Sean McCord writes:
According to an announcement posted today in the City website, residents can now curbside recycle paper products such as catalogues, magazines, junk mail, etc. This is big! For many years, I trotted glass, metal, and newspaper out to the curb, but visited the Recycling Center regularly with my bins of plastic, cardboard, and paper. Then, several months ago, curbside recycling began accepting the plastic and cardboard, so my trips to the center with just boxes of recyclable paper were less frequent. Now, with the city also accepting curbside paper, I can safely dispose of everything on a weekly schedule and save the gasoline I would use to travel to the Recycling Center. It’s brilliant! The City does ask that we place our loose paper recyclables in paper bags and to not put them out during inclement weather, which seems fair.
You can request a recycling bin from the city if you don’t already have one. Since I live out in the county in a small house, the trunk of my Volvo has become the household recycling bin. I visit the recycling center when it gets full. Heck of a system.
Well, not *everything*. Brown paper (except for paper bags) still needs to go to the recycling center. That still reduces my trip to once a month to get rid of any cardstock type boxes (frozen goods, cereal, etc). I save my egg cartons for farmers at the City Market.
I’m still pretty excited. It’s good to be able to leave everything curbside and I hope more people start taking advantage of the recycling program.
Your Volvo-as-recycling-bin solution made me laugh, because this is exactly what I do with the wayback of my Volvo! Apparently great minds in rural Albemarle think alike. :)
I’e been putting my catalogs and magazines out for curbside recycling for years.
Good luck getting the city to deliver you a recycling bin. I’ve been trying to get one for two years. Had to steal one from my workplace that wasn’t in use. I now officially own the oldest recycling bin on my street.
Actually, I’ve been putting my cardstock out with the recycling since they began picking up cardboard and they take it.
Doesn’t it all end up in the landfill anyway? I’ve been hearing for years (sorry, can’t find a link at the moment) that a majority of Charlottesville’s recycling is not successfully sold to recycling plants due to a huge supply / small demand issue for recyclables, and eventually ends up at the dump anyway…
Can anyone back this up? Am I repeating a faulty (sub)urban legend?
I remember an article in The Hook a couple of years ago saying that Albemarle garbage collection companies were technically required to pick up certain recyclables, but Allied Waste, which totes my trash from Esmont, certainly does not.
Anyone know if they are required to recycle?
The earth has been around for millions and millions of years. Trust me, a few more bags in the landfills will not destroy it. I do not litter at all, but I think people get a little too hyped up on the recycle thing. This place we call earth is a pretty tough cookie and it will around millions of years after we are all gone….JC
JC, we’re not worried about Earth. It’s fine. We can’t hurt it, we can only change it.
We’re worried about us. For example, the planet would be perfectly fine with a 200°F average temperature. We would not.
hmm, JC.
To reply to James, City recycling is taken to Tidewater Fibers; they have a Richmond area facility.
David Brown (Mayor, speaking of recycling, why is the City paying the Urban Garden people $18,000 to collect three barrels of rain water?
I found I needed two recycling bins to hold all the extra materials that the city now picks up. I just use a large Rubbermaid bin instead of an official city recycling bin for the extra materials and it is always emptied with my other recycling bin.
What type of paper is brown paper, other than paper bags. Is that like construction paper?
I’m hoping the city will collect wrapping paper at the curb after the holidays. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?
I am curious about the whole Volvo-as-recycle-bin approach. Is the Volvo your daily driver or only used to ferry stuff to the center? If you are driving around very long with a decent load of recyclables you are likely offsetting the value of your recycling with your additional fuel use…
We collect all of ours in bins and make the run once a month or so with a full pickup truck load. If you are anywhere near Crozet we would be happy to coordinate with you and grab yours on the way. (At least until we get a recycling center closer by.)
I won’t speak for Waldo, but I *think* our Volvo/recycling bin situations are actually pretty similar — I work from home most days rather than driving anywhere. My Volvo is a backup vehicle rather than the one I usually take into town (and there’s not much room for recycling bins on the motorcycle!).
Alas, we’re both also on the other side of the county from Crozet — but I bet plenty of west-side folks would love to coordinate with you.
In the past few weeks I’ve taken to working in town, which is a pretty strange thing, though I carpool with my wife. Anyhow, yes, my Volvo is a primary vehicle, but having no children, it’s no so terrible having the trunk anywhere from 25% – 90% full of recycling, since the back seat is fine for hauling stuff in, too.
The stuff I’m recycling is mostly cardboard and plastic — there’s just no way that the weight is costing virtually anything in the way of fuel to haul around. We don’t buy much in glass or aluminum (which is too bad, since those recycle so well), so there’s just no mass to speak of.