apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Maybe they could get after the city about it. Our city has a recycling program for 1 and 2 plastics, and papers, that is put out just like a regular garbage can. We also have yard waste recycling options. They only cost about $5 a month to add to the regular trash service.

I'm currently living in Houston myself, and this is something that's bothered me for the duration of my stay here. There are so many things that make me sad about recycling here. If recycling is being underused in an area, the city will actually take recycling away from them. Recycling is currently available in only a small percentage of the city. What's worse, an even smaller percentage of those who have curbside recycling actually take advantage of it.

I did the calculations once, and I think it was less than 1% of the city was actually recycling. I contacted the city to start a conversation about how to improve it, and they were less than receptive. There is a committee within the city government that is supposed to be dedicated to increasing recycling efforts. However, they and their programs are not visible, and they also seem to be uninterested in feedback.

Part of the problem is the way the government is set up down here, causing gated communities like your sister's to be responsible for their own programs. Without going into specifics, it has a lot to do with sprawl and annexation laws.

I'm lucky enough to live very close to a separate city within the bounds of Houston that has a very good recycling program, so I save up my recycling and take it there. Before I lived here, though, it was extremely difficult for me to recycle. And, unfortunately, I haven't found a good way to deal with it other than being diligent.

One thing that your sister could do is form a comminity organization, within the HOA confines, of like minded recycling type folks. They could collaborate on the recycling effort and pick a day or two a month with one of the members with a truck/trailer/SUV takes ALL of their recyclables to the recycling center. It's definitly not as good as curbside, but it would lessen the amount of driving for participants.

And, as an expecting mom myself, we contimplated the cloth diaper route... and decided to go with gdiapers. http://www.gdiapers.com/ They can be flushed or composted and either way, have no plastic, are semi-washable (the outer parts) and are definitly easier on the environment. We're planning on composting both types of diapers (wet and filled) in seperate piles/holes - but we live out in the country.

Regarding your sister's living in an HOA in the first place.... This is why we live in the country. =)

geniesflower, since when is excrement compostable? every composting how-to i've ever read has blatantly stated that "animal/pet waste" was to go nowhere near a compost heap, similar to meat/animal products. Why would "human waste" be any different?

Human waste may not be something you want to put in the compost pile for your vegetable garden, but it'll definitely decompose in the ground! It's much better to return our waste to a hole in the ground than to landfill it for the next thousand years. Many rural houses have septic systems that use the earth to filter out their wastes.