What about getting one paper bag each time you go to the store? You're still recycling it and it serves it's purpose.

We have a huge recycling bin (it's like the trash bin), so everything just goes in there. We do collect paper in the TJ paper bags in the house and then haul it outside to the bin when they're full. It just seems easier to drop paper in the bag as you go rather than go outside everytime you have a scrap piece of paper.

Does your recycling program only give you one small bin? Could you request an additional one for paper? My parents get 3 bins - paper, plastic, and glass.

You could get a ball of twine and start tying up your paper - it would take a little more effort to keep it neat during the week, but it works. I usually run a loop around my paper bags just so the wind doesn't carry away whatever's on top.

I had a similar issue with blue bags, but then I read on my city's website that I can use a regular can with a blue bag tied to it. You should check and see what your options are, I bet every recycling service has different guidelines.

What I like to do is:
Get a box
Get some twine, cut two pieces long enough to sit in the box lengthwise and widthwise 1.5 times.
Cut short slits in the centers of all four sides of the box. These slits will hold the twine in place while you're dropping paper into the box.
Drop your paper items in flat as you get them. When the box is full, simply tie the twine, lift the paper out, and set the box up again for next time.

Sounds like a lot but it seriously only takes a minute.

I wish I only had to deal with one recycling bin! Our town requires us to separate:
#1 Plastic
#2 Plastic
#3-7 Plastic
Plastic milk jugs
Soda cans
Other cans
Clear glass
Colored glass
corrugated cardboard
other cardboard
Office paper
Glossy paper

I'd like to get containers to separate it all, but it seems like buying 12 plastic bins kind of goes against the spirit of the whole enterprise.

Just be glad you can do it curbside!

I collect all my cardboard, paper, magazines, containers, and junk mail and haul it to a recycling center when it starts overwhelming it's plastic container and whatever else I've stuffed it in.

I think twine is the way to go.

Funny, I do the exact same thing with TJ's paper bags (and posted about it on another blog just this morning). I agree with the first two posters - take one bag each week, assuming that this will be enough for the week's paper. And stop feeling so guilty about it! You're clearly miles ahead of most Americans when it comes to recycling and re-using, and by using a recyclable paper bag to contain your recyclable paper instead of getting some plastic bin, you're already ahead of the game. Give yourself a pat on the back, treat yourself to some ice cream and relax, as you're already making the world a better place.

The last time we helped some of our friends move, I noticed they had a ton of paper grocery bags - from Trader Joe's - but they don't use reusable bags. She was getting ready to recycle them all - so I grabbed them for use at home for our recycling.

That has lasted me nearly 6 months - if I run out I plan to ask her or friends and family for some - if they don't use reusable bags they always have extras around!

Visit a thrift shop. I found a Rubbermaid cereal container for $1 at Value Village that we use for compost. It's narrow, so it fits between the recycle container (a metal round trash bin) and the trash under the sink.

My city actually provides recycling bags to apartment-dwellers; the bags stand up by themselves and have a divider between the paper side and the cans/glass/plastic side. The bag has to be emptied into the big bins fairly often, but it's a nice idea - too bad the bags are made of heavy-duty PLASTIC!

I use an old paper box (one reams of paper were delivered to the office in) from the last move to hold my paper for recycling. But I don't have curbside, so I just dump the contents of the box into the appropriate bin at our drop off and re-use the same box over and over. Sometimes when online shopping is delivered in another box we don't need, I fill that and recycle the whole thing.

My fiane and I use garbage bags. We collect the recyclables in them and then empty them at the recycling center. Then we either use the same bag for garbage the next time around or for recyclables again. You could even use garbage bags made from recycled plastics like Seventh Generation.

http://badhuman.wordpress.com

I used to use paper grocery bags for my paper recycling, but then my reusable bag habit used up my supply as well. So I bought that three-bag recycling system from Gaiam that I think was mentioned on this site, and I've started using that. But I don't have curbside recycling--I take my recyclables to the basement of my apartment building, so I'm not sure that system will work for you.

Sorry to be a little off topic here, but i just got so jealous by SisterRae's post that they apparently recycle everything under the sun in her city, and they only recycle plastic #1 and #2 in NYC. I wanted to be sure that NYC only does those 2 plastic types and visited their website only to find... that its even less than that! #1 and #2 plastic bottles and jugs ONLY are recycled, and only if the neck of the bottle is narrower than the body (apparently wide mouth bottles are formed differently and have different melting points).

Furthermore, NYC's website takes a shot at SF: "In other municipal recycling programs in the U.S., such as San Francisco, residents are encouraged to recycle all plastics in order to maximize the recycling rate of HDPE and PET. If residents do not have to think about which plastic to recycle or to discard, the thinking goes, they will recycle more overall. In such programs, non-HDPE and non-PET resins are usually sorted out and discarded at the recycling plant."

Yikes! Is that true???

double check that you can't comingle. most places allow comingling of recyclables. i use my tj's bags, but reuse them until they're un-re-usable and make my 11 year old carry out the recycling to the community commingled recycling bin. however, i used to use an old trash can when i rented a bigger house than i live in now. i could stash it in the cabinets and dump it and rinse it as needed and it fit a hell of a lot more recycling than the tjs paper bags. we trip on the bags all the time, but, it's free! and every time i forget my bags, i get more recycling bins.

if you can't commingle - find a pretty basket (cost plus) with lid - i think it's water hyacinth with built in handles. really pretty and use that in a decorative location if you're like me with no extra space. no one will ever know your recycling is in there!

mh330-
It's true about the other types of recycling. Berkeley is the same way. The other numbers (3-7) don't really have a market for recycling. That's why Preserve brand stuff is so impressive. They take all those yogurt, sour cream and cream cheese containers that most cities don't take and actually recycle them.
Two points I need to tell my parents all the time...
-Just because you put it in the bin doesn't mean it gets recycled.
-Reduce, Reuse and Recycle is the preferred order (something I repeat when they say "But we recycled our water bottles!")

faced exactly the same problem when we started reusing bags. now we like our wine and buy it by the case -- which means cardboard boxes that, when empty of wine, become our paper-recycling bin.

i just stuff all my paper stuff into the cereal box i'm already recycling for the week.

Our curbside recycling program provided a separate bin for paper (vs. bottles and cans), so I just use the bin they gave me.

But, similarly to your situation, I've had to get extra paper bags for my shredded paper. Usually one of my neighbors who isn't as canvas-bag oriented has leftovers. But sometimes I've had to make a point of picking some up.

Each city's program is so different. Berkeley specifically says, "All paper must be in paper bags or bundled."