We have a single stream recycle collection every week right along side the weekly garbage collection. I have a very tiny kitchen, so no room for the fancy recycle bins in the cabinets for me! But I keep a small blue bin in the closet of my front entrance, collect all glass, paper and tins there and then cart them out to a bigger bin in the barn every couple of days.
I do have a compost pail under the kitchen sink...the type with a charcoal filter in the lid. I've built a 4x4x 5' tall compost bin in the back garden and all the resulting compost gets forked into my extensive vegetable, flower and shrub beds eventually.
I make good use of Freecycle also. There are lots of items that can be put to good use by others....today I passed on an area rug I was no longer using.

Kimdee24, may I ask what city you live in? Sounds like they have an excellent program.

we also have 3 streams: Recycling (all put together) and city Composting (takes all food from start to finish as far as I can tell -fats, sauces, bones...also small amounts of paper, paper coffee cups) are picked up weekly. Remaining garbage is picked up every 2 weeks. Also have about 9 months of bi-weekly yard waste pick-up (separate from composting). ONce a month we can put out up to 3 large items that wouldn't normally fit into garbage cans - carpet rolls, furniture, maybe not appliances. But then you can arrange separately for appliance pick up and there are drop off places for batteries, electronics etc. Officailly we are only permitted 3 bags of 'real' garbage biweekly - except when we've done a huge purge, I rarely need to put out more than i bag.

In the house, I have a small garbage and small recycling box under the kitchen sink. The compost pail stays on the klitchen counter for use throughout the day, it gets emptied to 'green bin' every night. But all my large containers for garbage and recycling are in garage, just out the laundry room door, so only 10 steps to empty anything anyway.

I am also in the UK and we have to recycle since the general waste is only collected fortnightly and only one bin will be taken so if you don't take out the recyclables things can get pretty smelly.

We have to separate glass from other recyclables. We burn any paper or cardboard on the woodburner for heat. Food waste is also collected in some areas but ours all goes to the chickens (although ridiculously this is actually unlawful in the UK). Shhh don't tell on me!

In our condo we have a recycling room. 2 shutes for mixed recyclables. And there is a regular garbage shute there as well so you can do all in one trip. We also have boxes for light bulbs (the energy efficient ones) and batteries.

We have 2 big tubs for those who want to donate their wine and beer bottles. The money from these goes into our entertainment fund.

Oh yes, of course. Batteries and fluorescent lamps.

how much price pay for it

Most dutch people recycle paper, greens, batteries, lightbulbs, glass, plastic and appliances. Our government regulates most recycling programs, so we have 4 different garbage collecting days and glass containers near just about every supermarket.

Fortunately for me, we have only two bins: recyclables and "garbage". The city sets up Haz-Mat collection sites periodically for all the old paint, dead batteries, pesticides, etc ...

Because we compost all the food waste and yard waste we usually have only 10-gallon bag of "garbage" each week, and maybe a half-wheely bin of recyclables.

Gee, we as a global community have come so far! Yes, we can still do better but it's great to see so many structured, sustainable programs around the world.

We do recycling and compost. Cardboard paper towel tubes and egg cartons go to the school, except when we plant seeds out in the egg cartons. Jars go to lady who makes jam. Reuse the rubber bands from newspapers to tie up my skirt when riding bike, pegs ok but can fall off. Weeds,scraps etc go to our animals and my rose prunings go to friend's goat!!

Surprisingly, tissues and Kleenex are compostable, and can be added to your compost bin. They are dry and light, which aids the compost process if most other things in your composter are wet and heavy. I couldn't believe how much we could save by not throwing them in the trash.

My new kitchen has a pullout with two integrated plastic bins: the front one for trash, the back one for glass, metal, and plastic food containers. I keep a paper recycling bin near the table where I sort my mail. (I also have a smaller "wastepaper basket" next to it but it obviously needs a new name for its changed role.)

The side yard has 3 bins: (1) garbage, (2) green waste, (3) a split bin with paper on one side, and glass/metal/plastic on the other.

We tried composting but never really got a good system going. I can't figure out a good way to get food waste out to the green bin and it seems ridiculous to carry 1/2 cup of carrot peelings out to dump in a 55 gal bin.

Soberg, you can simply put a pail under your kitchen sink, and put you carrot peelings in it. Then, when that is full, take it to the compost bin. It saves a lot of time and energy.

