How streamlined is your recycling system? The Zero Waste Challenge continues, daring you to trash your trash can. 

Give yourself a pat on the back for all the wonderful things you’ve done so far to reduce your landfill waste. In April you took a bin audit, from which you created your top five list to discover the materials that make up the majority of your weekly trash. Then you gave up disposable plastic bags for good; after all, these are such a waste of resources and can damage wildlife if dropped as litter. Last month you armed yourself with local information by finding out what you could recycle at your curbside and in local recycling areas. You should now have a list of the materials you can recycle and where you can recycle them.

This month you’re going to give your entire home recycling set up a Zero Waste makeover.

Here’s a before and after look at my recycling area. Note the borderline hoarding effect of dutifully saving all my materials vs. the practicality of dividing and conquering.

My before was not exactly conducive to inspired recycling. For example, I couldn’t get to the containers at the bottom so frankly, it was easier to throw things away. And we all know where “away” is:

As a solution, I dumped my kitchen bin. There’s nothing like throwing yourself in at the deep end. The problem is it’s so easy and convenient to open that door and pop something in the bin. Out of sight, out of mind, never to be thought of again. But by not thinking about the consequences of our actions we are wasting resources and polluting the planet.

Therein lies this month’s challenge. We’ll call it Operation: Bin Be Gone.

Now you’ll need to make recycling really work for you regardless of any difficulties you might face. You might have specific requirements such as dogs or cats that might enjoy sniffing around empty cans or toddlers that can’t resist the sharp edge of a tin. Perhaps you’re limited by space or live with an elderly person who needs supervision around rubbish and recycling. There are solutions to all of these issues.

Solution 1: People with small spaces can hang bags on the back of kitchen cupboard doors to store things in.

Solution 2: You might need a shelf outside the back door or on a balcony.

Solution 3: Maybe you need a few boxes in the garage or basement or maybe it’s easier to dot things around your house, like paper recycling next to the computer or plastic bottle recycling in the dining area.

The most important thing you can do to reduce the amount of space needed is to compact your recycling: crush tins, squeeze the air out of bottles and tetra pak containers, flatten cardboard boxes and keep paper flat rather than crumpling it.

Like this:

Keep it clean too, so you aren’t surrounded by stinky trash. Rinsing out a can is pretty much like washing a plate – do it straight away and don’t let anything set hard around the edge. Use old washing up water to save resources and give bottles and cartons a rinse at the same time before squashing down. Your new mantra for this month is “wash & squash!”

Spend some time thinking about your habits. Where are you when you need to recycle something? Sitting at your computer, washing up in the kitchen or doing your morning routine in the bathroom? Put a suitable container in that room for the type of materials you want to recycle.

Figure out whether you prefer to have everything in one place with an assortment of labeled containers or if you need to put up a couple of shelves somewhere. Be creative, think outside the recycling box and always focus on solutions. With a bit of thought you can make recycling just as convenient as throwing something in the trashcan.

Image: Martha Stewart; Goodwill

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There’s recycling, and then there’s hyper-localized zero waste recycling.

How are you getting on with your zero waste challenge? I hope it’s been fun. (Yes, rubbish can be fun.)

To recap: So far you’ve done a bin audit and found, like our editor, an abundance of items you could have reused, recycled or composted instead of trashing. You put together your top five list, as in materials that make up the majority of your weekly garbage. Perhaps you went an extra step and did a “before” weigh in.

After rummaging through your rubbish, you were encouraged to ditch the disposable plastic carrier bag forever. Many people carry their own shopping bags, but we also leave them at home, in the car, or don’t take enough with us so we reach out for convenience – just one more bag won’t make a difference right? Wrong, capital W. Disposable plastic carrier bags are the ultimate waste in resources; made from oil which takes hundreds of years to create, used for 5 minutes then tossed in landfill where it takes hundreds of years to decompose. If you don’t have enough reusable bags and boxes, catch up now and add to your collection so you can be plastic bag free.

This month you’re going to empower yourself with local information, really local, starting with your own curbside. Recycle outside of your home in five easy steps.

Step 1: If you’re in the UK, like I am, type your postcode into Recycle Now to discover the materials your local council will collect. In the U.S., check out 1-800-Recycling or Earth 911.

Step 2: Take advantage of local collection points outside of supermarkets, schools, pubs or the kind of local authority household recycling centers we call “Bring Banks” in England, hence the spelling.

Step 3: Spend a moment thinking about the journeys you make in a typical week: use the database to see what you can recycle near your workplace, near friends you frequently visit or on other weekly errands.

Step 4: Find out where your nearest civic amenity site is and check out the range of materials recycling available to you.

Step 5: Write down the materials you can recycle and where you can recycle them.

That’s all you need to do this month. Easy. Let me know what you found out. Are there more or less recycling facilities than you expected?

For more of Rachelle Strauss’ series on Zero Waste Living, check out:

The Zero Waste Trash Challenge: Just Say No (to Plastic Bags)
The Zero Waste Challenge: First Stop, a Bin Audit
16 Ways to Trim Your Trash

Image: Pylon757; epSos. de

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