Recycle Paper the Easy Way
November 5, 2008
I’ve always said that if you make something too complicated, it just won’t work, no matter how well-intentioned you are. That’s why it’s so important to make your systems easy, especially if you live with other people and you want them to live by your organising “rules“.
That’s true for designing a good flow for laundry in the home and also for recycling paper in the office.
And so this was born:
I used to have one wastepaper basket but found we were less inclined to separate the paper when we cleared the trash.
Who wants to fish around amongst apple cores and other bits of fruit? Certainly not me.
This works beautifully for us.
First of all, I don’t generate that much paper to start with but what I do throw away, goes straight into the paper bin. It’s much easier now to take the one basket and dump it as is into the paper recycling bag.
Do you recycle paper? If yes, do you use partitioned recycling bins, or how do you make it easy for your household?
We have an extensive city recycling program here in Toronto. We have separate pickups (and so outside containers) for recycling (paper, plastic, glass), compost, and other garbage, so our inside household waste containers need to deal with this.
We have a paper/recycling container in the kitchen and in one of the bedrooms upstairs. All trash destined for recycling has to go in one of these (or directly into the bin outside). That includes paper, pop cans, shampoo bottles, etc.) Compost is mainly generated in the kitchen so we have a container for that under the kitchen sink. The rest is garbage and that goes into the regular waste bins in most rooms.
I still struggle with finding apple cores and paper in the regular trash thanks to teenage sons, but in general we have a workable system.
Janet in Toronto’s last blog post..Enchiladas!
I have the exact same thing in my home office! I also keep pop boxes under the sink in the kitchen to fill up with small cleanish reclyclables in the kitchen. We have our blue boxes in the attached garage near the door, so anything big, goes straight into the bluebox.
Valerie’s last blog post..Shattered Ice
“Please recycle”. A phrase stated on almost all of the plastic and even paper products in the world. These manufacturers encourage us consumers, to get involved into paper recycling, as well as plastic recycling. But to recycle plastics, it will come a long way to be made. There is a certain process of waste recycling especially for these plastic products.
I have one big garbage bag in my laundry room where we collect all our recycling (papers/bottles and cans). We used to have to sort it but now we don’t have to. I do need to get a little paper basket for my desk because I’m always getting up and going to my laundry room to throw something away.
Laura’s last blog post..Out of Control!