@sharon1ha -- Edmonton, Canada.

evelyn, you must live near me :) we have a biodigester and single stream recycling is coming...we have container cart things for our recyclables and another for garbage.
the recycle cart is always full.
we have two containers in the back yard for compost which gets used all the time in summer and fall. last summer I had a million little squash plants :) come up in my garden!!

We have a great little compost bin under the sink which gets taken out to the larger composter behind the garage about once a week. We also have mixed recycling and only have to separate the paper products. Plus I put shredded paper in the composter.

Lee Valley carries several compost pails designed to keep in the kitchen and carry your compostables out to a bin. There are countertop stainless steel pails but I don't have the counterspace for that and I don't want it on the counter anyway. I prefer the square plastic pail that mounts to the inside of the door, under the sink. It has a replaceable charcoal filter in the lid to control any odours and you can get small biodegradable bags to line the pail with which make keeping it clean much easier. I get my liner bags at the dollar store...no need to pay more for the Lee Valley ones.

http://www.leevalley.com/en/garden/page.aspx?p=10027&cat=2,33140,10027

We have a wheelie bin for general garbage which is collected weekly, and two wheelie bins for recycling - one for glass, plastics, milk cartons, etc. the other for newspaper and cardboard. They are collected on alternate weeks. Additional bins are supplied free of charge for recycling if needed. We have a fourth wheelie bin that is emptied fortnightly for vegetation - grass cuttings, garden prunings and general garden refuse. As well as that we have our own compost bins for vegetable scraps and weed free grass cuttings. Twice a year we have a pick up for whitegoods, furniture, carpet etc. I keep a small bin in the kitchen for general garbage, but everything else is pretty much taken out immediately or after washing up. We have E-Waste collection points to take this waste to.

We have a two garbage container sliding area next to the sink.(Behind cabinet door) So, it is 1,2,3 to sort what has to be recycled. Also, in our garage we have 2 recycle bins .The two
bins are picked up every Friday.

My husband and I live by a philosophy of using less, buying less, buying clothing and household items from Goodwill and Salvation Army and recycling everything we can. I try to START as the beginning of the cycle and not buy items with lots of packaging. I belong to a buying co-op with Frontier Coop where we buy in bulk which translates to less overall packaging. I use/reuse glass canning jars/honey jars for dry food storage. We free-cycle (give way for free) whenever possible and composting is a way of life for us. If we do have an electronic appliance that dies it is given to a organization that rebuilds it and our spent batteries go to a local middle school that uses them as a fund raising opportunity for school projects. We live in the country and have two large compost bins ( built from used pallets) for all grasses, weeds, plant materials, foodstuff ( the chickens eat the rest) but you can compost even in the city or suburb. We take our paper, metals, cardboards (when we have them) to our townships recycle station. NOTE: We do not have garbage service...it is unnecessary with our way of life. Even our leaves go back into the earth; oak leaves on woods paths and maple leaves into our vegetable garden to enrich the soil. This is the way my grand parents lived on the farm and I am willing to do my part to live a greener/lighter footprint life too.

I forgot, I bought a $1.00 galvanized bucket at the flea market (I bought 3) to use under our kitchen sink for food waste. Once it is filled, we walk it out to the outdoor compost bin. The "fancy" buckets in the catalogs can run up to $50.00 but there is no need to spend that.

I live in Germany where we have a rather elaborate recycling system and lots of bins. Some are mandatory, others aren't.

Everything except glass is being picked up. Glass and paper containers are found near supermarkets and throughout the city. We have a paper bin at home, it's free. Another free bin is for packaging or other things made of plastic or metal. Then there is a compost bin, but many people put organic waste into the trash or on the compost. And lastly there is a large, medium or small trash bin. Ours is the smallest size, but it is always 3/4 empty. I only roll it to the curb (pick-up is biweekly), because it contains the cat's clumping litter. Otherwise it would probably take six months to fill.

We have a boiling water tap, so we only have a small bucket under the sink for organic waste which I empty into the outdoor bin whenever necessary. For plastic and metal, as well as paper and glass, we have boxes in a row of large bottom drawers in the kitchen. A tiny plastic bag holds the miniscule amount of residual waste that occurs (apart from the cat's litter).

