Taking the plastic bag thing a step further (Long....sorry)

Do you use a lot of disposables (paper/foam plates, cups, plastic flatware, napkins, and the like)? How do you feel about products like that?

Do you recycle? (I think we've talked about that before) What can you recycle?

Do you burn?

Other than paper towels, we don't use any of it anymore. We tried not to use it during the kitchen redo, too, and we did a lot of washing dishes and cookware in washtubs in the bathtub and such. I have a large assortment of bar towels and, when I cook, I throw a bar towel over my shoulder and use that to wipe my hands, wipe things down, as I go, and use it as a potholder. When finished, I throw the towel in the laundry basket and wash it with other towels. As a rule, we don't use paper napkins either; I have an assortment of cloth napkins that we use daily and again, they just go into the laundry. We do use small bathroom cups.

For summer picnics, I still use dishes and regular flatware, unless it's a huge picnic with dozens of people. We still have that tiki bar outside from Rick's birthday party that time  ; it has shelves in the bottom and I can store items on the shelves in prep for any picnics or outdoor dinners. At the end of the day, we just bring it all inside and load up the dishwasher.

I used to clean a lot with just vinegar and water and still do on the kitchen and bathroom floors. We have a Bissell animal cleaner and a lot of times, we'll use it with just hot water to give the floors a quick cleaning. Since we now have granite counter tops in the kitchen, I use a product that's specifically for granite. And then a rinse with hot water. Largely because of the cats. (I haven't had to seal the counter tops yet.)

As for recycling, we recycle cans (aluminum and bi-metal), glass bottles and jars, newspaper and magazines/catalogs, plastics #1 and #2 (I wish we could recycle #5, which covers things like butter dishes) and cardboard. And now our recycling center is accepting the cardboard centers from paper towels and toilet paper, cereal and similar boxes, tissue boxes, tops of pizza boxes (if not messy) and other forms of fiberboard, greeting cards, junk mail (we shred anything with our address on it first), and shredded office paper. All kinds of electronic items. Tires, clothing, blankets, books, etc. Once a year, we gather up expired medicines and such and turn them in during a recycling event just for that type of stuff.

We're trying to do an annual paints and household chemicals recycling, too, but that's slow-going. The recycling coordinator for our county is one of my co-workers, so I know what's going on....I help him design the graphics for our recycling event flyers. On our to-do list for 2013 is to do a large "This is what we're recycling" flyer for each of the eight recycling centers in the county, so I'm pretty cognizant of  the items we recycle. We do two large recycling "events" where people can bring certain items to a recycling center within the county that normally might not accept those items. But as we get some of the centers to start accepting more and more items on a regular basis, we may not need to do actual events....that's a long way off, though

We pay for trash disposal, but since we're in a more rural area, we don't have municipal trash disposal. Our standard bill covers two trash bags; more than that and we pay extra. As I said in the thread about plastic bags, if it wasn't for used cat litter, we wouldn't have that much trash.

We are allowed to burn, but we personally don't do it. Several of our neighbors do, though, and I simply don't understand why....because everything they burn can be recycled. But their reasoning is that it's easier to take it outside and burn it than it is to separate the stuff and take it to the recycling center. Paper burning, well, I guess that's one thing. But these people burn everything, including plastics and even used baby diapers. The smoke from that stuff is blacker than black and the smell is disgusting. The people across the road from us do their burning at night, after it's dark, and in the summer, the stench comes right into the bedroom windows. Nasty. Some of the municipalities in our county have actually started to ban burning barrels, simply because people don't limit their burning to just paper. The banning has created tensions, too, because it's simply easier to burn than to recycle. It's like it's a God-given right or something, according to some people.

So....what do you do? I'm curious.

I'm not a fan of plastic, so I limit it as much as possible, especially when it has to do with food. We don't own any plastic dishes, utensils, cups, or storage containers. We use fabric shower curtains and most of our house has items made of wood, natural fabrics, and/or metal. Of course our electronics have plastic, as does our Christmas tree (can't handle real because of my allergies), but when there's an option we go the anti-plastic route.

Every evening, our daughter takes out the trash, compost, and recycling. Everywhere I've lived in the last 25 years has had recycling programs, so it's just part of the routine. It's pretty amazing the amount of recycling we generate.

You can be fined for having recycling in your garbage here. We have to pay for the amount of garbage we put out, but any amount of recycling on the curb is picked up no problem.

My husband's workplace disposes of batteries properly, so we always collect them at home and he takes them in.

For cleaning, I'm a fan of gloves and hot water, and we use mostly rags and Seventh Generation cleaners. The exception is the sinks and tub where we use a light sprinkle of Ajax or Comet once a week. (For cleanups inbetween we use Bon Ami.) I use hot water to clean the hardwoods (I know I'm not supposed to) and Murphy's Wood Oil Soap (about 3 drops to a gallon of water). I have a sensitivity to many cleaners and the worst offender by far is Lysol products so they are never in our house.

We do use paper napkins, and also paper towels for messy things that I don't want to wash (grease spills, cleaning the toilet, cleaning out the litter box, etc.). I'm thinking of changing to cloth napkins but we would need a lot of them so I could wash them all together in one load.

We dispose of old paint and electronics properly, too, there are many sites around here when you can take them. 

We never use any air fresheners, we clean weekly, vacuum everything, mop, dust, and wipe down. We clean the litter box 2-3 times a day but if the house doesn't smell like a perfumed meadow, so be it. 

