2012 - the year of challenges!: Home challenge - week 6

Week 6 is about creating a home recycling center and dealing with trash.

Recycling
I had anticipated this challenge and got in early at making a start on my recycling centre. I've always been into recycling but my previous set up wasn't working at keeping the bench clear and clutter free! My previous set up involved putting all the recycling in a big tub in the garage (which is through a door off the kitchen - so relatively easy to get to), and putting the bottles and cans in plastic bags in the garage. When the tub in the garage got full, we would take it out the front to the recycling bin, which is picked up fortnightly.

In practice, this meant we wouldn't go to the garage to put each piece of recycling into the tub, therefore there were piles of paper (junk mail and the likes) on the kitchen bench, along with bottles and cans, waiting until there were enough for us to be bothered to move them. Alternatively we would throw recycling in the bin as it was more convenient.

I had a space in the kitchen next to my fridge that was just wasted space, and my sister recommended I use this for recycling. So I measured the space and Nigel and I headed off to Ikea with the aim to get bins for recycling.

In South Australia we get 10 cents for recycling bottles and cans (soft drinks, beer etc), so I always keep them seperate. The rest of the recycling (plastics, paper, cardboard etc) can all go together. Therefore I needed 2 spaces. We got 2 bins with lids and placed them next to the fridge. The one at the back has a garbage bag liner in it, and is for bottles/cans (all the things we can get 10c for). Once this is full, we remove the bin liner and take it to the garage for storage until we can get enough to make a trip to the recycling depo to get our money! The one at the front is for normal recycling, and therefore has no liner as plastic bin liners cannot go in the recyling. When this one is full we take it outside to the big recycling bin ready for the fortnightly pick up. I still have the tub in the garage, in which I put big things (like boxes etc) which don't fit so well in the inside bin, and things from the car and garage. Again this is taken to the outside bin when full (or just before the recycling bin goes out.

My recycling set up is as follows:

2 bins next to fridge

Front bin for recycling

Back bin for bottles/cans (ones worth 10c)

I had a think about putting recycling bins in the other rooms in our house and decided there just isn't enough recycling in the other rooms to warrant us taking up space for a seperate recycling bin. The kitchen is quite central so it's quite easy to take the recycling to the kitchen bins.

Trash
Our main trash bin is in the kitchen. It's always been under the sink so it looks neater and to keep in the smells.

We also have a bin in our ensuite already. So that one was good. But then I went and bought bins for other rooms in the house.

We now have nice green bin in the toilet

I got 2 little bins for the laundry. One for rubbish (lint from the dryer, plastic bags that childcare put my daughters dirty clothes in etc) and the other one is for little things that end up in pockets etc.