Some really useful ideas here! I do find that garbage and recycling are the unseen lurkers of the kitchen, and aren't usually highlighted as much as the swishy new stove and the shining new fridge in Houzz features, although they're every bit as important.

One great tip from my mother - she lives in an area where there's compost collection, so whenever she's got an empty cardboard box, say a Cornflakes box, she leaves that on the counter, and in it goes the potato peelings, etc - it's not around long enough to get stinky, and doesn't need to be cleaned, unlike the under-counter built-ins or the countertop pots.

We have mixed stream recycling, so everything goes in one bin. We keep the recycling bin in our garage and when I pick up the mail, I automatically throw in all the junk mail before it even gets into the house. I have an under-the-sink compost container from Bosmere that first gets emptied into a lidded galvanized container on the back steps and then that gets taken down to the compost pile about once a week.

I have a nice bamboo covered bucket with a plastic bucket liner next to my sink. Coffee grounds, veggie trimmings, banana peels, things like that go into it, then I take it out to dump into my compost bin outside. Keeping it covered keeps it from attracting bugs. Lots of bugs in Florida!

We are not required to sort our recycling any more, so everything can just be tossed into the bin any old how. I keep a bag in the pantry to accumulate stuff then take it out to the bin. For the big stuff, styrofoam, cardboard, large amounts of plastic and glass, hazmat stuff, we can take it to our local recycling plant ourselves. Hazmat stuff is twice a year only, the rest is anytime, 24/7 drop off in dumpster on the site. Down the street is a scrap yard that takes aluminum, iron and copper and if you have enough to make a pound or two, they will give you a few cents for it.

I live in Scotland and we have a large green bin for ordinary rubbish, a blue bin for plastic and cardboard, a brown bin for garden waste, a black box for glass, a grey bin for food waste and a large clear plastic bag for material re cycling. At first it was a real pain always sorting out what went where but now I do it without thinking. All containers are kept outside, out of sight behind the shed!

In the picture above: where is the plumbing under the sink? Looks like a great system, but I couldn't get that under my sink thanks to drains and feeds for the sink and the dishwasher.

Where I live we're pretty keen. We live in a multi-unit townhouse/apartment building, We have separate city bins for paper, glass, tin, plastic and food waste. The food waste is a more recent addition as the city is now providing food waste collection for composting. I love that, because they can take things that never seem to break down in the backyard composter like bones, eggshells and avocado pits. The other things our building does on our own is Styrofoam, plastic bags, batteries, motor oil and cardboard. These things we keep separate in the underground garage until someone can bring them to a local recycling facility. We also keep separate bins for all our returnable bottles and cans. Once a month a couple of people take that haul to the returnable depot and we get a nice little bit of cash that goes towards a community meal. Lastly we have a giant garbage container which sees very little use. In my townhome we keep food waste, paper and real garbage separate, and everything else goes in a catchall bucket which gets sorted when we take it underground.

Aside from the usual paper & bottle recycling, do you live near a fishing shack? Donate corks from your wine bottles, the fishermen will appreciate it.

I remember the first Earth Day, back when I was proud to be from Wisconsin :)

Our city provides bins. When they first put them out it made me feel good to put stuff in them. I'd even look around for plastics just to put in them. Got so bad I started cleaning up the neighborhood. It surprised me how much plastic people just drop on the ground and how much they throw away with the bins right at their back door. What gets me is people who throw other garbage in the bins. I put a sign on one bin saying please please plastic only that made it worse. We got pigs that are just unbelievable. Chicago Logan Square if the shoe fits I hate you

This tip I love. Daughter gave me a big nylon tote bag with a picture of the grands screened on it. Too cute to store in the car for trips to the grocery. I've hung in on the pantry door and recyclables get dropped in - scraps of paper, rinsed cans, junk mail. When it gets 'bulgey' I then dump in my city recycling bin. Saves dozens of door openings which probably saves on energy.

I'm so jealous! I live in an anti-government city where we don't even have centralized trash services. Everyone hires their own private service, so there are garbage cans and trucks out every day -- each company has a different pick up day. There's one small, private recycling center for the whole city, and you have to drive all your stuff over there. They don't even take most plastics. Needless to say, most people here don't recycle much.