Again, as in the plastic shopping bag debate, you have to think a little past the first blush of environmental concern.  If you live in southern Louisiana, western Oregon or Washington, or other water-rich power-rich areas, the full cloth towels cloth diapers real plates real napkins push is probably a winner, at least in the short run.  However, if you live in Phoenix, those items are wasting valuable water and polluting whatever water you do use.  In that case, paper might be the real environmental winner.

The environmental concern is one that has to be carefully considered, rather than adopted with knee-jerk enthusiasm.  Even Costco, definitely an environmentally-conscious corporation, points out in their car-purchase program brochure that the decreased fuel costs of hybrid and electric cars have to be balanced against the high cost and environmentally concerning manufacturing of the batteries. 

I wish there was some central clearing house that would take all the aspects into consideration and publish a simple plus or minus for each environmental choice, but, in my experience, every source I investigate has an axe to grind, and we non-scientists have to try to weigh them out and apply them to our own situation.
 

I don't recycle. Living in an apartment, there isn't really any room to keep the blue bins, and they are unsightly.  Plus the recycle bins outside are no where near the garbage bins, and the regular garbage bins are a good 1 1/2 block walk, round trip.  By the time I get my garbage out to the trash bins, I'm too exhausted to go in search of the recycling ones.

I don't use plastic grocery bags. I purchased several totes made of recycled plastic from Safeway and that's what I use for my groceries.  Many times I end up going to Safeway from work and don't have bags with me, so I end up buying more bags. I probably have about 70 or so,  lol

I use the ziplock plastic containers and wash and reuse them.  If I use a plastic baggie for something to take for lunch, if the bag looks clean, I'll reuse it again the next day.   I used to wash and reuse zip bags over and over again, until I did some investigating and found that that isn't really a good thing to do.  So now I only use the bag once or twice if it's had things like veggies or bread in it.

I wash clothing in cold water for the most part. Once every couple of weeks I'll do my whites in hot water and Javex, but the rest of the time they are washed in cold water.

I don't use plastic plates or cutlery, unless I absolutely need to (IE: Eating out).  And I tend to wash and reuse the plastic cutlery.

When I lived in New Jersey, we recycled because it was required. We had a trash can specifically for cans and bottles, and put all the paper and cardboard in the garage. We had recycling pickup once a week on a different day from garbage pickup. My parents still recycle cans, bottles, and newspapers in North Carolina by bringing them to a recycling center (where they adopted Caliper from!). Here at the apartment, we don't recycle though. We bring steel and batteries to the scrap yard, and dispose of oil through the shop.

We use paper towels as napkins and for cleanup. I reuse plastic grocery bags for the litter box and small trash cans in the bathroom. We don't use plastic cutlery at home, or paper/styrofoam plates, cups, bowls, etc. We have ceramic plates, bowls, and cups, and use regular flatware. At the BF's job though, they have paper napkins, plates, solo cups, and plastic cutlery since nothing would ever stay decently clean with a bunch of tire techs using it.

When I lived in my house rather than apartment, we separated paper, bottles, and plastic and brought it to the dump/recycling center down the street. My ex in-laws used to take our cans and BIL would get a few dollars for them when there was enough weight. If we were having a party though, we had a burn pile out in the back and would burn most of the paper and cardboard we set aside.

My grandma washes out and reuses her ziplock bags. She also recycles, mainly because she lives in New Jersey and you have to.

I do recycle: cans, paper, #1 & #2 plastics, and cardboard. They don't accept thin cardboard (like cracker boxes) or glass. There is a recycling plant in Sioux Falls that takes those things but I don't use enough to feel compelled to take it up there (or course making a dedicated trip would negate any benefits, but if I'd be up there anyway). We have curbside pickup on the second and fourth Fridays of each month but it's hard for me to remember so I usually take my stuff to the recycling center myself (it's a block away from work so I just have to remember to load my car before I leave). I see no reason not to recycle paper/cardboard and metals, but I know some people feel that recycling plastic is worse than not recycling it. I haven't looked into that so I dunno.

There is an annual pickup for hazardous materials but I have no idea what they do with them. I think they're just trying to keep people from dumping the stuff in a ditch somewhere.

I don't use disinfecting products, and try to use natural stuff (usually vinegar and water but I do like Watkins cleaners and dish soap!). more for my asthma rather than any other reason.

I use paper towels for cleaning up icky stuff (pee, vomit, etc.) and real towels for less icky things. I do feed the ferals their canned food on a paper plate, but don't use disposables for anything else.

My "guilty splurge" is Swiffer Wetjet pads. I do have reusables but sometimes the floor is dirty enough that I want to use a disposable. I feel bad because those things are just like disposable diapers, which are just terrible all around.

Living in the city, we have garbage pick-up, blue box, black box, green bin, and yard waste pick-up, and l'm embarrassed to say l recycle very little. lf l have a decent amount of something, say cardboard, then l'd put it out in the black box. But l always seem to have a small enough amount that l just end up tossing it in the garbage bag to fill it. l've never put out the green bin, it just takes up space in the garage, but l have used the other pick-ups infrequently.

l do try not to buy things with wasteful packaging though, and l don't use disposable cups, plates, etc.

I use paper bowls, they're heavy, almost cardboardish but white. I like plastic bags alot because they get repurposed into liners and cleaning tools (inside out mega gloves) . There are lots of dog owners here and you see alot of inside out makeshift mega gloves made out of plastic bags. Simply put they're poop scoopers