Decided to give recycling another try - nope!

[Tradd]

There is no recycling for renters here either. I gave up a few years ago as recycling centers (that I used to take stuff to) kept shutting down one by one. I am not imaging this, there have been news articles on how poorly the recycling even when you pay the tax on say beverage containers is working in California.

Not only are individual solutions limited, but they aren't EVEN possible to do if the infrastructure isn't there (someone to take the darn recycling without driving 30 miles). Oh I did used to leave them out, outside the trash, for homeless or whoever to collect, and they were gone. And then the landlord ALSO banned us doing that! Sometimes someone still gets in the trash though. But mostly that solution has also been derailed.

Bingo! I’m just not going to bother. I’m going to try to reduce usage and see how that goes, but don’t expect much will change.

[Tradd]

Roger, that was a good NYT article. Thanks!

[catherine]

So, maybe this belongs on a different thread, but the one area in which I miss having a stockpile of old plastic supermarket bags is dog-walking. I don't have my own dog anymore, but I do dog sit for my DD's dogs frequently. Vermont has banned plastic bags and so it's impossible to find a suitable pooper scooper in my house when I need one! I wind up hoarding every plastic bag I can find. For you eco-conscious dog-owners--what do you do?

[Tradd]

So, maybe this belongs on a different thread, but the one area in which I miss having a stockpile of old plastic supermarket bags is dog-walking. I don't have my own dog anymore, but I do dog sit for my DD's dogs frequently. Vermont has banned plastic bags and so it's impossible to find a suitable pooper scooper in my house when I need one! I wind up hoarding every plastic bag I can find. For you eco-conscious dog-owners--what do you do?

I know a lot of dog owners who buy the poop bags.

[Tradd]

Thanks for a great conversation!

[catherine]

I know a lot of dog owners who buy the poop bags.

Yes, I suppose that's the best answer... and the most obvious, so thanks for reminding me that they do exist. I walked dogs for 20 years and never bought a poop bag-- I guess now's the time to include them in my pantry!

[iris lilies]

Plastic supermarket bags are very useful for many things including dog poop bags, used cat litter, digging/bagging lilies and iris…many uses.

[Tradd]

Plastic supermarket bags are very useful for many things including dog poop bags, used cat litter, digging/bagging lilies and iris…many uses.

I use them for covering the dirty boots on my diving suit for the drive home so the gravel/dirt doesn’t go all over.

[SiouzQ.]

After reading "A Year of No Garbage" by Eve O. Schaub, I have grudgingly changed my mind about recycling plastic as well. I have to drive many miles to the transfer station (nevertheless a really beautiful drive, as it is out in the middle-of-nowhere New Mexico) so I wait until I had a carload of stuff. My husband was drinking an inordinate amount of soda and the plastic waste would pile up so fast it was disgusting - since pop bottles are Pete 1 I will still recycle them but have quit recycling anything that is Pete 3 through 5. It is such a hard habit to break though; I literally cringe throwing away plastic but I now know it is not being recycled. We are completing a month-long special diet in which K. has given up soda pop; I can already tell the plastic waste has decreased considerably. I still recycle food cans, glass, and cardboard. We have to pay the Waste Management company $78 every three months for weekly garbage pickup. I probably only take the garbage can down our hilly gravel driveway twice a month for the pickup. For food waste I have a rotating composter that works real nice in the summer heat.

We do drink a lot of fizzy water out of aluminum cans which I save and take to a metal recycler in Santa Fe and get a little money for. I am also investigating a new shop in town (https://www.soapsantafe.com/) that sells bulk stuff - laundry detergent, dish detergent, lotions, soaps, etc in a fill-your-own bottles. I bought a small amount of face lotion to try and they put it in a little jar I brought and weighed it out - I really like it so I know I'll be back for more. As I run out of shampoo and other stuff, I wash those containers out and get them refilled there. A lot of our paper waste goes into the bin by our woodstove to save for building fires in the winter.

My husband is NOT into the recycling thing AT ALL, so I am constantly fishing things out of the trash and dealing with it. It's a part of his nature I will never change, so I gave up on that long ago. The best he'll do is set the cans and bottles aside for me instead of opening up the door and pitching them in the appropriate bin right outside on the porch.

I also grew up in Michigan which since the '70's has had a 10 cent deposit on many kinds of bottles and cans. It has really cleaned up the landscape and provides people with a way to earn cash. I have long thought that New Mexico would really benefit from a law like this - there is so much broken glass and litter along the roads and it is a really poor state, so I think some people would go and collect cans for the money.

Edited To Add: I found this place online called BuyBackworld and I got cash for old I-Pods and digital cameras. They take computers and all sorts of electronic stuff - you just plug in the model and serial numbers of your items and they tell you what they'll pay you for them. They send you a shipping label and you just pack it up and ship it to them.

[Tradd]

Given the fact that I have a really small place, stockpiling stuff wouldn’t work either!

So not going to even bother.