What I think you are asking about is how to organize your recyclables in your home. Everyone has a preference depending on their space. Here is what is currently working for us. We keep paper bins @ the entry where our mail comes in, another in the kitchen, and another in the office. Paper easily gets sorted as we move through the day. Our newspapers get stacked on a shelf between the kitchen and great room. We keep three garbage cans just inside the door of our garage - regular garbage, cans/glass/plastic, and one for paper. The idea of keeping rinsed out cans in the kitchen didn't make sense (smell, bugs, space). Our reusable plastic bags are in a drawer in the kitchen (originally a bread drawer, but the bread didn't like it) and plastic bags to be recycled are collected in our master closet as most of this comes from plastic @ dry-cleaning. We also collect the hangars because fortunately for us our dry-cleaner reuses them. I would think about where these items collect and where you have space and make determinations from there.

keep separate containers in garage of things to recycle. Also some drycleaners will take your hangers, If you move many moving companies will take old boxes and neighbors usually glad to take them off your hands as they always know someone moving. some schools will take old magazines for craft projects. old books: many used bookstores will take them. Old clothes box up, many craft centers will reuse these for many projects (sewing projects or blanket assembly). If you cook a lot and you have vegetable scraps or fruit scraps - they work great in compost piles or chicken coops- chickens always love the surprises (if you need to deliver to friend who has chickens- just bag and freeze the scraps for later delivery).

I live in the country and our local trash company does not pick up recyclables. I was taking them to a local school where they had bins up to a few years ago. The bins are now gone so I no longer recycle. I just visited my sisters in another state. Each town recycles different ways..............thought I'd go crazy there figuring out how to recycle!

http://www.calrecycle.ca.gov/publiced/Earths911.htm

I am finishing up a wine/beverage bar that I am building. The lower right door in the photo will have a hinge so it pulls forward with a hole in the bottom of the cabinet. It is for bottles/cans used in the bar area. They dump into a laundry basket on a shelf in the laundry room on the other side of the wall, so it can easily be taken to the recycle bin. My town has a single stream blue bin system too.

We also compost in covered canisters next to each sink. It goes to a compost bin. Here's a picture of the reward - lovely stuff for the garden beds!!! Like crumbled chocolate cake!

ksphilos, that's really too bad. so many of the same people would want help if there were a disaster and they would expect the government to provide it. It's possible they just don't understand the need for government and how it works.

We have single stream recycling in our city. I keep a paper grocery bag or a cardboard box in my kitchen next to my garbage can and put all acceptable recyclables in it. When it's full the whole thing goes outside to the recycling can. My kitchen is very small so I don't have much space for another garbage can or bin. I also avoid having to wash a plastic container.

Does anyone use a compactor for their recyclables?

It's amazing how many reusable or non-reusable plastic bags can fit in a "finished up" box from tissues. For the reusables, it becomes a dispenser as well. Not much space for great return. You could even have one for each (maybe a decorative one for the reusables).

I just moved to northern Japan and the trash/recycling system is extremely complicated: Twice per month on a certain day it's old paper (tied up neatly in stacks with special paper string); on another day twice per month glass bottles are placed directly in a special bin; on another day PET bottles but they go in a special clear recycling bag but (different day than cans, same bag); and so forth for aerosol cans (which you puncture before recycling), batteries in another bag and food waste goes in even yet another specific bag inside the regular trash bag. It's truly mind boggling, especially when they switch the days around!

ajlange - certainly doesn't inspire one to recycle does it. I am surprised at puncturing aerosol cans when they come with warnings NOT to puncture.

Soberg...the counter top compost bins are worth the $50US. They have a charcoal filter so if it takes more than a couple of days to get it out of there...no smell. Living alone, it takes me about a week to fill my gallon can....

Sir David - great to see you. We have been very worried, hope all is ok.

eeeww :) would never put a compost bin on a counter. it's yuck!! :)
We have a bucket under the sink with a lid and handle (that I was genius enough to suggest LOL) and we take it out all the time. it fills up so fast!! and all the recycling too. we have way more recycle than garbage.

We divert all food scraps except for cheese and meat (neither of which ever get thrown out when one has a dog) into our red wiggler worm bin. The worms also like shredded paper and cardboard, egg crates, etc. Makes fantastic soil. No smell. My garden loves it. We can drop off electronics, styrofoam, and garden clippings for free. What annoys me is that we are forced to pay double garbage fees for a second collection bin--for food scraps. I wouldn't want to meet the family that throws out that much food!