apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

For aesthetics: 1, 2, 3
For greenness: 3, 2, 1
For price: 3, 2, 1

Guess the bags have it...

I use the Ikea thingy - have done for years. It's not the most glamourous thing in the house, but it does a great job. Am thinking about putting a back on it and painting it with chalkboard paint to make it a bit more fun for the kid.

I think the Ikea one would be easiest to clean

hooray, the trofast! that's what i have. and it costs less if you get the white version, instead of the wood.

In my area (Richmond, VA) we don't have to sort our recycling so I toss it all in a big Rubbermaid bin. We're using a purple one right now and it's cute with my lime green and orange kitchen color scheme. The bin was cheap and holds a ton of stuff and it's easy to move outside to the curb.

I would have gone for the Trofast were it not $62 for what is essentially a couple of plastic buckets in a cheap wooden frame. Its a complete rip off. Same with Simple Human. Sure it looks nice, but that is NOT worth the nearly $200 price tag. The Gaiam bags are somewhat ugly but at least they're under $20. Still, they come in at over $5/bag which aint exactly cheap.

I have the Ikea Trofast. I painted it in a high gloss paint to coordinate with my kitchen and put stickers on the bins to help visitors identify the right bin. It rocks! I thought I was being clever.

i'm cheap (but green?) - i reuse the huge paper shopping bags from stores & just hide it under my kitchen table since it's pushed against a wall. you don't notice it with the chairs in the way. i use them for a while & before they get funky i recycle them too.

if i had to sort our recycling i would go with the bags because i assume they would break down easier later.

Im so happy to see this thread. the idea of spending $200 on a grabage can has kept my wife and I using old whole foods bags. Not ideal with a labrador in the house. Im going to go for the Ikea option for cost effectiveness, especially since the reviews here seem good. Does anyone not like the Trofast?

I have a high traffic household and the simply human is the one for me! I have their cans for many years and their customer service is great (a pedal broke once - they sent a free replacement). This can is a real space saver and does not look as if it will get toppled over by the kids and dog running through my small house. Also, I think I would use one side for compose items and the other for recyclables (my city accepts almost everything and does the sorting for you). The metal lid would contain the smell of compost items until I can take them out.

Also, if you do not want to pay the full $200, Bed, Bath and Beyond usually carries the full simply human line; wait until they offer their usual 20% off coupon to purchase if you are interested. :)

To be honest, the Simple Human one isn't that great for recycling. It IS great for compost/green waste, though. Our municipality has a 3 tier garbage system - recycling, compost, and waste. The tiny compost bags fit perfectly well into the small blue section of the Simple Human container, whereas big empty jars to be recycled don't.

i use a couple of these under the sink: http://www.recy-cal.com/6galrec.html

no bag waste (plastic or paper). easy to clean. easy to carry down to our single-stream recycling dumpster. love them!

I have the SimpleHuman trash can and it works great for my recycling. I use the blue section for beverage bottles and cans and the black section for recyclables with no redemption value. I used a coupon I found for the Container Store. It was still expensive, but this trash can fit perfectly in a tricky spot in my kitchen.

Huh, low techie here. I have black plastic office garbage bins. Each one has the city recycling sticker on the outside. The outside and inside I took a silver marker and wrote "paper" "plastic" etc. and the recycling arrows. With our household (5 adults plus visitors for the homebased business) we produce more than those bins can hold in two weeks (how often the city picks up) and so I am looking at the gaiam ones as backup to maybe put on hooks on the wall in the back stairwell. We've got a tiny kitchen for our situation so something I could hang up higher and maybe catch the extra cans and plastic would work.

I live in an area with very limited recycling (no glass), and no pickup. So I just use the $1 shopping bags that you can get at every grocery store now. They are the perfect size, freestanding, cheap, washable and not too heavy when full. It works great for a 2-person household.

I had an epiphany at IKEA one day... I was looking for the TROFAST system and wandered into a bedroom/closet display and there they were: TRONES shoe storage bins. In black. They were PERFECT.

I have virtually no floor space, so the TROFAST rack would have taken up too much real estate. The Trones bins can be mounted right on the wall (and there were three of them for $40! perfect!) - the bins themselves (the doors) sit inside a frame and slide right out so we can walk the whole thing out to our large recycling bins outside. This is the best solution ever (and they're slim, neat & tidy).

Great space saver.